In a major development, the US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a joint stipulation with defendant Gemini Trust Company, LLC to terminate its long-running civil enforcement action with prejudice, effectively ending the three-year legal battle over the Gemini Earn crypto lending program.
In January 2023, the SEC instituted one of the most controversial crypto-related lawsuits against Gemini Trust Company and its partner, Genesis Global Capital LLC, accusing both parties of illegally offering and selling unregistered securities through the Gemini Earn lending program, a financial product that operated between 2021 and 2022, which allowed customers to lend crypto for interest at 7.4% per annum.
Following the FTX crash in 2022, Genesis, which had a significant financial exposure to the now-defunct crypto exchange, halted withdrawals on the Gemini Earn Program, effectively locking up $940 million in investor assets. Since then, a series of events has unfolded, including Genesis entering bankruptcy proceedings, and through that process, all Earn investors ultimately recovered 100 percent of their crypto assets in kind. In addition, Gemini has settled related matters with state and federal regulators, paying over $50 million in civil fines.
In the joint stipulation filed this week, the SEC noted that its decision to seek dismissal “in the exercise of its discretion” took into account the full investor recovery and those regulatory settlements. The dismissal is with prejudice, preventing the SEC from re-filing the same claims, and represents the formal end of one of the most high-profile enforcement actions in the US crypto industry.
The dismissal of the Gemini case comes amid a broader recalibration of the US crypto regulatory approach under the Donald Trump administration. Several high-profile SEC actions against major platforms, involving Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance, have been dropped or paused, reflecting a shift from a forceful regulatory approach seen under the former chairman, Gary Gensler.
At the same time, Congress and the White House continue to pursue pro-crypto legislative and policy initiatives. In July 2025, US President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law, a landmark bill establishing a comprehensive federal framework for stablecoins, aimed at boosting consumer protection and supporting broader adoption of digital assets.
Alongside the GENIUS Act, the highly anticipated Clarity Act, passed by the US House, aims to delineate regulatory responsibilities between agencies like the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) based on how digital assets function. The US Senate Agriculture Committee is set to observe a markup session of the bill on January 27, indicating steady progress despite recent concerning events, including public outrage by Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong and the Banking Committee’s continued postponement of its own hearing session.
Crypto analyst CryptoBull has highlighted targets that XRP could reach as it eyes double digits. The analyst is confident the altcoin could reach these targets, noting that current price action is mirroring the previous bull run.
In an X post, Crypto Bull stated that the next impulse will take XRP to $11 and that the last wave will take the altcoin to $70. This came as he noted that the price pattern is mirroring the previous bull run, with the only difference being time, which he claimed makes sense, as the altcoin needs longer accumulation to reach higher prices.
The analyst also indicated that it could take a year of accumulation for XRP to reach the $11 price target, meaning the last wave to $70 could take much longer. This prediction comes despite the current decline in the crypto market, with XRP trading below the psychological $2 price level.
Despite the current bearish sentiment, crypto analyst CW has also declared that the XRP rally is about to begin and that the road to $21.5 is just the beginning. He noted that this is the Phase 4 peak while the first goal is for the altcoin to break its current all-time high (ATH).
His accompanying chart showed that XRP could reach this $21 target by year-end. Meanwhile, there is the possibility of the altcoin rallying above $100 in the next Phase 1, which could happen next year. Crypto Pundit X Finance Bull recently highlighted the CLARITY Act and Trump’s tariffs as factors that could boost XRP’s demand and lead to higher prices for the altcoin.
He expects the CLARITY Act to boost XRP’s demand, especially with Trump’s Crypto Czar predicting that more banks will enter into crypto once the bill passes. X Finance Bull predicts that XRP will be the token of choice for these banks based on his belief that Ripple will provide the rails to onboard them.
Crypto analyst XForce revealed in an X post that XRP is breaking out of the largest 6+ year triangle in history, yet people are calling it a fakeout. He added that he is not a permabull or permanbear on the altcoin but that he follows trends and plays macro breakout patterns. His accompanying chart indicated that XRP was on the verge of a move to the upside, with a potential rally above $11.50.
