Weekly Market Highlights - Market Relief as Retaliatory Tariff Pause Announced

11 April 2025Macro/TradFiThe reciprocal tariffs that went into effect on Wednesday are now paused for 90 days, except for China which remains at 125%. The baseline 10% tariff that went into effect on 5 April will remain in place. China’s finance ministry announced an 84% tariff on goods imported from the US in response to the US retaliatory tariffs.The European Commission announced on 10 April that the European Union will match the US 90-day pause on tariffs, delaying its first tranche of retaliatory duties on US goods.Jobless claim filings increased by 4,000 to 223,000 but short of the forecast of 225,000, indicating that the labour market remains broadly healthy despite an ongoing trade war.According to VanEck, China and Russia are confirmed to be using Bitcoin to settle some energy trades.Blackrock has included Anchorage Digital Bank as an additional custodian of its Bitcoin holdings besides its primary custodian, Coinbase.Cboe Digital, the crypto arm of the Chicago Board of Options Exchange, is aiming to roll out a new BTC futures product in partnership with FTSE Russell.Fidelity Investments launched Crypto for IRAs after customer demand, enabling investors the opportunity to trade and hold crypto assets in tax-advantaged accounts.21Shares filed an S-1 registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday for a spot Dogecoin exchange-traded fund.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved trading options on Wednesday for Ethereum ETFs issued by iShares, Bitwise and Grayscale.CryptoL1/L2:Interchain Labs unveiled IBC Eureka to connect the Ethereum and Cosmos blockchain systems, with plans to add Solana, Base and Arbitrum in the future.Solana developers introduced “Confidential Balances” which are a series of zero-knowledge powered token extensions to improve on-chain privacy.Mantra, an L1 built for tokenized RWAs, launched an ecosystem fund to support teams looking to build RWA and DeFi applications.Rootstock plans to enable developers to build L2 networks on Bitcoin using the programming language BitVMX.DeFi:Borrowing demand across DeFi has fallen off, with US dollar stablecoin yield at 2.8% as compared to traditional markets at 4.3%.Tokenized gold trading volume hit a two-year high this week, eclipsing US$1 billion as investors pivoted towards safe-haven assets amid macro uncertainty.Aave successfully passed a governance proposal to enable the protocol to buy back US$4 million worth of its governance token.Others:NFT marketplace Magic Eden has acquired Slingshot, a trading app that allows users to trade tokens from a single USDC balance across multiple protocols.The US Department of Justice has disbanded its National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team and ordered its Market Integrity and Major Frauds Unit to cease crypto enforcement.Pakistan plans to allocate part of its surplus electricity to Bitcoin mining and AI data centres.Ripple announced on Tuesday that it will buy multi-asset prime broker Hidden Road in a $1.25 billion deal.Binance has announced the integration of Apple Pay and Google Pay into its fiat onramp ecosystem as part of a partnership with Worldpay.Alternative asset manager Apollo Global Management has made a strategic investment into Plume Network, a real-world asset tokenization platform. Latest Binance Research Publications Check out our latest publications:Tariff Escalation and Crypto Markets: Impact AnalysisNavigating Crypto: Industry MapWhere Are Our Airdrops Going?The Future of Bitcoin #4: DeFiExplore our Binance Research website for more project and macro research.For more frequent market updates and insights, follow us on Twitter @BinanceResearch.That’s a wrap!Binance ResearchAbout Binance Research: Binance Research is the research arm of Binance, the world's leading cryptocurrency exchange. 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