sUSD, ETH, BTC

Affected by the Good Friday and Easter holidays, the U.S., Hong Kong, European and Australian stocks are closed today

The cryptocurrency market is showing signs of recovery as major coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum demonstrate resilience despite external pressures.

In a report by JPMorgan Chase, it was noted that in the context of the global trade war launched by Trump, investors are more inclined to invest their funds in gold rather than Bitcoin. However, the report also acknowledged that the sustained rise in the price of gold could spur further gains in Bitcoin.

"In the present environment of a global trade war launched by Trump, investors are more likely to allocate their funds to traditional assets such as gold over cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. This is despite the fact that, historically, whenever gold rises, Bitcoin will break through its all-time highs a few months later," the report stated.

According to Bitcoin mining data from Blockware Solutions, the BTC hash rate reached a new all-time high of 480.86 exahash per second (EH/s) on Wednesday, while the mining difficulty also hit a record high of 58.8. The hash rate measures the total computing power of the Bitcoin network, while mining difficulty adjusts the complexity of mining blocks to maintain an average time of 10 minutes for new blocks to be mined.

"Usually, when a new all-time high is reached, there will be about a 100-150 day lag for Bitcoin to follow," said Joe Consorti, head of growth at Theya. "We can expect to see Bitcoin reach a new all-time high sometime between Q3 and Q4."

Transaction costs on the Ethereum network have dropped to their lowest level in five years, currently around $0.168 per transaction, according to Santiment data.

"As the fees have decreased, we've also seen a decrease in the number of people sending ETH and interacting with smart contracts, which is essentially a supply and demand system," explained Brian Quinlivan, marketing director at Santiment. "When network activity decreases, users do not need to bid high fees to speed up transaction confirmation, hence the average fee decreases."

From a trading perspective, low fees may hinder price rebounds, but traders seem to be patiently waiting for global economic uncertainty to pass before increasing the frequency of Ethereum and altcoin transactions.

In other news, crypto analyst Ali Martinez said that the TD Sequential indicator (TD Sequential) issued a buy signal on the Bitcoin weekly chart. If the price of Bitcoin continues to close above $86,000, it may push its price further up to $90,000 or even $95,000.

On the regulatory front, Slovenia is planning to impose a 25% tax on personal cryptocurrency profits from January 1, 2026. The proposal is currently awaiting public feedback and parliamentary approval.

The new rules will apply to profits from exchanging cryptocurrencies for fiat currency or using them to purchase goods and services, while exchanges between cryptocurrencies will remain tax-free.

At the same time, Panama City Mayor Mayer Mizrachi Matalon announced that the city government has approved the use of Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDC and USDT to pay taxes, fees, tickets and licenses.

Through cooperation with partner banks, cryptocurrencies will be converted into US dollars when paid.

Moreover, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell himself said at the Economic Club of Chicago that banks' rules related to cryptocurrencies may be "relaxed" in the future, and despite a wave of failures and frauds in the cryptocurrency field over the years, the field is becoming more mainstream. His statements suggest a potential shift in the Fed's stance on cryptocurrencies.

On the macroeconomic side, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump is considering firing Fed Chairman Powell, but former Fed Governor Walsh and Treasury Secretary Bensont both oppose the move.

The report also mentioned that Trump is planning to announce a reduction in tariffs on Friday, aiming to decrease the trade deficit and create jobs in the United States.

The Trump administration's tariffs and immigration policies may drag down the economy this year, but overall, the U.S. economy is expected to continue growing, albeit at a slower pace.

It is worth noting that Trump said on Thursday that the tariff increase between the United States and China may be coming to an end, suggesting that he may seek to reduce the level of tariffs.

This news pushed international oil and copper prices to rebound, and Asia-Pacific stock markets generally rose.

Key Data (as of 12:00 HKT on April 18)

* Bitcoin : $84,600.27 (-9.56% year-to-date), daily spot volume $18.584 billion

* Ethereum : $1,579.14 (-52.59% year-to-date), with a daily spot volume of $9.99 billion

* Fear and corruption index : 33 (panic)

* Average GAS : BTC 1.