China May Boost Bitcoin Amid Rising U.S. Tariffs

According to Arthur Hayes, founder of BitMEX, China’s response to the new U.S. tariffs could trigger a massive capital flight towards bitcoin. This dynamic, already observed in the past, could reignite the bullish trend of the crypto market in 2025.

A Chinese strategy that could benefit bitcoin

On April 7, Donald Trump reignited trade tensions by threatening to impose additional tariffs of 50% on Chinese products starting April 9. This threat responds to Beijing’s announcement of a 34% increase in tariffs on American imports, set for April 10.

“If the United States implements reinforced tariff measures, China will resolutely take countermeasures“, stated the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

Among the options considered by Beijing is a potential devaluation of the yuan. According to Arthur Hayes, this strategy could have an unexpected effect:

If the People’s Bank of China devalues its currency, the narrative is that the flight of Chinese capital will head towards bitcoin.

He emphasizes that this phenomenon has already occurred in 2013, 2015, and could repeat itself in 2025.

Ben Zhou, CEO of Bybit, shares this analysis, reminding that “historically, every time the yuan falls, a lot of Chinese capital flows into bitcoin“, thus creating a favorable context for the queen of cryptos.

A pattern that has repeated itself in recent history

History seems to support these analysts. In August 2015, when China devalued the yuan by 2% against the dollar, bitcoin immediately gained popularity.

The same scenario repeated itself in August 2019: when the yuan crossed the critical threshold of 7:1 against the dollar, bitcoin surged by 20% in just one week.

This phenomenon can be explained by several factors. Firstly, wealthy Chinese use bitcoin to protect their wealth against the devaluation of their currency. They can also, thanks to cryptos, circumvent the strict capital movement restrictions imposed by Beijing.

Furthermore, these devaluations undermine confidence in the traditional banking system, making bitcoin more attractive as an alternative.

These observations make sense as the crypto market is barely recovering from the “black Monday” of April 7, which caused more than a billion dollars in losses. Currently priced at $77,805, bitcoin could paradoxically emerge strengthened from these new Sino-American tensions.