Investing.com-- Bitcoin steadied on Monday as risk appetite improved marginally on relief over some U.S. exemptions on trade tariffs against China, although fears of a worsening trade war kept traders on edge.
Crypto markets were nursing wild swings over the past few weeks, as a trade war between the world’s biggest economies escalated drastically, battering global risk-driven markets.
Bitcoin had slumped as low as $74,000, although it recovered sharply from these lows as U.S. President Donald Trump made sweeping concessions in plans to impose trade tariffs on major trading partners. But China was not included in these concessions.
The world’s biggest cryptocurrency fell 0.2% to $84,447.0 by 02:13 ET (06:13 GMT).
Bitcoin steadies amid some tariff relief
Bitcoin largely lagged strong gains in broader risk-driven assets on Monday. But the crypto still steadied from recent losses after the White House said that electronic imports from China, which represent a bulk of the country’s trade surplus on the U.S., will be exempt from Trump’s reciprocal tariffs.
This helped soothe some immediate concerns over the impact of Trump’s tariffs on the U.S. economy.
But Trump said on Sunday that this was temporary, and that he will announce separate tariffs on electronics and semiconductors soon.
Trump ramped up his tariffs on China to a cumulative 145%, drawing retaliatory tariffs of 125% from Beijing amid a rapidly escalating trade war between the world’s biggest economies.
This notion still kept traders on edge, limiting the appeal of risk-driven assets such as cryptocurrencies. Speculative assets such as crypto tend to underperform in times of economic uncertainty, while havens such as gold and the Japanese yen outperform.
Traders were also seen fretting over increased expectations for a U.S. recession, which further undermined risk appetite.
Michael Saylor hints at more Bitcoin buying
Michael Saylor, who chairs Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR ), the biggest corporate Bitcoin holder, hinted that the company may snap up more coins, especially amid recent price losses.
Saylor made some cryptic posts on social media platform X, including a BTC holdings tracker, which has heralded Bitcoin purchases by Strategy in the past.
Saylor’s posts come just days after Strategy disclosed a $5.9 billion unrealized loss on its digital asset holdings.
Strategy had purchased 80,715 Bitcoins through the first quarter of 2025.
Crypto price today: altcoins flat amid trade jitters
Broader crypto prices moved in a tight range on Monday. World no.2 crypto Ether rose 0.4% to $1,622.57, while XRP fell 0.4% to $2.1331.
Solana rose 2.7%, while Cardano and Polygon fell 0.6% and 3.2%, respectively.
Among meme tokens, Dogecoin was flat, while $TRUMP fell 3.1%.