The US Treasury Department sanctioned eight cryptocurrency wallet addresses linked to Russian crypto exchange Garantex and the Houthis.

The United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned eight crypto addresses that data from blockchain forensic firms Chainalysis and TRM Labs had linked to the organizations. Two are deposit addresses at major crypto platforms, while the other six are privately controlled.

Visualization of transaction flow related to OFAC sanctions. Source: Chainalysis

The addresses in question reportedly moved nearly $1 billion worth of funds linked to sanctioned entities. Most of the transactions funded Houthi operations in Yemen and the Red Sea region.

Slava Demchuk, a crypto-focused money laundering specialist and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime consultant told Cointelegraph that “the inclusion of Houthi-linked wallets reflects a broader recognition of crypto’s role in geopolitical conflicts and terrorism financing.” He added:

“The implications are far-reaching — compliance frameworks must adapt swiftly, attribution efforts will intensify, and decentralized platforms may face increased scrutiny.“

Demchuk highlighted that the situation reshapes the regulatory landscape. According to him, crypto “is now firmly within the scope of international security.

Who are the Houthis?

The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, are a Yemeni political and armed movement that emerged from the Zaidi Shia community. Originating as a revivalist and reformist group, they later became a major force in Yemen’s ongoing conflict.

Related: US DOJ says it seized Hamas crypto meant to finance terrorism

In recent years, the Houthis have engaged in attacks against both military and civilian vessels in the Red Sea with missiles and drones. In January, US President Donald Trump designated the group as a foreign terrorist organization.

The announcement noted that “the Houthis’ activities threaten the security of American civilians and personnel in the Middle East, the safety of our closest regional partners, and the stability of global maritime trade.” The group was recently struck by a US bombing campaign.

Related: Binance claims’ no special relationship’ with Hamas, argues to dismiss lawsuit

Garantex: Russia’s crypto laundromat

Garantex is a Russian crypto exchange that was sanctioned and shut down in early March after purportedly helping money-laundering efforts. At the time, Tether — the leading stablecoin operator and issuer of USDt — froze $27 million in USDt on the platform, forcing it to halt operations.

The platform has reportedly shifted millions of dollars as it sought to reboot under its new brand, “Grinex.”

In mid-March, officials with India’s Central Bureau of Investigation announced the arrest of Lithuanian national Aleksej Bešciokov, who was alleged to have operated the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex.

The arrest of the alleged Garantex founder was based on US charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business and conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Magazine: Financial nihilism in crypto is over — It’s time to dream big again

The US Treasury Department sanctioned eight cryptocurrency wallet addresses linked to Russian crypto exchange Garantex and the Yemeni political and military organization the Houthis.

The United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned eight crypto addresses that data from blockchain forensic firms Chainalysis and TRM Labs had linked to the organizations. Two are deposit addresses at major crypto platforms, while the other six are privately controlled.

Visualization of transaction flow related to OFAC sanctions. Source: Chainalysis

The addresses in question reportedly moved nearly $1 billion worth of funds linked to sanctioned entities. Most of the transactions funded Houthi operations in Yemen and the Red Sea region.

Slava Demchuk, a crypto-focused money laundering specialist and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime consultant told Cointelegraph that “the inclusion of Houthi-linked wallets reflects a broader recognition of crypto’s role in geopolitical conflicts and terrorism financing.” He added:

“The implications are far-reaching — compliance frameworks must adapt swiftly, attribution efforts will intensify, and decentralized platforms may face increased scrutiny.“

Demchuk highlighted that the situation reshapes the regulatory landscape. According to him, crypto “is now firmly within the scope of international security.

Who are the Houthis?

The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, are a Yemeni political and armed movement that emerged from the Zaidi Shia community. Originating as a revivalist and reformist group, they later became a major force in Yemen’s ongoing conflict.

Related: US DOJ says it seized Hamas crypto meant to finance terrorism

In recent years, the Houthis have engaged in attacks against both military and civilian vessels in the Red Sea with missiles and drones. In January, US President Donald Trump designated the group as a foreign terrorist organization.

The announcement noted that “the Houthis’ activities threaten the security of American civilians and personnel in the Middle East, the safety of our closest regional partners, and the stability of global maritime trade.” The group was recently struck by a US bombing campaign.

