Morning Minute: Crypto Rebounds After Trump’s TACOs on Tariffs – Decrypt

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack.

GM!

Today’s top news:

• Crypto majors rebound after Trump walks back tariffs; BTC at $90k
• Bitgo announces IPO valuing the company at $2.1B, live today
• Senate Ag Committee will move forward with Clarity Act markup next week
• Mortgage lender NewRez explores using BTC & ETH as collateral
• Solana’s SKR token soars 250% to $400M+ fdv in 2nd day of trading

📈 Crypto Rips After Trump Walks Back Tariffs

Markets breathe again after a Greenland-driven macro scare appears to be over.

📌 What Happened

Crypto markets rebounded sharply after President Trump reversed course on proposed tariffs tied to negotiations over Greenland, easing fears of a renewed global trade shock.

BitcoinBitcoin climbed back to $90,000, recovering from a sharp selloff earlier in the day that drove it below $88,000.

EthereumEthereum and Solana followed, with majors bouncing alongside broader risk assets.

The reversal triggered violent liquidations both ways, topping $1B in a 24-hour window, with the bulk coming from short positions caught offside by the rebound.

As crypto ripped higher, traditional safe havens moved the other way.

Gold and silver fell from new ATHs, reversing gains that had built up during the tariff-driven “sell America” trade earlier in the week.

🧠 Why It Matters

This episode reinforced how crypto is still trading as a risk-on asset class as opposed to a safe haven store of value.

The good news is that the macro picture for 2026 is still largely positive, and another self-inflicted tariff scare selloff is now largely behind us.

The bad news is, eventually the macro risk picture will turn south and Bitcoin has failed to materialize or match gold in any way as a flight to safety asset.

We love the pitch of Bitcoin as digital gold, but that narrative is still far from reality.

Perhaps it’s because of the looming quantum risk (a longer story for another time).

Perhaps it’s because of the US government’s effective adoption of crypto and it now being lumped in with the America trade.

Or perhaps Bitcoin continues to underperform simply because there are more sellers than buyers.

Only time will tell.

But at least our near-term outlook just got brighter…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

A few headlines that stood out:

• Crypto majors are green and rebounding after Trump pivoted on EU tariffs; BTC +2% at $89,900; ETH +2% at $2,995, SOL +2% at $130; XRP +3% to $1.94
• CC (+15%), SKY (+11%) and SAND (+10%) led top movers
• Crypto markets saw more than $1B in liquidations as Bitcoin rebounded sharply after President Trump signaled a retreat from proposed tariff measures
• Vitalik Buterin proposed native DVT staking to strengthen Ethereum security and decentralization, signaling continued protocol-level experimentation
• Bitgo announced its IPO at $18 per share, valuing it at ~$2B
• The Senate Ag Committee confirmed that its version of the Clarity Act will move forward to markup next week despite lack of bipartisan support
• Mortgage lender Newrez explored counting Bitcoin and Ethereum toward mortgage qualification, applying discounted valuations to account for crypto volatility
• Hong Kong regulators moved to issue stablecoin licenses under a new framework that imposes strict compliance, reserve, and operational requirements
• Russian courts ruled that cryptocurrencies qualify as property under law, setting a legal precedent for future criminal and civil cases
• President Trump said he hopes to sign the crypto market structure bill soon, despite ongoing legislative roadblocks and disagreements over regulatory scope
• Saga’s EVM blockchain halted operations following a $7M hack, with stolen funds bridged to Ethereum
• Steak ’n Shake rolled out a Bitcoin bonus program for hourly employees, allowing workers to earn a portion of compensation in BTC

Restaurant franchise Steak ‘n Shake is deepening its embrace of Bitcoin, teaming with publicly traded Bitcoin services firm Fold to offer a BTC bonus to hourly employees.
Using Fold’s infrastructure, the restaurant will pay employees a bonus of $0.21 per hour, paid in BTC, which will vest in full after two years. 
“Starting March 1, Steak n Shake will give all hourly employees at its company-operated restaurants a Bitcoin bonus of $0.21 for every hour worked,” the restaurant brand posted on X. “…

In Corporate Treasuries / ETFs

• The BTC ETFs saw $709M in net outflows on Monday; ETH ETFs saw $287M in outflows

In Memes / Onchain Movers

• Meme majors were green rebounding 2-3%; Doge +3%, Shiba +1%, PEPE +3%, TRUMP +1%, Bonk +3%, Pengu +4%, SPX +3%, WIF +3% and Fartcoin +3%
• PIPPIN (+24% to $400M) and WhiteWhale (+80% to $58M) led top onchain movers; SOL +58% and Testicle +40% also had big moves
• Ralph fell 68% to $5M after the dev sold 2%

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

• Solana’s SKR token soared 260% on Wednesday to $420M fdv
• The ETHGasFoundation GWEI token jumped 40% to $250M post TGE
• Justin Sun invested $8M in DeFi project River
• Sentient announced its TGE for tomorrow Jan 23
• Neynar acquired Farcaster, with Dan Romero and team transitioning over the social media app and Clanker to the new owners
• Solana added access to more than 200 tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs via Ondo Finance
• Nansen launched an integrated AI-powered trading product on Solana and Base

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

• NFT leaders were mostly green; Punks even at 27.24 ETH, Pudgy +3% at 4.91 ETH, and BAYC +3% at 5.98 ETH; Hypurr +1% at 479 HYPE
• CloneX (+22%) and Project Aeon (+13%) led notable top movers
• A Cowboy CryptoPunk sold for 107.5 ETH