Tariffs Ignite Bull Market: NYSE Tokenisation, Claude Meme Meta

Trump’s global tariff push rattles crypto as NYSE tokenisation plans and Hyperliquid headlines reshape the backdrop

Crypto markets traded lower amid renewed uncertainty around U.S. trade policy, after President Donald Trump moved to expand tariffs beyond China and into a broader global framework.

Tariffs are taxes on imported goods, and sudden changes can disrupt corporate planning and investor sentiment. Analysts cited in the provided materials said tariff uncertainty became a major driver of market behaviour in February 2026, as companies struggled to price inventory and manage margins when import costs could shift quickly from 0% to 15%.

The policy turbulence follows a significant legal twist earlier this year. On February 20, the Supreme Court ruled that many of Trump’s earlier tariffs were illegal because they relied on emergency powers not meant for standard trade disputes. That decision removed a set of import taxes on goods from China, Europe and other regions—before a new 15% global tariff reintroduced uncertainty.

Market participants also pointed to broader geopolitical stress. Jeff Mei, COO at blockchain technology firm BTSE, said the sudden uptick in tariff rates was prompting investors to sell crypto assets in anticipation of a more serious market decline. He added that concerns about a build-up of U.S. military forces around Iran were also weighing on sentiment due to potential impacts on trade flows.

In that risk-off context, major tokens were described as broadly lower, with snippets noting bitcoin down about 2% to $91,100, ether down about 4% to $3,105, and solana down about 3% to $129. Several meme tokens were also cited as down on the day, while a handful of smaller tokens led gains among top movers.

At the same time, a separate set of developments highlighted how quickly market structure and regulation issues are becoming intertwined with crypto pricing.

Hyperliquid’s HYPE token rose sharply after Trump said Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Michael Selig was working to bring the perpetual futures platform into the U.S. in a “fully compliant and legal fashion,” according to CryptoProwl. The same set of materials noted that shares of Hyperliquid Strategies, a publicly traded treasury company that owns HYPE tokens, surged 30% before the close, while HYPE itself jumped 18% to just below record highs.

Other publicly listed crypto exposures moved higher in the session described, with Strategy up nearly 13% and Coinbase rising almost 10%, even as both were noted as still down roughly 30% year-to-date after bitcoin’s weak relative performance versus the S&P 500 since 2019.

Traditional exchange stocks moved in the opposite direction in the same window. The materials reported declines in shares of Cboe Global Markets, Miami International Holdings and CME Group, as investors assessed what a successful push by a new venue could mean for incumbents in derivatives and market infrastructure.

Alongside the regulatory storyline, the New York Stock Exchange was reported to have begun preparations for 24/7 tokenised stock and ETF trading. While details were limited in the snippets, the move underscores how major incumbents are exploring tokenisation—using blockchain-based representations of traditional assets—to potentially extend trading hours and modernise settlement.

• Macro policy remains a catalyst: rapid tariff changes and legal reversals can hit risk sentiment and spill into crypto.
• Regulation is a key differentiator: comments about a U.S.-compliant path for perpetual futures helped lift HYPE and related equities.
• Market structure is shifting: NYSE preparations for tokenised, always-on trading point to deeper integration between traditional finance and crypto-adjacent infrastructure.

Other notable crypto-adjacent updates in the provided information included Steak ’n Shake disclosing roughly $10 million in bitcoin exposure and the creation of a corporate bitcoin strategic reserve, while ETF flows turned mixed: bitcoin ETFs saw $394 million in net outflows on Friday, breaking a four-day inflow streak, while ether ETFs recorded $4.7 million in inflows.

Separately, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin called for more sophisticated DAO governance models to improve accountability and long-term sustainability, and Bermuda outlined plans for a more fully onchain national economy, working with Coinbase and Circle on payments, identity and tokenised financial infrastructure.