On the lower timeframe, crypto analyst Chart Nerd stated that XRP is currently breaking out of a two-week falling wedge structure. He noted that this is a bullish reversal pattern that could send the altcoin back to $2.40 in the short term, as this is where the wedge formed. He highlighted a key resistance between $2.13 and $2.20, which the altcoin will need to break above to confirm a reversal.
At the time of writing, the XRP price is trading at around $1.92, up in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has pushed back against growing scrutiny surrounding his relationship with President Donald Trump, saying his ties to the president and his family have been widely misunderstood following Trump’s decision to grant him a pardon last year.
Attention on Zhao intensified after President Trump issued a pardon in October 2025, a move that prompted renewed criticism from Democratic lawmakers and fueled questions about Binance’s alleged political and business connections.
Addressing the controversy in a recent interview with CNBC, Zhao said claims of a business relationship with the Trump family are inaccurate. “There’s no business relationship whatsoever,” Zhao stated. The former executive added that the narrative surrounding the pardon and Binance’s alleged ties to Trump had been “misconstrued.”
Much of the scrutiny centers on Binance’s connection to the Trump-linked decentralized finance (DeFi) venture World Liberty Financial (WLFI).
That connection traces back to a $2 billion investment made in March 2025 by MGX, a state‑owned firm based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. MGX invested in Binance using USD1, a stablecoin created by World Liberty Financial.
Zhao emphasized that the payment method was chosen by the investor, not Binance. “MGX is the investor. They choose USD1,” he said. “My request to them was they pay us in crypto. I don’t want to deal with banks, really.”
According to Zhao, the use of the venture’s USD1 stablecoin has been wrongly interpreted as evidence of a deeper relationship. “Many people misconstrued that,” he added.
In a statement, WLFI spokesperson David Wachsman said the company played no role in the pardon process. “As we have stated many times, WLFI is not a political organization and had zero role in the pardon process,” Wachsman said. “To imply otherwise is dangerous and false.”
Trump himself downplayed any personal connection in a November interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes. “I have no idea who he is,” the president said of Zhao. Trump added that he had been told Zhao was “a victim, just like I was and just like many other people, of a vicious, horrible group of people in the Biden administration.”
Additional attention has focused on Binance’s lobbying efforts in Washington. NBC News reported during the week of the pardon that Binance had hired Checkmate Government Relations, a lobbying firm led by Charles McDowell, who is a friend of Donald Trump Jr.
According to disclosures, the firm was paid $450,000 to lobby the White House and the Treasury Department on matters including “executive relief” and digital asset‑related financial services policy.
Zhao denied that any lobbying effort was connected to his pardon. “There is a lot of media saying that there is some deal in place to get me the pardon,” he told CNBC in Davos. “As far as I know, that does not exist at all.”
Binance’s former CEO also said he has never spoken directly with President Trump. “The closest that I got to him was today when he was doing the Board of Peace session,” Zhao said. “I was in the audience, about 30 to 40 feet away from him.”
At the time of writing, Binance Coin (BNB) was trading at $893, having recorded a 4% drop over the previous week. However, it is one of the few cryptocurrencies to have retained gains year-to-date, with an increase of 30% in that time.
Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com
A private-sector tech leader tapped by the Trump administration to improve the federal government’s online presence is setting an ambitious goal — overhauling about 27,000 dot-gov websites.
Joe Gebbia, chief design officer of the United States and co-founder of Airbnb, said in a podcast interview Tuesday that the White House set out this goal when President Donald Trump signed an executive order last summer creating the National Design Studio.
“We’re fixing all of them,” Gebbia said Tuesday on the American Optimist show. Many of the federal government’s websites, he added, “look like they’re from the mid-90s.”
Gebbia began working with the Department of Government Efficiency in the early days of the Trump administration. At the Office of Personnel Management, he oversaw a long-anticipated modernization of the federal employee retirement system.
The National Design Studio so far has launched several new websites that serve as landing pages for some of the Trump administration’s policies on immigration, law enforcement and prescription drug prices.
As for next steps, Gebbia said his office will deliver “major updates,” including a refresh of existing federal websites, by July 4.
“It’s working, because we are really pulling in veterans of Silicon Valley from a talent perspective, I think it’s working because this president really deeply cares about how things look, because he knows that esthetics matter,” he said.
The White House estimates that only 6% of federal websites are rated “good” for use on mobile devices. About 45% of federal websites are not mobile-friendly.
