As of Wednesday morning, the yield on the UK’s 30-year government bond soared to 5.6%—its highest level since 1998—mirroring a broader climb in U.S. sovereign yields and sparking fresh concerns about financial market stability.

Surging global bond yields are exerting significant downward pressure on risk assets. Since the U.S. equity sell-off began last Thursday, the Nasdaq has dropped 10%, while bitcoin (BTC) has fared slightly better, down 8% over the same period.

In the same time the U.K. 30-year bond yield is up 8%, while the U.S. 30-year is up 12%. Charlie Morris, founder of ByteTree, believes investors will start to seek diversification into other assets including bitcoin.

“It appears that the UK has been living beyond its means for too long. It hasn’t balanced its budget since 2001, the gilt market has had enough”, Morris said. “Investors seeking diversification away from financial assets will not only buy gold, but bitcoin too”.

The dramatic spike in yields has revived unsettling memories of the UK’s 2022 pension crisis, when a sudden surge in borrowing costs triggered a near-collapse of the financial system and ultimately cost then-Prime Minister Liz Truss her job.

This latest bond market turmoil is being driven by escalating uncertainty around global trade, stoked by President Donald Trump’s proposed tariff plans. These levies could disrupt global supply chains and increase costs, adding pressure to already jittery markets.

“Alas, in politics you never get what you want by making civil arguments from high principle,” former UK MP Steve Baker told CoinDesk in an exclusive interview. “President Trump said he was using brute economic force—and he is. It’s time to rediscover free trade at home and abroad, fast, before this chaos wrecks our futures.”

The recent yield surge echoes the events of 2022, when a surprise mini-budget announcement on Sept. 23 sent gilt yields soaring, crashed the pound, and exposed deep vulnerabilities in the UK pension system.

Many defined benefit pension schemes had adopted complex liability-driven investment (LDI) strategies, using leverage and derivatives to match long-term liabilities. But as yields spiked, these funds suffered massive mark-to-market losses and faced margin calls, forcing rapid gilt sales into a thin market and creating a destabilizing «fire sale» feedback loop.

At the time, UK pension funds held around 28% of the gilt market. The ensuing chaos, occurring in a modest $1.5 trillion market, was so severe that it required the Bank of England to step in with emergency gilt purchases to halt the downward spiral. A Chicago Fed Letter analyzing the crisis later identified excessive leverage, asset pooling, and the limited depth of the gilt market as key structural weaknesses—particularly in contrast to the much larger $9.9 trillion U.S. Treasury market.

In a dramatic escalation of trade tensions, China has announced an 84% tariff on all imports from the United States, effective from April 10, 2025, according to the Ministry of Finance of the People’s Republic of China.

The move comes in direct response to the U.S. increasing its own tariffs on Chinese exports from 34% to 84% just a day earlier.

The State Council Tariff Commission, under China’s finance ministry, described the U.S. actions as “unilateralism” and “economic bullying,” accusing Washington of violating international trade rules and undermining global economic stability.

Citing national laws and international principles, China emphasized its legal basis for the retaliation, urging the U.S. to cancel what it called “wrong practices” and return to the negotiation table.

This tariff war marks a new low in U.S.-China trade relations, with both sides now imposing near-prohibitive tariffs on each other’s goods. Global markets reacted swiftly to the news — Bitcoin (BTC), often seen as a hedge against geopolitical turmoil, briefly fell below $76,000.

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)

Markets remain squarely focused on the U.S.-China trade tussle and headlines from both countries.

Bitcoin fell below $75,000 during the Asian morning, with S&P 500 futures nursing a 2% loss after the U.S. lifted the total levy on the world’s second-largest economy to 104%. The Australian dollar, a China-sensitive commodity currency, fell to a five-year low of 0.5913 against the greenback and the volatile U.S. Treasury market threatened a USD liquidity squeeze.

Sentiment improved somewhat after China’s State Council Information Office released a white paper on the tensions that said Beijing is willing to communicate on issues. Noticeably absent were fresh retaliatory taxes on U.S. imports. BTC bounced back to $77,000 alongside a sharp recovery in the Aussie dollar and S&P 500 futures.

