- Donald Trump’s tariff war has sent financial assets into disarray.
- Bitcoin has remained staunchly above $83,000, while gold is down 2.5%.
- “Genuinely shocked,” said Bloomberg ETF expert James Seyffart.
While traditional financial assets get pushed off a cliff by Donald Trump’s tariff war, Bitcoin has avoided as painful a drop.
In fact, the top cryptocurrency rose 2% to $83,900 in the past 24 hours.
“[I’m] genuinely shocked a bit by Bitcoin’s resilience,” said Bloomberg ETF expert, James Seyffart on X. “Would not have guessed it would hold above $80k in this type of broader market selloff of risk assets.”
The contrarian price action comes as financial markets get walloped.
The S&P 500, which tracks the 500 largest publicly listed companies in the US, plummeted 5% on Friday, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq posted a similar drop. Tesla shares dropped 9% and chip manufacturer Nvidia plummeted 7%.
Even gold, traditionally considered a safe-haven asset, fell 2.3%.
Market watchers ventured a guess as to what’s propping up Bitcoin’s price: corporate buy-ins, which until today had been considered a worrying sign.
“There’s a decent likelihood this could be Marathon, GameStop and Strategy types buying that are holding it up,” Seyffart wrote.
On Tuesday, GameStop said it is planning a $1.5 billion stockpile that mimics Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin approach. His company, Strategy, posted on March 31 that it had added $1.9 billion of the cryptocurrency to its balance sheet. Stablecoin issuer Tether accumulated $735 million in Bitcoin during the first quarter.
On Thursday, most Bitcoin exchange-traded funds experienced outflows. BlackRock’s IBIT bucked the trend with $65 million in inflows.
‘Decoupling’
Bitcoin bulls have been galvanised that their stance on the original cryptocurrency as digital gold seems to be taking hold, at least a little.
Historically, Bitcoin has behaved as a high-risk asset that moves in tandem with tech stocks — rising and falling alongside the broader market. Not today.
According to crypto analyst Dennis Porteaux, today is the first time Bitcoin has moved in the opposite direction when compared to the 10 worst days for the S&P 500.
“This is the first time I’ve seen signs of real decoupling.”
Acknowledging the anomaly, crypto venture capitalist Chris Burniske remains cautious.
“Bitcoin continuing to outperform the Nasdaq could be due to Treasury bids, or it could be telling us something as the most sensitive macro asset,” Burniske said.
Pedro Solimano is a markets correspondent based in Buenos Aires. Got a tip? Email him at [email protected].
