LIVE MARKETS-Bitcoin squeezed, but not quite crushed by tariff volatility

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BITCOIN SQUEEZED, BUT NOT QUITE CRUSHED BY TARIFF VOLATILITY

Bitcoin's resilience over the past weeks of market turmoil "has been nothing but impressive," according to Bernstein analysts.

To be sure, bitcoin BTC= has still lost ground since "Liberation Day" - the world's largest crypto has fallen over 7% since Trump's April 2 announcement and is down over 28% from its January all time high.

However, where past market drawdowns have seen BTC= fall around 50% - 70%, "the current price action ... suggests demand for bitcoin from more resilient capital," Bernstein says.

The analysts cite increasing institutional ownership via exchange traded funds and corporate holdings, from companies such as Strategy MSTR.O, as helping to keep bitcoin's losses contained.

Indeed, flows to bitcoin ETFs are still in positive territory for the year, Bernstein says, with net inflows of $770 million.

Flows to major bitcoin investment products overall stood at $1.3 billion year to date, as per CoinShares data through April 4.

That being said, Bernstein says ETFs have seen outflows of around $911 million over the past 30 days.

However, Standard Chartered's Geoff Kendrick expects bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to move higher.

"Keep looking for winners and HODLing those you already own," Kendrick wrote in a note, a term meaning "hold on for dear life" that crypto investors use to signify they won't sell.

"Tariff mess will be over soon, and Bitcoin’s solid performance during the noise tells us a leg higher for the asset class will follow," Kendrick said.

The overall cryptocurrency market capitalization has dropped from $2.74 trillion on April 1 to $2.51 trillion, as per CoinMarketCap.

(Lisa Mattackal)

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