Bitcoin Rebounds Above $90,000 as Tariff Threat Fades and Gold Pulls Back

Bitcoin has snapped back above $90,000 after a brief macro-driven slide, as markets quickly reversed course on news that U.S. President Donald Trump will not impose the new tariffs that had been scheduled for Feb. 1. The same announcement triggered a pullback in traditional safe-haven assets like gold and silver, underscoring how sensitive both crypto and metals have become to shifting geopolitical risks.

Tariff shock and the Greenland overhang

Over the past several days, a seemingly unconventional geopolitical storyline around Greenland evolved into a tangible macro risk event. Trump’s campaign to secure a deal involving Greenland escalated into a trade-war-style threat when he announced additional tariffs on goods from several European countries, set to take effect on Feb. 1. The rhetoric linked the scope and escalation of those tariffs to securing a Greenland agreement, turning a diplomatic oddity into a direct economic risk.

Markets treated this as a renewed trade-war scenario. Equities came under pressure, the U.S. dollar firmed, and traders repriced the probability of an extended conflict that could suppress global growth and risk appetite. Bitcoin did not behave as an isolated crypto asset in this environment. Instead, it tracked broader risk-off dynamics, sliding below $92,000 as the tariff narrative gained traction.

Between Jan. 19 and 20, those fears migrated beyond digital assets. A broad-based selloff hit risk assets, with Bitcoin dropping as much as 7% at one point. Crypto markets were particularly vulnerable because of the extent of leveraged positioning already in place. Data from CoinGlass had been showing sustained long liquidations earlier in the week, signaling fragility and a tape already skewed toward forced selling if price levels broke.

This setup meant that when tariff anxiety spiked, Bitcoin’s downside was amplified: macro stress met structural leverage, producing a sharper move than that seen in many traditional assets.

$87K–$90K intraday whipsaw and the role of leverage

The clearest illustration of Bitcoin’s high-beta behavior came in the hours surrounding Trump’s latest statement. During the current session, Bitcoin traded in an intraday range from a low of $87,304 to a high of $90,379—about a 3.5% swing. The low coincided with the European market open, when tariff concerns remained elevated and risk sentiment was still fragile.

The inflection point arrived when Trump posted on Truth Social that he had reached “the framework of a future deal” with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte covering Greenland and the broader Arctic region. Crucially, he added that he would not move forward with the Feb. 1 tariffs. That single headline effectively removed the immediate tail risk that had been weighing on markets.

Bitcoin’s reaction was swift. Within roughly an hour of the post, the asset had reclaimed the $90,000 level. At press time it was trading around $90,213.45, up 2.1% on the hour and 2% on the day. CoinGlass data show that the rebound triggered roughly $160 million in short liquidations in a single hour, contributing to more than $1 billion in total liquidations across long and short positions on Jan. 21.

The sequence over the past few days has been symmetric. On the way down, leveraged long positions were forced out as macro headlines deteriorated and technical levels failed. On the way back up, the rapid removal of the tariff threat caught shorts leaning into downside continuation, forcing them to cover at higher prices. The result was a classic whipsaw: traders positioned aggressively in both directions, and both sides suffered as the macro narrative flipped.

This behavior aligns with what institutional observers have been highlighting for months—Bitcoin increasingly trades like a levered expression of risk sentiment. In calm conditions, idiosyncratic crypto drivers can dominate. But when macro uncertainty spikes, flows into and out of Bitcoin tend to mirror shifts in traditional risk assets, amplified by derivatives-driven feedback loops.

Gold and silver retreat as risk-on returns

While Bitcoin was recovering, traditional safe havens were moving in the opposite direction. Gold fell from around $4,850 to $4,777 per ounce following the White House announcement, and silver slid from roughly $93 to $90.60 per ounce. Both metals later clawed back about 1% overnight, but the immediate reaction was a clear unwind of the flight-to-safety bid that had emerged during the tariff scare.

Earlier, as the tariff threat intensified, gold and silver had benefited from investors seeking protection from potential geopolitical escalation and associated currency volatility. The combination of renewed trade-war risk and concern over the dollar’s trajectory supported higher precious metals prices. When the tariff risk was abruptly put on hold, that hedging impulse faded quickly, and capital rotated back toward risk assets.

