Bitcoin (BTC) made steady progress towards $85,000 during European trading hours on Tuesday, with traders eagerly anticipating the impact of U.S. tariffs set for Wednesday.

Leading the way with modest gains among major cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin (DOGE) and Cardano (ADA) saw an increase of over 7%, while others like ether (ETH), XRP, Solana’s SOL, and BNB Chain’s BNB rose nearly 5%.

According to CoinGecko data, the overall market capitalization saw a 3% decrease, with the CoinDesk 20 also experiencing a 3% bump in the last 24 hours.

The current market sentiment is largely risk-averse, as U.S. equities faced a downturn last week, with the S&P 500 recording a 3% decline, the worst since September 2023. This prompted investors to flock to safe-haven assets like gold, which reached new highs early Tuesday.

The upcoming tariffs, along with various U.S. economic and labor reports from the past month, have overshadowed crypto sentiment. Augustine Fan, head of insights at SignalPlus, highlighted the lack of significant catalysts, such as substantial ETF inflows, and a market that seems stuck in a low-conviction state as the quarter draws to a close – one that saw an 11% loss for bitcoin and the S&P 500’s biggest decline since Q2 2022.

On the futures front, speculative positions on bitcoin through the CME are currently the most bearish in years, marking a stark contrast from the bullish sentiment seen in January.

While there is uncertainty in the market, long-term holders show resilience, with Glassnode data indicating that holders with 3-6 month positions are seeing growing profits and trading at levels not seen since June 2021 – a sign of conviction over panic selling. Newer whales are also holding steady instead of selling off their positions, helping to stabilize bitcoin’s price floor, as highlighted by Glassnode.

Jupiter Zheng, a partner at HashKey Capital’s Liquid Fund and Research, views the tariff uncertainty and economic data dump as short-term challenges.

Despite the current dip in prices driven by risk-off sentiment, Zheng remains optimistic in the long term, noting the growing integration of crypto by institutions and the development of new regulatory policies worldwide to foster adoption.