Crypto Daybook Americas: Memecoins, AI, DeFi Lead the Rebound as Tariff Concerns Ease

  • April 10, 2025
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Crypto Daybook Americas: Memecoins, AI, DeFi Lead the Rebound as Tariff Concerns Ease

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)

The crypto market consolidated on Wednesday's tariff pause-spurred price bounce with memecoins, AI and DeFi tokens standing out as the best-performing crypto sub-sectors. Coins including HYPE, HBAR and SHIB led the recovery.

Bullish technical patterns and a sharp overnight pullback in Treasury market volatility, as represented by the MOVE index, suggested further gains are in the offing. The China-sensitive Australian dollar extended Wednesday's gain, offering positive cues to risk assets. U.S. equity futures, however, did not reflect that optimism, trading more than 1% lower.

Another note of caution showed in derivatives data. LTC, TON, BCH, BNB and PEPE were the only coins with 24-hour growth in open interest, validating price recovery. Open interest in other majors cryptocurrencies, including BTC and ETH, fell, a sign the recovery was mainly led by the unwinding of bearish bets and not fresh bullish positioning.

President Donald Trump's decision to raise tariffs on China to 125% and reduce others to 10% for 90 days still leaves the U.S. with an average import tax rate of 24% versus 27% before Thursday. That's still, anti-growth, pro-inflation and anti-risk assets, according to Bloomberg.

In broader crypto market news, the SEC published the 19b-4 filing by Cboe BZX Exchange to list the Fidelity Solana Fund in the Federal Register. That's said to bring the regulator one step closer to listing the SOL ETF in the U.S.

The minutes of the Federal Reserve's March meeting showed consensus among policymakers over the risk of the economy entering stagflation, characterized by higher inflation and slower growth, with some members saying "difficult tradeoffs" could lie ahead of the central bank.

The focus today will be on the U.S. consumer price index data for March, which is forecast to have increased by just 0.1% month-on-month, the slowest pace in eight months, according to FXStreet. A soft print may be dismissed as backward-looking, considering the trade war escalated more recently. On the other hand, a hotter-than-expected reading may lift Treasury yields and the dollar. Stay alert!

What to Watch

Crypto

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.

April 17: EigenLayer (EIGEN) activates slashing on Ethereum mainnet, enforcing penalties for operator misconduct.

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