The Daily: Crypto market weighs Trump's reciprocal tariffs, bitcoin's 'digital gold' narrative under pressure and more

The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter,  The Daily , which comes out on weekday afternoons.

Happy Thursday! Well, following up on yesterday's lingering question, President Trump's tariff announcements were harsher than expected, leaving crypto holders feeling "liberated" from their money as prices tumbled.

In today's newsletter, crypto markets continue to digest Trump's sweeping Liberation Day tariffs, JPMorgan says bitcoin's "digital gold" narrative is under pressure, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee votes to advance a stablecoin bill and more.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee confirmed Trump's nomination of crypto-friendly Paul Atkins to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Let's get started.

Crypto markets weigh Trump's sweeping reciprocal tariffs

President Trump's "Liberation Day" announcement of reciprocal tariffs on Wednesday caused sharp declines in the crypto market , with Bitcoin, Ether and Solana dropping around 6%, 8% and 15%, respectively.

• The new policy imposes a baseline 10% tariff on imports, while some countries will see tariffs of more than 50%.
• The reciprocal tariffs are set to take effect on April 9, while the baseline 10% tariff will hit on April 5.
• U.S. Bitcoin miners could be particularly squeezed, facing rising hardware costs due to new tariffs on Chinese-made ASIC hardware, potentially pushing out less efficient operators.
• However, income from the tariffs could also be a budget-neutral means to acquire bitcoin for Trump's U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, according to Two Prime Digital Assets CEO Alexander Blume.
• Meanwhile, despite the widespread selloff, BRN analyst Valentin Fournier argued the much-anticipated clarity on U.S. commerce policy creates a buying opportunity as uncertainty fades.

Bitcoin's 'digital gold' narrative under pressure

Bitcoin's volatility, ETF outflows and correlation with equities are raising questions about its "digital gold" narrative , according to analysts at JPMorgan.

• Gold's sharp rise to above $3,100 per ounce this year reflects an "intensification" of the debasement trade, the analysts noted — meaning investors are increasingly favoring gold over bitcoin.
• The debasement trade is a strategy focused on buying assets like gold and bitcoin to hedge against inflation, long-term debt and weakening fiat currencies.
• Bitcoin is still trading above its estimated mining production cost of $62,000, which could act as a floor, the analysts said, estimating its volatility-adjusted value at closer to $71,000.

House Financial Services Committee votes to advance stablecoin bill

The U.S. House Financial Services Committee voted 32-17 to advance the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy or STABLE bill , which aims to create a regulatory framework for dollar-denominated stablecoins.

• House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill, R-Ark. urged the bill's passage during a several hours-long hearing and said regulation was essential for "global competitiveness."
• "Blockchain technology continues to transform the way money moves," Hill said. "The fact is, policymakers, regulators and law enforcement must keep up with these changes."
• Multiple amendments discussed on Wednesday focused on President Trump's crypto ties and potential conflicts of interest.
• The House's STABLE bill and the Senate's comparable GENIUS Act differ in their approach to regulating foreign issuers and stablecoin market structures but will have to come to a consensus.
• Meanwhile, the committee also advanced an anti-CBDC bill introduced by House Majority Whip Tom Emmer.

Matcha says most DEXs will support Solana by year-end

Matcha, the decentralized exchange aggregator developed by 0x, has expanded to Solana — making it one of the first DEX aggregators to support trades on both SVM and EVM-compatible blockchains via a single app.

• Matcha was previously available across 13 EVM-compatible chains — including Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, OP Mainnet, Unichain, Polygon, BNB Chain and Avalanche.
• It now allows users to connect both Solana and EVM wallets simultaneously, making it easier to navigate between networks.
• While cross-chain support was already available between EVM chains, trading to and from those networks and Solana is also available from Thursday.
• Notably, Matcha anticipates that, by year-end, most DEXs and aggregators will support Solana.
• The platform has also introduced anti-malicious token features to help users avoid harmful assets and memecoin rug pulls by providing metrics, including risk scores, holder counts and token ages.

PayPal activates SOL and LINK support in US

PayPal has expanded its crypto offering in the U.S. to support buying, selling, holding and transferring Solana and Chainlink's native cryptocurrencies for the first time.

• Previously, customers could only use PayPal as a payment method to buy SOL or LINK via the crypto onramp MoonPay.
• The payments giant has offered crypto services since October 2020 but previously only supported Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash directly, as well as its own stablecoin, PayPal USD.

In the next 24 hours

• U.S. nonfarm payroll figures are due at 8:30 a.m. ET on Friday.
• U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will speak at 11:25 a.m.
• IOTA, Moca Network and 1inch are all set for token unlocks .

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