As part of the President’s Management Agenda, the Trump administration is looking to leverage technology to “deliver faster, more secure services” and “reduce the number of confusing government websites. “
The administration has already taken steps to eliminate websites that it deems unnecessary. Federal News Network first reported that the 24 largest federal agencies are preparing to eliminate more than 330 websites — about 5% of an inventory of 7,200 websites reviewed.
The National Design Studio is still recruiting new hires. Gebbia estimated that his office will eventually have a team of about 15 engineers and 15 designers.
“We’re still ramping up the team,” he said, adding that the National Design Studio has been able to “recruit some of the best and brightest minds of our era.”
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime moment where we have a shot on goal to actually upgrade the U.S. government the way we present ourselves to the nation and to the world,” Gebbia said.
The idea for the National Design Studio began when Interior Secretary Doug Burgum asked Gebbia to improve Recreation.gov, a website for booking campsites, scheduling tours and obtaining hunting and fishing permits on federal lands. The site serves as an outdoor recreation system for 14 federal agencies.
“There’s a lot to be desired for when you have this incredible feature of the American experience, our national parks. They were being undersold in a way that they were showcased,” Gebbia said.
After working on Recreation.gov, Gebbia said he was getting similar requests from other Cabinet secretaries.
“I started to see there’s demand here for better design. There’s demand here for modernizing the digital surfaces of the government,” he said.
At that point, Gebbia said he made his pitch for the National Design Studio to Trump during a meeting at the Oval Office.
“What would it look like to have a national initiative to actually go in and up level and upgrade, not just one agency, not just one website, all the websites, all the agencies, all of the digital touch points between us, government and the American people?” he recalled.
According to the America by Design website, the White House is drawing inspiration from the Nixon administration’s beautification project in the 1970s. That project led to the creation of NASA’s iconic logo, branding for national parks and signage for the national highway system.
“My vision is that, at some point, somebody’s working at a startup and they go look at a dot-gov website to see how they did it. And we can actually create references for good design in the government, rather than be the butt of a joke,” Gebbia said.
So far, the National Design Studio has launched SafeDC.gov, a website meant to facilitate the Trump administration’s surge of federal law enforcement agents to Washington, D.C. It’s also launched TrumpCard.gov, a program meant to fast-track the green-card process for noncitizens seeking permanent residency in the United States — and who are able to pay a $15,000 processing fee and a $1 million or $5 million “gift” to the Commerce Department.
Its most recent website, https://trumprx.gov/, is still in the works. The website supports an administration goal of connecting consumers with lower-priced prescription drugs.
Gebbia said private-sector tech experts are interested in working with National Design Studio and overcoming institutional barriers to change.
“Of course, you bump into things and all the processes and people saying, ‘Well, it’s always been done this way. Why would we change it?’ I think, though, there’s an incredible amount of momentum behind this — the excitement around America by Design, the excitement around the National Design Studio, and the excitement on the demand side of secretaries and people and agencies — ‘Yes, please fix this for us. We’re so happy you’re here to make us make this look good,'” he said.
The post National Design Studio looks to overhaul 27,000 federal websites — and is hiring a team to do it first appeared on Federal News Network.
© AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Federal hemp regulations would come from the FDA for the first time under bipartisan legislation introduced Thursday.
Bipartisan proposal could fulfill President Trump’s promise for CBD Medicare coverage is a post from: MJBizDaily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs
The TikTok deal is done, and Donald Trump is claiming a win, although it remains unclear if the joint venture he arranged with ByteDance and the Chinese government actually resolves Congress' national security concerns.
In a press release Thursday, TikTok announced the "TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC," an entity established to keep TikTok operating in the US.
Giving Americans majority ownership, ByteDance retains 19.9 percent of the joint venture, the release said, which has been valued at $14 billion. Three managing investors—Silver Lake, Oracle, and MGX—each hold 15 percent, while other investors, including Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell's investment firm, Dell Family Office, hold smaller, undisclosed stakes.
© Cheng Xin / Contributor | Getty Images News
Crypto pundit X Finance Bull has explained how Donald Trump’s push to sign the crypto bill into law will boost demand for XRP. This follows White House Crypto Czar David Sack’s prediction about how banks will come into crypto once the CLARITY Act passes.
