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Crypto stocks down, IPOs punted amid tariff tumult
Cryptocurrency firms felt the heat from US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff rollout this week as market turbulence sent share prices tumbling and foiled initial public offering (IPO) plans.
From exchanges to Bitcoin (BTC) miners, crypto stocks suffered as much, if not more, than shares of other companies — despite the industry’s warm relationship with the US president.
On April 2, Trump announced he was placing tariffs of at least 10% on practically all imports into the United States and adding additional “reciprocal” tariffs on some 57 countries.
Since then, major US stock indices — including the S&P 500 and Nasdaq — tumbled by roughly 10% as traders braced for a looming trade war.
Bitcoin miners sold off on Trump’s tariff news. Source: Morningstar
Related: Bitcoin ‘decouples,’ stocks lose $3.5T amid Trump tariff war and Fed warning of ‘higher inflation’
Sharp selloffs
Crypto exchange Coinbase — a prominent ally of Trump during the November US elections — experienced a similarly severe sell-off, with its stock price dropping by roughly 12% during the same period, according to data from Google Finance.
Bitcoin miners are also taking a hit. The CoinShares Crypto Miners ETF (WGMI) — which tracks a diverse basket of Bitcoin mining stocks — has lost roughly 13% of its value since immediately prior to Trump’s April 2 announcement, according to data from Morningstar.
Even Strategy, one of the best-performing stocks of 2024, wasn’t immune. Its share price has fallen by around 6% on the news, Google Finance data showed.
According to Reuters, investment bank JPMorgan has raised its estimated odds of a global economic recession in 2025 to 60% from 40% previously.
“Disruptive U.S. policies have been recognized as the biggest risk to the global outlook all year,” JP Morgan reportedly said.
“The effect … is likely to be magnified through (tariff) retaliation, a slide in U.S. business sentiment and supply-chain disruptions.”
Strategy’s shares also dropped this week. Source: Google Finance
IPO delays
The impact of US tariffs hasn’t been limited to stock price volatility. Stablecoin issuer Circle has reportedly paused plans for a 2025 IPO, citing market turbulence.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Circle is “waiting anxiously” before taking further steps after filing to take the company public on April 1.
It is among several companies — including fintech Klarna and ticketing service StubHub — reportedly considering altering or shelving IPO plans.
One exception may be Bitcoin itself, which some analysts say is finally “decoupling” from the broader market.
Bitcoin’s spot price has held above $82,000 this week, even as US equities markets collapsed.
Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom
US authorities have charged a tech app founder with fraud, alleging that his advertised artificial intelligence-powered e-commerce app actually relied on human workers in the Philippines. Albert Saniger of Barcelona, Spain, founder and former CEO of the company Nate, was charged with one count of securities fraud and wire fraud, the Justice Department said in an April 9 statement, while the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a parallel civil action. Court documents said Saniger founded Nate around 2018 and launched an app of the same name in July 2020, marketing it as an AI-powered universal shopping cart that offered users the ability to complete online retail transactions, including filling in shipping details and sizing, without human input. The Justice Department alleged that, in reality, “Saniger used hundreds of contractors, or ‘purchasing assistants,’ in a call center located in the Philippines to manually complete purchases occurring over the nate app.” Acting US Attorney for New York Matthew Podolsky alleged Saniger duped investors by “exploiting the promise and allure of AI technology to build a false narrative about innovation that never existed.” Under the guise of investing in the AI-powered app, Sangier allegedly solicited more than $40 million in investments from venture capital firms and told employees to hide the true source of Nate’s automation. “This type of deception not only victimizes innocent investors, it diverts capital from legitimate startups, makes investors skeptical of real breakthroughs, and ultimately impedes the progress of AI development,” Podolsky said. The company acquired AI technology from a third party and had a team of data scientists develop it, but authorities claimed the app never achieved the ability to consistently complete e-commerce purchases, and its actual automation rate was effectively zero. Related: Aussie regulator to shut 95 ‘hydra’ firms linked to crypto, romance scams During a busy holiday season in 2021, it’s alleged that Sanger directed Nate’s engineering team to develop bots to automate some transactions on the app along with the human workers. Nate ceased operations in January 2023, and Saniger terminated all of Nate’s employees after media reports started casting doubt on the app’s capabilities, according to the SEC’s court filing. The securities and wire fraud charges each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years behind bars. The SEC suit is asking the courts to ban Saniger from holding office in any similar company and return investor funds. Cointelegraph