Bitcoin, solana lead crypto market rebound as US and Mexico pause tariff threats for one month
2025-02-04
Category: None

After experiencing historic liquidation levels over the past two days, crypto markets rebounded Monday afternoon after tariff threats between the United States and Mexico were put on pause for the next month.
"I just spoke with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico," U.S. President Donald Trump stated in a post on Truth Social late Monday morning. "It was a very friendly conversation wherein she agreed to immediately supply 10,000 Mexican Soldiers on the Border separating Mexico and the United States. These soldiers will be specifically designated to stop the flow of fentanyl, and illegal migrants into our Country."
Trump said he and Sheinbaum agreed to immediately pause the anticipated tariffs for one month, during which there will be negotiations headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and "high-level" representatives of Mexico.
On Saturday, President Trump signed an executive order imposing 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, with a 10% tariff on Canadian energy and oil and an additional 10% tariff on China. President Sheinbaum announced Mexico would implement both tariff and non-tariff retaliatory measures.
"Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada spoke to President Trump on Monday morning but no such compromise was reached between the two," according to the New York Times. "A senior Canadian government official with knowledge of the call said the situation was still in flux ahead of a second phone call between the two leaders scheduled for 3 p.m. Eastern, but did not express optimism that a compromise could be reached."
Markets respond
Both crypto and traditional financial markets experienced steep selloffs in overnight and early morning trading. The price of bitcoin fell below $93,000, while ether collapsed over 35% and solana dropped 24%. Bybit CEO Ben Zhou suggests that total crypto liquidations over the past day could be in the $8–10 billion range.
But as markets digested news of the tariff pause, several of the largest crypto tokens began to rebound.
Bitcoin traded around $99,500 at publication time, up 2.3% over the past 24 hours, according to The Block's price data. Ether pared most of its losses, climbing back towards the $2,700 level, while solana was up 2% to $207.57. Of note, the prices of XRP and sui witnessed nearly 50% bounce-backs from their overnight lows.
"If tariffs mean stronger dollar, higher inflation and reduced prospects of rate cuts in the short term, it means lower global liquidity for risk-on assets,” Bernstein analysts wrote in a note to clients on Monday. "On a longer time frame, as governments carry higher debt and higher deficit, leading to more monetary debasement, bitcoin holds relative value to the dollar, as is evident in bitcoin's long term compounding history. But over short time frames, bitcoin is correlated to risk-assets. Thus, crypto sell off is not surprising."
While several crypto indices were still in the red, three notable benchmarks recovered into positive territory. After nearly falling under the 140 level, the GMCI 30 traded at around 175.12 at publication time. The GMCI DeFi, which features projects at the forefront of decentralized lending, borrowing and trading, was up 2.7% to 106.16. And the newly-debuted GMCI USA, which tracks the performance of the top protocols with a legal entity based in the U.S., was up 1% to 213.30.
Several crypto-related stocks also pared losses on the day, with Exodus Movement and Iris Energy both turning positive at publication time.
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