Bitcoin Rises With Asia Stocks as Nvidia Looms; Trump’s Economic Pitch Takes a Back Seat

Bitcoin, the largest crypto asset by market value, nudged higher alongside Asian equities as traders positioned for Nvidia’s quarterly report. Into Tuesday evening, BTC advanced more than $2,000 from roughly $64,000 to $66,000 before President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address at 9 pm ET, per CoinGecko. It later eased to about $65,500—still up roughly 3.5% on the day—underscoring that cross-asset risk appetite, not politics, steered the tape.

What actually moved markets was a classic pre-catalyst reach for beta. Asian stocks firmed on optimism heading into Nvidia’s Wednesday print, and the Nasdaq 100 closed 268 points higher, helped by Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, and Google. That backdrop invited crypto participation: when equities lean risk-on into a single, high-conviction event, Bitcoin often follows as a high-volatility proxy for global liquidity sentiment. As one market researcher, Derek Lim of Caladan, argued, the uptick looked more like positioning ahead of Nvidia plus a relief rebound after last week’s tariff and legal turbulence—factors with clearer market linkage than anything said at the podium.

Trump’s remarks were aimed squarely at economic perception. He cast his first year back in office as a sweeping turnaround, highlighting tax cuts, tariff receipts, and disinflation. He said core inflation is at a five-year low, citing a 1.7% drop over the past three months, and asserted that mortgage rates have fallen to a four-year low, trimming the annual cost of a new mortgage by nearly $5,000 versus a year ago. He also pointed to equity milestones, claiming 53 record highs since the election and noting the Dow Jones Industrial Average touched 50,000 “ahead of schedule.”

Markets, however, remember the path as well as the peaks. When the administration rolled out its tariff framework in April 2025, the Dow briefly slipped below 37,000—about 18% off its high. And the 50,000 level didn’t stick: the index had already faded back below it by Feb. 16 and hovered around 49,174 on the night of the speech. That context tempers any straight-line narrative and helps explain why traders treated the address as background noise.

Tariffs remain the political centerpiece. Trump credited them with bringing in “hundreds of billions of dollars” and enabling favorable economic and national security outcomes. Yet a recent Supreme Court ruling curtailed the President’s latitude to impose sweeping tariffs—an outcome he called “very unfortunate.” He nevertheless pledged to sustain the policy using alternative legal authorities, suggesting continuity in approach even if the implementation path narrows.

The more immediate driver for both stocks and crypto is Nvidia’s earnings call—widely seen by traders as the key catalyst in this window. When one company becomes a proxy for productivity, capex, and AI-driven profitability, it turns into a macro variable. That bleeds into crypto through a few channels: risk budgets expand or contract off the same liquidity pulse; AI enthusiasm stokes speculative appetite across growth assets; and volatility sellers hedge across correlated complexes. The psychology here is simple but potent—into a marquee event, participants crowd the same trade, compressing dispersion and keeping Bitcoin tethered to equities.

The test now is whether this correlation tightens or relaxes after Nvidia. A strong print can extend the risk-on stretch, but crowded positioning is fragile; a miss or cautious guidance often produces de-risking that spills into BTC first because it is liquid, 24/7, and sentiment-sensitive. Meanwhile, tariff uncertainty lingers in the background—legally constrained but rhetorically intact—adding a policy overhang that can flare when positioning is stretched.

For today, price action says more about event-driven appetite than fiscal or trade doctrine. Bitcoin’s climb into the speech and fade afterward fits a market rotating around one center of gravity: Nvidia.