Related: Binance claims’ no special relationship’ with Hamas, argues to dismiss lawsuit

Garantex: Russia’s crypto laundromat

Garantex is a Russian crypto exchange that was sanctioned and shut down in early March after purportedly helping money-laundering efforts. At the time, Tether — the leading stablecoin operator and issuer of USDt — froze $27 million in USDt on the platform, forcing it to halt operations.

The platform has reportedly shifted millions of dollars as it sought to reboot under its new brand, “Grinex.”

In mid-March, officials with India’s Central Bureau of Investigation announced the arrest of Lithuanian national Aleksej Bešciokov, who was alleged to have operated the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex.

The arrest of the alleged Garantex founder was based on US charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business and conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Magazine: Financial nihilism in crypto is over — It’s time to dream big again

Lawmakers in the US states of Minnesota and Alabama filed companion bills to identical existing bills that if passed into law, would allow each state to buy Bitcoin.

The Minnesota Bitcoin Act, or HF 2946, was introduced to the state’s House by Republican Representative Bernie Perryman on April 1, following an identical bill introduced on March 17 by GOP state Senator Jeremy Miller.

Meanwhile, on the same day in Alabama, Republican state Senator Will Barfoot introduced Senate Bill 283, while a bi-partisan group of representatives led by Republican Mike Shaw filed the identical House Bill 482, which allows for the state to invest in crypto, but essentially limits it to Bitcoin (BTC).

Twin Alabama bills don’t explicitly name Bitcoin

Minnesota’s Bitcoin Act would allow the state’s investment board to invest state assets in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and permit state employees to add crypto to retirement accounts.

It would also exempt crypto gains from state income taxes and give residents the option to pay state taxes and fees with Bitcoin.

Source: Bitcoin Laws

The twin Alabama bills don’t explicitly identify Bitcoin, but would limit the state’s crypto investment into assets that have a minimum market value of $750 billion, a criterion that only Bitcoin currently meets.

26 Bitcoin reserve bills now introduced in the US

Introducing identical bills is not uncommon in the US and is typically done to speed up the bicameral legislative process so laws can pass more quickly.

Bills to create a Bitcoin reserve have been introduced in 26 US states, with Arizona currently the closest to passing a law to make one, according to data from the bill tracking website Bitcoin Laws.

Arizona currently leads in the US state Bitcoin reserve race. Source: Bitcoin Laws

Pennsylvania was one of the first US states to introduce a Bitcoin reserve bill, in November 2024. However, the initiative was reportedly eventually rejected, with similar bills also killed in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.

Related: North Carolina bills would add crypto to state’s retirement system 

Montana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Wyoming are the five states thathave rejected Bitcoin reserve initiatives. Source: Bitcoin Laws

According to a March 3 report by Barron’s, “red states” like Montana have faced setbacks to the Bitcoin reserve initiatives amid political confrontations between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.

Additional reporting by Helen Partz.

Magazine: Financial nihilism in crypto is over — It’s time to dream big again

Decentralized video game ecosystem Treasure DAO is restructuring as “a matter of survival” to extend its financial runway to at least February 2026.Treasure DAO’s chief contributor John Patten says in an April 2 video posted to X that he has resumed a leadership role and is taking a plan to the DAO to streamline operations, eliminate unnecessary costs, and center the organization around a few key projects.

“I will introduce this after all of you provide your opinions at this time. I have my own thoughts, but we must make this decision as a community through long deliberation. The best ideas need to rise to the surface,” he said. 

The Next Chapter of Treasure ✨We’re releasing an official statement on our pivotal transition, outlining the rationale behind leadership changes, financial restructuring, and our bold new strategic direction.Full details 👇 pic.twitter.com/BjWgZxc98l

— Treasure (@Treasure_DAO) April 2, 2025

As part of cost-cutting to reduce Treasure DAO’s annual burn rate of $8.3 million, Patten says 15 contributors have either left or been laid off, and game publishing support and the treasure chain will be terminated. 

At the same time, he is proposing to withdraw an idle $785,000 from the market maker Flowdesk to increase the DAO’s treasury.

Patten says that, with the current runway, “stablecoins will last until roughly December,” but if the DAO approves withdrawing the funds from Flowdesk, this could be extended to February 2026, in “an optimistic scenario.”

