Bitcoin outperforms gold as US puts 3,251% tariff on Asian solar panels

Bitcoin outpaced gold over the past 36 hours, reaching $88,500 and climbing 4.4%, compared to gold’s 3.5% ascent to $3,445 per ounce.

The move comes as the US imposed duties as high as 3,521% on Southeast Asian solar panels, reigniting fears of renewed trade friction with China and rattling cross-asset sentiment.

Per BBC News, the duties reflect Washington’s accusation that Chinese firms circumvented existing tariffs by routing exports through countries such as Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Flight to hard assets deepens as treasury sell-off builds

The concurrent rise in Bitcoin and gold suggests a broader hard-asset preference rather than a traditional risk-on move. Bitcoin’s two-wave climb, initiated in late US hours and followed through during the Asia session, aligned with the record-breaking print in gold, which is close to breaking $3,500 in Asian trading.

Meanwhile, equity markets remained defensive. The S&P 500 futures slipped 0.51%, partially retracing Monday’s 1.5% recovery, while bond markets reflected rising yields.

The US 10-year Treasury note fell 0.51% in price, lifting yields by approximately seven basis points to 4.49%. A similar move was not mirrored in Chinese government bonds, where the 10-year yield held near 2.33%. The bifurcation reinforces the view that inflation and supply-side concerns are overwhelming the usual bid for safety across both economies.

Bitcoin’s correlation with gold over the window reached +0.78, while the BTC-to-US10 price correlation moved to -0.61, reflecting the asset’s divergence from traditional equity and bond behavior.

These metrics lend weight to Bitcoin’s positioning as a hedge asset under duress, particularly in scenarios where both sovereign credit and equity drawdowns occur simultaneously, a setup historically associated with value-at-risk liquidation events.

Tariff fallout and renewable mining interplay

The solar-panel levies carry implications beyond geopolitics, touching core debates within the Bitcoin ecosystem. With US-based miners increasingly reliant on renewable energy sources, particularly solar, cost structures across operations in Texas, Kentucky, and the Southwest may face upward pressure. This raises questions about the marginal economics of mining and whether the tariff news factored into recent price action.

Per CME Group, bitcoin futures open interest rose 8% during the Asia-led leg of the rally, reinforcing the thesis that the second push came with conviction rather than passive spillover from equity markets.

Previous inflection points $87,019, $87,707, and $88,434 acted as intraday buffers, capturing both resistance and support zones over the session. CryptoSlate is closely watching the $88,434 pivot as a potential launchpad upward, with daily closes above that line seen as opening the path for further momentum.

Oil, by contrast, remained detached from the hard-asset pairing. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery gained just 0.57% to $64 per barrel, a modest retracement from Monday’s 18-month low. The muted move signals technical stabilization rather than alignment with the inflation-hedge narrative surrounding Bitcoin and gold.

The policy backdrop adds further context. Former President Trump’s recent comments targeting Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, urging immediate rate cuts, resurfaced concerns over central bank independence and policy stability. The rhetoric contributed to the bond market downturn and added fuel to the bid for unencumbered assets.

Regional flow patterns affirm Asia’s price-discovery role

Asia’s growing influence in crypto price discovery became more pronounced as the second leg of Bitcoin’s move unfolded during the Singapore and Hong Kong sessions.

The pattern deviates from post-ETF launch paradigms where Western institutional desks dominated directional moves. With CME and other derivatives markets now echoing activity in Asia, the interplay of regional flows is becoming harder to ignore.

Cross-asset relationships during the window also deviated from traditional macro templates. The 36-hour rolling correlation between Bitcoin and the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) hovered around -0.26, reinforcing the narrative that Bitcoin is finally behaving independently of equities, even as Treasuries and stocks sold off in parallel.

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