TACO Thursday? Bitcoin price recovers to $90,000 after Trump walks back threats at Davos

Bitcoin jumped 3% to $90,000 after US President Donald Trump walked back tariff threats on eight European countries in his pursuit of Greenland.

On Wednesday, Trump said at his World Economic Forum keynote at Davos that he also ruled out the use of force and reached a “framework of a future deal” regarding the Arctic island with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

“When Trump ruled out taking Greenland by force, volume spiked and Bitcoin pushed higher, briefly pushing towards $90,000 as traders reacted to reduced near-term risk,” Matt Howells-Barby, VP of growth at crypto exchange Kraken, told DL News.

Bitcoin’s recovery comes as global stocks staged a dramatic rebound from their worst performance day since October. They’re now continuing their push near record highs.

The S&P 500 jumped 1.2%, followed by the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 1.2% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq by 1.2%. That is the biggest daily gain for the S&P 500 since November.

Meanwhile, fresh economic data shows that the US economy is roaring, according to Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research. He cited 5.4% growth in the fourth quarter of 2025, beating expectations.

Howells-Barby told DL News on Wednesday that asset pricing showed there’re plenty of investors leaning into the so-called “TACO” trade, an acronym for “Trump always chickens out.”

The idea is that Trump always backs down on his threats and the world returns to a state of business-as-usual, like what happened between the US and China in 2025.

“The fact the pullback hasn’t been so severe leads me to believe that the market is potentially pricing in another TACO trade opportunity,” Howells-Barby said.

Still, investors aren’t too comfortable with Trump’s aggressive rhetoric.

The price of gold barely budged at $4,836 an ounce on Thursday. Gold is seen as a safe-haven amid market turbulence and currency debasement. Silver is also trading near its all-time high as investors ditch fiat currencies.

The transatlantic tensions drove Bitcoin down by almost 10% over the past week to as low as $87,600. The dip followed Trump’s threat to slam NATO allies with sweeping tariffs over control of Greenland and EU leaders’ vow to retaliate with the “trade Bazooka” anti-coercion tool.

Crypto market movers

• Bitcoin is up 1% over the past 24 hours, trading at $89,968.
• Ethereum is up 1.8% past 24 hours at $3,011.

What we’re reading

• Bitcoin’s quantum threat sparks concern on Wall Street — DL News
• Independent Zcash developer gets $1.2m boost from Winklevoss twins — DL News
• Should You Buy Gold or Bitcoin? Here’s How to Think About It — Unchained
• Market breadth beats the Mag 7 — Milk Road
• Stablecoins to hit $4tn? Three forces seen to fuel boom — DL News

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email at [email protected].