Daily Crypto Signals: Bitcoin Tumbles from $88.5K, XRP Awaits Ripple Effects of New Trump Tariffs

The cryptocurrency market displayed a mixed landscape on April 2nd, 2025, as Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and other altcoins grappled with the ripple effects of newly announced US tariffs

The cryptocurrency market displayed a mixed landscape on April 2nd, 2025, as Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and other altcoins grappled with the ripple effects of newly announced US tariffs and cautious sentiment in derivative markets, while decentralized exchange Curve Finance reported record-breaking first-quarter trading volume.

Latest crypto news – tariffs drive crypto market down

The broader market also witnessed significant events, including a stablecoin depegging scare and new ETF proposals, adding layers of complexity to investor sentiment.

Following President Trump’s declaration of broad tariffs, including a 10% baseline on all imports and reciprocal levies on trading partners, Bitcoin dropped drastically from around $88,500 to roughly $83,400, hence creating fresh volatility in the cryptocurrency market.

Notwithstanding this setback, data shows that significant spot market buying drove Bitcoin’s recent surge; short liquidations totaling $69.4 million in a 12-hour period and overall market liquidations of $145 million reflect this trend. The tariff news sparked off an after-hours selloff across risk assets; tech stocks suffered especially as the Nasdaq-oriented QQQ ETF lost almost 4%.

Bitcoin Soars, Then Crashes Amid Tariff Announcement

Bitcoin BTC /USD had a wild ride, rising momentarily above $88,500 then declining to trade around $83,400, down almost 2% in 24 hours. News that Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs were not yet approved gave investors hope and helped to explain some of the rise. The rise fell short, though, in breaking through a significant three-month declining trendline resistance that has regularly turned back past price increases.

Strong spot market buying and the comeback of the Coinbase Pro premium implying institutional interest point to a market structure that seems to be moving from bearish to optimistic. While Strategy (previously MicroStrategy) is continuously building up its position, several companies have declared intentions to raise Bitcoin holdings, like GameStop securing $1.5 billion for possible BTC purchases. These business acquisitions show increasing institutional confidence in Bitcoin as a reserve asset in spite of transient volatility.

Ethereum Posts 44% YTD Losses

Ethereum ETH /USD still having trouble; it dropped 3.3% in 24 hours and trades about $1,800. ETH stays 44% down year-to- date and has failed to recover the crucial $2,000 threshold while the price has increased 6.4% from its March 30 low of $1,768. With futures premium at 4% – below the neutral 5% mark despite increasing support at $1,800, derivatives measures imply professional traders express little confidence in a major comeback.

Some analysts blame Ethereum’s underperformance on the collapsing memecoin market, which has slowed activity across distributed apps. Notwithstanding these difficulties, Ethereum’s fundamentals are still robust; stablecoin holdings reach an all-time high of $124.5 billion and the network continues to be the clear leader with $49 billion in total value locked.

Though both retail and institutional investors today remain wary about Ethereum’s short-term prospects, sentiment might change rapidly given good momentum from the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial investment in ETH and Eric Trump’s vocal backing.

Curve Finance Trading Volumes Touch $35B in Q1 2025

Decentralized exchange Curve Finance (CRV) displayed remarkable resilience in a challenging market environment with record trading volumes of around $35 billion in Q1 2025. This was mainly driven by a surge in transactions from about 1.8 million to 5.5 million, indicating a 13% increase compared to Q1 2024.

These impressive figures emerged despite the broader bitcoin market experiencing a 20% decline in overall market capitalization during the same period. Several strategic shifts undertaken by the DeFi protocol have aided its adaptation to the changing landscape.

In June 2024, Curve switched from its prior model to using its stablecoin crvUSD for distributing protocol fees to tokenholders, and in November teamed up with Elixir to facilitate the integration of BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund into DeFi. By the end of 2025, Curve aims to have all of its lending markets accessible through a single user interface.

Despite these positive developments, Curve’s total value locked, which measures the amount of crypto deposited in its protocols, stands at around $1.8 billion, a decline from over $2.5 billion at the beginning of the year. Similarly, the protocol’s native token, CRV, has witnessed a drop of over 40% in year-to-date market valuation, settling at approximately $640 million.

Investors assessing the potential impact of Trump’s tariff measures are introducing significant uncertainty into the