On April 2, 2025, the Trump administration announced the implementation of a "reciprocal tariff" policy against China, imposing a 34% tariff on Chinese goods exported to the United States. China then imposed a 34% tariff on US goods at the same time. On April 7, Trump threatened through social media that if China did not withdraw its tariff measures, the United States would impose an additional 50% tariff on Chinese goods from April 9. After the policy was implemented, global stock markets fluctuated violently, the Nasdaq index fell 9.1% in a single week, and the risk aversion sentiment in the traditional financial market soared.Against this background, virtual currencies and decentralized exchanges (DEX) rose against the trend. The number of user registrations on the domestic DEX platform XBIT decentralized exchange platform surged by 68% in a single week, and the average daily trading volume exceeded US$7.8 billion. Its zero-slippage fiat currency channel (supporting 18 currencies such as CNY and USD) and cross-chain aggregation protocol (compatible with 12 public chains) have become the core tools for users to avoid tariff risks. The platform's dynamic liquidity pool has a total locked value (TVL) of over $13 billion, covering over 3 million users, highlighting the unique value of decentralized trading in extreme markets.

Tariff shocks catalyze demand: virtual currency and DEX reconstruct the market landscape

The 104% high tariffs imposed by the United States on China (taking photovoltaic products as an example) have hit the global supply chain hard, forcing companies to accelerate their shift to blockchain solutions. Data from April 2025 showed that the scale of cross-border payments of stablecoin USDT surged by 210% in a single month to $2.2 trillion, of which over 60% flowed to DEX platforms. Virtual currencies reduce cross-border costs to 0.3% (traditional channels are 5.2%) through decentralized settlement. The XBIT decentralized exchange platform processed more than 180,000 cross-border settlements between China and the United States in a single month, becoming a key channel for small and medium-sized enterprises to evade tariff reviews.

The domestic DEX market presents a differentiated competition landscape among leading platforms. The platform leads with a 29% market share, focusing on the tokenization of high-tariff-sensitive commodities such as photovoltaic components and rare earths, with an average daily trading volume of US$7.8 billion and an open interest of US$11.2 billion. Among other platforms, dYdX has an advantage with derivatives trading (accounting for 71%) and a US$720 million margin insurance pool; Uniswap V4 introduced the tariff volatility index (TVI) liquidity pool, with a weekly trading volume increase of 47%; Curve cooperated with XBIT to develop a tariff hedging algorithm pool, driving the cross-border exchange volume of stablecoins to increase by 82% in a single month. At the regulatory level, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission approved the DEX platform to access the tariff data oracle. The platform took the lead in launching the "tariff volatility fuse mechanism", which automatically freezes high-risk contracts when the price of related commodities fluctuates by more than 20%, reducing market systemic risks.

Analysis of the advantages of virtual currency and DEX platform: Solving the 104% tariff dilemmaThe core competitiveness of virtual currency lies in its low cost and anti-censorship characteristics. Through stablecoin settlement, DEX platforms have reduced cross-border payment costs to 5.8% of traditional channels (0.3% vs 5.2%), and enterprises have completed more than 180,000 cross-border settlements between China and the United States in a single month. The "tariff-related transaction stealth mode" launched by DEX further enhances anonymity, and the anonymous transaction volume increased by 120% in a single week. In addition, the platform has launched futures contracts for high-tariff-sensitive commodities such as photovoltaic components and chips, providing a maximum leverage of 150 times, with an open position of US$5.8 billion, providing the market with efficient volatility hedging tools.The strategic advantages of domestic DEX platforms are reflected in data chain and compliance innovation. For example, the XBIT decentralized exchange platform is connected to the Chainlink tariff rate oracle, and the error rate of real-time calculation of tariff costs is less than 0.03%, supporting dynamic adjustment of 104% tariff rates; through zero-knowledge proof technology to verify the user's compliance identity, it has become the first DEX platform to be dually certified by the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department and the Monetary Authority of Singapore. In terms of liquidity mining, the tariff volatility index (TVI) it launched has an annualized return of 23%, attracting more than 800,000 users to participate. The synergy between virtual currency and DEX forms a "tariff hedging closed loop". For example, photovoltaic companies tokenize components through the platform and use futures contracts to hedge cost fluctuations, reducing comprehensive operating costs by 72%.

Development path: From tariff hedging hub to global trade infrastructureAgainst the background of the normalization of 104% tariffs, domestic DEX platforms are accelerating their evolution in three major directions. XBIT decentralized trading platform promotes the deep integration of physical assets and on-chain liquidity by tokenizing commodities such as photovoltaic components and lithium batteries, and the related transaction volume has increased by 320% in a single month. Compliance upgrade has become a core strategy. The platform adopts a modular KYC system, allowing users to disclose tariff-related data independently, and has completed 94% of the global regulatory interface transformation. At the technical level, it supports 12 chains such as Avalanche and Sui, and the tariff-related cross-chain transaction processing speed reaches 4,800 transactions per second, which is 28 times faster than traditional exchanges.According to Dune Analytics data, the domestic DEX tariff-related transaction volume exceeded US$680 billion in April 2025, among which the head platform dominated the market with a market share of 37%. In the future, the combination of real-world asset tokenization (RWA) and tariff derivatives may push the scale of DEX transactions to exceed US$1.5 trillion and reshape the global trade settlement system.