Bitcoin regained momentum Sunday and nudged up by as much as 2.7% following reports that the White House has signaled a more targeted approach to its April 2 tariffs, confirming it would likely omit sector-specific duties while still implementing “reciprocal tariffs” on major trading partners.

The crypto market saw higher gains amid reports on Sunday afternoon from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal that Trump’s administration is narrowing its tariff strategy.

Bitcoin traded above $86,700 by Sunday midnight, roughly twelve hours after the aforementioned reports emerged, showing resilience after volatile swings over the past week, which saw lows of $81,200.

The alpha crypto is up 3.3% on the day, while the rest of the market has tracked up by 0.7% in total market cap, data from CoinGecko shows.

This shift from a broader tariff implementation to a more targeted approach has eased concerns about immediate economic disruption. 

Previous market fears had centered on Trump’s declaration of April 2 as “Liberation Day,” when he planned to impose sweeping tariffs across multiple sectors.

Citing Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s pronouncements last week, the WSJ reported that the administration is looking to have tariffs applied to “about 15% of nations with persistent trade imbalances with the U.S.”

It follows the Federal Reserve’s projections last week that it would hold interest rates steady. Meanwhile, two weeks before, the Consumer Price Index saw cooling numbers, marking 2.8% from February, which some investors are interpreting as signs of easing financial conditions. 

While tariffs do not directly impact Bitcoin and broader crypto prices short-term, Zach Pandl, head of research Grayscale, previously told Decrypt Trump’s trade policies are part of a larger trend, with Bitcoin being “swept up in broader macro uncertainty.”

This suggests that “higher policy uncertainty has caused investors to reduce portfolio risk across the board,” Pandl explained.

A study from Bloomberg shows that President Trump’s implemented or threatened tariffs have affected at least $1.8 trillion in global trade, imposing 25% duties on worldwide steel and aluminum, 25% on non-compliant USMCA goods, and an additional 10% on Chinese imports.

An additional 25% tariffs on E.U. goods was also proposed. Responding to these threats and singling out Trump’s crypto initiatives, an ECB official said Sunday last week that financial crises “often originate in the United States and spread to the rest of the world.”

Meanwhile, the same study cites Bloomberg Economics forecasting a reduction in U.S. GDP by up to 0.7% while increasing inflation by 0.4%, despite Trump’s claims that the tariffs, as economic measures, are designed to curb illegal immigration and address trade imbalances.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair

World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a DeFi project backed by President Donald Trump’s family, has acquired substantial amounts of Mantle’s MNT token following last week’s major technological upgrade of the network.

WLFI purchased about 3.54 million MNT for nearly $3 million USDC for an average purchase price of 84 cents, according to data sources Lookonchain and Arkham Intelligence.

The recent purchase has increased WLFI’s coin holdings, which include tokens like ETH, WBTC, TRX, LINK, AAVE, ENA, and others, to over $340 million. However, the Trump family-backed outlet still faced a paper loss of $111 million as of writing.

MNT is the native cryptocurrency of the Mantle Network, serving as a utility token for gas fees and a governance token for the layer 2 ecosystem focused on scaling Ethereum.

The Mantle Mainnet hard fork, or backwards-incompatible upgrade, took effect on March 19, activating EigenDA on the network. EigenDA is a secure, high-throughput, decentralized data availability service on Ethereum.

The EigenDA integration is said to boost Mantle Network’s scalability without hitting data rate limits, reportedly resulting in a 15 MB/s throughput. In other words, the network can process more transactions per block. Additionally, the upgrade has made the Mantle Network better compatible with Ethereum’s impending Pectra upgrade.

MNT traded at 6% higher on the day at 83 cents at press time, according to data sources CoinDesk and TradingView.

Crypto stocks are caught in a brutal free fall, mirroring the market-wide slump in Bitcoin and altcoins.

Coinbase, the biggest crypto exchange in the U.S., has crashed from nearly $350 per share in November to $190. This decline has brought its market cap from $86 billion to $48 billion—a $38 billion wipe out.

Michael Saylor’s Strategy, has also shed billions of dollars in value. Its market cap dipped from a high of $106 billion last year to $79 billion today. The company, formerly known as MicroStrategy, has continued to accumulate Bitcoin and now holds 499,226 Bitcoins in its balance sheet. 

Robinhood stock crashed from $66.85 earlier this year to $45, erasing $18 billion in value. While Robinhood is known for providing retail trading, it has become a major player in the crypto market. It hopes to play a bigger role in the sector when it completes its BitStamp acquisition later this year. 

Bitcoin (BTC) mining stocks have also plunged as the struggling BTC price hurts margins. Mara Holdings, formerly known as Marathon Digital, has lost over $4.6 billion in valuation. Other similar companies like Riot Blockchain, Core Scientific, CleanSpark, Hut 8 Mining, and TeraWulf have also shed billions in valuation.

Bitcoin, altcoin prices plummet

These crypto stocks have dropped because of the ongoing decline of Bitcoin and other altcoins. According to CoinMarketCap, the market cap of all cryptocurrencies has dropped from over $3.7 trillion in 2024 to $2.7 trillion today. 

Bitcoin has dropped from $109,300 in January to $85,000 at last check. Most altcoins have done worse. For example, Solana meme coins have shed over $18 billion in value as their combined market cap sank. 

Crypto prices and crypto stocks have dropped despite the Trump administration’s pledge to be highly supportive of the sector via initiatives like a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission has also enacted some friendly policies and ended most of the lawsuits in the industry. It has ended lawsuits brought on companies like Coinbase, Ripple Labs, and Kraken.

Whether these crypto stocks bounce back remains to be seen. Crypto analysts have a mixed outlook on the industry. Some observers expect Bitcoin’s price to recover, with Standard Chartered predicting it will hit $500,000 over time.

Ki Young Ju, CryptoQuant’s founder, estimates that the crypto bull run has ended, noting that all indicators were bearish.