Altcoin liquidity’s dropped since President Trump’s tariff announcement: Kaiko Research

An altcoin season is looking less and less likely as the reciprocal tariffs loom

April 8, 2025 11:00 am

Art by Crystal Le

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So much for any hope around an altcoin resurgence.

Unfortunately, as folks have taken risk off the table in the wake of the tariffs, they’ve also moved further away from altcoins.

Since the announcement, liquidity “for the top ten altcoins and ETH decreased by 12% and 8%, respectively, indicating a more cautious stance,” Kaiko Research noted.

All of this shows that capital is being sidelined right now as folks figure out how to approach this precarious market — a market that may be heading toward a cliff of sorts after China responded to President Donald Trump’s threat about new, additional 50% tariffs against the country. China has promised to fight the US on the tariff front, which could set us up for more market tension, given that China was handed a Tuesday deadline (that’s today!) to scrap its retaliatory tariffs.

*Looking at the correlation of bitcoin, the S&P 500, and gold*

While CT initially hoped that crypto would be protected from tariffs, that doesn’t seem to be the case, and the correlation is definitely back. However, while equities continue to grapple with the potential impacts of a trade war, folks over in crypto don’t have to deal with the same level of panic.

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I have a feeling we’re just going to continue assessing market conditions this week, but it hasn’t seemed to change the rather bullish stance folks in crypto have adopted despite the doomposting over on CT.

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