By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless otherwise noted)
Tariff uncertainty has once again plagued the markets, and it is no surprise that Bitcoin Traders look for downside protection.
On Friday, the US Supreme Court ruled against President Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs from April of last year. Within hours, Trump had announced new tariffs, invoking a law that allows a levy on imports of up to 15% for 150 days to address “international payments problems.”
That’s confirmation that the president still considers “tariffs” to be the most beautiful word in the English dictionary. It also means that trade-related uncertainty is here to stay, posing a headwind for risk assets including bitcoin.
Bitcoin traders reacted accordingly. Since Friday, put options at strike prices of $58,000, $60,000, and $62,000 have seen the largest increases in open interest, or the number of active contracts, on Deribit. This is a clear sign that traders are positioning for declines. A put option protects against price losses.
Bitcoin fell to a low of $64,481 early Monday after reaching around $66,000 over the weekend. The drop came amid reports of a whale, or large BTC holder, moving considerable amounts of bitcoin to an exchange, possibly for sale. The price has since recovered to over $66,000.
Ether (ETh) also recovered from Asian session lows near $1,856, even as blockchain data pointed to faster selling by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
Trade tensions could dominate sentiment this week, and Nvidia earnings could increase market volatility. Analysts pinned hopes on the possible stabilization of bitcoin ETF spot flows to support the market.
“A flattening of outflows would suggest that institutional selling is maturing. A continued contraction would reinforce the defensive regime,” Timothy Misir, head of research at BRN, said in an email.
“For now, liquidity defines the environment. Supply persists. Conviction is low. The market is waiting for macro relief or structural demand to re-emerge,” he said.
In traditional markets, Goldman Sachs raised its forecast for fourth-quarter Brent crude oil to $60 and WTI to $56 a barrel, citing lower-than-expected OECD reserves. Crude oil prices have been buoyant lately due to fears of a full-blown military conflict between the United States and Iran. A sharp rise in oil prices could increase inflation around the world and weigh on risk assets. Stay alert!
Read more: For an analysis of current activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today
What to watch
For a more complete list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Crypto
- February 23: The Alchemy Chain testnet is scheduled to go live.
- Macro
- February 23, 8:00 am: Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller delivers a speech on the economic outlook at the National Association for Business Economics.
- February 23, 10:00 am: US Dallas Federal Reserve Manufacturing Index for February (previous -1.2)
- Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
symbolic events
For a more complete list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Governance votes and calls
- February 23: The DYdX Foundation will host its February analyst call.
- February 23: Pudgy Penguins will host an Inner Igloo meetup on Discord.
- Uniswap DAO is voting to enable protocol fees on all V3 pools and eight Layer 2 networks. Voting ends on February 23.
- ZKsync DAO is voting to allocate $4.1 million in ZK tokens for the 2026 Audit Reimbursement Program (ZARP v2) to fund prospective protocol security audits and retroactively reimburse eligible costs from 2025. Voting ends on February 23.
- Unlock
- Token releases
Conferences
For a more complete list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
Market movements
- BTC is down 1.99% as of 4 pm ET Friday to $66,466.38 (24 hours: -2.67%)
- ETH is down 2.75% to $1,920.06 (24 hours: -3.13%)
- CoinDesk 20 is down 2.7% to 1,913.13 (24 hours: -2.93%)
- Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is down 3 basis points to 2.76%
- BTC funding rate is at -0.0047% (-5.1531% annualized) on Binance
- DXY is down 0.14% at 97.66
- Gold futures rise 2.03% to $5,184.10
- Silver futures rise 5.41% to $86.79
- The Nikkei 225 closed down 1.12% at 56,825.70
- Hang Seng closed up 2.53% at 27,081.91
- FTSE little changed at 10,682.09
- The Euro Stoxx 50 falls 0.07% to 6,127.32
- DJIA closed Friday up 0.47% at 49,625.97
- The S&P 500 closed up 0.69% at 6,909.51
- Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.90% at 22,886.07
- S&P/TSX Composite closed up 0.66% at 33,817.51
- The S&P 40 Latin America closed with an increase of 1.63% to 3,799.71
- The 10-year US Treasury rate falls 0.8 basis points to 4.077%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures down 0.25% to 6,905.75
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures down 0.41% at 24,965.50
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average index futures down 0.25% to 49,551.00
Bitcoin Statistics
- BTC Domain: 58.75% (-0.44%)
- Ether-bitcoin ratio: 0.02888 (-0.21%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 1,016 EH/s
- Hashprice (spot): $29.02
- Total fees: 1.88 BTC / $127,386
- CME Futures Open Interest: 119,015 BTC
- BTC priced in gold: 12.9 oz.
- BTC market capitalization against gold: 4.44%
Technical analysis
- The chart shows weekly bitcoin price swings in candlestick format.
- The long and low wicks on the recent candles hint at seller fatigue: sellers tried to lower prices, but failed.
- This type of pattern after a notable sell-off usually sets the stage for price rebounds.
Crypto Stocks
- Coinbase Global (COIN): closed on Friday at $171.35 (+3.26%), -1.60% to $168.60 in premarket
- Circle Internet (CRCL): closed at $63.02 (+1.78%), -1.05% to $62.36
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $21.20 (-1.99%), -1.84% at $20.81
- Bullish (BLSH): closed at $31.77 (-1.85%), -0.66% at $31.56
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $7.97 (+0.13%), -1.63% to $7.84
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $15.68 (-3.33%), -1.66% at $15.42
- Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $17.30 (-3.78%)
- CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $9.65 (-1.73%), -1.45% at $9.51
- CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $38.85 (-4.53%)
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $9.86 (-5.37%)
Crypto treasury companies
- Strategy (MSTR): closed at $131.05 (+1.24%), -1.55% to $129.02
- Strive (ASST): closed at $8.15 (+0.37%), -2.09% to $7.98
- SharpLink Gaming (SBET): closed at $6.72 (-1.18%), -2.53% at $6.55
- Upexi (UPXI): closed at $0.62 (-7.35%), +4.53% to $0.65
- Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.11 (+0.91%)
ETF Flows
BTC Spot ETF
- Daily net flows: $88.1 million
- Accumulated net flows: $53.99 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~1.26 million
ETH Spot ETF
- Daily net flows: $0 million
- Accumulated net flows: $11.55 billion
- Total ETH holdings ~5.66 million
Source: Farside Investors