contacted Nate for comment. Information on Saniger’s lawyers was not immediately available. Magazine: Memecoin degeneracy is funding groundbreaking anti-aging research The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has dismissed a lawsuit against Nova Labs, developer of decentralized wireless network Helium, for allegedly issuing unregistered securities, Helium stated in an April 10 blog post. Filed in January 2025, the lawsuit was among the SEC’s final enforcement actions against a cryptocurrency developer under former Chair Gary Gensler, who stepped down from his post on Jan. 20 after US President Donald Trump took office. The dismissal with prejudice means the blockchain developer cannot be charged with similar violations again for issuing in 2019 its native token Helium (HNT), the company said. “[W]e can now definitively say that all compatible Helium Hotspots and the distribution of HNT, IOT, and MOBILE tokens through the Helium Network are not securities,” Helium said. “[T]he outcome establishes that selling hardware and distributing tokens for network growth does not automatically make them securities in the eyes of the SEC [and] that the SEC cannot bring these charges against Helium again,” it added. Source: Helium The SEC’s Helium reversal came the same day Trump-nominee Paul Atkins formally replaced Gensler as SEC Chair after a lengthy confirmation process in the Senate. Helium is a blockchain network designed to let “anyone build and own massive wireless networks,” according to its website. The protocol reports having roughly 375,000 active hotspots. According to CoinGecko, HNT has a market capitalization of approximately $480 million as of April 10 — down from highs of more than $5 billion in November 2021. HNT’s price since 2019. Source: CoinGecko Related: SEC will drop its appeal against Ripple, CEO Garlinghouse says Under Gensler, the SEC brought upward of 100 charges against Web3 developers for various alleged securities violations. Since Trump took office, the SEC has sharply reversed course, dropping numerous charges against crypto firms, including Coinbase, Kraken, Ripple and Uniswap. Trump has positioned himself as a pro-crypto President, promising to make America the “world’s crypto capital,” appointing industry-friendly leaders to key regulatory posts, and ordering the federal government to create a national Bitcoin (BTC) reserve. For some crypto executives, Trump’s policies — such as announcing sweeping tariffs on US imports in April — threaten to stymie crypto’s progress. Magazine: 3 reasons Ethereum could turn a corner: Kain Warwick, X Hall of Flame The largest publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies produced nearly $800 million worth of Bitcoin in the first quarter of 2025, reflecting continued growth across the sector as Bitcoin prices held near record highs. According to publicly available data compiled by Cointelegraph, the top Bitcoin mining companies produced over 9,700 Bitcoin (BTC) in the first quarter. With Bitcoin trading at around $81,600 at the time of writing, the total production was valued at around $800 million. Marathon Digital, the biggest Bitcoin mining company by market capitalization, led the pack with 2,285 Bitcoin (worth roughly $186 million) mined in Q1. On April 3, Marathon announced that it produced 829 BTC in March, up 17.4% from February and 10.5% higher than January. Related: Bitcoin miner Bitfarms secures up to $300M loan from Macquarie CleanSpark followed with 1,950 BTC mined in Q1, valued near $160 million. CleanSpark’s March performance also saw a 13.4% increase month-on-month. Iren, formerly Iris Energy, produced the third-highest amount for the quarter. The mining firm reported a total of 1,513 BTC, worth almost $124 million. Its 533 BTC produced in March was a 16.1% increase from its February performance. CompaniesMarketCap places Iren as the sixth-largest Bitcoin miner by market capitalization. Riot Blockchain, which ranks second only to Marathon Digital by market capitalization, had the fourth-largest BTC production during the quarter. The company reported production of 1,428 BTC (about $117 million) during the quarter. Like Iren, Riot produced 533 BTC in March, a 13.4% increase from February. Top Bitcoin miners by market cap. Source: CompaniesMarketCap Hut 8 Mining, despite producing the least amount of Bitcoin among the top miners reviewed, showed the highest growth rate. The company mined 199 BTC in Q1 valued at about $16 million, including 88 BTC in March. That represents a 91% increase from the 46 BTC it produced in February. On March 31, Hut8 partnered with US President Donald Trump’s sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, to launch a new mining venture called American Bitcoin. The project aims to be the “world’s largest, most efficient pure-play Bitcoin miner.” In a previous Cointelegraph interview, Hut 8 CEO Asher Genoot said the company aims to dominate US Bitcoin mining. Genoot said the company plans to build one of the largest and most efficient Bitcoin mining platforms rooted in American soil. 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Investors gave Saniger over $40 million, feds say
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Changing policy stance
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Bitcoin miners produce 9,746 BTC in Q1 2025
Hut8 shows 91% growth in Bitcoin production
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