Welcome to The Node! This is Ben Schiller to take you through the latest crypto news.
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.
CoinDesk markets reporter James Van Straten looked at that question in an in-depth piece this week (below).
Omkar Godbole wrote about how bitcoin could be at risk from the "basis trade" ("Bitcoin's Price Stability at Risk From Potential 'Basis Trade Blowup' That Catalyzed the COVID Crash").
Oliver Knight explored if DeFi had shown resilience during the crash ("How DeFi 'Defied' Market Carnage as Traders Poured Millions Amid Panic").
And, in other news, Jesse Hamilton reported on Paul Atkins' confirmation as pro-crypto SEC Chair ("Atkins Confirmed by U.S. Senate to Take Over SEC Formerly Run by Gensler").
It was a week that showed how crypto was increasingly central to finance and even macro-economics. Fun times are ahead.
Check out the stories below.
