Today in crypto, the White House announced progress on a trade deal with China, and one trader says Bitcoin’s price reaction could shed light on how it has been used during the recent uncertainty. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s Pectra has opened a new attack vector that could allow hackers to drain funds using only an offchain signature.
US-China trade deal could shed light on Bitcoin’s use case
Bitcoin’s potential price reaction to a trade deal between the United States and China could give insights into whether Bitcoin is being used as a safe-haven asset in the current market.
Bitcoin outperformed stocks and held up “incredibly strong” during a sharp sell-off on stock markets in April, following Donald Trump’s announcement of tariffs on “Liberation Day,” observed crypto trader “Daan Crypto” on May 11.
Following its plunge to $75,000 on April 7, Bitcoin recovered strongly to trade 27% higher at around $95,000 by the end of the month. Meanwhile, indexes like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq declined in April.
At the time, people wondered if Bitcoin’s relative strength came from the narrative that countries were using Bitcoin to bypass tariffs. The analyst said the opposite should theoretically occur if the trade deal is confirmed.
“Theoretically speaking, if the trade uncertainty was what was making BTC outperform, it should stop outperforming after we hit the most important deal, which includes China.”
On May 11, the White House announced that talks between the US and China regarding a trade deal have made “substantial progress.” However, no official agreement had been announced.
White House claims trade deal reached with China, but investors remain doubtful
The White House announced progress toward a trade deal with China. However, no official details of the purported trade deal were aired alongside the announcement, casting doubt about the substance of the agreement.
According to an announcement from the White House, details of the supposed trade deal will be revealed in a briefing on May 12. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent released this statement about the trade talks:
"I am happy to report that we made substantial progress between the United States and China in the very important trade talks. First, I want to thank our Swiss host. The Swiss government has been very kind in providing us with this wonderful venue."
While investors continue to monitor the ongoing trade talks for any potential deal that could restore confidence in financial markets, many market participants say the details of the agreement may be underwhelming or lack any real substance that would establish a long-standing trade deal between the two countries.
Pectra lets hackers drain wallets with just an offchain signature
Ethereum’s latest network upgrade, Pectra, introduced powerful new features aimed at improving scalability and smart account functionality — but it also opened a dangerous new attack vector that could allow hackers to drain funds from user wallets using only an offchain signature.
Under the Pectra upgrade, which went live on May 7 at epoch 364032, attackers can exploit a new transaction type to take control of externally owned accounts (EOAs) without requiring the user to sign an onchain transaction.
Arda Usman, a Solidity smart contract auditor, confirmed to Cointelegraph that “it becomes possible for an attacker to drain an EOA’s funds using only an offchain signed message (no direct onchain transaction signed by the user).”
At the center of the risk is EIP-7702, a core component of the Pectra upgrade. The Ethereum Improvement Proposal introduces the SetCode transaction (type 0x04), which enables users to delegate control of their wallet to another contract simply by signing a message.
If an attacker obtains this signature — say, via a phishing site — they can overwrite the wallet’s code with a small proxy that forwards calls to their malicious contract.
