Cryptocurrency
BTC Leads XRP, ETH, and ADA Higher as Perceived Threat to Fed Independence Sends Dollar Crashing
Bitcoin (BTC) outshined the otherwise volatile alternative cryptocurrencies early Monday as the dollar index crashed to a three-year low on reports that President Donald Trump is exploring ways to remove the Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
BTC rose over 2% to $87,200, hitting the highest since April 2, according to data source CoinDesk. The move marked a bullish resolution to the recent consolidation between $83,000 and $87,000. Major alternative cryptocurrencies such as payments-focused XRP, Ethereum’s ether and Cardano’s ADA rose over 1% each, lagging BTC.
In FX markets, hedge funds sold the U.S. dollar against major currencies, including euro, yen and the Aussie dollar, driving the dollar index to 98.5, the lowest since April 2022, according to data from charting platform TradingView. The DXY has declined by 10% in three months. Weakness in the dollar typically eases financial conditions, greasing risk-taking in financial markets.
Meanwhile, gold’s rally continued, with the per ounce price reaching a record high of $3,382, taking the year-to-date gain to 28%. Futures tied to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq traded 0.5% lower.
Observers suggest that National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett’s comment on Friday regarding Trump’s intention to remove Powell likely triggered the selling of the dollar, along with upticks in BTC and gold.
“The move in bitcoin to $87,000 appears to be driven by a sharp drop in the U.S. dollar and a +2% rally in gold, both triggered by Trump’s push to replace Fed chair Powell. While a trade deal with Japan may be announced soon, the key catalyst today is the perceived thread to Fed independence,” Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, told CoinDesk.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday that “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough,” while reiterating calls for lower interest rates on the following day. Early last week, Powell said that the Fed would wait for more data on the economy before changing the borrowing cost while warning of stagflation.
Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee warned that a move by Trump to terminate Jerome Powell would undermine the credibility of the Fed.
Recent escalations in global trade disputes have created a complex backdrop for cryptocurrency markets, with BNB demonstrating notable strength despite economic headwinds.
The token’s upward momentum comes as investors seek alternative assets amid traditional market volatility caused by ongoing geopolitical tensions.
While central banks worldwide adjust monetary policies to combat inflation, digital assets like BNB are increasingly viewed as potential hedges against economic uncertainty.
Technical Analysis Highlights
- Price action formed a clear uptrend, breaking through key resistance at $687.50 with above-average volume during the 00:00 hour push to $691.06, establishing new support at the $688.70 level.
- Most significant price movement occurred between 23:00-00:00 when BNB surged on 45,675 units of volume (well above the 24-hour average), confirming strong buyer conviction.
- In the last hour, BNB experienced a notable price correction, retreating from its earlier peak of $690.11 at 01:21 to $688.87 by 02:06, representing a 0.18% decline.
- Increased volatility between 01:50-01:53 when it briefly rallied to $689.85 before encountering resistance, followed by a sharper downward movement at 01:57.
- Price dropped from $689.53 to $689.13 on significantly higher volume (926.88 units), suggesting profit-taking after the earlier uptrend.
External References
Cryptocurrency
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce Says “We Can’t Ignore It” in Bitcoin 2025 Fireside Talk
Bitcoin Magazine
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce Says “We Can’t Ignore It” in Bitcoin 2025 Fireside Talk
At the Bitcoin 2025 Conference this morning, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissioner Hester Peirce took the stage with Fold’s General Counsel Hailey Lennon for a fireside chat that pulled no punches.
Opening with a question about enforcement priorities since the change in administration, Lennon asked, “What are the current enforcement priorities, if any, in the digital asset space?” Peirce acknowledged the public’s frustration: “Some people have taken the fact that we haven’t moved forward with a ton of these cases as inaction—but there’s a lot to digest.” She stressed that the agency is actively bringing in outside perspectives, stating, “That’s really the way to get to good rules.”
A core theme of the conversation was regulatory uncertainty. “One complaint I’ve had,” Peirce said, “is that in an environment of regulatory uncertainty, it’s much harder to identify bad actors—and it gives them more room to operate. Meanwhile, it pushes legitimate actors out of the U.S. or out of the industry entirely. We need to create a good environment for the good actors and a bad one for the bad actors.”
Peirce also addressed her recent tweet hinting at disclosure requirements for projects potentially considered securities.
When asked about the explosion of memecoins and speculative tokens, Peirce didn’t hold back: “If you’re expecting to buy a memecoin and become a billionaire—buyer beware. Be an adult. If you want to speculate, go for it, but if something goes wrong, don’t come complaining to the government.” This confirms the value, and security of Bitcoin.
She emphasized the importance of community participation, noting that “government works for the people,” and encouraged attendees to weigh in on issues like surveillance and financial freedom. “In the United States, we are all about freedom. Freedom to innovate. Your voices are so important for helping us think through these issues.”
Peirce’s remarks echo the statements that JD Vance touched on yesterday during his speech at the Bitcoin 2025 Conference. They both emphasized that we, the American people, have the power to transform the traditional financial system, and fuel Bitcoin.
Discussing Bitcoin’s growing presence in traditional finance, Lennon asked whether the SEC is prepared for that convergence. Peirce replied, “We can’t ignore it. When people are free to use something, it will eventually be incorporated into traditional financial products. We need to think about how it interacts with our regulatory framework—but the key is preserving people’s ability to transfer value on their own terms.”
Looking ahead, Peirce left attendees with a powerful reminder: “You don’t have to wait for the government. Demand transparency. Learn from failures. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and do better next time.”
You can watch the full panel discussion and the rest of the Bitcoin 2025 Conference Day 3 below:
This post SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce Says “We Can’t Ignore It” in Bitcoin 2025 Fireside Talk first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.
DeepSeek, a China-based artificial intelligence company, has announced an upgrade to its AI chatbot, saying it can now offer enhanced overall logic, mathematics and programming with a reduced hallucination rate.
According to DeepSeek, the upgraded model — DeepSeek-R1-0528 — has “significantly improved its depth of reasoning and inference capabilities.” The startup said the model’s overall performance is now “approaching that of leading models, such as O3 and Gemini 2.5 Pro.”
DeepSeek’s debut of its R1 chatbot in January sent shockwaves through the AI industry and further established China as an AI force. The company’s first AI model had a training cost of $6 million and similar performance to leading AI models trained on significantly larger sums of capital.
According to data from Business of Apps, DeepSeek has been downloaded 75 million times since its launch and had 38 million monthly active users (MAU) as of April. In a recent antitrust lawsuit, Google estimated that Gemini reached 350 million active users in March, while OpenAI’s ChatGPT claimed 600 million active users in the same month.
Related: China’s DeepSeek launches new open-source AI after R1 took on OpenAI
Chinese-American AI race heats up
The United States government is planning to restrict the sale of advanced chip design software to China. According to a Bloomberg report, the move seeks to limit China’s ability to advance its domestic semiconductor manufacturing capabilities.
Semiconductors are critical for a wide range of technologies, including AI, where they serve as the hardware backbone for training and running complex models.
New China AI models, such as Tencent’s T1 and Alibaba’s Qwen3, have also emerged in the first few months of 2025, spurring the AI race along.
Magazine: AI Eye: 9 curious things about DeepSeek R1
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