In an X post, X Finance Bull shared a video in which Donald Trump’s crypto adviser, David Sacks, stated that banks will begin to adopt crypto once the crypto bill passes. The pundit noted that this means banks are already positioned, while Ripple has the stack and XRP has the liquidity, and the rails are in place. As such, he believes that the token will be the go-to crypto once these banks enter the crypto industry.
X Finance Bull further mentioned that institutions that have been waiting over the past few years will return and announce their buys and use of XRP once Donald Trump signs the CLARITY Act into law. The pundit added that this moment resets who is early and that he never needed hype to hold the altcoin. “Research and study were always enough,” he said.
X Finance Bull also questioned why market participants were panic-selling if banks are going all in once Donald Trump signs the crypto bill into law. The pundit’s statements come just as Ripple partnered with DXC to integrate the token and RLUSD into DXC’s Hogan core banking platform.
The banking platform powers more than 300 million deposit accounts and over $5 trillion in deposits globally. As such, this is a major step in XRP’s adoption, as the partnership will integrate Ripple’s payment technology into large-scale banking environments.
In another X post, X Finance Bull claimed that Donald Trump’s move with tariffs will also boost XRP’s demand. He shared a video of how the U.S. president said that $18 trillion is flowing into the U.S. economy thanks to these tariffs. The pundit asserted that such money flows put pressure on banks, payroll systems, FX rails, and settlement speed.
X Finance Bull further noted that this creates nonstop cross-border payments and liquidity needs, and this is where Ripple and XRP come in. He explained that while old rails leak money, Ripple and the altcoin were built to stop that. The pundit also alluded to Ripple executives meeting with Donald Trump and to the token being mentioned as part of the digital asset stockpile. He added that the CLARITY Act is next and that when rules lock in, the U.S. capital will need U.S. rails.
At the time of writing, the XRP price is trading at around $1.92, down almost 2% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Binance has rolled out a new rewards campaign for users holding USD1, offering weekly WLFI token airdrops with a total of $40 million in WLFI earmarked for distribution.
The exchange said eligible accounts that maintain a USD1 balance between Jan. 23 and Feb. 20 will receive rewards throughout the programme.
The initiative ties WLFI payouts directly to net USD1 balances on Binance, using a snapshot-based system to calculate qualifying amounts.
Binance is positioning the campaign as an incentive for users who hold or deploy USD1 across supported products, while both USD1 and WLFI continue to see growing activity across the wider crypto ecosystem.
Binance said WLFI rewards will be paid once a week, starting Feb. 2.
Each weekly distribution will cover activity from the previous seven days.
The campaign is structured to release roughly $10 million worth of WLFI tokens per week, spread across four consecutive weeks, which brings the total allocation to $40 million in WLFI.
The exchange said the rewards are designed to reflect users’ qualifying USD1 balances over time, rather than a single moment in the campaign window.
Eligibility is based on users’ net USD1 balances held on Binance, with multiple account types included in the calculation.
Binance confirmed that USD1 stored in Spot, Funding, Margin, and USDⓈ-M Futures accounts will all count toward the campaign’s rewards calculation.
However, borrowed funds are excluded. Binance said reward calculations are based on net USD1 balances, meaning any USD1 that has been borrowed does not qualify for WLFI rewards.
The exchange also said that USD1 used as collateral in margin or futures accounts earns a higher reward rate.
This introduces an added incentive for users who allocate USD1 into collateral-based trading products, rather than keeping it entirely idle in standard wallets.
Binance said it will take hourly snapshots of user balances throughout the campaign period. However, the rewards calculation does not rely on an hourly average.
Instead, Binance will use the lowest USD1 balance recorded each day to determine a user’s qualifying amount for that day.
For each weekly payout, Binance will then calculate rewards using a seven-day average balance.
This ties distributions to consistency because a single daily dip in holdings could reduce the qualifying amount for that day and then affect the overall weekly average.
Binance also said payouts will use an effective annualised rate, which will be set at the time of each distribution.
As a result, the rate applied could vary between weekly drops depending on the conditions Binance sets when rewards are released.
USD1, launched in April 2025, is described as a multichain stablecoin that is fully backed one-to-one by US dollars and money market funds.
Since its launch, it has recorded sharp growth. According to data from DeFiLlama, USD1’s market capitalisation now exceeds $3 billion.
