Cryptocurrencies rise Friday, bucking broader market meltdown

Bitcoin rose on Friday after China retaliated against President Donald Trump’s tariffs, while stocks continued to crater following their worst day since 2020.

The price of the flagship cryptocurrency rose more than 2% to $83,959.19, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier, it rose as much as $84,717.51. Most of the major cryptocurrencies were also in the green Friday. Solana and dogecoin jumped about 6% each.

Most crypto-related stocks fell again, however, with Coinbase down about 6%. The bitcoin proxy MicroStrategy advanced nearly 4%. Meanwhile, spot gold fell 2.4% to $3,037.30 an ounce, while U.S. gold futures were down 2.05% at $3,057.90.

Investors were rattled for a second day after China’s commerce ministry on Friday said the country will impose a 34% levy on all U.S. products, matching the tariff Trump revealed Wednesday on Chinese goods coming into the U.S.

“Tariffs do affect the cost for U.S. builders, where inflation and higher goods cost make all this more expensive, presumably encouraging more capital flows and investment to Asia,” said James Davies, CEO at crypto derivatives trading platform Crypto Valley Exchange. “The tariffs are reshaping global trade away from the U.S., reducing dollar reliance, changing funding rates and decoupling the U.S. … they impact everything, but crypto is robust. As its decentralized nature indicates, it should be a winner from this, even if the outcome for U.S.-domiciled crypto entities is much less clear.”