Tariff Pause and Lower Inflation Fail to Steady Bitcoin’s Choppy Trading
The digital asset surged to $83K late Wednesday on news of President Donald Trump’s 90-day tariff pause. But even lower inflation couldn’t curb its descent back to $79K Thursday morning.
Overview of Market Metrics
Bitcoin’s $79,292.72 price represents a 1.90% increase over 24 hours, according to data from Coinmarketcap. The leading cryptocurrency traded between $77,718.65 and $83,541.00 over the period, showing signs of intraday volatility. Despite the short-term bump, BTC is still down 3.81% over the past week, signaling that bearish sentiment continues to weigh on the market.
(BTC price/ Trading View)
Trading activity remained elevated, with 24-hour volume jumping by 9.83% to $68.37 billion. However, overall market capitalization slipped 1.77% to $1.56 trillion, suggesting that the gains may be more of a reactionary bounce to Trump’s announcement than a full-on reversal. Bitcoin’s market dominance ticked slightly higher to 63.32% as altcoins struggled to keep up with BTC’s rebound.
(BTC dominance / Trading View)
In the derivatives market, futures open interest rose 0.66% to $52.08 billion, reflecting cautious optimism among traders. However, the liquidation data tells a different story: $31.69 million was wiped out in the last 24 hours, with a staggering $29.14 million in long positions liquidated. The skew toward long liquidations shows that overly bullish traders were caught off guard, reinforcing the idea that the market remains fragile in the face of tariff uncertainty.
Inflation Cools
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its March consumer price index figures on Thursday morning, showing that inflation fell 0.1% in March after a 0.2% rise in February, with annual inflation coming in at 2.4%, lower than the 2.6% forecasted by analysts. However, that’s still higher than the Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation target, leaving the likelihood of an interest rate cut in limbo.
Orange Man, The King Maker
Trump paused all global U.S. tariffs on Wednesday afternoon, sending both traditional and crypto markets on an almost immediate surge. BTC climbed from $77K to $81K, reaching $83K later in the evening.
(President Donald Trump announces a blanket 90-day tariff pause and hits China with a 125% levy on goods, sending markets surging / Donald Trump on Truth Social)
“Bitcoin’s 6% leap to $81,000 in response to geopolitical triggers in real-time of Trump’s recent tariff pause, is a clear signal,” said Pauline Shangett, Chief Marketing Officer at non-custodial cryptocurrency exchange Changenow. “When global markets flinch, crypto lunges, proving once again it’s not just an alternative asset class, but the lead indicator of global risk appetite,” she added.
That said, all traditional markets have slumped once again. At the time of writing, the S&P 500 is down 4.23%, the Dow has fallen by 3.59%, and the Nasdaq has bled 5.15%. However, despite bitcoin’s rollercoaster ride, the global crypto market has climbed 2.5% over 24 hours to $2.5 trillion.
“Bitcoin’s bounce is just the opening bell,” Shangett said. “The market’s alive, and it’s loud.”