Anthony Pompliano Praises Trump's Tariffs As Catalyst For Crypto Innovation

Founder & CEO of Professional Capital Management, Anthony Pompliano has praised the new tariffs introduced by President Donald Trump on Wednesday, arguing that they highlight the inefficiencies of traditional financial systems and bolster the case for decentralized finance solutions like Bitcoin BTC/USD.

What Happened: Speaking on a podcast, Pompliano linked the tariffs to broader economic shifts, while the crypto market faced significant declines amid fears of a global trade war sparked by the new policy.

Pompliano emphasized that the tariffs underscore the vulnerabilities of centralized banking systems, which he claims have been weaponized against businesses for political reasons.

He recounted the Trump family's experience with banks like Capital One, Chase, Bank of America and First Republic, which canceled their accounts during Donald Trump's presidency, a move he described as "political lawfare."

This experience, shared by Eric Trump on the same broadcast, drove the family to embrace cryptocurrency.

"I realized the power that these banks had, and I realized how they were exerting that power, and they were canceling businesses all over our country," Eric Trump said, explaining his shift toward crypto.

The tariffs, unveiled by Trump in a White House Rose Garden ceremony, impose a "reciprocal tariff rate" set at 50% of what trading partners charge the U.S., targeting countries like Vietnam, Cambodia and Sri Lanka with the steepest increases, while sparing Canada and Mexico.

Trump called the move "our Declaration of Economic Independence," stating, "April 2nd will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn."

However, the announcement triggered a sharp decline in crypto markets on Wednesday, with Bitcoin plunging to $82,400 levels from its all-time high of $108,786.

Major altcoins like Solana SOL/USD, BNB BNB/USD and Dogecoin DOGE/USD also traded down 8-10% after the announcement.

Also Read: AVAX To Outperform Bitcoin, Ethereum, Reaching $250 By 2029: Standard Chartered

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Why It Matters: Despite the market downturn, Pompliano sees the tariffs as a validation of crypto's potential to address systemic financial issues.

He argued that blockchain technology offers a more efficient alternative to traditional banking, which he criticized for its outdated practices.

"There's not a single thing that those banks do that can't be done better, cheaper, more efficiently, faster on blockchain," Pompliano stated, highlighting Bitcoin's role as a store of value and a hedge against real estate.

The broader economic context also includes concerns about the rising costs of materials for AI data centers, as noted by Tory Green, CEO of io.net, a global GPU-power aggregator.

Green dismissed concerns about rising costs for AI infrastructure caused by tariffs. Instead, he argued that the U.S. should prioritize tapping into idle computing resources rather than building new data centers.

"We're significantly underutilizing the resources we already have," Green said. "The real problem isn't cost—it's inefficiency. We don't need more concrete; we need better connectivity."

Green pointed to benchmarks showing that idle computers still consume up to 60% of the energy used by public cloud systems, and cited a recent MIT Technology Review report showing that 80% of China's AI data centers currently sit idle.

Meanwhile, the Trump family has deepened its involvement in the crypto space, with Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. announcing their investment in a Bitcoin mining company, American Bitcoin, which aims to merge with Trumps American Data Centers to become the world's largest crypto miner and establish its own Bitcoin reserve.

Eric Trump also highlighted the success of their venture, World Liberty Financial, which recently launched a stablecoin, reflecting their belief in crypto's transformative potential for the U.S. economy.

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