The stablecoin is available across several blockchains, including Monad, Ethereum, Solana, and Aptos.
WLFI, the main token of the World Liberty Financial ecosystem, has also seen increased activity in early 2026.
It has recently been added to payroll services, decentralised finance lending platforms, and on-chain liquidity venues.
The token has drawn new interest and partnerships in recent weeks, though its connection to US President Donald Trump has also faced criticism, with some pointing to concerns around a potential conflict of interest.
Binance said users must complete identity verification and live in eligible jurisdictions to take part in the programme.
The exchange added that broker accounts are excluded and noted that reward timing may vary due to operational conditions.
The post Binance launches USD1 rewards programme with WLFI token airdrops appeared first on CoinJournal.
The Shiba Inu price crashed to as low as $0.000007683 yesterday, sparking bearish sentiment towards the meme coin. This crash came on the back of a transfer of billions of SHIB tokens, which raised concerns of a potential sell-off by the whale in question.
The Shiba Inu price crashed amid significant selling pressure, with a SHIB whale sending billions of tokens to Robinhood, likely to offload these tokens. Arkham data shows that the whale (0x2d0…9f7bB) first sent 210.365 billion SHIB tokens, worth $1.63 million, to the crypto exchange. These tokens represented about 97% of the whale’s SHIB holdings.
Further data from Arkham shows that the SHIB whale sent an additional 1.52 billion tokens to Robinhood and 7 billion tokens to liquidity provider B2C2 Group, which could be an OTC sale. The Shiba Inu price has notably crashed by over 7% in the last week, and it suffered its worst drop during this period yesterday amid the whale’s transfers. The whale now holds only 5.86 billion SHIB, worth $46,790.
The Shiba Inu price also crashed due to the sell-off in the broader crypto market, led by Bitcoin. BC dropped to as low as $87,000 yesterday amid concerns over trade tensions between the U.S. and Europe stemming from the Greenland-linked Trump tariffs. However, the market recovered towards the end of the day as Trump announced that he had canceled the proposed tariffs, having reached a Greenland deal with NATO.
Despite the recent Shiba Inu price crash, the meme coin is still up over 15% year-to-date (YTD) and ranks among the best-performing crypto assets this year. However, SHIb is still far off from its current all-time high (ATH) of $0.00008845.
SHIB’s exchange netflows have remained mixed, indicating there is no clear accumulation pattern for the meme coin at the moment. CryptoQuant data shows that today’s net flows are negative, totaling just over 7 billion Shiba Inu tokens, suggesting that more coins are flowing into exchanges than out.
However, the total exchanges’ netflows yesterday were positive, at 1.6 billion tokens, indicating more tokens leaving exchanges, which is bullish for the Shiba Inu price as it hints at accumulation from whales. On January 16, SHIB’s netflows were also positive, totaling around 115 billion tokens. However, the positive netflows on that day were overshadowed by the negative flows of 214 billion SHIB recorded on January 20.
Related Reading: Here’s Why The Shiba Inu Price Jumped Over 13%
Crypto traders still remain bullish on the Shiba Inu price as CoinGlass data shows the long/short ratio is currently above 1. Derivatives trading volume has also jumped by over 20% while the open interest is up almost 3%.
At the time of writing, the Shiba Inu price is trading at around $0.000007978, up in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Agencies are getting more information on how to implement the recently finalized “rule of many.” The federal hiring strategy, several years in the making, aims to create broader pools of qualified job candidates while adding flexibility for federal hiring managers.
A series of guidance documents the Office of Personnel Management published earlier this month outlined the steps agencies should take to begin using the “rule of many” when hiring. OPM’s new resources also detail how the “rule of many” intersects with other aspects of the federal hiring process, such as shared certificates, skills-based assessments and veterans’ preference.
Under the “rule of many,” federal hiring managers score job candidates on their relevant job skills, then rank the candidates based on those scores. From there, hiring managers can choose one of several options — a cut-off number, score or percentage — to pare down the applicant pool and reach a list of qualified finalists to select from.
OPM’s new guidance comes after the agency finalized regulations last September to officially launch the “rule of many.” The concept was initially included in the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, and OPM during the Biden administration proposed regulations on the “rule of many” in 2023.