The DAO’s current treasury only has $2.4 million left, and the ecosystem fund holds 22.3 million MAGIC, valued at $2.3 million, according to Patten, but if “Magic falls,” the DAO is “unsustainable sometime between December and February.”

Treasure DAO to refocus on four products

Patten says the DAO also needs to focus its energy on a few key products and future partnerships will be based on revenue generation for the DAO, where users of the platform will need to generate value through token use.

“The DAO should officially commit to a focused, streamlined approach of four products and four products only, the marketplace, Bridgeworld, Smolworld and AI agent, scaling technology,” he said. 

Related: Illuvium CEO says firm has gone ‘super lean’ to speed up development

“That’s all that Treasure should be through 2025. Bridgeworld and Smolworld will be use cases to demonstrate how other projects utilize magic marketplace and our AI framework and back end to run many, many agents concurrently.”

TreasureDAO, launched in 2021, offered services to provide game publishers access to infrastructure and advisory services to launch Web3-based games. 

However, Patten says it “didn’t have a scalable business model” and hasn’t grown since the Arbitrum airdrop in March 2023. 

The Treasure ecosystem token MAGIC is down 16.5% to $0.0872 for the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. Overall, the token has shed 98% after hitting its all-time high of $6.32 on Feb. 19, 2022. 

Magazine: Financial nihilism in crypto is over — It’s time to dream big again

Update (April 3, 10:50 am UTC): This article has been updated to correct the quote attributed to Wojtek Kopczuk

There’s a crazy theory on social media that US President Donald Trump’s newly announced reciprocal tariff plan — which hits all countries with a minimum 10% tariff — could have been designed by an artificial intelligence chatbot.

Only a short period after Trump announced the tariffs at the White House Rose Garden on April 2, some X users claim they were able to duplicate the same tariff plan with a rudimentary prompt using OpenAI’s ChatGPT. 

“I was able to duplicate it in ChatGPT,” NFT collector DCinvestor told his 260,000 followers on X following the Donald Trump announcement of reciprocal tariffs on 185 countries on April 2. 

“It also told me that this idea hadn’t been formalized anywhere before, and that it was something it came up with,” he added, referring to the chatbot’s ability to calculate the tariff rates. “FFS. Trump admin is using ChatGPT to determine trade policy,” he added.

Of course, the similarities between the artificial intelligence-generated tariff plan and Trump’s plan could also be simply coincidental.

DCInvestor’s observation came in response to crypto trader Jordan Fish, also known as Cobie, who also asked ChatGPT using the prompt: “What would be an easy way to calculate the tariffs that should be imposed on other countries so that the US is on even playing fields when it comes to trade deficit. Set a minimum of 10%.” 

ChatGPT response to question on tariff calculations. Source: Cobie

Journal of Public Economics editor Wojtek Kopczuk also experimented with ChatGPT, which generated the same results. “Confirmed, chatgpt… exactly what the dumbest kid in the class would do, without edits,” he said. 

Author Krishnan Rohit postulated on X that this “might be the first large-scale application of AI technology to geopolitics.” ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Grok all give the same answer to the question on how to impose tariffs easily, he observed. 

Trump’s reciprocal tariffs lead to crypto dip

Founder and CEO of supply chain logistics platform Flexport, Ryan Petersen, said his firm had reverse-engineered the formula the Trump administration used to generate the reciprocal tariffs. 

“It’s quite simple, they took the trade deficit the US has with each country and divided it by our imports from that country,”

An editor at The Yale Review, James Surowiecki, said something similar, “they just took our [US] trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country’s exports to us.”

Related: ‘National emergency’ as Trump’s tariffs dent crypto prices

Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which come into effect on April 5, have hit all countries with a 10%  levy, with some nations facing even larger rates, such as China with a 34% tariff, Japan with 24%, and the European Union with 20%. 

Crypto markets reacted particularly badly, plunging 5% after the announcement as Bitcoin (BTC) fell by $5,500 to $82,277 before recovering marginally, according to CoinGecko. 

Magazine: Financial nihilism in crypto is over — It’s time to dream big again

One of Bitcoin’s key communication tools used to discuss potential protocol changes was knocked out for several hours starting on April 2, with one moderator speculating it may have been a targeted attack assisted by bots. 