Still, the sustainability of the recovery is under question as China’s comments beyond the headlines were tough and suggest the government is unlikely to blink any time soon. For instance, the document said China won’t be bullied and the U.S. will need to show respect and equality if it wants to resolve the problem. The country will take measures to safeguard its rights and interests, it said.

Besides, persistent volatility in bonds, triggered by the supposed unwinding of carry trades and fears of sticky inflation, could work against a sustained recovery in the risk assets. A growing number of observers, including economist Nouriel Roubini, say markets are too optimistic in pricing an aggressive Fed easing, and central bank support will come only after President Donald Trump tempers his rhetoric. Meanwhile, Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said interest-rate hikes will continue if the economy improves as expected, adding the need to be alert to trade tensions.

In the broader crypto market, BlocScale, a launchpad to onboard projects and community-driven token introductions to XRP Ledger, continued to make waves, with strong uptake for the seed sale of its native token BLOC. “With over 35% of the seed sale allocation already claimed, BlocScale Launchpad is gaining significant traction from early-stage investors, developers, and XRP enthusiasts looking to be part of something groundbreaking,” it said.

The TRUMP token, associated with President Trump, traded at record lows near $7.5 in the wake of massive selling by whales early this week. It is now down 90% from its record high, with a $360 million unlock due later this month. Stay Alert!

What to Watch

Crypto:

April 9: The Mercury network upgrade gets applied to the Neutron (NTRN) mainnet, migrating it from Cosmos Hub’s Interchain Security to a fully sovereign proof-of-stake network.

April 9, 10 a.m.: U.S. House Financial Services Committee hearing on updating U.S. securities laws to take into account digital assets. Livestream link.

April 10, 10:30 a.m.: Status conference for former Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

April 11, 1 p.m.: U.S. SEC Crypto Task Force Roundtable on «Tailoring Regulation for Crypto Trading» in Washington.

Macro

April 9, 8:00 a.m.: Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI) releases March consumer price inflation data.

Core Inflation Rate MoM Prev. 0.48%

Core Inflation Rate YoY Prev. 3.65%

Inflation Rate MoM Prev. 0.28%

Inflation Rate YoY Prev. 3.77%

April 9, 11:30 a.m.: U.S. Senate to vote on ending the debate for Paul Atkins’ nomination as SEC Chair. If invoked, confirmation vote at 7 p.m.

April 9, 12:01 p.m.: China’s 34% retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports take effect.

April 9, 2:00 p.m.: The Fed releases minutes of the FOMC meeting held March 18-19.

April 9, 9:30 p.m.: China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) releases March’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) report.

Inflation Rate MoM Prev. -0.2%

Inflation Rate YoY Est. 0% vs. Prev. -0.7%

PPI YoY Est. -2.3% vs. Prev. -2.2%

April 10, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases March consumer price inflation data.

Core Inflation Rate MoM Est. 0.3% vs. Prev. 0.2%

Core Inflation Rate YoY Est. 3% vs. Prev. 3.1%

Inflation Rate MoM Est. 0.1% vs. Prev. 0.2%

Inflation Rate YoY Est. 2.6% vs. Prev. 2.8%

April 10, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Department of Labor releases unemployment insurance data for the week ended April 5.

Initial Jobless Claims Est. 223K vs. Prev. 219K

April 10, 10:00 a.m.: U.S. Senate Banking Committee hearing on the nomination of Michelle Bowman as Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision. Livestream link.

April 11, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases March producer price inflation data.

Core PPI MoM Est. 0.3% vs. Prev. -0.1%

Core PPI YoY Est. 3.6% vs. Prev. 3.4%

PPI MoM Est. 0.2% vs. Prev. 0%

PPI YoY Est. 3.3% vs. Prev. 3.2%

April 14: Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele will join U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House for an official working visit.

Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)

No earnings scheduled.

Token Events

Governance votes & calls

Bancor DAO is discussing the expansion of its taker fee to 0.001% on stable-to-stable trades on Sei v2 to make Carbon DeFi more competitive.

April 9, 12 p.m.: Vana to host an X Spaces session on VRC-20 and the future of decentralized data markets.

April 10, 10 a.m.: Hedera to host a community call discussing the HBR Foundation joining ERC3643, the non-profit’s standards, and the Header Asset Tokenization Studio.

