BTC
$82,140.64
–
5.60%
ETH
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–
6.15%
USDT
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–
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XRP
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–
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BNB
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–
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USDC
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+
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SOL
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–
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–
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–
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–
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–
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–
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–
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–
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–
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–
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–
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–
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LTC
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–
5.00%
OM
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+
0.34%
By Tom Carreras, James Van Straten, Krisztian Sandor, Will Canny|Edited by Stephen Alpher
Apr 3, 2025, 4:22 p.m. UTC
- Bitcoin is flirting with the $80,000 as markets plunge following the Trump tariff plan.
- Bitcoin’s decline highlights its correlation with traditional risk markets, but perhaps investors might soon highlight its store-of-value properties, said LMAX’s Joel Kruger.
- JPMorgan, however, suggested otherwise, seeing a continuation of gold’s outperformance over bitcoin.
Down more than 5% since President Trump’s tariff announcement on Wednesday evening sent markets plunging, bitcoin (BTC) once again is disappointing bulls who have touted its store-of-value properties or potential as a non-correlated safe haven to risk assets like stocks.
Or not.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
“This moment feels like a turning point,” said Joel Kruger, LMAX Group market strategist. “We see market participants increasingly drawn to [BTC’s] appeal as a store-of-value asset and a compelling diversification tool amid the uncertainty.”
Kruger noted that while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 have each tumbled to new 2025 lows, bitcoin for the moment is holding well above its year-to-date bottom of $75,000 — what technicians like to call “higher lows.”
But Javier Rodriguez Alarcon, chief commercial officer at crypto exchange XBTO, believes otherwise.
“Despite talk that bitcoin could act as a hedge against dollar-centric volatility, in practice we’re still seeing a strong correlation between digital assets and broader risk markets in moments of uncertainty,” the ex-Goldman Sachs executive said in an email.
“Bitcoin’s volatility and correlation with equities raises questions over its ‘digital gold’ narrative,” said Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou and team at JPMorgan yesterday. “We see gold continuing to rise as the major beneficiary of the debasement trade,” they added.
Even with bitcoin’s recent pullback, the price is still above the bank’s estimated average cost of production of $62,000, a metric which has acted as a lower boundary in the past, wrote Panigirtzoglou.
Gold today is lower by just 1.25% to $3,126 per ounce and within close sight of its record high of around $3,200.
Tom writes about markets, bitcoin mining and crypto adoption in Latin America. He has a bachelor’s degree in English literature from McGill University, and can usually be found in Costa Rica. He holds BTC above CoinDesk’s disclosure threshold of $1,000.
James Van Straten is a Senior Analyst at CoinDesk, specializing in Bitcoin and its interplay with the macroeconomic environment. Previously, James worked as a Research Analyst at Saidler & Co., a Swiss hedge fund, where he developed expertise in on-chain analytics. His work focuses on monitoring flows to analyze Bitcoin’s role within the broader financial system.
In addition to his professional endeavors, James serves as an advisor to Coinsilium, a UK publicly traded company, where he provides guidance on their Bitcoin treasury strategy. He also holds investments in Bitcoin, MicroStrategy (MSTR), and Semler Scientific (SMLR).
Krisztian Sandor is a U.S. markets reporter focusing on stablecoins, tokenization, real-world assets. He graduated from New York University’s business and economic reporting program before joining CoinDesk. He holds BTC, SOL and ETH.
Will Canny is an experienced market reporter with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. He’s now covering the crypto beat as a finance reporter at CoinDesk. He owns more than $1,000 of SOL.