For several hours across April 2 and 3, Bitcoin core developers and researchers were unable to interact on Google Groups after Google banned the group for spam. 

“Bitcoin Development Mailing List has been identified as containing spam, malware, or other malicious content,” Google’s warning stated at the time.

The Bitcoin Development Mailing List’s warning before the ban was lifted. Source: Google

Bitcoin Core developer Bryan Bishop told Cointelegraph that the ban may have been triggered by individuals or bots mass-reporting the Bitcoin mailing list from multiple accounts.

It’s a common tactic by attackers looking to ban or censor a community, Bishop said, noting that similar incidents occur on YouTube, X and TikTok fairly often.

“So it’s possible that this whole thing might have been triggered through something like that. It might have just been someone clicking those links on a massive scale to report it.”

Google Workspace Support’s X account confirmed that the issue had been resolved on April 3 at 2:23 am UTC in response to one of the Bitcoin mailing list’s other moderators, Ruben Somsen.

Bitcoin advocate and head of Block Inc, Jack Dorsey, also called attention to the ban, urging Google CEO Sundar Pichai to investigate the issue.

Related: Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto may be wealthier than Bill GatesMailing lists typically involve one moderator email sending information to subscribers in a group to discuss and collaborate on a topic or shared interest.

The Bitcoin mailing list is used by Bitcoin core developers and researchers to discuss potential protocol changes to Bitcoin, which secures more than $1.6 trillion worth of value for network users around the world.

It has become one of the main Bitcoin mailing lists since the network’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, shared Bitcoin’s white paper on the Cryptography Mailing List on Oct. 31, 2008.

Bitcoin mailing list moderators plan to stay on Google Groups

Despite the incident, Bishop said the Bitcoin mailing list moderators have no intention of moving away from communicating via email:

“The reality of the situation is that this particular mailing list has always been email, and so the contributors that discuss Bitcoin protocol development through email, in order to provide continuity of service, you have to replace it with email.”

The Bitcoin mailing list officially migrated to Google Groups in February 2024. 

Source: Bryan Bishop

Before that, the mailing list was hosted on the Linux Foundation, Oregon State University Open Source Lab’s infrastructure and SourceForge.net.

Bishop suggested that a Bitcoin forum shouldn’t be limited to one particular platform, pointing out that there are several other platforms where Bitcoin developments are discussed, including GitHub and the decentralized social network Nostr.

Magazine: 10 crypto theories that missed as badly as ‘Peter Todd is Satoshi’

Update (April 3, 5:43 am UTC): This article has been updated to add information on the STABLE Act and GENIUS Act.

The US House Financial Services Committee has passed a Republican-backed stablecoin framework bill, which will now head to the House floor for a full vote.

The Committee passed the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy, or STABLE Act, with a 32-17 vote on April 2, with six Democrats voting in favor.

The bill was introduced on Feb. 6 by committee Chair French Hill and the chair of its Digital Assets Subcommittee, Bryan Steil — reportedly drafted with the help of the world’s largest stablecoin issue, Tether.

Source: Financial Services GOP

The bill would provide rules around payment stablecoins, a crypto token tied to a currency such as the US dollar, and aims to ensure issuers give information about their business and how they back their tokens.

During an earlier markup session, the committee’s leading Democrat, Maxine Waters, who later voted against the bill, criticized her Republican peers for “setting an unacceptable and dangerous precedent” with the STABLE Act.

She said President Donald Trump could use the bill to allow his family’s stablecoin to be used in government payments and argued the bill validates Trump “and his insiders’ efforts to write rules of the road that will enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else.”

In late March, the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial crypto venture launched a stablecoin, World Liberty Financial USD (USD1). Meanwhile, the US Housing Department, which oversees social housing, was reportedly looking to experiment with using stablecoins for some of its functions.

Stablecoin GENIUS Act also weaves through Congress 

Other stablecoin-related bills are also working their way through Congress, including the Republican-led Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins, or GENIUS Act, which lays out oversight and reserve rules for issuers.

Related: Crypto has a regulatory capture problem in Washington — or does it?

The US Senate Banking Committee voted through the GENIUS Act in an 18-6 vote on March 13, after Senator Bill Hagerty, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, updated it following consultation with the Committee’s Democrats.

