Bitcoin (BTC) rose to nearly $82,000 early Thursday to usher gains across the crypto market after a U-turn on tariffs led to relief in broader equity markets on Wednesday, prompted by President Donald Trump changing course on a steep tariff levy globally.

XRP and ether (ETH) led gains among crypto majors with a 12% surge, while Cardano’s ADA, BNB Chain’s BNB, Solana’s SOL and dogecoin (DOGE) zoomed as much as 10%. Overall market capitalization rose 6%. The broad-based CoinDesk 20 (CD20) showed a 7% increase.

Crypto-tracked futures showed short liquidations of over $350 million, the highest since early March, which helped ease losses from Monday and Tuesday as bitcoin dove to nearly $75,000 at one point.

Such liquidation events often present a market buying opportunity, as CoinDesk noted on Monday, as they can signal an overstretched market that indicates a price correction has occurred, among other factors.

Elsewhere, Bittensor’s TAO, Sonic’s S and Flare’s FLARE were up as much as 30% to lead gains among midcaps, or tokens below a $5 billion market cap.

Thursday’s jump came as Trump paused higher tariffs on all countries, except China, where he increased the levy to 125%, amid mounting concerns from global leaders and recession fears. Countries that were hit with the higher, reciprocal duties that went into effect Wednesday will now be taxed at the earlier 10% baseline rate applied to other nations.

U.S. stocks staged their best rally since 2008. The S&P 500 Index soared 9.5%, rebounding from bear-market territory, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 surged 12%.

As such, traders continue to watch developments for cues on positioning amid the uncertainty.

“The market is rallying in response to anticipation that most trading partners will negotiate trade deals with the US, avoiding a full-fledged trade war,” Jeff Mei, COO at BTSE, told CoinDesk in a Telegram message. “That being said, continued tariffs against China and vice versa will lead to a realignment of global trade that could drastically change how the world operates. We remain cautious until we see the consequences of this play out over the coming months.”

Jupiter Zheng, partner at HashKey Capital, signalled a possibility of markets reaching a local bottom.

“The upswing was fueled by optimism that the worst may be behind us. While potential headwinds remain, such as retaliatory tariffs from China in response to Trump’s 125% increase, the start of negotiations with other countries offers some hope,” he said in an email.

“As US regulators continue to streamline regulatory hurdles and implement more favorable policies, it’s possible that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have reached a bottom, assuming no unexpected surprises emerge. The industry may not have fully priced in these developments, leaving room for potential growth,” Zheng added.

Remember the old days when calling or sending a message via text outside the country cost money? With the help of modern messaging apps like WhatsApp, paying for cross-border calls and texts is now obsolete.

For money transfers, stablecoins might do just that: democratize the payments industry by eliminating historical gatekeepers, says venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

«Just as WhatsApp disrupted costly international phone calls, blockchain payments and stablecoins are transforming global money transfers,» the firm said in a blog post on Wednesday.

The current global payment infrastructure is a complex web involving points of sale, payment processors, acquiring banks, issuing banks, correspondent banks, foreign exchanges, and card networks.

Read more: What Is a Stablecoin?

To make matters more difficult, each of these intermediaries charges fees and introduces delays, making international transactions cumbersome. For instance, a16z says remittance fees can reach up to 10% — just like cross-border calls or text used to be restrictive before instant messaging apps came into play.

Enter blockchain and stablecoins — cryptocurrencies pegged to assets like the U.S. dollar.

«Stablecoins offer a clean-slate alternative. Instead of stitching together clunky, costly, and outdated systems, stablecoins flow seamlessly on top of global blockchains,» the blog post said.

«Already, stablecoins are slashing the cost of remittances: Sending $200 from the U.S. to Columbia using traditional methods will cost you $12.13; with stablecoins, it costs $0.01.»

And, it’s not just remittances where stablecoins are eliminating inefficiencies; this could help boost B2B payments on a massive scale, too. A16z uses business transactions from Mexico to Vietnam as an example, which take three to seven days to process and cost anywhere between $14-to-$150 per $1000 transacted. These pass through as many as five intermediaries along the way, each of which takes a cut.

The adoption of stablecoin could make such transactions nearly free and instant, it says.

Some corporations have taken notice, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX is already using stablecoins to manage their corporate treasuries to shield itself from FX volatility.

So, it shouldn’t surprise anyone to see that the total market cap of stablecoins has passed $200 billion or that the annualized transaction value of stablecoins in 2024 hit $15.6 trillion — roughly 119% and 200% that of Visa and Mastercard, respectively.

However, the rise of stablecoins isn’t without challenges.

Regulatory bodies have scrutinized their use, making it «incredibly difficult» to bridge traditional finance to stablecoins, said a16z. The landscape is now finally evolving, as policymakers are now actively shaping rules to recognize and regulate stablecoins in the U.S. «A forthcoming bill clarifying this regulation could pave the way for even broader adoption and integration into the global financial system,» the blog said.

With the rapidly changing landscape for finance and crypto becoming more mainstream, stablecoins could become the transformative force that revolutionizes the future of money.

«Just as WhatsApp disrupted costly international phone calls, blockchain payments and stablecoins are transforming global money transfers,» added a16z.

Read more: U.S. House Committee Advances Stablecoin Bill, While Dems Warn of Trump Conflicts

Paul Atkins is just one oath away from taking over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as President Donald Trump’s pick to oversee the nation’s securities sector — including whatever role the crypto sector plays in that.

A swearing-in ceremony will soon put the former SEC commission in charge of the high-profile regulator — a matter cheered on by the digital assets sector that sees him as a strong ally after his significant background advising crypto firms as a financial-services consultant in Washington. Atkins’ Senate confirmation was easily cleared on Wednesday in a 52-44 vote.

The longtime figure in U.S. financial policy — both in government and as an outside adviser — was generally expected to easily move through confirmation, though the Senate Banking Committee approved Atkins along party lines, with all the panel’s Democrats opposing the nominee.

Atkins’ confirmation took the usual months to emerge from the Senate, and in the time between the departure of predecessor Gary Gensler and Atkins’ arrival, Trump’s interim agency chief, Mark Uyeda, carried out an ambitious and rapidly deployed crypto overhaul. The SEC has thrown out almost all of its high-profile digital assets enforcement actions, and its staff quickly outlined a number of segments of the industry that it considers outside its jurisdiction — including some stablecoins, memecoins (such as the president’s own $TRUMP) and proof-of-work mining.

Many of the areas in which the agency has already demonstrated policy shifts overlap with Trump’s family crypto businesses, including the family’s memecoins and its ties to World Liberty Financial, which has pursued its own stablecoin. Atkins will be taking over those issues to apply permanent standards, potentially directed by future legislation that’s now a priority in Congress.

Atkins’ tenure will begin with an incomplete commission, which is meant to have five members and whose sole Democrat — Caroline Crenshaw — is occupying an already expired term. The White House hasn’t yet moved to fill the two Democratic positions on the commission.