Bitcoin
Bitcoin Reverses Lower as Investors Digest Trump’s Crypto Comments, Central Bank Meetings
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Cryptocurrencies fell early in the last week of July as traders digested a series of political developments that unfolded over the weekend and looked ahead to central bank meetings this week.
Bitcoin fell more than 1% on Monday, trading at $67,264.00, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier, it rose to $69,982.00. Ether also pared gains but was up more than 1% to $3,311.28. Bitcoin ended last week with a 1% gain and ether fell 7%.
Traders are keeping an eye on the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England – all of which are meeting this week. Eyes are on Fed Chair Jerome Powell in particular, with hopes that his comments will confirm a September interest rate cut.
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Bitcoin surges at the start of the last week of July
Elsewhere, former President Donald Trump delivered a highly anticipated speech over the weekend at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, taking aim at Democratic lawmakers including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler and the Biden administration in general. Trump blamed officials for the ways he said they have hurt the industry by failing to provide rules and regulations for it to operate and thrive.
He also said it would be his policy to hold 100% of the bitcoin the U.S. government currently holds (about 210,000 bitcoins), serving as the beginning of a Strategic National Bitcoin Reserve. In remarks that drew the loudest roar from the audience, Trump promised he would replace Gensler “on day one.”
On the same day, Cynthia Lummis, a pro-bitcoin Republican senator from Wyoming, announced that she would introduce a bill in the coming days that would pave the way for a bitcoin reserve, implementing a program to purchase 1 million bitcoin units over a set period of time to acquire a total stake of approximately 5% of the total bitcoin supply.
Bitcoin’s price fell about 1% during the speech but bounced back into the green shortly afterward. Noelle Acheson, an economist and author of the “Crypto is Macro Now” newsletter, said she doubts the weekend’s events are driving the stock higher for long-term investors, at least at this point.
“Both Trump’s comments and the Lummis bill will be really hard to get through Congress,” she said. “More overlooked, but with a greater potential impact, is the news that [Vice President Kamala Harris’] The team is reaching out to representatives from the cryptocurrency industry.
“This signals a more significant and likely shift in policy, especially if it leads to VP Harris distancing herself from the old guard of Sen. Warren et al. In other words, the likelihood that SEC Chairman Gensler will be replaced soon has just increased,” Acheson added.
On the weekend the The Financial Times reported that Harris’s aides are approaching cryptocurrency companies to “‘reset’ relations between her Democratic party and an industry that has emerged as a key supporter of Donald Trump.”
Crypto has become a growing issue of interest in the upcoming US presidential election. Trump’s team hopes that the niche but growing crypto vote will help him get elected, given mainstream Democrats’ hostility toward the space.
However, the industry has growing bipartisan support in Congress.
Over the weekend, more than a dozen House Democrats and several other candidates for congressional seats signed a letter to the Democratic National Committee encouraging a “forward-looking approach” toward cryptocurrencies, which would include adding “pro-digital asset language” to the party platform and selecting an SEC chair who would promote cryptocurrency innovation.