Bitcoin (BTC) was inching towards 85,000 during European trading hours on Tuesday as traders largely await the impact of U.S. tariffs slated for Wednesday.

Dogecoin (DOGE) and Cardano (ADA) rose over 7% to lead muted gains among majors, with ether (ETH), XRP, Solana’s SOL and BNB Chain’s BNB were up nearly 5%.

Overall market capitalization decreased 3%, CoinGecko data shows, with the broad-based CoinDesk 20 bumped 3% in the past 24 hours.

The movements come amid a broader risk-off mood gripping markets, with U.S. equities stumbling — the S&P 500 logged a 3% drop last week, its worst since September 2023, and a rush to safe-haven asset gold, which surged to fresh highs early Tuesday.

The looming tariffs, paired with a flurry of U.S. economic and labor reports covering the past month have cast a shadow over crypto sentiment. Augustine Fan, head of insights at SignalPlus, pointed to a lack of fresh catalysts — such as no big ETF inflows — and a market stuck in low-conviction mode to close out a rocky quarter, one that ended in an 11% loss for bitcoin and the biggest for the S&P 500 since Q2 2022.

https://x.com/Barchart/status/1906821431352029565

On the futures front, speculative positions on bitcoin via the CME are at their most bearish in years, a sharp pivot from January’s bullish fever, Fan said.

“Keep in mind that positioning data is merely a statement on the market condition, and not necessarily a signal to a tradeable setup,” Fan said. “The catalysts for a sustained rally remain fleeting at the moment, though we would expect any bullish turn to be sharp given the extended short positioning at the moment.”

But there are signs of resilience among long-term holders. Glassnode data shows holders with 3-6 month positions are sitting on growing profits and trading at their lowest levels since June 2021 — a sign of conviction over panic selling.

Newer whales, or large investors who’ve taken positions in recent months, are also holding firm rather than cashing out, lending stability to bitcoin’s price floor, per Glassnode.

https://x.com/glassnode/status/1906713577471234255

Meanwhile, Jupiter Zheng, a partner at HashKey Capital’s Liquid Fund and Research, said they consider tariff suspense and economic data dump as a short-term headwind.

“The dip’s all about risk-off sentiment,” Zheng said in a Telegram message to CoinDesk. “We’re still optimistic in the long term, as more institutions integrate crypto while regulators across the world initiate new policies to enhance adoption.”

A large bitcoin (BTC) options bet crossed the tape on Deribit as the first quarter drew to a close on Monday, revealing bearish sentiment from the trader behind the move.

The so-called block trade carried a premium of more than $1 million for 1,180 contracts of the $70,000 put option expiring April 25, according to data tracked by Amberdata.

A put option gives the purchaser the right, but not the obligation, to sell the underlying asset at a predetermined price at a later date. A put buyer is essentially bearish on the market, in this case, anticipating a price drop to below $70,000 from the current $84,000.

A block trade is a large, privately negotiated transaction executed outside the public market, typically by institutions, to avoid affecting the going market rate.

Other notable trades included a put ratio spread, featuring long positions in the $75,000 strike put and double short positions in the $70,000 put; and a risk reversal, involving a long position in the $90,000 call and a short position in the $70,000 put, as Pelion Capital founder Tony Stewart noted.

The bearish flow in the $70,000 put follows purchases of put options expiring April 4 in the $78,000 to $85,000 range last week and increased demand for the $76,000 put option expiring on April 25.

Broadly speaking, BTC puts are trading at a premium to calls, exhibiting downside sentiment out to the May-end expiry, as evident from the negative values in risk reversals.

The bias for puts offering downside protection likely reflects investor anxiety surrounding President Donald Trump’s expected reciprocal tariffs announcement on Wednesday. An aggressive move could weigh on risk assets, including cryptocurrencies.

Japanese hotel company Metaplanet (3350) has purchased an additional 696 BTC ($58.5 million), taking its total stash to 4,046 BTC.

Metaplanet purchased the bitcoin for an average purchase price of nearly 14.6 million yen ($97,500) for a total spend of 10.15 billion yen.

The company’s total BTC holdings were bought for an average price of around $86,500.57 per coin.

Metaplanet financed its purchases in Q1 through the sale of cash secured BTC put options — futures contracts which bet on the price of the underlying asset going down.

These options were written at the beginning of the quarter, when BTC was scaling all-time highs above $100,000. Metaplanet said it earned 770.3 million yen in revenue using this method.

«Relative to direct spot purchase at that time, the strategy enabled the company to acquire more bitcoin per yen deployed — benefitting from premium income and a reduced effective cost basis,» Metaplanet said in a statement on Tuesday.

Metaplanet’s latest BTC purchase makes it the ninth largest public holder of bitcoin, according to data tracked by Bitcoin Treasuries.

The company’s Tokyo-listed shares closed 2% at 409 yen on Tuesday, comfortably outperforming the Nikkei 225, which was unchanged on the day.