Cryptocurrency Market Sees Uptick as Trump's Tariff Stance Softens

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise) Cryptocurrencies and other risk assets experienced a boost on Monday, driven by reports that President Donald Trump's anticipated reciprocal tariffs, set to take effect on April 2, may be less severe than initially anticipated. This development comes on the heels of the Federal Reserve's decision to maintain its forecast for two interest-rate cuts, while downplaying concerns about the potential long-term inflationary impact of the tariffs. According to Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, 'Bitcoin is attempting to establish a bottom, buoyed by Trump's recent shift toward flexibility regarding the upcoming April 2 reciprocal tariffs, which has softened his previous stance.' Thielen also noted that the Fed's recent tone suggests it will 'look past short-term inflationary pressures, laying the groundwork for potential future easing.' As a result, Bitcoin has risen over 1% since midnight UTC to $87,300. Meanwhile, AI coins, meme cryptocurrencies, and layer-1 tokens have posted even more significant gains, with Ether increasing by 4% to $2,090 as its supply held on centralized exchanges reaches its lowest level since November 2015. The Mantle Network's MNT token has surged 6%, with Trump-linked WLFI acquiring millions of dollars' worth of coins. Other notable gainers include the TRUMP token, which has been buoyed by the President's endorsement, as well as fartcoin and sonic, both of which have risen over 9%. Tokenized real-world assets have reached a total value locked of over $10 billion, with Maker, BlackRock's BUIDL, and Ethena's USDtb each accounting for more than $1 billion in TVL. In other news, Andrei Grachev, the head of DWF Labs, has announced a $250 million fund focused on established mid-sized and large-cap crypto projects. Bloomberg has reported that Coinbase is in talks to acquire Deribit, the world's leading cryptocurrency options exchange, a development that CoinDesk had initially reported in February. The decentralized perpetuals trading platform dYdX has announced a program to allocate 25% of the net protocol fees to monthly buybacks, beginning today. The upcoming week promises to be eventful, with the U.S. personal consumption expenditure, the Fed's preferred inflation measure, scheduled for release on Friday. Additionally, SEC nominee Paul Atkins and Comptroller of the Currency nominee Jonathan Gould will testify before the Senate Banking Committee on March 27. It is essential to stay informed. Key Events to Watch: Upcoming Token Events Conferences Token Talk By Shaurya Malwa Morning Market Update pic.twitter.com/HLhpwpKib8 Derivatives Positioning Market Trends: Bitcoin Statistics: Technical Analysis Crypto Equities ETF Flows Spot BTC ETFs: Spot ETH ETFs Source: Farside Investors Overnight Market Flows Chart of the Day While You Were Sleeping In the Ether