There’s a New Tariff in Town ⭐
Plus: The DOJ walks away from crypto
In this week’s edition of The Context, we talk about tariffs (of course), Pakistan’s push into crypto, and the Department of Justice’s pullback from prosecution.
[Just Tariffic? 🚗]
Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on U.S.-bound imports last week, leading to steep drops for stock and crypto prices. On Wednesday, Trump announced a 90-day pause on some tariffs for most countries, causing markets to partially rebound.
What Media Said 🧑💻:
Before the pause, BTC had lost 10% of its value and ETH was down 20%. Why? “Tariffs have had no direct impact on cryptocurrencies and crypto companies, but these assets were dragged down by a general risk-off sentiment from investors who see them as highly volatile,” explained Catherine McGrath (Fortune).
Actually, the stock market has been more volatile than Bitcoin, said David Pan (Bloomberg), “a rare reversal of historical volatility trends.”
Even so, some of those crypto companies had plans to issue public stock. Remember that IPO Circle announced last week? It may not happen soon after all, reported Corrie Driebusch & Angel Au-Yeung (WSJ). As other fintech firms delay plans due to tariff-related uncertainty, Circle “is now watching anxiously before deciding what to do.”
“Donald Trump is losing the crypto bros over tariff turmoil,” wrote Newsweek in a provocative headline. It cited tariff critiques from some of the crypto class that helped elevate Trump back to the White House, including streamer Adin Ross, pro-BTC economist Saifedean Ammous, and former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan.
PR Perspective 🔎:
If your professional reputation is based on your ability to win deals, the move makes sense: trigger a crisis, force people to come to the table, then “solve” the problem you’ve created by reversing it. But if you’re a crypto company, this level of macroeconomic security makes it harder to instill confidence in your product.
[CZ You in Pakistan 🇵🇰]
Former Binance CEO Changpeng CZ Zhao joined the Pakistan Crypto Council as a strategic advisor.
What Media Said 🧑💻:
Pakistan, which has the world’s fifth-largest population, ranks ninth in crypto adoption, wrote Faseeh Mangi (Bloomberg) last month after the council met for the first time. It hopes to attract outside investment by creating a regulatory framework for crypto trading.
It needs it. Foreign investment in the country fell 45% in one year, wrote Liz Napolitano (Decrypt). Now, the country wants to be the “crypto capital of South Asia.”
CZ will reportedly “guide efforts on crypto infrastructure, education, adoption and other pursuits,” said MK Manoylov (The Block). This could be mutually beneficial. As Pakistan has turned to cryptocurrency, Binance has been pushing into South Asia and the Middle East.
PR Perspective 🔎:
Strategic advisor roles don’t always amount to much actual involvement. But attaching a recognizable name to a project will always get press. And in this case, it helps Pakistan pull attention away from Asian markets further east.
[Avengers, Dissemble? 🛡️]
The Department of Justice disbanded the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team established under President Joe Biden in 2022.
What Media Said 🧑💻:
According to a DOJ memo viewed by CoinDesk, “regulation by prosecution” is over: The result: no more prosecuting exchanges, offline wallets and mixing services for illegal activity committed by their users.
This is a “major shift” in the U.S. government’s approach to crypto crimes and the latest example of the Trump White House “scal[ing] back oversight,” noted MacKenzie Sigalos (CNBC). It happens as the Trump family has started multiple crypto projects.
So, will indicted NCET targets like Tornado Cash co-creator Roman Storm still get prosecuted? Maybe not, said Sander Lutz (Decrypt). The DOJ memo “specifically stated that cases inconsistent with the agency’s new crypto policies should be dismissed.”
PR Perspective 🔎:
This is a Rorschach test for crypto. Some see this as reducing pressure on crypto businesses operating in regulatory gray areas. Others see a signal that the government is uninterested in prosecuting actual crypto fraud.
[Tweet of The Week]
Credit - @coinmamba
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The usual disclaimer: This newsletter collates the main themes and headlines of the week in DeFi/crypto/metaverse/Web3/NFT land and tries to provide unbiased context. It's aimed at anyone who wants to keep an eye on the space. It's put together by a team at YAP and doesn't contain any promotion of our clients (if one is mentioned, we'll flag that).
The team: Founder Samantha Yap and consulting editor Jeff Benson, Andrew Wickerson, Nathalie Larrea, Meghna Dembla, Samvidha Sharma, Trisha Goswami and Shajar Qureshi. Your feedback is, as always, welcome. Ping us at thecontext@yapglobal.com. Old newsletters can be found here.
This newsletter is prepared by YAP Global, an international PR Consultancy focusing on helping cryptocurrency, Decentralised Finance (DeFi) and brands through impactful storytelling. Find out more about us here.