Tariffs, tariffs, tariffs.

Trump’s on-again, off-again import levies dominated the week. At the beginning, tariffs sent stocks and crypto appreciably lower. By the end, with all new non-China tariffs paused for 90 days, markets were up again.

Bitcoin returned to a level ($82,000) that it was at this time last week. And analysts debated whether, in the panic of the previous days, it showed “safe haven” qualities (like gold) or whether it was a risk-asset like many others. The consensus was that bitcoin performed resiliently rather than completely reassuringly.

Our Asia reporting team led the way on our markets coverage. Omkar Godbole started the week strong by revealing how the unwinding of the «basis trade» could impact bitcoin price. Sam Reynolds wrote on how Kalshi was set to win its legal battle in Nevada, hours before the prediction market got its first victory in the state. Shaurya Malwa reported on the first XRP ETF listing in the U.S. and how Teucrium’s leveraged fund received $5m during its first day of trading.

From our European team, there was some timely analysis from James Van Straten, and the All-Important U.S. 10-Year Yield Moving in the Wrong Direction for Trump, and a story showing the resilience of the decentralized economy from Oliver Knight, How DeFi ‘Defied’ Market Carnage as Traders Poured Millions Amid Panic. Our coverage expanded beyond just tariffs and market reactions, with Jamie Crawley’s scoop, Rootstock Prepares to Release SDKs for Bitcoin Layer 2s Using BitVMX after he took the opportunity offered by an embargoed press release to phone the company and interview the founder. And there was a nice DeFi follow-up on the repercussions of HyperLiquid’s price manipulation exploit from March by Oliver, How the Hype for HyperLiquid’s Vault Evaporated on Concerns Over Centralization.

Meanwhile, there was lots of news that wasn’t tariff-related.

Paul Atkins was confirmed as the new SEC chair. The Department of Justice closed down its crypto enforcement unit, prompting criticism, from Democrats and others, that it’s not serious about combating malfeasance. The SEC approved ETH ETF options, following a long delay. And President Trump put an end to a controversial DeFi accounting rule.

It was a week that showed how crypto was increasingly central to finance and even macro-economics. Fun times are ahead. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could consider a short-term crypto oversight framework to allow firms to keep innovating while the agency works out a more permanent answer to digital assets regulation, interim Chairman Mark Uyeda suggested during a Friday event at the agency’s Washington headquarters.

«We should consider whether there may be a more efficient method of regulation under an accommodating federal regulatory framework,» said Uyeda, in a recorded statement played at the agency’s latest crypto industry roundtable. «While the Commission works to develop a long term solution to address these issues, a time-limited, conditional exempt relief framework for registrants and non-registrants could allow for greater innovation with blockchain technology within the United States in the near term.»

The securities regulator is waiting for Congress to deliver a crypto market-structure law that will allow it to start writing the rules that the digital assets sector has been clamoring for. That may happen as soon as later this year, according to the lawmakers working on that effort, but months will pass before its arrival and even longer for the SEC and other relevant federal agencies to write regulations and put them in motion.

During this second in a series of crypto roundtables the agency hosted as it overhauls its digital assets stance, Uyeda was still running the agency, though the incoming chairman, Paul Atkins, is poised to take over. Once he arrives, though, Uyeda and fellow Republican Commissioner Hester Peirce, a crypto advocate, will still be on board.

The Republican commissioners noted crypto platforms’ interest in handling both traditionally SEC-regulated activity and business outside the agency’s scope, all under the same roof.

«What can and should we do in the short term, and what should Congress consider in the longer term to ensure that the regulatory gaps are filled as firms increasingly seek to combine securities and non-securities trading activity?» asked Peirce, who leads the SEC Crypto Task Force.

The SEC’s sole Democratic commissioner, Caroline Crenshaw, argued that some of the market disruptions and company failures in the recent past have forced industry observers to become «painfully aware of the mismatch between investors expectations and reality.»

«Crypto trading platforms are unique because, among other reasons, they often perform multiple services under one roof, sometimes including bridge clearing and custody,» said Crenshaw. In traditional finance, those kinds of functions are «typically performed by separate registered entities,» because they come with a «high risk of conflicts of interest and risks for investors.»

Read More: SEC ‘Earnest’ About Finding Workable Crypto Policy, Commissioners Say at Roundtable

Traditional U.S. assets are going haywire as U.S.-China trade tensions continue to rattle global markets, now coupled with fresh data of tumbling sentiment towards the U.S. economy and mounting inflation concerns.

The most recent University of Michigan survey, published on Friday, found that consumer sentiment fell to 50.8 from 57.0, nearing the most depressed level in three years and far below that seen during the 2020 Covid shutdowns. Year-ahead inflation expectations surged to 6.7%, up from 5% in the prior month and the highest read since 1981.

On the back of the data, investors resumed selling long-term U.S. government bonds and the greenbacks, two assets traditionally considered as safe havens. The 10-year Treasury yield soared above 4.55% during U.S. morning hours, up more than 50 basis points in just a week. Meanwhile the dollar index (DXY) sank below 100 to a three-year low. Gold, meanwhile, hit a fresh record of $3,240 per ounce.

After a wildly volatile past few sessions, U.S. stocks were trading in a far tighter range on both sides of unchanged on Friday. At press time, the Nasdaq was higher by 0.6%

Meanwhile, cryptocurrency markets were moving higher, with bitcoin (BTC) holding just above $82,000, gaining 4% over the past 24 hours. The broad-market CoinDesk 20 Index was up 3%, with altcoin majors Solana’s SOL, Avalanche’s AVAX leading with 6% gains.

Signal or noise?

While some macroeconomic analysts are fearful that the recent surge in government bond yields is threatening the future outlook of the U.S. economy, others believe investors are reading too much into short-term market swings.

«U.S. dollars and U.S. government debt, two of the market’s most liquid safe haven categories, are going haywire,» Noelle Achison, analyst and author of the Crypto is Macro Now newsletter, said in a Friday note. «This is not the case for other safe havens, however, just those directly tied to the U.S.»

“I believe that it is much more likely that recent sharp moves in these asset classes is due to highly leveraged market participants being forced out of positions than due to fundamentals,” said billionaire investor Bill Ackmann in a post on X.

“Technical factors are driving the dramatic market moves,» Ackman continued. «As a result, markets have become increasingly unreliable as short-term indicators of the impact of policy changes.»