Shares of Coinbase and other cryptocurrency companies surged Wednesday after President Donald Trump threw his weight behind the industry's battle against U.S. banks over yield-bearing stablecoins — adding to momentum the firms were already feeling from bitcoin's bounce.
Coinbase was last up more than 12%. Other digital asset firms such as Strategy and Circle jumped 9% and nearly 6%, respectively. Meanwhile, shares of JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America fell less than 1%.
"The Genius Act is being threatened and undermined by the Banks, and that is unacceptable," Trump said late Tuesday in his social media post. "They need to make a good deal with the Crypto Industry because that's what's in best interest of the American People."
Greenlighting firms to issue dollar-pegged digital tokens that offer interest-like returns has been a sticking point of the Clarity Act, a market structure bill for the crypto industry, in the U.S. Congress.
Crypto companies also got a boost as cryptocurrencies staged a comeback. Bitcoin and ether advanced 5% and 6% on Wednesday, respectively.
