Liberation Day Tariffs Trigger a Bitcoin Risk-Off Test
President Trump's April 2 tariff order triggered a global risk-off shock that pulled Bitcoin down with equities before the cryptocurrency recovered rapidly after a partial tariff pause.
On April 2, 2025, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14257, imposing a 10 percent baseline tariff on most U.S. imports and setting higher country-specific reciprocal rates that were scheduled to take effect days later. The announcement set off a severe global risk-off episode as investors reassessed recession, inflation, and trade-war risks.
Bitcoin initially traded like a conventional risk asset. After trading in the upper-$80,000s around the announcement, it fell sharply as the tariff shock spread across global markets and reached a new 2025 low on April 7. Reuters reported that Bitcoin fell as much as 5.5 percent that day as escalating trade tensions drove investors away from risk assets and tested the cryptocurrency's safe-haven narrative.
The policy path then reversed. On April 9, the White House suspended most of the elevated country-specific reciprocal rates for 90 days while maintaining the 10 percent baseline and escalating duties on China. Bitcoin rebounded with the broader relief rally and, by later in April, had recovered the losses associated with the initial tariff shock.
The episode provided an unusually clear real-time test of Bitcoin's macro behavior. It first sold off alongside equities during a global liquidity and growth scare, then recovered more quickly as policy expectations changed. The event became part of the continuing debate over when Bitcoin behaves as a high-beta risk asset and when it trades more like an independent monetary asset.