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By Helene Braun, Krisztian Sandor, James Van Straten|Edited by Stephen Alpher
Apr 10, 2025, 4:14 p.m.
- Bitcoin and tech stocks tumbled Thursday as investors thought twice about yesterday’s historic rally.
- A late-morning White House clarification raised the effective China tariff rate to 145% from 125%, helping push the Nasdaq from a 4% loss to 5.5%; bitcoin followed suit, sliding back to $79,000.
- Gold surged to a record high and the dollar sank, as traders shifted focus from inflation to geopolitical risk.
After U.S. markets enjoyed a brief gasp of relief on Wednesday, charts got ugly again on Thursday as focus shifted to a potential bigger conflict between the U.S. and China.
Bitcoin (BTC), which rose more than 8% the day prior, dipped about 4% below $80,000 again on Thursday. The decline in bitcoin came alongside a renewed plunge in the Nasdaq, which was lower by 5.5% following yesterday’s 12% rally as traders are assessing U.S. President Donald Trump’s next steps in his tariff policy.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Crypto stocks also took a hit. MicroStrategy (MSTR) was down 11.2%, and Coinbase (COIN) and Marathon Digital (MARA) fell 8.1% and 9.3%, respectively.
Already sharply lower on the session, the stock sell-off escalated after a tweet circulated saying that a White House official confirmed that the total tariff rate on China now stands at 145%, not 125% as President Trump stated yesterday.
The Executive Order details that the “reciprocal” tariff rate surged from 84% to 125% overnight. When combined with the existing 20% tariff on fentanyl-related goods, the total rate reaches 145%.
China, in a bid to strike at Trump’s initial tariffs, said it would reduce imports of American movies, intensifying the trade war between the two countries.
Meanwhile, gold is soaring up 3% and hitting a new all-time high of $3,168. The DXY index, which measures the U.S. dollar against a basket of foreign currencies, has dropped below 101, effectively reversing its entire November rally, and now down 9% from the January highs.
“The macro outlook is anything but secure,” said Kirill Kretov, senior expert at crypto trading automation platform CoinPanel. “This is a politically charged environment, where headlines have the power to reshape sentiment almost instantly.”
“A key swing factor now is trade policy,” Kretov added, with the Trump administration’s ever-changing tariff policies adding to concerns about inflation. “Any escalation on this front would complicate the Fed’s decision-making and potentially derail the current market narrative,” he said.
Helene is a New York-based markets reporter at CoinDesk, covering the latest news from Wall Street, the rise of the spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds and updates on crypto markets. She is a graduate of New York University’s business and economic reporting program and has appeared on CBS News, YahooFinance and Nasdaq TradeTalks. She holds BTC and ETH.
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.
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).
