President Donald Trump‘s sweeping new trade tariffs sent shockwaves through global markets on Thursday, triggering a massive sell-off that echoed the COVID-19 pandemic-era routs, as investor risk appetite vanished in a flash.
Wall Street saw a staggering $2 trillion in market cap erased, with the U.S.’s biggest 10 companies shedding $1 trillion alone.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) plunged 8.7%, staring down its worst day since March 2020 and wiping out nearly $300 billion in value. NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) tumbled 6.4%, losing $171.9 billion, while Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) dropped 8%, on pace for a $166 billion hit.
The group’s director of business development, a speaker at this year’s Consensus festival, says bitcoin miners are expanding into bitcoin pooling, hashrate hedging, AI and HPC.
Market analysts say President Donald Trump‘s newly announced global tariff regime is already reshaping investor sentiment, triggering sharp corrections across risk assets—including crypto.
While digital currencies initially showed some resilience, experts caution that they remain exposed to broader macroeconomic shocks.
Trump’s April 2 speech, which introduced a “reciprocal tariff” program with baseline rates starting at 10% and scaling up to 50% by April 9, caused immediate volatility in financial markets.
Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) has dipped below $82,000, while U.S. equity futures and global ETFs slid.
Trump described the move as a “Declaration of Economic Independence,” aimed at rebalancing global trade dynamics.
According to David Hernandez, a crypto investment specialist at 21Shares, the tariffs removed some ambiguity around U.S. trade policy but raised new concerns.
Genius Group Ltd (AMEX:GNS) shares are trading lower on Thursday following news that the company is being compelled to sell its Bitcoin treasury.
The move comes after a court ruling in the U.S. District Court Southern District of New York, which blocked Genius from selling shares, raising funds and using investor money to purchase Bitcoin.
This injunction was granted as part of a larger legal battle with Fatbrain AI, part of Lzg International Inc (OTC:LZGI), where Genius had initiated arbitration to terminate its asset purchase agreement with the company.
After initially surging as high as $88,580 as the US government unveiled reciprocal trade tariffs, Bitcoin soon ran out of steam as the reality of the stronger-than-expected measures hit home.
US stocks then followed, with the S&P 500 down over 4% on the day at the time of writing.
“Today’s -3.7% drop puts the S&P 500 on track for its largest daily decline since the 2020 pandemic lockdowns,” trading resource The Kobeissi Letter wrote in part of a reaction on X.
“Since the after hours high at 4:25 PM ET yesterday, the S&P 500 has erased nearly $3 TRILLION in market cap.”
Thereafter, US initial jobless claims came in below estimates, at 219,000 versus the anticipated 228,000, per data from the US Department of Labor (DoL).
“The previous week’s level was revised up by 1,000 from 224,000 to 225,000. The 4-week moving average was 223,000, a decrease of 1,250 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 250 from 224,000 to 224,250,” an official press release stated.
Stronger labor market trends are traditionally associated with weaker risk-asset performance as they imply that policymakers can keep financial conditions tighter for longer.
Data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool nonetheless continued to see markets favor an interest-rate cut from the Federal Reserve at the June meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).
Fed target rate probabilities (screenshot). Source: CME Group
“As recession odds rise, markets think that the Fed will be forced to cut rates as soon as next month,” Kobeissi added.
Bearish BTC price action could last “3-6 months”
BTC price action predictably continued to disappoint on short timeframes as $80,000 support became uncomfortably close.
“Stair step up then elevator down,” popular trader Roman summarized in part of his latest X analysis.
Market commentator Byzantine General flagged short positions increasing across major crypto pairs, concluding that tariffs would ensure that lackluster conditions would continue.
“I could see a stop hunt below the local lows before a pump to squeeze shorts, then probably more chop that slopes downward,” he told X followers.
“I do think that with the tariff responses that are most likely coming upside will be limited.”
Bitcoin and Ethereum market data. Source: Byzantine General/X
Onchain analytics firm Glassnode had more bad news. According to their data, Bitcoin printed a new “death cross” involving the convergence of two midterm moving averages (MAs).
“An onchain analogue to the Death Cross has emerged. The 30-day volume-weighted price of $BTC has crossed below the 180-day, signaling weakening momentum,” an X post announced.
“Historically, this pattern preceded 3–6 months of bearish trends.”
Earlier this week, Glassnode observed that speculative sell-offs in recent months have fallen considerably short of volumes traditionally associated with blow-off BTC price tops.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
Bondex, a Web3-based professional networking platform, has surpassed 5 million downloads across iOS and Android since its official app launch in mid-2023, the company announced on Wednesday.
Launched in May 2022, the platform aims to offer an alternative to traditional professional networking services by integrating blockchain technology for identity verification, data privacy, and referral-based hiring.
Bondex’s latest figures come amid broader interest in decentralized applications for career-building and talent acquisition.
The company said over 2 million users have completed their profiles on the app, and 400,000 are active on a monthly basis.
