By James Van Straten (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)
One thing markets despise is uncertainty, and right now it’s coming from all corners of the globe, largely fueled by Trump’s tariffs.
Markets rebounded somewhat on Tuesday following Monday’s bloodbath in Asia and Europe, but it was more of a relief rally than a true recovery. At the heart of the conflict are the U.S. and China, both refusing to be the first to blink — even if it means prolonged uncertainty and pain for global markets.
As markets took a breather from the turmoil, crypto skeptics were quick to point out how bitcoin’s (BTC) safe haven narrative — bolstered by its resilience late last week — quickly unraveled on Monday when the price crashed to $75,000.
While that’s true, expecting the bitcoin price to remain unaffected was overly optimistic. During crises, investors historically rush to cash, liquidating even traditional havens investments such as gold. Monday was no exception. Still, bitcoin has shown lower beta than U.S. equities since the tariff announcement.
In the bigger picture, bitcoin is holding up fairly well. The Nasdaq is down over 22% from its all-time high, while bitcoin is off by 28%. In previous episodes — like the yen carry-trade unwind in August 2024 or the COVID crash in March 2020 — bitcoin suffered far deeper relative losses.
Since the New York market closed on Wednesday, BTC has declined 8.4%, outperforming the S&P 500’s 10% drop and the Nasdaq’s 11% fall.
“What matters is that BTC’s beta to broader risk assets appears meaningfully lower in this sell-off than in previous ones. This suggests a growing recognition of bitcoin’s potential role as a non-sovereign store of value during periods of economic stress,” said David Lawant, head of research at FalconX.
Monday’s trading session also included an episode of “short-term madness” driven by false reports about a 90-day tariff delay. The markets spiked and then promptly crashed back down after the reports were refuted. Stay alert!
What to Watch
Crypto:
April 8: Teucrium 2x Long Daily XRP ETF (XXRP) lists on NYSE Arca.
April 9: The Mercury network upgrade gets applied to the Neutron (NTRN) mainnet, migrating it from Cosmos Hub’s Interchain Security to a fully sovereign proof-of-stake network.
April 9, 10 a.m.: U.S. House Financial Services Committee hearing on updating U.S. securities laws to take into account digital assets. Livestream link.
April 10, 10:30 a.m.: Status conference for former Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
April 11, 1 p.m.: U.S. SEC Crypto Task Force Roundtable on “Tailoring Regulation for Crypto Trading” in Washington.
Macro:
April 9, 12:01 a.m.: The Trump administration’s higher individualized tariffs on imports from top U.S. trade deficit countries take effect.
April 9, 8:00 a.m.: Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI) releases March consumer price inflation data.
April 9, 12:01 p.m.: China’s 34% retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports take effect.
April 9, 2:00 p.m.: The Fed releases minutes of the FOMC meeting held March 18-19.
April 10, 10:00 a.m.: U.S. Senate Banking Committee hearing on the nomination of Michelle Bowman as Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision. Livestream link.
April 14: Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele will join U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House for an official working visit.
Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data): No earnings scheduled.
Token Events
Governance votes & calls:
Uniswap DAO is discussing a proposal to support v4 expansion with the creation of ENS subdomains to track BSL license exemptions and official deployments, granting the Uniswap Foundation a blanket license to deploy v4 on target chains.
Bancor DAO is discussing the expansion of its taker fee to 0.001% on stable-to-stable trades on Sei v2 to make Carbon DeFi more competitive.
Unlocks:
April 8: Tensor (TNSR) to unlock 35.96% of its circulating supply worth $14.44 million.
April 9: Movement (MOVE) to unlock 2.04% of its circulating supply worth $15.84 million.
April 12: Aptos (APT) to unlock 1.87% of its circulating supply worth $51.01 million.
April 12: Axie Infinity (AXS) to unlock 5.68% of its circulating supply worth $21.18 million.
April 15: Starknet (STRK) to unlock 4.37% of its circulating supply worth $15.79 million.
April 16: Arbitrum (ARB) to unlock 2.01% of its circulating supply worth $25.22 million.
Token Listings:
April 8: Avalanche (AVAX) to be listed on Coins.ph.
April 9: IOST airdrop claims portal for a roughly 1.7 billion IOST token airdrop to open.
April 10: Ren (REN), KonPay (KON), and Symbol (XYM) to be delisted from Bybit.
April 22: Hyperlane to airdrop its HYPER tokens.
Conferences
CoinDesk’s Consensus is taking place in Toronto on May 14-16. Use code DAYBOOK and save 15% on passes.
Day 1 of 2: Digital Accord Summit 2025 (Paris)
Day 1 of 3: Paris Blockchain Week
April 8: Seine & Crypto Connect (Paris)
April 9: Blockchain & Finance – Evolution or Revolution? (Paris)
April 9: FinTech and Banking Unconference Colombia 2025 (Bogota)
April 9-10: FIBE Fintech Festival Berlin 2025
April 9-10: Mexico Finance & Fintech Summit 2025 (Mexico City)
April 9-10: Middle East Resilient Banking and Payments Symposium 2025 (Abu Dhabi)
April 10: Bitcoin Educators Unconference (Nashville)
April 10: FinXtex Malaysia 2025 (Kuala Lumpur)
April 10: Institutional Crypto Conference (New York)
April 10: SheFi Summit 2025 (Seoul)
April 10-11: BITE-CON 2025 Conference (Miami)
April 10-11: 2025 Fintech and Financial Institutions Research Conference (Philadelphia)
April 11-12: Strategy’s OPNEXT Conference (Tysons, Va.)
April 12: Ethereum Argentina (Córdoba)
April 12-13: DeSci London 2025
Token Talk
By Shaurya Malwa
Fartcoin (FART) jumped 30% to extend monthly gains over 130%.
The absurdly-named token extended a multiday run the broader crypto market staged a relief rally, displaying signs of steady buying demand from traders.
Speculators keep an eye on continual strength in memecoins, especially when they tend to buck market trends, because the tokens tend to jump higher after a sell-off in the market. This can create possible profit opportunities for short-term traders, with some eyeing a move higher for the token in coming weeks.
Derivatives Positioning
Bitcoin CME futures basis is holding firm above an annualized 5% amid the macro turmoil.
CME options skew, however, is showing bias for downside protection, or puts.
Together, both metrics show cautious sentiment without signaling panic, according to Thomas Erdösi, head of product at CF Benchmarks.
Market Movements
BTC is unchanged from 4 p.m. ET Monday at $78,894.34 (24hrs: +2.61%)
ETH is down 0.32% at $1,514.40 (24hrs: +5.22%)
DXY is unchanged at 103.32
Gold is up 2.19% at $3015.9/oz
Silver is up 1.9% at $30.07/oz
S&P 500 closed -0.23% at 5,062.25
Bitcoin is experiencing a unique phase where market reactions illustrate a blend of speculative fervor and cautious optimism, making it a pivotal asset amidst global uncertainties.