Before the vote, Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said the updated GENIUS Act made “significant improvements to a number of important provisions” in areas such as consumer protections and authorized stablecoin issuers.

Both the STABLE Act and GENIUS Act will now wait until debate time on the floor of the House and Senate, respectively, before they head for a floor vote.

Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett reported on X that two unnamed crypto lobbyists said there is likely to be “a coordinated push behind the scenes over the next few weeks to get the two bills to mirror each other, as there are still some differences between them.”

Doing so would “avoid having to set up a so-called conference committee which is formed so members from both chambers can negotiate to create a final version of the bill everyone agrees on,” she added.

Magazine: How crypto laws are changing across the world in 2025

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are outpacing many traditional cyber threats and are no longer just a tool but a “dominant geopolitical weapon,” according to network security firm Netscout.

Global DDoS activity increased by 12.7% in the second half of 2024 compared to the first half, totaling almost 9 million attacks, according to the firm. 

A DDoS attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal web traffic of a targeted server, service or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of internet traffic.

The largest increases have been in Latin America and the Asia Pacific regions, with around 30% and 20% increases from the first half, respectively.  

Netscout reported that there were a total of 7.9 million DDoS attacks in the first half of 2024, with a combined total of 16.8 million for the full year, up almost 30% from the 13 million attacks the firm recorded in 2023.  

Attackers have been using the internet disruption tool to “exploit moments of national vulnerability to amplify chaos and erode trust in institutions,” the researchers said.

The report described DDoS attacks as “precision-guided digital weapons” capable of disrupting infrastructure at critical moments, highlighting how they have been deployed during sociopolitical conflicts, elections, protests and policy disputes.

Weekly DDoS statistics, 2024. Source: Netscout

AI is supercharging DDoS attacks 

DDoS-for-hire services, including booters and stressors, are “more powerful than ever,” they added, as cyber criminals leverage AI and automation to bypass CAPTCHA, with automation “advancing toward capabilities such as behavior mimicry and real-time attack adjustments.”

The researchers concluded that DDoS attacks “are no longer just about raw bandwidth,” adding that they are “adaptive, persistent, and deeply embedded in modern cyber and geopolitical conflicts.”

“The shift to high-powered enterprise infrastructure, turnkey reconnaissance, the rise of AI-enhanced automation and the expansion of DDoS-for-hire services mean that attackers are evolving faster than ever.”

The role of DDoS attacks is evolving, Corero Network Security chief technology officer Ashley Stephenson told Forbes recently, adding, “By automating tasks that were once labor-intensive or required specialized skills, AI lowers the barrier to entry for attackers.”

Related: Crypto crime in 2024 likely exceeded $51B, far higher than reported: Chainalysis

A DDoS attack targeted Elon Musk’s social media platform X in August, aimed at disrupting his interview with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. 

X was targeted again in March when a massive cyberattack prevented some users from accessing the platform. 

A hacking group with ties to Russia called “Dark Storm” claimed responsibility for the DDoS attack on Musk’s platform, claiming that it was not politically motivated. 

Magazine: Financial nihilism in crypto is over — It’s time to dream big again

Elon Musk’s brain-chip company, Neuralink, is recruiting participants worldwide to trial its device, which enables users to control a computer using only their thoughts.

Neuralink is looking for people with quadriplegia — those who are not able to use their arms or legs — to sign up for a clinical trial, it said in an April 2 post on X, the social media platform also owned by Musk.

As of January, Neuralink has said that three patients have been implanted with a device. All are quadriplegic and are testing a small brain implant that tracks neural activity to control a computer or smartphone as part of a clinical trial called the Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface, or PRIME study.

Neuralink is one of several companies and academic institutions developing and testing so-called brain-computer interfaces, which vary from small wire-like implants as part of clinical trials to non-invasive devices akin to a hat.

Source: Neuralink

Neuralink’s website says its clinical PRIME study, which will take around six years, is looking for quadriplegics with spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to use their thoughts to control a computer.

Musk also heads vehicle maker Tesla and is the Trump administration’s government cost-cutting czar. He has said he wants Neuralink to move beyond just allowing humans to operate computers by thinking and wants to help “give people superpowers.”

