Bitcoin Shrugs Off Stock Market Rout as Nasdaq Logs Steep Loss

The crypto market’s largest asset, bitcoin (BTC), is holding firm despite a sharp sell-off in U.S. equities, highlighting a potential shift in investor behavior as macro pressures mount.

On Thursday, the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 5.5%, one of its sharpest one-day losses since the early 2000s. Only the dot-com crash and 2008 financial crisis saw worse performance, according to data from Investing.com. The S&P 500 was hit nearly as hard, declining close to 5% in the same session.

The rout came in response to President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement, which targeted 180 countries and rattled global markets. Tech stocks, which dominate the Nasdaq, were among the hardest hit.

Yet while equities stumbled, bitcoin bucked the trend. After a short-lived drop following the tariff news, BTC recovered with a 0.7% gain on Thursday and continued climbing into Friday. At last check, BTC was trading above $84,000, off its pre-announcement levels of $87,000 but well above Thursday’s low under $82,000.

Meanwhile, Nasdaq futures are still under pressure as investors await the U.S. nonfarm payroll report due later Friday.

Bitcoin’s year-to-date loss stands at 10%, while the Nasdaq is down 11%, flipping the typical risk correlation narrative on its head. In March, BTC bottomed near $76,000, a level it hasn’t revisited even in the face of tariff uncertainty — a sign of seller exhaustion, according to analysts.

Market analyst Caleb Franzen noted the relative strength in BTC compared to traditional risk assets. “Bitcoin’s up over 3% relative to the S&P 500 today,” he said on X. “The BTC/SPY ratio holding above the 200-day moving average is impressive in this environment.”

With volatility on the rise and macro data in focus, bitcoin’s resilience could be a hint that it’s starting to act less like a tech stock and more like a macro hedge.