“Coupled with the use of functional skills assessments … the [rule of many] gives hiring managers the much-needed flexibility to distinguish candidates based on their demonstrated functional merit-based qualifications for the role in question,” OPM Director Scott Kupor wrote in a Sept. 8 blog post, the same day OPM issued the final rule.
The “rule of many” aligns with some aspects of the Trump administration’s merit hiring plan, OPM said, such as using technical assessments and shared certificates. OPM said the “rule of many” in particular aligns with skills-based hiring, since it can expand candidate pools with applicants who have more fitting skillsets.
The “rule of many” also encourages agencies to use more “comprehensive” assessments, like structured interviews or job simulations, OPM said in its new guidance. And it can “support improved hiring outcomes, particularly for nontraditional candidates, veterans and those with varied career paths,” OPM added.
But for many agencies, the actual adoption of the “rule of many” may be put on the back burner, according to Jenny Mattingley, vice president of government affairs at the Partnership for Public Service. She said without enough funding or staffing, agencies are not likely to overhaul their current and already well-established hiring practices in the short term.
“The ‘rule of many’ is a good tool, but until those ingredients are all put together, I don’t think that you’ll see it rolled out immediately,” Mattingley said in an interview.
OPM’s finalization of the “rule of many” last September officially ended agencies’ ability to use the past “rule of three” hiring practice. The older candidate assessment technique already had been largely phased out, but previously restricted agencies to only selecting from the top three ranked applicants.
The “rule of many” also differs from most agencies’ current candidate-vetting technique, called “category rating,” which lets federal hiring managers assort job applicants into categories such as “qualified,” “better qualified,” and “best qualified,” then select a candidate for the job from the highest category.
When “category rating” was introduced years ago, it was an improvement over the “rule of three,” but Kupor said “category rating” created other challenges — namely, that all candidates within a single category would be considered equally qualified.
“In other words, the categories are minimum hurdles for consideration, but they don’t distinguish between applicants within a category,” Kupor said in September. “For example, if a score of 80% is the minimum hurdle to qualify into the ‘best qualified’ category, an applicant who scores 100% is treated no differently than one who scores 80%.”
OPM said in its new guidance that the “rule of many” uses the strengths of “category rating,” while adding flexibility to the process. It also allows for “finer distinctions” between candidates and broadens the range of applicants available for selection.
In most cases, OPM said the “rule of many” is preferable over “category rating.” But there are also best use cases for each hiring mechanism. Higher-level positions with more robust assessments will usually require the finer distinctions between candidates that the “rule of many” provides. But for more entry-level positions that don’t require highly technical qualifications, the “category rating” system may be just as effective.
Adopting the “rule of many” will also require a significant cultural shift at agencies, which the Partnership’s Mattingley said can be difficult. Existing strategies like skills-based hiring have not yet been fully adopted at agencies, which may indicate that the uptake of the “rule of many” will also be slow, she explained.
“Until agencies crack the nut on really leveraging skills-based hiring, I don’t think it’s going to be this big change in the immediate future,” Mattingley said. “You need skills-based hiring in order to leverage the rule of many, because you have to be able to make much finer technical assessments on the skills between candidates if you’re going to rank them in the way rule of many does.”
OPM’s “rule of many” guidance comes a few months after President Donald Trump officially lifted the governmentwide hiring freeze. But the White House has emphasized that when hiring, agencies should still focus on maintaining their now-smaller staffing sizes.
“Hiring is still a big question this year,” Mattingley said. “It does look like the administration is going to encourage agencies to hire, except at the same time, agencies are still facing budget uncertainty. They’re facing downward pressure on headcount.”
The post OPM details expectations for the ‘rule of many’ in federal hiring first appeared on Federal News Network.
© Getty Images/VectorInspiration
Bitcoin slipped below the $90,000 level as global markets reacted to rising macroeconomic tension between the United States and the European Union. Investors are closely watching the latest trade headlines, as renewed tariff threats increase uncertainty around global growth, corporate earnings, and inflation dynamics. When friction between major economies escalates, risk appetite typically fades, and crypto tends to feel the impact fast as traders reduce exposure and cut leverage.