First Neuralink patient reports no side effects after a year

Noland Arbaugh, Neuralink’s first patient, said in a March 28 X post that he’s “had no negative side effects, neither physically nor psychologically” in the year after receiving his brain implant. 

Arbaugh, a quadriplegic, demoed his brain chip about a year ago by controlling a computer cursor to play chess and surf the web.

https://t.co/OMIeGGjYtG

— Neuralink (@neuralink) March 20, 2024

Arbaugh said he’s now using his brain chip “for all sorts of things” and guessed he’s using it for over 10 hours a day.

Related: SpaceX flight bankrolled by crypto investor launches first manned polar orbit

He said the company’s researchers were “figuring out how to control a wheelchair with the implant,” which he added he won’t use “unless it’s next to perfect. I think it benefits everyone if I don’t lose control and drive into traffic.”

Arbaugh said he had found work as a traveling keynote speaker thanks to Neuralink’s implant, which helps him write, research, and communicate online.

“I can’t tell you how much hope and purpose this technology has provided me,” he wrote. “It’s only a matter of time before the implant is in dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of people.”

Magazine: Crypto fans are obsessed with longevity and biohacking — Here’s why 

Crypto markets dipped after US President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency and sweeping tariffs on all countries as part of his latest salvo in the ongoing trade war. 

The Trump administration has hit all countries with a 10% tariff starting April 5, with some countries facing even larger rates, such as China facing a 34% tariff, the European Union 20%, and Japan 24%. 

During an April 2 speech in the Rose Garden at the White House, Trump said the US is charging countries “approximately half of what they are and have been charging us.”

🚨 @POTUS signs an Executive Order instituting reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world.It’s LIBERATION DAY in America! pic.twitter.com/p7UnfE617B

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 2, 2025

The crypto market briefly went up at the news of a 10% sweeping tariff,  but once the full scope became known, it dipped with bleeding across the board. 

Bitcoin (BTC) had been staging a rally, reaching a session high at $88,500 but dropped 2.6% back to around $82,876. Meanwhile, CoinGecko data shows Ether (ETH) dropped over 6% from $1,934 to $1,797 following the tariff announcements and the total crypto market cap dropped 5.3% to $2.7 trillion. 

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which measures market sentiment for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, returned a score of 25, classed as extreme fear, in its latest April 2 update. 

However, prices have clawed back some losses since. Bitcoin has recovered 0.8% to $83,205. While Ether regained 1.2% to take back $1,810.

The crypto Fear & Greed Index score has returned an average rating of fear for the last week but has now dipped to extreme fear. Source: Alternative.me

Stock markets didn’t fare much better; trading resource The Kobeissi Letter said in an April 2 post to X that the stock market index S&P 500 erased over $2 trillion in market cap, working out to be roughly $125 billion per minute.

Trump tariffs could bring certainty to markets

Rachael Lucas, a crypto analyst at Australian crypto exchange BTC Markets, said the brief surge was a case of “uncertainty relief,”  then a sell-off as the full tariff details were released. 

“On BTC Markets, trading volume surged 46% as local traders scrambled to reposition. Big players took profit on the spike, while smaller investors hesitated,” she said in a statement.

Source: Daan Crypto Trades

She added that if China or the European Union “hit back hard,” expect another round of panic selling.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged US trading partners in an April 2 interview with Bloomberg against taking retaliatory steps, arguing “this is the high end of the number” for tariffs if they don’t try to add more levies in response, which could provide a “ceiling” and certainty for markets.

David Hernandez, a crypto investment specialist at crypto asset manager  21Shares, told Cointelegraph that markets experienced significant volatility during Trump’s speech, but the clarity could be a good thing in the long term. 

“Although the tariff rates were slightly higher than expectations, the announcement provided much-needed clarity on the scope and scale of the policy,” he said.

Related: 70% chance of crypto bottoming before June amid trade fears: Nansen

“Markets thrive on certainty, and with speculation now largely removed, institutional investors may see an opportunity over the coming days to take advantage of compressed valuations.”

Hernandez says global responses will be key for the market going forward, speculating that Mexico and key East Asian economies, including China, South Korea, and Japan, could be evaluating countermeasures.

Magazine: Financial nihilism in crypto is over — It’s time to dream big again