Bitcoin has gained 3% in the last 24 hours amid reports upcoming U.S. tariffs on its trading partners will be less dramatic than expected.
The original cryptocurrency climbed from $84,000 to $88,600 between Sunday and Monday morning, after reports over the weekend that President Donald Trump will opt for more narrow tariffs than he had previously suggested.
Trump is scheduled to announce additional levies on major U.S. trading partners including Canada, China and Mexico, on April 2. Despite previously saying that he would impose both reciprocal and sector-specific tariffs on that day, anonymous White House officials quoted in Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal are now saying Trump will only announce reciprocal tariffs, and will leave out the rest. The reports signal that the president is tempering his approach to a looming trade war, buoying the crypto and equity markets.
When contacted for a response from Fortune, a White House official said that no final decision has been made about whether sector-specific tariffs will be implemented on April 2.
“This surge in Bitcoin’s price coincides with reports that the Trump administration is considering narrowing the scope of tariffs set to take effect on April 2,” Dan Greer, the CEO of Defi App, a decentralized finance platform, told Fortune.
Bitcoin is not the only asset benefitting from these reports. Nearly all of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap were in the green on Monday, with Ethereum up 4%, XRP up 2%, and Solana up 8%. The stock market is also reacting positively to the news, with both the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 indexes up 2% in the last 24 hours.
“This development has alleviated some market uncertainties, leading to increased investor confidence and a positive response in both cryptocurrency and equity markets,” Greer said.
The crypto market has been under pressure since Trump took office due in part to the president’s on-again-off-again tariff policy which has introduced a high degree of economic uncertainty in the market, and led investors to flee risky assets. The tariffs are expected to increase the price of foreign goods, likely leading to inflation. Since hitting an all-time high of $109,000 in January, Bitcoin has fallen to $78,000 this month in a crypto market sell-off brought on by fears that Trump’s aggressive economic policy will trigger a recession.
While the economic uncertainty has led to widespread fear among investors, Colin Closser, investor relations manager at crypto wallet company Exodus, told Fortune that he is unsurprised by the crypto market’s reaction to Trump’s aggressive policies.
“I expect markets to show emotion and volatility during times of change and stress in the United States, and you can see that volatility in Bitcoin this morning,” he said.
March 24, 2025: This story has been updated with additional comment from the White House