U.S. crypto stocks are set for a lower open on April 7 as Trump-led trade tensions drove a broad market sell-off. Investors reacted to renewed concerns over U.S. tariffs and possible Chinese retaliation, pushing equity futures sharply down at the…

Crypto stocks drop in pre-market as trade tensions destroy markets

The US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued two directives specifying 
policies and deadlines for deploying AI tools that enhance public services, 
providing a roadmap for implementing US President Donald Trump&#8217;s executive 
order advance US &#8220;dominance&#8221; in the use and development of artificial 
intelligence.
According to two memorandums from April 3, all government agencies &#8220;should 
invest in the AI marketplace and maximize the use of AI products and services 
that are developed and produced in the United States.&#8221; The memorandums list 
various deadlines for the adoption of AI, including a 270-day deadline to 
update policies and procedures.
In early 2025, Trump took significant steps to reshape US policy on emerging 
technologies by repealing former President Joe Biden&#8217;s 2023 executive order on 
AI safety &#8212; arguing it imposed excessive regulations that stifled innovation 
&#8212; and declaring his intention to make the US the &#8220;world capital&#8221;of AI and 
cryptocurrency. Critics, however, have raised concerns that removing safety 
frameworks could leave the public vulnerable to AI-related risks.
_OMB memorandum M-25-21. Source:__White Hous_ _e_
Some common AI models developed and produced in the United States include 
OpenAI&#8217;s ChatGPT, Google&#8217;s Gemini, Meta&#8217;s Llama, and Elon Musk&#8217;s Grok. The 
directive from the OMB follows Trump&#8217;s promises to boost American dominance in 
this new sector of technology.
_**Related:**__**Did ChatGPT come up with Trump &#8216;s tariff rate formula?**_
In January 2025, Trump announced an AI infrastructure project called 
&#8220;Stargate,&#8221; aimed at building AI data centers across the country.
The surging demand for AI infrastructure has prompted Bitcoin miners to pivot 
and expand their operations to support the growing needs of the AI sector.
At the same time, the convergence of AI and blockchain fueled a rally in AI- 
related tokens throughout 2024. However, that momentum has sharply reversed in 
2025. Despite continued enthusiasm around AI&#8217;s long-term potential, tokens 
linked to the technology have seen steep losses, shedding over 42% of their 
market cap over the past 12 months, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
_Performance of top AI and big data tokens. Source:__CoinMarketCap_
Market focus has shifted toward memecoins, while broader macroeconomic 
uncertainty has stoked fear across capital markets.
For the Trump administration, winning the AI race continues to be a priority. 
In April 2025, David Sacks, the White House&#8217;s AI and crypto czar, said that 
the release of Meta&#8217;s Llama 4 puts the US back in position to win the AI race. 
That race had been upended in January 2025 with the release of DeepSeek, an AI 
tool produced in China.
_**Magazine:**__**AI Eye: Vitalik on AI apocalypse, LA Times both-sides KKK, 
LLM grooming**_

