Bitcoin Spikes 8% to $73,000 as Trump Slams Banks, Backs Coinbase in Stablecoin Regulation Fight

Bitcoin broke decisively above $71,000 on Wednesday, rallying 8% to $73,856 by mid-afternoon trading — its strongest performance in weeks and a sharp departure from the consolidation range that has trapped the cryptocurrency since January. The surge, which lifted the entire crypto market cap to $2.34 trillion, came as President Donald Trump publicly sided with the digital asset industry against traditional banks in an escalating fight over stablecoin regulation.

The catalyst was a blistering Truth Social post from Trump, who accused big banks of undermining the GENIUS Act — legislation that created a regulatory framework for stablecoins — and called on Congress to pass the Clarity Act, another key piece of crypto legislation currently awaiting a Senate vote after passing the House with bipartisan support. "The crypto industry will leave the US for China if Congress doesn't act," Trump warned, according to Business Insider. The post followed an unreported White House meeting with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, whose company has been at the forefront of lobbying for clearer digital asset rules.

The timing was pointed. Just a day earlier, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon told CNBC that stablecoin issuers should be "regulated like a bank" if they hold customer balances and pay interest. "You should be regulated like a bank," Dimon said, arguing that treating crypto firms as banks would "level the playing field, avoid unfair competition, and ensure public safety." Trump's response effectively rejected that view, aligning the White House squarely with Coinbase and the broader crypto industry's position that digital assets require bespoke regulation — not the heavy-handed banking rules Dimon advocates.

This is more than a policy spat. It's a fight over who controls the future of money, and Trump has chosen his side. The GENIUS Act, which Dimon and other banking executives have quietly opposed, established a lighter regulatory touch for stablecoin issuers — digital currencies pegged to the dollar that have become the backbone of crypto trading and cross-border payments. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency recently proposed rules under the act that would set "transition standards for certain state-qualified issuers with more than $10 billion in outstanding issuance," according to lawyers at Paul Hastings. Translation: the crypto industry gets to grow without being strangled by the same capital requirements and compliance burdens that govern JPMorgan.

Wall Street hates this. Banks see stablecoins as a direct threat to their deposit base and payment networks, and they've lobbied aggressively to force crypto firms under the same regulatory umbrella. But Trump's intervention signals that the White House views crypto as a strategic asset — both economically and geopolitically. His warning about China wasn't hyperbole. Beijing has been quietly building its own digital currency infrastructure, and Trump's team clearly believes that over-regulating the US crypto industry would hand Beijing a competitive advantage in the race to dominate the next generation of financial rails.

The market's reaction was immediate and unambiguous. Bitcoin, which had spent weeks oscillating between $65,000 and $71,000, broke through resistance at the start of European trading and surged 6% in five hours, according to FXStreet. Crypto-linked stocks followed: Coinbase jumped 16%, Strategy rose 11%, and Robinhood gained 8%, per Business Insider. US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $225 million in inflows on Tuesday, marking the second consecutive day of positive flows this week. The RSI index on weekly timeframes has begun to rise from oversold territory, suggesting that momentum may be shifting after months of sideways trading.

What's striking is how resilient crypto proved during Tuesday's broader market turbulence. The Nasdaq 100 lost more than 2.5% intraday before recovering half its losses by the close, while gold and other traditional safe havens sold off sharply. Bitcoin, by contrast, remained largely unaffected. FXStreet noted that "some traders are looking at crypto as a safe haven," a remarkable shift from the asset's historical correlation with risk-on equities. The London Crypto Club went further, arguing that escalating tensions in the Middle East — particularly the US and Israeli military operations against Iran — could be "a catalyst for Bitcoin's growth" as investors seek "a hedge against the collapse of existing economic and political structures."

Not everyone is convinced the bottom is in. 10x Research warned that "there are no signs of an exit from the global bearish trend yet," despite the ETF inflows and the disappearance of Bitcoin's discount on Coinbase. VanEck expects Bitcoin to "begin to grow slowly this year," but acknowledged that the price is still forming a bottom. Mining companies are signaling mixed confidence: Core Scientific announced it will sell all 2,537 BTC it owns by the end of the first quarter to increase liquidity and fund its AI strategy, while Riot Platforms reported record annual revenue for 2025, nearly doubling in 12 months due to a strategic pivot toward artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The Trump-Dimon clash is about more than Bitcoin's price. It's a proxy war for control of the financial system's future architecture. Banks want crypto firms brought to heel under existing rules, which would effectively kill the industry's disruptive potential. The crypto industry wants light-touch regulation that allows innovation while preventing fraud. Trump's decision to publicly back the latter camp — and to frame the fight in terms of US-China competition — is a bet that digital assets are too strategically important to strangle in the crib.

Whether that bet pays off depends on the Senate. The Clarity Act, which would establish clear rules for when digital assets are securities and when they're commodities, has bipartisan support but faces an uncertain timeline. If it passes, expect Bitcoin to test new highs. If it stalls, the regulatory fog that has hung over crypto for years will thicken, and the rally that began Wednesday could prove short-lived. For now, though, the market is betting that Trump's intervention marks a turning point — not just for Bitcoin, but for the broader question of whether the US will lead or follow in the next era of finance.