According to an analysis by XWIN Research Japan, Bitcoin’s recent weakness fits a broader pattern that has been developing since 2025. The report argues that the Trump administration’s renewed tariff push has acted as a consistent downside pressure for BTC, mainly because tariffs influence multiple pillars of the macro environment at once. Higher tariffs can squeeze company margins, disrupt supply chains, and push inflation expectations higher, which complicates the outlook for interest rates and monetary policy.
In this environment, Bitcoin has continued to behave more like a macro-sensitive risk asset than a defensive hedge. Instead of attracting safe-haven flows, BTC has often moved in sync with equities during trade-driven risk-off waves. As a result, even brief bursts of bullish momentum have struggled to hold when economic uncertainty rises and capital rotates into safer positioning.
The XWIN Research Japan report explains that several Bitcoin pullbacks between 2025 and 2026 aligned with periods of rising economic uncertainty driven by tariff hikes and trade frictions. During these episodes, BTC declined alongside equities, reinforcing that the market still treats Bitcoin as a macro-sensitive risk asset rather than a defensive hedge. Instead of decoupling during stress, Bitcoin often reacts like a high-beta instrument when traders rush to reduce volatility in their portfolios.
Economic risk tends to hit Bitcoin quickly because investor behavior adjusts fast. As uncertainty around growth and interest rates increases, capital typically shifts toward short-term protection. In that process, Bitcoin is frequently viewed as a liquid asset that can be sold temporarily to lower portfolio risk, rather than a long-term store of value that benefits from risk-off flows. This dynamic can amplify downside moves even when long-term fundamentals remain intact.
Exchange Netflow provides a supplementary layer of evidence. During correction phases, brief spikes in exchange inflows often appear, consistent with tactical repositioning and short-term profit protection. However, these inflows have not persisted, suggesting the absence of sustained structural selling pressure.
For now, the base scenario remains that tariff-driven economic risk is weighing on Bitcoin. If exchange inflows become sustained and supply-demand conditions weaken further, that assessment would need to be reassessed.
Bitcoin is trading around $88,800 on the weekly chart after a sharp selloff that briefly pushed price below the $90,000 psychological level. This drop marks a clear shift in momentum, as BTC failed to hold the mid-range structure that supported price action throughout the late-2025 consolidation phase. The weekly candle shows heavy downside pressure, with sellers rejecting attempts to stabilize above $92,000 and forcing a retest of lower demand.
Technically, Bitcoin remains trapped between key moving averages. Price is still below the blue long-term trend line, which has acted as dynamic resistance since the breakdown from the $100,000+ region. At the same time, BTC is holding above the green moving average, suggesting that while the market is weak, longer-term buyers are still defending the broader uptrend structure.
This creates a fragile equilibrium: as long as Bitcoin holds above the current support zone, bulls can attempt to rebuild a base and reclaim $90,000-$92,000. However, if volatility expands and the market loses the green trend line, it would expose BTC to a deeper correction toward the mid-$80,000s, where previous demand briefly stepped in during the prior drawdown.
Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com
The White House is urging U.S. lawmakers to move quickly on legislation to reform the crypto market structure as political timelines tighten and digital asset markets face renewed volatility.
With the Senate struggling to secure bipartisan support and more than $1 billion in recent crypto liquidations, officials say the window for passing a workable regulatory framework may be closing.
Patrick Witt, executive director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, has warned that expecting the crypto industry to operate without clear rules is unrealistic. He argues that some form of legislation is “inevitable” and that delays could leave the sector exposed to harsher policies in the future.
The proposed Senate bill would define how the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) oversee crypto markets, including stablecoins and decentralized finance protocols. However, disagreements over key provisions have slowed progress.
Both the Senate Banking and Agriculture Committees recently postponed markups as lawmakers worked to resolve disputes and gather enough support to advance the bill. Witt has been blunt in his message to the industry: accept compromise now or risk facing a less favorable outcome later.
He criticized Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong for withdrawing support for the current version of the bill, after Armstrong said the company would “rather have no bill than a bad bill.”
The push for speed is also tied to the November U.S. midterm elections, which could reshape Congress. All House seats and 35 Senate seats are up for grabs, and polling and prediction markets suggest Democrats have a strong chance of flipping the House.
A divided Congress would likely slow or stall crypto legislation altogether. Witt has cautioned that the political alignment needed to pass a market structure bill may not be in place after the elections, making the coming months critical for any deal.
