The Daily: Fed chair hints at easing crypto rules for banks as Trump says Powell's termination 'cannot come fast enough' and more

The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter,  The Daily , which comes out on weekday afternoons.

Happy Thursday! Don't forget to join Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor and Bitwise Head of Alpha Strategies Jeff Park for a one-hour webinar this afternoon on "Why the Bitcoin Standard Matters" — hosted by The Block CEO Larry Cermak at 2 p.m. ET!

In today's newsletter, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signals a potential loosening of crypto-related rules for banks, Base faces scrutiny over its "contentcoin" endorsement, JPMorgan says bitcoin has failed to benefit from safe-haven flows backing gold and more.

Meanwhile, in a Thursday features hat trick, energy experts slam a "deeply flawed" Harvard-led study on the environmental impact of the U.S. Bitcoin mining boom, RT Watson and Sarah Wynn take a look at the stablecoin turf wars as Bank of America, Tether and Circle battle to shape U.S. rules and a sweeping DOJ memo signals a turning point — and possible relief — for embattled crypto firms.

Let's get started.

Fed Chair Powell hints at loosening of crypto rules for banks

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled at The Economic Club of Chicago on Wednesday that U.S. banking regulators may ease crypto-related restrictions .

• Powell pointed to "a wave of failures and fraud" over the years but acknowledged that the industry was becoming more mainstream.
• "We took a pretty conservative, other bank regulators took an even more conservative perspective on the guidance and rules we imposed on banks," Powell said. "I think there will be some loosening of that."
• However, he stressed that any policy shift to help foster "appropriate" innovation must preserve consumer protections and maintain the soundness of the banking system.
• Under President Trump, federal agencies like the FDIC and OCC have already started rolling back earlier crypto restrictions for banks.
• Powell also endorsed Congress' ongoing push to regulate stablecoins. "Stablecoins are a digital product that could actually have fairly wide appeal and should contain consumer protections of the typical sorts and transparency, and that's what the Senate and the House are working on," he said.
• Meanwhile, Trump was scathing about Powell in a Thursday Truth Social post, reiterating remarks that the Fed should have lowered rates "long ago," suggesting the chair is "always too late and wrong" and adding that "Powell's termination cannot come fast enough."

'Base is for everyone' sparks token debacle

Coinbase-backed Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain project Base triggered a community backlash after publicly promoting a "Base is for everyone" token that briefly crashed 95% within hours of its launch before later recovering.

• The token was automatically minted on Zora — an onchain social media network that can automatically convert posts into tokens — not officially launched or sold by Base, though critics say the team's messaging misled traders.
• Base's endorsement on X appeared to fuel the token's rapid surge to a market cap of over $17 million until the subsequent crash wiped out over $15 million in theoretical value. The token's market cap is currently sitting at around $10 million, per DEX Screener.
• Analysts from Lookonchain revealed that three wallets bought large amounts of the token prior to the endorsement and later sold, making a combined profit of around $666,000.
• Despite defending the experiment as part of its "contentcoin" vision and including legal disclaimers about entertainment-only use, Base faced criticism for poor communication and accusations of enabling a "pump and dump" scenario.

JPMorgan says bitcoin has failed to benefit from safe-haven flows backing gold

JPMorgan analysts said gold, which recently hit all-time highs above $3,350 per ounce, is attracting strong safe-haven flows , with investors piling into both ETFs and futures amid the current macro uncertainty.

• However, bitcoin is seeing the opposite trend, witnessing three consecutive months of ETF outflows and falling futures market interest, the analysts led by Managing Director Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote in a report.
• Gold ETFs took in over $21 billion in Q1, led by surging demand from China and Hong Kong, while bitcoin saw a cumulative $1 billion in net outflows.
• JPMorgan concluded that bitcoin's much-touted "digital gold" narrative is weakening as gold continues to dominate the debasement trade.

US spot Bitcoin ETFs see $170 million exit, ending two-day inflow streak

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw a further $169.9 million in net outflows on Wednesday, snapping a brief two-day inflow streak totaling $78 million.

• Fidelity's FBTC and Ark Invest/21Shares' ARKB drove the exits, accounting for nearly all the losses with over $113 million in outflows each.
• However, BlackRock's IBIT and several other Bitcoin ETFs helped offset the damage, posting modest inflows.
• Meanwhile, U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs continued their losing streak, logging a total of $12 million in net outflows for the seventh straight day.

Eliza Labs unveils no-code AI agent launchpad auto.fun

Eliza Labs has rolled out auto.fun , a no-code AI agent launchpad that lets anyone build and deploy autonomous agents capable of executing tasks across social media platforms, DeFi apps and other web3 services — without requiring technical skills.

• The platform features a "fairer than fair" tokenomics model, blending bonding curves with fair launch principles to align incentives and help mitigate sniping, the team said.
• Eliza Labs is also the creator of the $2.5 billion-valued elizaOS open-source protocol for autonomous AI agents. Formerly ai16z, elizaOS rebranded in January to avoid confusion with the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, commonly known as a16z.

In the next 24 hours

• Several global markets are closed in observance of Good Friday.
• U.S. FOMC member Mary Daly is scheduled to speak at 11 a.m. ET tomorrow.
• Official Trump, Melania Meme, Fasttoken, Immutable and Moca Network are all set for token unlocks.

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