Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have had a rough 2026 so far.
BTC itself is currently down more than 18% year-to-date, and other major tokens have performed even worse, such as XRP, which has lost more than 23% of its value since the year began, and Ethereum, which has declined 30%.
But today, it seems like their fortunes may be reversing.
Bitcoin is currently up nearly 5%, and XRP and Ethereum are up over 2% and 3%, respectively. One of the contributing factors to this turnaround may be the comments made by President Trump on his Truth Social network last night.
Here’s what he said and what you need to know.
What’s happened?
Yesterday evening, Trump took a break from focusing on Iran to briefly return to a subject closer to home: cryptocurrency legislation.
In a post on Tuesday evening, Trump railed against America’s big banks, alleging that they were trying to undermine the Genius Act, which passed into law last year, and warned that they should not try to hold the not-yet-passed Clairity Act hostage.
Both acts are designed to bring regulatory certainty to the cryptocurrency market, which could boost investor confidence in the digital tokens as legitimate and relatively safe assets.
The GENIUS Act legislated that stablecoin issuers had to hold $1 in assets for every stablecoin they issued; however, the act forbade stablecoin issuers from offering owners of stablecoins a yield on them—essentially interest on their stablecoin holdings.
The Clairity Act, which has not yet been passed into law, will specify which regulator oversees the broader crypto industry and will determine whether the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) or the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will be the regulator.
The CFTC is generally seen as the more crypto-friendly agency, which could greatly benefit those in the crypto industry.
In addition, the Clairty Act will also legislate whether third parties can offer a yield to owners on their stablecoins. In other words, the Claiity Act may get around the Genius Act ban on issuer-offered stablecoin yields by allowing third parties, such as exchanges like Coinbase, to offer yields.
And this possibility of a yield allowance has banks worried.
Why are banks worried about stablecoin yields?
In short, because a yield on stablecoins could be a direct threat to one of the big banks’ biggest income sources: your savings.
Currently, when you plop your money into a traditional savings account, the bank holds only a small portion of it. They lend the rest out to businesses or individuals who pay them relatively high interest on the loans.
But the banks don’t pass most of this interest on your loaned savings to you. While the bank may receive 5% to 7% interest payments on your loaned savings, they generally give you only about 0.5% to 2% in interest on your savings to you. The banks keep the rest of the profits.
But if third-party exchanges can offer yields, or rewards, on a person’s stablecoin holdings—and those yields are significantly higher, say, in the 4-5% range, the banks worry that many individuals will pull their savings from the banks’ low-interest savings accounts and put them into stablecoin accounts.
If this happens, banks lose your money to lend, and they also lose the interest profit from your loaned savings.
It’s because of this that the banking industry is reportedly fighting aspects of the Clarity Act behind closed doors, and as CoinDesk notes, that is one of the reasons the act is currently being held up.
What did Trump say?
In a post on Truth Social yesterday evening, Trump attacked America’s banks, accusing them of undermining the Genius Act and his administration’s “powerful Crypto Agenda.”
“Americans should earn more money on their money,” Trump wrote. “The Banks are hitting record profits, and we are not going to allow them to undermine our powerful Crypto Agenda that will end up going to China, and other Countries if we don’t get The Clarity Act taken care of.
“The Banks should not be trying to undercut The Genius Act, or hold The Clarity Act hostage,” the president continued. “They need to make a good deal with the Crypto Industry because that’s what’s in best interest of the American People. This Industry cannot be taken from the People of America when it is so close to becoming truly successful.”
In the hours after Trump’s post, major cryptocurrencies started to rise.
Why is crypto rising today?
Trump’s posts have the power to move markets, and it seems that his rant against the banks—and in support of the crypto industry—last night is at least contributing to some of the rise we are seeing in crypto markets this morning.
While the banks have a particular issue with the Clairty Act’s stablecoin yield ambitions, the act has many parts, and its passage should generally be a net positive for the broader crypto industry—whether that’s stablecoins or traditional cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and XRP.
The act may be seen as being more likely to pass the more Trump keeps talking about it.
As of the time of this writing, most major cryptocurrencies are seeing significant gains over the past 24 hours, including:
- Bitcoin: up 4.4% to $70,896
- Ethereum: up 3.1% to $2,050
- BNB: up 3.3% to $650
- XRP: up 2.3% to $1.39
Of course, Trump’s post is likely not the only factor behind crypto’s rise today. The digital tokens have taken a beating in recent weeks, so it’s possible that another contributing factor to their upward swing is investors “buying the dip.”
That dip was exacerbated by asset selloffs primarily related to geopolitical uncertainties since the year began, including America’s attack on Venezuela, Trump’s threat to take Greenland, and now, America’s conflict with Iran.
In any case, crypto investors will be happy to see digital tokens trending upward this morning. Whether they stay up in the days and weeks ahead, on the other hand, is unknowable.