Tariffs Cause Market Chaos

Alpha Team
April 04, 2025

Trump Tariffs Shake Markets, Crypto

Trump’s Tariff Announcement: On April 2, 2025, President Donald Trump unveiled a bold tariff plan from the White House, targeting imports from countries like China, Vietnam, and the EU. Aimed at protecting U.S. industries and cutting trade deficits, these taxes on all incoming goods are part of his "Liberation Day" vision to raise trillions, reduce reliance on income taxes, and boost economic independence, even as markets brace for a possible recession.

Tariff Details and Reactions: The tariffs start with a 10% baseline on all imports, effective April 5, 2025, with higher reciprocal rates like 49% on Cambodia, 46% on Vietnam, 34% on China (on top of 20% already), and 20% on the EU, set for April 9. China retaliated with a 34% tariff on U.S. goods starting April 10, while Canada and Mexico paused theirs after talks. The U.S. stock market lost $3.25 trillion on April 4, showing global unrest. Trump vows no policy change, aiming to force trade talks.

Crypto Impact and Future: Crypto markets felt the shock, dropping 5.8% to $81,732 on April 3, with $487 million liquidated in 24 hours. Yet, $5.4 billion was added to crypto by April 4, hinting at a shift to alternatives like Bitcoin, which hit $87,000 during Trump’s speech. Expert Andrew Urquhart sees it as a potential safe haven if the dollar weakens. Markets may stay volatile, but a bullish crypto turn is possible as investors adapt. Read More.

️ On today's Top Picks:

✅ Binance confirms First Digital's $FDUSD full 1:1 backing.
🚀 Lens Chain launches mainnet powered by ZKsync & Avail.
🪂 Hyperlane launches $HYPER airdrop checker.
⌛ US Fed to wait to consider adjustments to current policy.

Read time: ⏰ 5 minutes

Crypto News

• Ethereum $ETH developers schedule Pectra upgrade for May 7th; upgrade recently went live on the Hoodi testnet without any issues.

• Grayscale files S-1 for Solana $SOL ETF; SEC recently acknowledged Fidelity's filing for Solana SOL ETF.

• Circle reportedly delays IPO process; delay potentially due to current market conditions.

• ⭐️ Binance confirms First Digital's $FDUSD full 1:1 backing after reviewing the February attestation report; to review the March attestation report when it's published.

• OKX fined ~$1.2M by Malta’s FIAU for violating anti-money laundering regulations; follows an April 2023 on-site compliance inspection which revealed multiple violations.

Alpha

• BNB Chain $BNB announces 16 projects selected for Season 9 of the Most Valuable Builder (MVB) Accelerator Program.

• Newton launches MAGICSWEEPER game; play & earn credits daily.

• Mind Network takes snapshot, potentially of vFHE; to potentially launch TGE & airdrop soon.

• Irys community member launches Irys Arcade; play games & earn testnet tokens.

• ⭐️ Lens Chain launches mainnet powered by ZKsync & Avail; available now with Hey & Fountain Ink.

• Lagrange launches Turing Roulette game; play & earn points.

• Gomble Games posts "$GM Gomble Money (GM), coming soon!" on X; to launch TGE & airdrop soon.

Airdrops

• Weekly Airdrop Recap by Earndrop.

• ⭐️ Hyperlane launches $HYPER airdrop eligibility & allocation checker; Hyperlane users are eligible.

• Babylon launches $BABY airdrop eligibility & allocation checker; Phase 1 stakers, Finality Providers, Pioneer Pass holders, & GitHub contributors are eligible.

• StakeStone launches $STO airdrop claim; Stone Points holders are eligible.

• Ooga Booga launches $OOGA airdrop claim; Ooga Booga users are eligible.

Finance News

• ⭐️ US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says "We are well positioned to wait for greater clarity before considering any adjustments to our policy stance."

• ~$3.25 Trillion wiped out from the US stock market on April 4th; ~$2.85 Trillion wiped out on April 3rd.

• ⭐️ US President Trump imposes a 10% baseline tariff on all countries; imposes additional reciprocal tariffs on select countries.

• China imposes additional 34% tariff on the US; US President Trump raised total tariffs on China to 54%.

• Republic to acquire INX $INXDF, a crypto trading firm, for up to $60M; Republic to fold INX into its operations to bolster its blockchain investment services.

Security and Exploits

• PoisonSeed phishing campaign compromises corporate email marketing accounts to distribute emails containing crypto seed phrases used to drain cryptocurrency wallets.

• Koi Security uncovers three malicious VPN extensions on the Chrome Web Store; infected ~140K users as part of an infrastructure-sharing malware operation.

Token Unlocks

• Wormhole $W / ~$122M / APR 03rd
• Ethena $ENA / ~$53M / APR 05th
• Kaspa $KAS / ~$10M / APR 07th
• Tensor $TNSR / ~$16M / APR 08th
Sourced from Tokenomist

Funding

• Codex raises $15.8M in Seed funding led by Dragonfly.

• Ultra raises $12M in funding led by NOIA Capital.

• Momentum raises $10M in Pre-Seed & Seed funding led by Varys Capital.

• P2Pme raises $2M in Seed funding from Multicoin & Coinbase Ventures.

• Bloctopus raises $1M in Seed funding led by Hivemind.

The Degen Farmer

Top stablecoin yield farms of the day, more than $3,000,000 in TVL. DYOR and step up your farming game!

PROTOCOL	ASSETS	APY
Notional V3 (Ethereum)	PTUSDE26MAR2025	59.66%
Balancer V2 (Gnosis)	SDAIEURE	31.77%
Indigo (Cardano)	IUSD	26.16%
SmarDex (Ethereum)	USDN	25.85%
Morpho Blue (Ethereum)	CSUSDC	24.45%
Uniswap V3 (Ethereum)	USD0USDC	24.19%
Spectra V2 (Ethereum)	SLVLUSD	23.71%
Cetus AMM (Sui)	USDCUSDY	17.25%

. . .

Mizu: Unified Liquidity Layer

Mizu: Mizu is a unified liquidity layer that offers a seamless, interoperable, and borderless solution to unify liquidity across all VMs. Mizu dissolves divisions isolating liquidity, connecting LPs, Yield Partners, Auto-Yield Vaults, and LSs to create a seamless, interoperable system that commoditizes yield and redefines DeFi possibilities.

Mizu MoveVM: Powered by Movement Labs, Mizu MoveVM is a blockchain-agnostic solution that aligns infrastructure, interoperability, and incentives. With parallel execution and modular architecture, MoveVM ensures faster transactions and greater scalability while maintaining compatibility across ecosystems. This collaboration brings Mizu’s vision of a unified DeFi ecosystem to life.

HyperEVM Vaults: Mizu recently launched HyperEVM Vaults in collaboration with Hyperbeat and Veda. Users can deposit into automated vaults that optimize returns from top DeFi protocols with just one click! Earn rewards from Mizu, Hyperlend, Resolv, Lombard, and many more!

👉 Deposit into HyperEVM Vaults with just one click!

. . .

That’s it for today’s edition! See you soon.

Reply

or to participate.