Bitcoin may benefit from US stablecoin dominance push
The US push to maintain the dollar’s global dominance through stablecoin adoption could have unintended benefits for Bitcoin as it emerges as a potential national reserve asset.
During the White House Crypto Summit on March 7, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the American government would use stablecoins to ensure the US dollar remains the world’s global reserve currency.
“We are going to put a lot of thought into the stablecoin regime, and as President Trump has directed, we are going to keep the US [dollar] the dominant reserve currency in the world,” Bessent said.
The treasury secretary also repeated the Trump administration’s promise to end the war on crypto and committed to rolling back previous Internal Revenue Service guidance and punitive regulatory measures.
President Trump delivers address to White House Crypto Summit. Source: The Associated Press
The comments came just before Trump signed an executive order establishing a Bitcoin (BTC) reserve using cryptocurrency forfeited in government criminal cases. While the order does not involve direct federal Bitcoin purchases, it represents a shift in how the government views the cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin may benefit from the growing stablecoin adoption and push for more regulatory clarity, according to Omri Hanover, general manager at the Gems Trade blockchain launchpad.
“If Trump’s policy strengthens US financial dominance, Europe’s reluctance and ‘wait-and-see’ approach could weaken its economic leverage,” he told Cointelegraph, adding:
“This divide creates two market realities: US accelerates Bitcoin’s institutional adoption, drawing capital; and EU prioritizes compliance, risking a capital shift to US markets.”
Meanwhile, two major bills await congressional approval: the Stablecoin bill and the Market Structure bill, which aim to help lift the regulatory uncertainty around the US crypto industry.
Meanwhile, pro-crypto lawmakers have focused on two major legislative priorities — stablecoins and general market structure clarity — which would help lift the regulatory uncertainty around the US crypto industry. However, no related bills have yet been passed by Congress.
Related: US Bitcoin reserve marks ‘real step’ toward global financial integration
Growing stablecoin issuer profits may flow into Bitcoin investments
The growing profits of stablecoin issuers could contribute to Bitcoin investments, further strengthening its status as a store of value.
Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, USDt (USDT), said it would invest 15% of its net profit into Bitcoin to diversify its backing assets.
Tether’s Bitcoin holdings proved to be lucrative when the firm posted a record $4.5 billion profit for the first quarter of 2024.
Approximately $1 billion stemmed from operating profits derived from US Treasury holdings, while the remaining $3.52 billion comprised the market-to-market gains in the firm’s Bitcoin holdings and gold positions.
Tether’s financial reserves, Q1 2024. Source: Tether
Related: Paolo Ardoino: Competitors and politicians intend to ‘kill Tether’
Tether’s “bc1q” address currently holds over $6.8 billion worth of Bitcoin, making it the world’s sixth-largest holder, BitInfoCharts data shows.
Tether’s Bitcoin holdings earned the company $5 billion in profits during 2024, out of its total $13 billion yearly profit, Cointelegraph reported on Jan. 31.
Magazine: Bitcoin’s odds of June highs, SOL’s $485M outflows, and more: Hodler’s Digest, March 2 – 8
Trump’s executive order opening 401(k)s to crypto has drawn a mix of praise, caution and criticism from industry leaders and skeptics alike.
An SBI Holdings representative told Cointelegraph that the company had not filed any crypto-asset ETF applications.
Homelessness minister Rushanara Ali has resigned after reportedly hiking the rent on a property she owns by hundreds of pounds – something described by one of her tenants as “extortion”.
That was just weeks after the previous tenants’ contract ended, The i Paper said.
Four tenants who rented a house in east London from Ms Ali were sent an email last November saying their lease would not be renewed, and which also gave them four months’ notice to leave, the newspaper reported.
The property was then re-listed with a £700 rent increase within weeks, the publication added.
In a letter to the prime minister, Ms Ali said that remaining in her role would be a “distraction from the ambitious work of this government”.
She added: “Further to recent reporting, I wanted to make it clear that at all times I have followed all relevant legal requirements.
“I believe I took my responsibilities and duties seriously, and the facts demonstrate this.”
Laura Jackson, one of Ms Ali’s former tenants, said she and three others collectively paid £3,300 in rent.
Weeks after she and her fellow tenants had left, the self-employed restaurant owner said she saw the house re-listed with a rent of around £4,000.
“It’s an absolute joke,” she said. “Trying to get that much money from renters is extortion.”
Sir Keir Starmer said Ms Ali’s work in government would leave a ‘lasting legacy’. Pic: PA
Ms Ali’s house, rented on a fixed-term contract, was put up for sale while the tenants were living there, and was only relisted as a rental because it had not sold, according to The i Paper.
The government’s Renters’ Rights Bill includes measures to ban landlords who end a tenancy to sell a property from re-listing it for six months.
The Bill, which is nearing its end stages of scrutiny in Parliament, will also abolish fixed-term tenancies and ensure landlords give four months’ notice if they want to sell their property.
Something Sir Keir’s increasingly unpopular government could have done without
Rushanara Ali’s swift and humiliating demise is a classic example of paying the price for the politician’s crime of “Do as I say, not as I do”.
She was Labour’s minister for homelessness, for goodness’ sake, yet she ejected tenants from her near-£1m town house then hiked the rent.
A more egregious case of ministerial double standards it would be difficult to imagine. She had to go and was no doubt told by 10 Downing Street to go quickly.
MP for the East End constituency of Bethnal Green and Stepney, Ms Ali was the very model of a modern Labour minister: a degree in PPE from Oxford University.
In her resignation letter to Sir Keir Starmer, she said she is quitting “with a heavy heart”. Really? She presumably didn’t have a heavy heart when she ejected her four tenants.
She’d previously spoken out against “private renters being exploited” and said the government would “empower people to challenge unreasonable rent increases”.
She was charging her four former tenants £3,300 a month. Yet after they moved out, she charged her new tenants £4,000, a rent increase of more than 20%.
In an area represented by the left-wing firebrand George Galloway from 2005 to 2010, Ms Ali had a majority of under 1,700 at the election last year.
Ominously for Labour, an independent candidate was second and the Greens third. No doubt Jeremy Corbyn’s new party will also stand next time.
In her resignation letter to the PM, Ms Ali said continuing in her ministerial role would be a distraction. Too right.
A distraction Sir Keir and his increasingly unpopular government could have done without.
Responding to her resignation, shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly said: “I said that her actions were total hypocrisy and that she should go if the accusations were shown to be true.”
A Liberal Democrat spokesperson said: “Rushanara Ali fundamentally misunderstood her role. Her job was to tackle homelessness, not to increase it.”
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Previously, a spokesperson for Ms Ali said the tenants “stayed for the entirety of their fixed term contract, and were informed they could stay beyond the expiration of the fixed term, while the property remained on the market, but this was not taken up, and they decided to leave the property”.
The prime minister thanked Ms Ali for her “diligent work” and for helping to “deliver this government’s ambitious agenda”.
Sir Keir Starmer said her work in putting in measures to repeal the Vagrancy Act would have a “significant impact”.
And he said she had been trying to encourage “more people to engage and participate in our democracy”, something that would leave a “lasting legacy”.
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