Bitcoin could hit $250,000 as early as this year with technology giants such as Microsoft and Apple entering the cryptocurrency space, industry veteran and founder of the Cardano blockchain Charles Hoskinson told CNBC.

Crypto markets have been hammered amid a sell-off of risk assets stoked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” on countries across the world. Bitcoin traded below the $77,000 mark on over the last week, but on Wednesday spiked above $82,000 as Trump dropped levies to 10% for 90 days for most countries to allow for trade negotiations.

Sill, bitcoin has fallen far from its more than $100,000 record high hit in January — even as industry players remain bullish on the cryptocurrency.

Hoskinson, who has been in the crypto industry for more than a decade and helped co-found the Ethereum blockchain, said he believes bitcoin will reach $250,000 “by the end of this year or next year.”

“What will happen is that the tariff stuff will be a dud, and that people will realize that the world is willing to negotiate, and it’s really just U.S. versus China. And a lot of people will side with us. Some people side with China,” Hoskinson told CNBC during a recording of the “Beyond The Valley” podcast on Tuesday.

“The markets will stabilize a little bit, and they’ll get used to the new normal, and then the Fed[eral Reserve] will lower interest rates, and then you’ll have a lot of fast, cheap money, and then it’ll pour into crypto.”

Hoskinson, who is also the founder of Input Output, or IOHK, made his comments before Trump’s temporary pause on full-blown reciprocal tariffs.

Hoskinson highlighted a number of reasons that could drive bitcoin to that price.

First, he pointed to there currently being more users of cryptocurrencies. Owners of cryptocurrencies rose 13% year-on-year in 2024 to 659 million people, according to Crypto.com.

Secondly, Hoskinson said that the geopolitical situation is moving from a “rules-based international order to a great powers conflict.”

“If Russia wants to invade Ukraine, it invades Ukraine. If China wants to invade Taiwan, it’s going to do that. So treaties don’t really work so well, and global business doesn’t really work so well there. So your only option for globalization is crypto,” Hoskinson said.

Third, Hoskinson said that there will be new stablecoin legislation and the Digital Asset Market Structure and Investor Protection Act will also likely get passed, which will help the crypto market. The law aims to address the regulatory treatment of various digital assets. Both bills are currently working their way through the U.S. legislative process.

Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency pegged to a fiat currency but backed with real-world assets.

The stablecoin bill in particular could lead the “Magnificent 7” companies to begin adopting the assets too, according to Hoskinson. The Magnificent 7 is a group of seven mega-cap technology stocks including Apple, Microsoft and Amazon. Stablecoins could be used by these technology giants to pay workers in different countries or even facilitate small transactions on their platforms which ordinarily would be expensive on existing payments rail, Hoskinson said. Stablecoins can be sent quickly from one wallet to another across the world.

Hoskinson said the crypto market will be “reignited” by these factors, in particular the passing of the regulation and the adoption of stablecoins by the Magnificent 7.

“[The crypto market] will stall for probably the next three to five months, and then you’ll have a huge wave of speculative interest come, probably [in] August or September, into the markets, and that’ll carry through probably another six to 12 month,” Hoskinson said.

– The conversation with Charles Hoskinson will be published in full as an episode of CNBC’s Beyond The Valley podcast soon.

Amazon delayed the launch of its Kuiper internet satellites due to poor weather conditions on Wednesday night.

A United Launch Alliance rocket carrying 27 Kuiper satellites was set to lift off from a launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, but ULA said it couldn’t continue countdown operations as “stubborn cumulus clouds” and heavy winds pushed the launch outside its planned window, according to a livestream.

“Weather is observed and forecast NO GO for liftoff within the remaining launch window at Cape Canaveral this evening,” ULA said. The company said it will provide a new launch date at a later point.

Six years ago Amazon unveiled its plans to build a constellation of internet satellites in low Earth orbit, a region of space that’s within 1,200 miles of Earth’s surface. The company aims to sell high-speed, low-latency internet to consumers, corporations and governments, offering connections through square-shaped terminals. Commercial service is expected to come online later this year.

Amazon is racing to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink, the dominant player in the market, with 8,000 satellites already up in the air. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk now has a central role in the White House as one of President Donald Trump’s top advisors, overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Since Musk took on the role, Starlink’s footprint has increased within the federal government.

The clock is ticking for Amazon to meet a deadline set by the Federal Communications Commission, which requires the company to have half of its total constellation, or 1,618 satellites, up in the air by July 2026.

Once it completes its first launch, Amazon expects to ramp up its production, processing and deployment rates. It’s begun prepping satellites for its next mission, which will also hitch a ride on one of ULA’s Atlas V rockets.

WATCH: Amazon launches Project Kuiper

Google has reversed a policy forbidding employees from discussing its antitrust woes following a settlement with workers. 

The company sent a notice to U.S. employees last week saying it rescinded “the rule requesting that workers refrain from commenting internally or externally about the on-going antitrust lawsuit filed against Google by the U.S. Department of Justice,” according to correspondence viewed by CNBC.

Google settled with the Alphabet Workers Union, which represents company employees and contractors, according to the U.S. National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB. The settlement and policy reversal mark a major victory for Google staffers, who have seen increased censorship on subjects such as politics, litigation and defense contracts by the search giant since 2019. 

The U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google in 2020, alleging that the company has kept its share of the general search market by creating strong barriers to entry and a feedback loop that sustained its dominance.

Google said it “will not announce or maintain overbroad rules or policies that restrict your right to comment, internally or externally, about whether and/or how the on-going antitrust lawsuit filed against Google by the U.S. Department of Justice may impact your terms and conditions of employment,” according to last week’s notice. 

The policy change was first reported by The New York Times. 

The reversal comes as Google and the DOJ prepare to return to the courtroom for their scheduled remedies trial on April 21. The DOJ has said it is considering structural remedies, including breaking up Google’s Chrome web browser, which it argues gives Google an unfair advantage in the search market.

A U.S. District Court judge ruled in August that Google illegally held a monopoly in the search market. Google said it would appeal the decision. The DOJ doubled down on its calls for a breakup in a March filing.

Following the August ruling, Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs, sent a companywide email directing employees to “refrain from commenting on this case, both internally and externally.”

Shortly after, the Alphabet Workers Union filed an unfair labor practice charge against Google with the NLRB. The union alleged that Walker’s message was an “overly broad directive” and said that a breakup could impact workers’ roles. The NLRB in March ruled that Google must allow workers to speak on such topics.

Google’s settlement states that the National Labor Relations Act gives employees the right to form, join or assist a union. It notes that Google is not rescinding its prior clarification that states employees may not speak on behalf of Google on this matter without approval from the company. The settlement also adds that Google will not interfere with, restrain or coerce workers in the exercise of their rights.

Despite the settlement, spokesperson Courtenay Mencini said Google did not agree with the NLRB’s ruling. 

“To avoid lengthy litigation, we agreed to remind employees that they have the right to talk about their employment, as they’ve always been free to and regularly do,” Mencini said in a statement to CNBC.

The settlement by Google comes at a “crucial moment” ahead of the remedies trial, the Alphabet Worker’s Union said Monday. 

“We think the potential remedies from this trial could have impact on our wages, working conditions and terms of employment,” said Stephen McMurtry, communications chair of the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA, told CNBC.

WATCH: Google’s cloud strategy amid tariff turmoil