April 11, 3 p.m.: Zcash to host a town hall on lockbox distribution & governance.

April 14, 10 a.m.: Stacks to host a livestream with recent announcements from the project.

Unlocks

April 9: Movement (MOVE) to unlock 2.04% of its circulating supply worth $15.25 million.

April 12: Aptos (APT) to unlock 1.87% of its circulating supply worth $49.08 million.

April 12: Axie Infinity (AXS) to unlock 5.68% of its circulating supply worth $20.73 million.

April 15: Starknet (STRK) to unlock 4.37% of its circulating supply worth $15.71 million.

April 16: Arbitrum (ARB) to unlock 2.01% of its circulating supply worth $25.31 million.

Token Listings

April 9: IOST airdrop claims portal for a roughly 1.7 billion IOST token airdrop to open.

April 10: Stacks (STX) to be listed on Bitfinex.

April 10: Ren (REN), KonPay (KON), and Symbol (XYM) to be delisted from Bybit.

April 22: Hyperlane to airdrop its HYPER tokens.

Conferences

CoinDesk’s Consensus is taking place in Toronto on May 14-16. Use code DAYBOOK and save 15% on passes.

Day 2 of 2: Digital Accord Summit 2025 (Paris)

Day 2 of 3: Paris Blockchain Week

Day 1 of 2: FIBE Fintech Festival Berlin 2025

Day 1 of 2: Mexico Finance & Fintech Summit 2025 (Mexico City)

Day 1 of 2: Middle East Resilient Banking and Payments Symposium 2025 (Abu Dhabi)

April 9: Blockchain & Finance — Evolution or Revolution? (Paris)

April 9: FinTech and Banking Unconference Colombia 2025 (Bogota)

April 10: Bitcoin Educators Unconference (Nashville)

April 10: FinXtex Malaysia 2025 (Kuala Lumpur)

April 10: Institutional Crypto Conference (New York)

April 10: SheFi Sumit 2025 (Seoul)

April 10-11: BITE-CON 2025 Conference (Miami)

April 10-11: 2025 Fintech and Financial Institutions Research Conference (Philadelphia)

April 11-12: Strategy’s OPNEXT Conference (Tysons, Va.)

April 12: Ethereum Argentina (Córdoba)

April 12-13: DeSci London 2025

Token Talk

By Shaurya Malwa

Confidential Balances, a new feature on Solana’s blockchain that lets people send and manage tokens privately, went active late Tuesday.

It uses zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs), as a way to prove something is true — like you have enough money to pay — without needing to say exactly how much you have. It’s like showing a locked box and proving the cash is inside without opening it.

When tokens are sent, the amount stays secret. Normally, on blockchains, everyone can see how much is being transferred. Here, only the sender and receiver know the details.

The token balance (how much you own) is also kept private. Think of it like a bank account where nobody but the owner can peek at the total, unlike most blockchains where balances are public.

This means the creation or destruction of tokens (minting and burning) can take place without everyone knowing the numbers. For example, a company could issue new tokens or remove some quietly, keeping the total supply under wraps.

The feature is built for privacy-focused financial apps, like payroll systems or business payments, where participants don’t want the amounts to be made public. It’s a big deal for institutions that want privacy but still need to follow rules.

Derivatives Positioning

BTC futures open interest on offshore exchanges increased as prices dropped during Asian hours, validating the downtrend. The level held steady during the subsequent recovery, suggesting a spot-led move or absence of bullishness among derivative traders. The same can be said about the ETH market.

The open interest-adjusted cumulative volume delta for the top 25 coins, except BNB, SHIB, BCH and HBAR, is negative for the past 24 hours, a sign of net selling pressure in these markets.

BTC options flow on Deribit has been mixed with puts lifted along with put spreads and a notable block trade involving a long position in the $84K call expiring on April 25.

