Crypto market rebounds as Trump delays Mexico tariffs; HYPE, DEXE, OM surge

The cryptocurrency market rebounded after recent declines as the United States and Mexico agreed to delay new tariffs for one month.

Earlier today Bitcoin saw one of its most volatile trading days as fresh macroeconomic pressures shook the cryptocurrency market.

However, the latest development has pushed BTC around the $98k mark at the time of writing this report.

Other major coins also improved after the Mexico tariff news development.

The overall crypto market capitalization, which has been on a steady decline since February 1, dropped over 8% today to hit levels last seen in November 2024.

At the time of writing, the market cap had settled around the $3.26 trillion mark.

Total crypto liquidations reached over $2.3 billion today per CoinGlass data, however, experts at ByBit estimated the actual figure could be around $8 billion to 10 billion.

A risk-off sentiment reverberated across the crypto market, as evidenced by the Crypto Fear and Greed Index, which saw one of its largest single-day drops, plunging 16 points to 44, entering fear territory.

This sentiment persisted through most of the Asian trading hours but eased by the end of the trading day as market conditions stabilized.

Bitcoin dropped to an intra-day low of $92,460

Bitcoin dropped to $92,460 today, extending the previous day’s crash which was triggered by US President Donald Trump announcing new tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China.

According to the 47th president’s recently signed executive order, starting February 1, the US will impose tariffs of 25% on imports from Canada and Mexico and 10% on Chinese goods. 

Tariffs such as these are implemented to protect domestic industries but can strengthen the US dollar by reducing trade deficits and increasing demand for the currency while also potentially driving inflation higher as import costs rise. 

This inflationary pressure could delay expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut, keeping interest rates elevated for longer.

Typically, a stronger dollar and higher-for-longer rates pressure Bitcoin and other risk assets.

With Bitcoin’s price dropping, a cascading liquidation effect further accelerated the downturn, as over $465 million in BTC leverage positions were wiped out in the past 24 hours.

The majority—$389 million—were long liquidations, forcing bullish traders to close positions and intensifying selling pressure.

Will Bitcoin go back up?

Following the aftermath, Bitcoin managed to find support around $91,000 during the early Asian trading hours and has since retested the $100,000 level which previously acted as a key support level.

The rebound was likely driven by the closure of a CME Bitcoin futures gap above $98,000, as noted by analyst Rekt Capital.

This gap was created due to Bitcoin’s sharp weekend drop while the CME futures market was closed, leaving a price discrepancy between its last trading price and the spot market. 

Such gaps often act as short-term price magnets, with BTC typically moving to “fill” them once trading resumes.

Meanwhile, another bullish catalyst that favored Bitcoin’s recovery was Trump’s agreement to postpone tariffs on Mexican goods for one month, easing immediate trade tensions.

This development helped Bitcoin trim earlier losses and climb back toward $100,000 as market uncertainty temporarily subsided.

With Bitcoin attempting to recover back above $100,000, the crypto market should see some relief in the short term even though some experts warn it’s not out of danger just yet.

According to economist Alex Krüger, Bitcoin remains at risk as aggressive tariffs could weaken the economy and fuel risk-off sentiment.

If trade tensions escalate with strong retaliations, markets may face prolonged uncertainty, keeping Bitcoin under pressure despite its short-term rebound.

However, other market commentators speculate that the current trade wars could position Bitcoin for a major rally.

Among them was Jeff Park, head of alpha strategies at Bitwise, who believes BTC price will go ‘violently higher’ in the long term. 

He argues that while tariffs may initially strengthen the U.S. dollar, they will eventually contribute to higher inflation, lower yields on U.S. government securities, and currency debasement, prompting investors to seek alternative store-of-value assets like Bitcoin.

At press time, Bitcoin was priced at $98,997, up 0.3% in the past 24 hours as momentum seemed to be returning.

Top altcoins rebound

Altcoins suffered significantly steeper losses than Bitcoin, but the post-market reaction to Trump delaying tariffs fueled a recovery, with several top altcoins posting double-digit gains by the late Asian trading hours.

The altcoin season index remained at 40 as seen last week which indicates that BTC remains the dominating force in the market.

The top gainers for the day were:

Hyperliquid

Hyperliquid (HYPE) led the highest gains among the leading 100 largest crypto assets in the market.

Source: CoinMarketCap

The altcoin rose to 12.1% to an intraday high of $25.36 on Feb. 3 while recovering from most of the losses seen over the previous day.

Its market cap stood at $8.5 billion while daily trading volume for the asset was hovering over $595 million.

Today’s gains were driven by Hyperliquid’s increasing prominence as a decentralized exchange.

According to data from DeFiLlama, the project is the largest player in the decentralized perpetual futures trading market, with a 24-hour trading volume exceeding $16.5 billion and a seven-day total of approximately $59 billion.

HYPE also rallied as trading fees on the platform experienced a surge in trading volume today to a 14-day high of $3.82 million.

DeXe

Over the past day, DeXe (DEXE) rallied 11.2% to a 48-month high of $23 while bringing its market cap to over $1.3 billion.

The altcoin’s daily trading volume rose over 150% translating to nearly $57.2 million at press time.

Source: CoinMarketCap

The key catalyst driving its recent gains is multiple ecosystem developments.

These include DeXe Protocol’s launch on Ethereum. The integration brought over $1 billion worth of DEXE tokens into the project’s governance via DeXe DAO. 

Other recent developments include locking the DAO treasury introducing staking features for DAOs, and launching staking for the project’s DAO.

Investors had also taken interest in the token ahead of the upcoming launch of DeXe dAPP v2.

Mantra

Mantra climbed 8.6% over the previous day to $5.65, slightly below its year-to-date high of $5.9232 and 50% higher from where it started this year.

Today’s rally extended its yearly to over 3,800% with a market cap of over $5.6 billion.

Source: CoinMarketCap

The primary driver behind today’s gains is the addition of Republic as a validator for the project.

Republic is a renowned firm in the crypto space, backed by companies like Binance and Coinbase, and it provides validator services for blockchains such as Sui and Near Protocol.

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