$1B Liquidations Highlight Market StressThe policy debate comes as markets reel from a sharp deleveraging event. Today, more than 182,000 traders were liquidated in a single day, with total losses of over $1.08 billion. Most of the damage came from long positions in Bitcoin and Ethereum, as falling prices triggered cascading margin calls across major exchanges.
Bitcoin alone saw over $427 million in long liquidations, while Ethereum accounted for roughly $374 million. Technical indicators show many altcoins trading with RSI levels below 50, suggesting continued selling pressure.
Rising Japanese bond yields and renewed global risk-off sentiment have also tightened liquidity, prompting investors to shift away from volatile assets like crypto. Although Bitcoin later stabilized near $90,000, analysts say the recent rebound looks more like a pause after forced selling than a clear return to bullish momentum.
Cover image from ChatGPT, BTCUSD chart on Tradingview
Bitcoin Magazine
Bitcoin Price Surges to $90,000 After Trump Delays Tariffs
The bitcoin price experienced several intraday spikes on Wednesday, swinging by several thousand dollars as traders reacted to shifting geopolitical headlines and fresh comments from U.S. President Donald Trump.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency started the day near $88,000 before surging above $90,000 in early trading. The rally proved short-lived, however, with bitcoin sliding back into the upper $87,000 range after markets opened and dipped. Prices then roared higher once again, rebounding toward $90,000 after Trump announced a delay to planned trade tariffs.
Bitcoin price was last trading around $90,000 at the time of writing, having briefly reclaimed the level for the second time in the same session.
The latest move followed comments from Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and a subsequent post on his Truth Social platform.
Trump said he would delay tariffs that were scheduled to take effect on February 1 after what he described as a “very productive meeting” with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
In the post, Trump outlined a preliminary framework for a broader agreement involving Greenland and the Arctic region, calling the potential deal “a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO nations.” He added that, based on the discussions, the planned tariffs would not move forward.
Markets responded positively to the news. U.S. equities bounced sharply, with the S&P 500, Nasdaq and Dow Jones Industrial Average all rising roughly 1.5% on the day.
Risk assets across the board followed suit, lifting the bitcoin price and other major cryptocurrencies back toward recent highs.
During his Davos remarks, Trump also reiterated his support for digital assets, saying he hopes to sign comprehensive crypto market structure legislation “very soon.”
“Now, Congress is working very hard on crypto market structure legislation — Bitcoin, all of them — which I hope to sign very soon, unlocking new pathways for Americans to reach financial freedom,” Trump said.
Despite the relief rally, macroeconomic concerns remain in the background. Analysts have pointed to renewed stress in Japan’s bond market as a potential headwind for global risk assets.
Japan’s 10-year government bond yield has climbed to around 2.29%, a level not seen since 1999. QCP Capital highlighted in a note that Japan’s government debt exceeds 240% of GDP, with debt servicing costs projected to consume roughly a quarter of fiscal spending by 2026.
According to Bitcoin Magazine analysis, the bitcoin price held its bullish structure above $90,000 last week, rallying to $98,000 and closing around $93,600, keeping a mildly bullish bias.
Bulls will want the bitcoin price to reclaim $94,000 and retest $98,000 this week, with a sustained break potentially reaching $103,500 and the $106,000–$109,000 resistance zone.
Key support is at $91,400, with a loss possibly leading to a deeper pullback toward $87,000 or $84,000.
While momentum has improved, the $103,500–$109,000 area is expected to be strong resistance, where rejection could decide whether the rally continues or drops toward sub-$80,000 levels.
Wednesday’s dramatic price action proved costly for leveraged crypto traders. According to CoinGlass data, more than $1 billion in crypto positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours as prices whipsawed higher and lower and then higher.
Long positions bore the brunt of the damage, accounting for approximately $672 million in liquidations, while short positions made up about $335 million.
Bitcoin led the losses with roughly $426 million in liquidations, followed by Ethereum at around $366 million.
Currently, the bitcoin price is trading at $90,019 with a 24-hour volume of $67 B, holding steady over the past day. Its market cap stands at $1.798 T, just below its 7-day high of $90,296 and above the 7-day low of $87,304.
This post Bitcoin Price Surges to $90,000 After Trump Delays Tariffs first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.
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