Market Movements

BTC is up 0.24% from 4 p.m. ET Tuesday at $77,232.03 (24hrs: -1.81%)

ETH is down 0.36% at $1,475.05 (24hrs: -5.66%)

CoinDesk 20 is up 0.95% at 2,203.46 (24hrs: -3.04%)

Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is unchanged at 3.69%

BTC funding rate is at -0.0018% (-1.9392% annualized) on Binance

DXY is down 0.68% at 102.25

Gold is up 3.19% at $3,063.20/oz

Silver is up 2.53% at $30.34/oz

Nikkei 225 closed -3.93% at 31,714.03

Hang Seng closed +0.68% at 20,264.49

FTSE is down 2.01% at 7,751.59

Euro Stoxx 50 is down 2.11% at 4,673.14

DJIA closed on Tuesday -0.84% at 37,645.59

S&P 500 closed -1.57% at 4,982.77

Nasdaq closed -2.15% at 15,267.91

S&P/TSX Composite Index closed -1.54% at 22,506.90

S&P 40 Latin America closed -2.24% at 2,177.30

U.S. 10-year Treasury rate is up 8 bps at 4.38%

E-mini S&P 500 futures are down 0.21% at 5,031.00

E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 0.63% at 17,352.00

E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are unchanged at 37,857.00

Bitcoin Stats:

BTC Dominance: 63.40 (0.08%)

Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.01916 (-0.73%)

Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 925 EH/s

Hashprice (spot): $42.03

Total Fees: 7.88BTC / $622,998

CME Futures Open Interest: 429,112 BTC

BTC priced in gold: 25.3 oz

BTC vs gold market cap: 7.25%

Technical Analysis

BTC’s monthly candlesticks chart shows the cryptocurrency has almost retraced to the former resistance-turned-support level at $73,757 (March 2024 high) in a classic throwback pattern observed after bullish breakouts.

A bounce from that level would signal a resumption of the broader uptrend.

Crypto Equities

Strategy (MSTR): closed on Tuesday at $237.95 (-11.26%), up 2.14% at $243.05 in pre-market

Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $151.47 (-3.69%), up 0.45% at $152.15

Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$13.22 (+7.13%)

MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $10.52 (-6.57%), up 0.67% at $10.59

Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $6.54 (-8.02%), up 1.22% at $6.62

Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $6.51 (-7.26%), down 1.54% at $6.14

CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $6.74 (-9.29%), up 0.89% at $6.80

CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $11.49 (-7.41%), up 10.1% at $12.65

Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $31.97 (-6.38%), down 1.02% at $33.80

Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $40.14 (-4.06%)

ETF Flows

Spot BTC ETFs:

Daily net flow: -$326.3 million

Cumulative net flows: $35.74 billion

Total BTC holdings ~ 1.11 million.

Spot ETH ETFs

Daily net flow: -$3.3

Cumulative net flows: $2.37 billion

Total ETH holdings ~ 3.38 million.

Source: Farside Investors

Overnight Flows

Chart of the Day

The chart shows gyrations in the U.S. 10-year yield and the Nasdaq futures this month.

Since Friday, the 10-year yield has surged over 50 basis points despite the continued weakness in Nasdaq.

The rising yield presents a challenge to the Trump administration which wants to lower it to help manage its debt load.

While You Were Sleeping

Exclusive: China to Hold High-Level Meeting in Response to U.S. Tariffs, Say Sources (Reuters): Policymakers are expected to weigh export tax breaks, market support and steps to lift consumption as Beijing responds to the 104% U.S. tariff on Chinese imports.

Argentina’s Congress Launches Probe Into LIBRA Fiasco (CoinDesk): Argentina’s lower house approved measures to investigate the LIBRA token, which caused turmoil after being promoted by President Javier Milei earlier this year.

Bitcoin Bears Eye $70K, Ether Drops 10% as Trump Tariffs Start Global Menace (CoinDesk): As Trump’s higher individual tariffs took effect, the sell-off in major crypto tokens resumed, reversing gains from Tuesday’s relief rally.

Treasuries ‘Fire Sale’ Sends Long-Term Yields Soaring Worldwide (Bloomberg): U.S. 30-year Treasury yields jumped 25 basis points as the tariffs sparked a global bond sell-off and an unexpected drop in the dollar, fueling concerns of waning foreign demand.

Argentina and IMF Reach $20 Billion Deal to Boost Free-Market Overhaul (The Wall Street Journal): The IMF said the deal, pending board approval, aims to stabilize Argentina’s economy and support long-term growth amid a volatile global backdrop.

In the Ether