The price of Bitcoin hovered around $95,000 on Monday, as investors looked for signs of progress on trade negotiations ahead of key data releases this week, which may show how U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs are affecting inflation and the economy.
The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was recently trading hands around $94,800, a 0.4% increase over the past 24 hours, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko. Most altcoins showed slight losses, with Ethereum and Solana sliding 0.5% and 1% to $1,800 and $149, respectively.
In an interview with Fox News, U.S. Treasury Scott Bessent said on Monday that the administration is still working on “bespoke” deals with 18 of the U.S.’s most important trading partners. At the same time, he said the next move belonged to China.
“We will see what happens with China,” he said. “I think it’s unsustainable for the Chinese side, so maybe they’ll call me one day.”
Last week, Trump said that he’s spoken several times with Chinese President Xi Jinping since he unveiled sweeping levies on nearly every nation earlier this month. At a press conference on Monday, however, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said “China and the U.S. are not engaged in any consultation or negotiation on tariffs,” per CNBC.
Although the U.S. announced a 90-day pause on implementing Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs several weeks ago, how business and consumers are reacting to the prospect of higher input costs could manifest itself in macroeconomic data before all levies take effect.
Economists expect the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to say that job openings decreased in March on Tuesday, per Trading Economics. Inflation, as measured by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis’ PCE Price Index, is expected to show a 0.4% monthly increase a day later.
The crypto market may see more engagement with this week’s data on jobs and inflation, if they show that the threat of Trump’s tariffs isn’t making inflation worse or weighing too much on the economy, OTC traders at crypto market maker Wintermute wrote in a Monday report.
“With Trump hinting at tariff de-escalations, if macro indicators show taming inflation and no sharp economic slowdown, markets could be poised for renewed activity,” the analysts wrote.
On Wall Street, major indices were slightly in the green. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.05%, according to Yahoo Finance. The price of traditional safe-haven gold meanwhile rose 1.8% to around $3,350 per ounce, remaining below last week’s peak.
Although Bitcoin has shown signs of decoupling from other risk assets, such as U.S. stocks, it’s likely to move in line with equities on hopes of progress short-term, Greg Magadini, director of derivatives at the crypto data provider Amberdata, told Decrypt. Eventually, it could be seen as a hedge against the U.S. dollar, rallying on uncertainty, he added.
“Right now, crypto has been trading as a risk-asset,” He said “I think this trend is true short-term, but long-term I expect Bitcoin to start trading as digital gold.”
Edited by James Rubin
