The ECB’s Digital Euro is Coming - A Step Toward Financial Tyranny? | Bitcoin News by CoinCorner

Transcript

The European Central Bank have revealed plans to launch their Central Bank Digital Currency later this year. Corporate adoption ramps up in the US, as both Strategy and Bitwise announce new Bitcoin-related investment products. And is it possible that Bitcoin's price could be heading towards $444,000 per coin this cycle, as an ex-Wall Street trader makes a shockingly accurate price prediction - with this figure being his next target?

Welcome back to Bitcoin News, brought to you by CoinCorner. I'm your host, Alex Glasse. Now, let's get straight into this week's top stories.

Looking first at Bitcoin's price - after a few weeks of fear plaguing the market, it seems sentiment may finally be shifting following the Fed's latest FOMC meeting, which has caused Bitcoin's price to surge by around 5% on the day.

As expected, despite pressure from Trump to lower interest rates, the Fed chose to keep them as they are, but confirmed that they expect to enact two cuts later this year. But one of the key points from the meeting that analysts are paying attention to is that beginning in April, the Fed will begin reducing the monthly redemption cap on Treasury securities from $25 billion to $5 billion.

And what this means is that they'll be reducing the amount of liquidity being drained from the market that's held on the Fed's balance sheet - which should allow capital to flow more freely on the open market. And typically, more liquidity in the system is a positive catalyst for risk assets like stocks and Bitcoin.

Now, despite the recent volatility and market uncertainty, US institutions are continuing to lean into Bitcoin in a big way.

First, we have the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, Strategy, who this week announced a new offering of five million shares in the company's Series A Perpetual Strife preferred stock. This stock will offer investors 10% in dividends, which will be paid out quarterly, and proceeds from the stock sale will be used by Strategy for corporate purposes and the acquisition of more Bitcoin for the company's balance sheet.

Then we have one of the Bitcoin ETF issuers, Bitwise, who have launched a new ETF tracking their Bitcoin Standard Corporations Index - which is made up of companies with at least 1,000 Bitcoin held on their corporate balance sheet.

And then finally we have BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, who have continued to promote the benefits of Bitcoin in a series of recent posts and interviews. First, the Head of Digital Assets said in an interview with Yahoo Finance that recession would be a catalyst for Bitcoin. The company have also put out a marketing video declaring that Bitcoin is an emerging global monetary alternative.

So overall, the rhetoric coming from these US institutions is incredibly bullish - and it's exciting to see such positive sentiment.

Now, despite the arguably more stringent regulatory system here in the UK, a report from CoinCorner this week shows that it's not just US companies who are embracing Bitcoin, but also businesses here in the UK too.

The report, derived from internal data, demonstrates that business activity is increasing over time as Bitcoin's price rises. And despite the increasing activity, 60% of customers have never sold. Interestingly, micro-companies are leading the way in terms of adoption - as 84% of these customers holding Bitcoin are micro-businesses employing fewer than 10 people. And this adoption spans across a range of different sectors.

Also, maybe to some people's surprise, it's not just young, risk-taking companies who are looking to get exposure to Bitcoin - as the average age from the sample is 11 years old, with the oldest business operating for over 75 years.

Now also in the news, the European Central Bank is prepping to launch their Central Bank Digital Currency. President of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, announced in a press conference that they've been developing a CBDC for the past five years, which they're hoping to launch in October later this year. And she stressed that they believe the digital euro is more relevant than ever.

As well as this potentially worrying announcement, the EU has introduced the Savings and Investment Union, aiming to redirect 10 trillion in unused savings from citizens to finance military growth and bolster Europe's defence industry. Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on X: "We'll turn private savings into much-needed investment" - suggesting no regard for citizens' property rights.

Collectively, this demonstrates Europe's continued push towards increasing government control over citizens - which highlights the benefits of decentralised, peer-to-peer monetary networks such as Bitcoin.

Elon Musk emphasised the risks of government-issued currencies perfectly this week, as in an interview he stated that the US government has "14 magic money computers that make money out of thin air."

Now, speaking of the US government - following the huge announcement of the US establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve - Trump's Executive Director on Digital Assets, Bo Hines, said that "they want as much Bitcoin as they can get." During the interview at the Digital Asset Summit in New York, Hines also elaborated that they're in the process of assessing budget-neutral ways of accumulating the asset.

Now, ending on a bit of a lighter note: this week, retired Wall Street trader Josh Mandel became almost an overnight sensation after he made what most thought was a wild Bitcoin price prediction back in November last year - which, on Friday, came true.

Josh has a background of working on Wall Street, where in the '90s he worked for Salomon Brothers, and most recently the hedge fund Kton. But around a year ago, he funded an account with $2.1 million, which he's been publicly trading MSTR and Bitcoin with - the portfolio now being worth almost $25 million.

Back in November last year, in a post on X, Josh made a cryptic price prediction that we would see Bitcoin hit $84,000 on the 14th of March 2025. And to the community's shock - it did exactly that.

What makes this so intriguing is that he suggested if the price retraced to this target level on that specific date, it would initiate the next phase of the bull run. He said: "The car will launch, the coin won't stop. A trio fours - that's the top."

So in other words, he's suggesting that this cycle, we could see a peak of $444,000 per coin before heading into the next bear market.

Now, I'm afraid that is all we have for you today - so as always, make sure to hit that subscribe button down below, and I'll see you next week with more Bitcoin News.