US govt. sets AI policies across agencies

Ether (ETH) price dropped to $1,410 on April 7, marking its lowest level since 
March 2023. This sharp decline triggered liquidations of leveraged ETH futures 
worth over $370 million in 2 days, according to CoinGlass data. However, the 
altcoin managed to recover above the $1,500 mark as the S&amp;P 500 index 
reclaimed its psychological 5,000 support level.
_Ether/USD (blue) vs. total crypto market capitalization (magenta). Source: 
TradingView / Cointelegraph_
Over the past 30 days, Ether has underperformed the broader cryptocurrency 
market by 14%. Despite this, professional traders are not yet ready to turn 
bearish, as suggested by Ethereum&#8217;s derivatives data and onchain metrics. 
While this data does not guarantee that Ether&#8217;s price has reached its bottom, 
the reduced demand for bearish positions below $1,600 offers some reassurance 
for bullish investors.
_Ether 2-month futures annualized premium. Source: laevitas.ch_
On April 7, the Ether monthly futures premium rose to 4% after dipping to 3% 
earlier in the day. Although still below the neutral threshold of 5%, this 
marks an improvement from March 31, when the indicator hit a low of 2%. 
Currently, there is a noticeable lack of demand from long positions (buyers), 
but this is not unusual following a steep 30% drop in ETH&#8217;s price over the 
past month.
## Ether is a victim of worsening macroeconomic conditions
Investors remain concerned that escalating global trade tensions could lead to 
an economic recession and reduce interest in risk-on assets. This scenario 
also weakens the potential positive impact of a possible interest rate cut 
during the US Federal Reserve&#8217;s (Fed) next meeting on May 6-7. Typically, such 
a move would benefit the cryptocurrency market by lowering returns on fixed- 
income investments.
Despite US President Donald Trump&#8217;s strong push for interest rate cuts, as 
expressed in his Truth Social post on April 7, Fed Chair Jerome Powell remains 
cautious about inflation trends. Powell reportedly stated on April 4: &#8220;It is 
too soon to say what will be the appropriate path for monetary policy,&#8221; 
according to Yahoo Finance.
Adding further pressure to Ether&#8217;s price was Ethereum developers&#8217; decision to 
delay the Pectra upgrade, originally scheduled for April. Developers have now 
set May 7 as the target date for its mainnet launch but provided no specific 
reason for the delay. This comes even though the Hoodi testnet upgrade was 
successfully implemented on March 26.
## Ether derivatives display moderate resilience while Ethereum TVL jumps to 
an all-time high
Given the negative news flow, one might have expected Ether bears to dominate 
the market entirely. However, derivatives data suggests that bears are not as 
confident as anticipated. When traders foresee a correction, put (sell) 
options tend to trade at a premium, pushing the 25% delta skew metric above 
6%. Conversely, during bullish periods, this indicator typically falls below 
-6%.
_Ether 30-day options skew (put-call) at Deribit. Source: Laevitas.ch_
Currently, the ETH options skew stands at 10%, the same level as March 31, 
which remains within bearish territory. However, this reading is significantly 
less extreme compared to May 2024, when it peaked at 20% amid a sharp ETH 
price drop from $3,700 to $2,860 within five weeks. In essence, while Ether 
derivatives markets signal bearish sentiment, they do not reflect panic 
levels.
Onchain data for Ethereum shows resilience despite broader market challenges. 
The total value locked (TVL) on the Ethereum network reached an all-time high 
of 30.2 million ETH on April 6&#8211;a 22% increase compared to the previous month. 
This growth outpaced Solana&#8217;s 12% increase in SOL (SOL) terms and BNB Chain&#8217;s 
16% TVL rise during the same period.
Ultimately, macroeconomic conditions remain the primary driver of 
cryptocurrency demand. However, when analyzing Ether derivatives data and 
Ethereum&#8217;s TVL performance, it appears that ETH&#8217;s price downside may be 
limited.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and 
should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and 
opinions expressed here are the author&#8217;s alone and do not necessarily reflect 
or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Ethereum price falls to 2-year low, but pro traders still have hope

Trump is threatening new tariffs on China, which would bring the total tariff 
rate on goods from the country to 104%.

Crypto markets on edge as Trump threatens historic tariff hike on China

In his annual letter to shareholders, released today, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie 
Dimon expressed some concerns about the potential economic repercussions of 
President Donald Trump&#8217;s recent tariff implementations. Dimon warned that 
these tariffs could exacerbate inflation and impede economic growth,…

Dimon warns tariffs may push U.S. toward recession, hits crypto slide

XRP is trading at $1.90 with a market capitalization of $110 billion and a 
robust global trading volume of $13.96 billion over the past 24 hours. Its 
intraday price has ranged from $1.65 to $2.05, showcasing significant 
volatility and liquidity in today’s session. XRP On the 1-hour chart, XRP has 
shown signs of breaking from […]