This rapid rotation underscores how sensitive precious metals markets remain to geopolitical headlines, but it also highlights a key divergence: in this episode, Bitcoin did not trade as a digital analog to gold. When uncertainty rose, Bitcoin sold off alongside equities instead of rallying with safe havens. When uncertainty receded, Bitcoin rallied with equities while gold and silver retreated.

For portfolio construction, that pattern matters. It suggests that, in periods dominated by macro shocks, market participants currently treat Bitcoin less as a defensive store of value and more as a high-beta risk asset. This does not preclude Bitcoin from serving a different role over longer horizons, but the immediate-term price action has been overwhelmingly driven by shifts in risk appetite rather than by a bid for safety.

Bitcoin’s evolving macro profile

The Greenland-linked tariff episode is the latest example of Bitcoin’s integration into the broader macro trading complex. Over the past several days, moves in Bitcoin have aligned closely with swings in equities, currencies, and rates markets as traders collectively reassessed the likelihood and potential impact of a new trade confrontation.

On the downside, the combination of macro stress and structural leverage proved particularly destabilizing. CoinGlass liquidation data show that liquidations were not confined to a single side of the book. Earlier in the week, long positions had already been unwinding as prices fell, and by Jan. 21 the total value of liquidations across both longs and shorts had exceeded $1 billion. That scale signals just how much leverage remains embedded in crypto derivatives markets, even after previous risk events.

The subsequent relief rally followed the same pattern in reverse. Once the tariff threat was removed, risk assets “snapped back,” with Bitcoin leading the move in percentage terms. Equity futures firmed, Treasury yields stabilized, and safe-haven flows into gold and silver reversed. Bitcoin’s outperformance on the rebound is consistent with its role as a high-beta macro asset that tends to exaggerate directional shifts when sentiment turns.

This behavior reinforces a few practical points for macro-focused investors and crypto traders. First, Bitcoin’s intraday volatility around major geopolitical headlines is increasingly shaped by positioning and leverage, not just by spot flows. Second, correlations with traditional assets can change sharply depending on whether the dominant driver is risk-on/risk-off sentiment or crypto-specific news. In this case, macro considerations clearly overrode internal crypto narratives.

Implications and open risks for traders

The immediate market takeaway is that one near-term overhang—the Feb. 1 tariff package—has been removed. However, the underlying dispute and negotiations surrounding Greenland and the Arctic are not resolved. Trump’s message described a “framework of a future deal,” not a finalized agreement, and explicitly framed the tariff decision in the context of ongoing discussions.

That leaves open the possibility that trade measures could re-emerge as leverage if talks stall or shift direction. For markets, this means headline risk has not disappeared; it has merely shifted from imminent implementation to conditional threat. Crypto traders and macro investors alike should recognize that similar episodes could recur if policy communication again leans on tariffs as a bargaining tool.

For Bitcoin specifically, the move from roughly $87,300 back to above $90,000 in a matter of hours demonstrates how quickly sentiment can pivot when a single macro variable is resolved. At the same time, the more than $1 billion in liquidations on Jan. 21 alone underline that speculative leverage remains elevated, even after repeated shakeouts.

In the short term, this combination—headline-sensitive price action and a heavily levered derivatives backdrop—creates conditions where sharp, mechanically driven moves are likely whenever new information surprises the market. During such periods, crypto-native fundamentals tend to take a back seat to cross-asset flows and macro risk pricing.

For traders, the current episode offers a clear template: when geopolitical uncertainty spikes, Bitcoin has recently behaved as a high-beta risk asset, not as a pure hedge. When that uncertainty is abruptly removed, the relief move can be equally violent, particularly for those on the wrong side of crowded, leveraged positioning.

How long this dynamic persists will depend on both the evolution of the Greenland negotiations and broader macro conditions. For now, the market has shifted back toward risk-on, with Bitcoin stabilizing near $90,000 and precious metals giving back part of their recent safety bid—at least until the next headline hits the tape.