El Salvador is under huge pressure from the IMF to stop purchasing any more Bitcoin, but are they taking it seriously? A recent post on X suggests that gold bug Peter Schiff may have turned into a full-blown Bitcoin Maxi, and we'll dive into what Trump has planned for the first-ever crypto summit held this week at the White House.
Welcome back to Bitcoin News, brought to you by CoinCorner. I'm your host, Alex Glass. Now, let's get straight into this week's top stories.
Now, I think there is only one way to describe the past week's price action, and that's volatile. The price has been all over the place, and we've seen lows of $78,000 ripping all the way up to $95,000. On Sunday, we saw Bitcoin's first-ever $10,000 green candle on the day chart. This fun was, however, short-lived as the price retraced almost back exactly to where it started.
For now, it seems the sell pressure from the last couple of weeks has calmed somewhat, but we'll just have to wait and see what happens to the price and where it goes from here.
Now, you're possibly wondering what's causing all of this volatility. Well, on Sunday, Trump put out a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, saying:
"A US crypto reserve will elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks by the Biden Administration, which is why my executive order on digital assets directed the Presidential Working Group to move forward on a crypto strategic reserve. This will include XRP, Solana, and Cardano. I will make sure the US is the crypto capital of the world."
Around an hour later, he then added:
"And obviously, Bitcoin and Ethereum, as other valuable cryptocurrencies, will be at the heart of the reserve. I love Bitcoin and Ethereum."
These posts sent all five of these mentioned digital assets and tokens soaring. But to many Bitcoiners, it felt like a huge letdown as they believed Trump promised a Bitcoin-only reserve during his campaign.
Trump's crypto reserve post didn't just get to the Bitcoin community-it also appeared to rile up Peter Schiff. Long-term gold maxi Schiff posted on X, saying:
"I get the rationale for a Bitcoin reserve. I don't agree with it, but I get it. We have a gold reserve. Bitcoin is digital gold, which is better than analog gold, so let's create a Bitcoin reserve too. But what's the rationale for having an XRP reserve? Why the hell would you need that?"
Despite being aware of Bitcoin for over a decade, Schiff has always criticized the asset, favoring gold instead. But this post practically validates its use case, which he's been denying for years. He was later bombarded with joking support from the Bitcoin community, with many actually agreeing with him. Some suggested it was the best post he'd ever made, and others sarcastically suggested his account may have been compromised.
In the midst of the chaos surrounding Trump's posts, there was also speculation of insider trading. It was revealed that a whale opened up a 50x leverage long position on both Bitcoin and Ethereum just before the crypto reserve announcement.
The $200 million position initially appeared very suspicious, although it was later revealed by Connor Grogan that the whale's funds had been accumulated through phishing scams. They also closed out the positions before Trump's second announcement, missing out on tens of millions in profit. So, it appears unlikely to be an insider-just a gambler using stolen funds.
Also in the US, it's been announced by the White House that Trump is hosting the first-ever crypto summit, which is happening today, Friday, March 7th.
Attending the summit will be Trump himself, along with David Sacks, his appointed crypto czar, as well as other prominent investors and CEOs within the crypto space, such as Michael Saylor, founder of MicroStrategy, and David Bailey, CEO of Bitcoin Magazine.
Interestingly, despite Trump's social media posts earlier this week, according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the president plans to outline his vision for a Bitcoin reserve strategy. Lutnick said:
"A Bitcoin strategic reserve is something the president is interested in. He spoke about it during the campaign trail, and I think you're going to see it executed on Friday."
He also added:
"Bitcoin is one thing, and then there are other currencies. The other crypto tokens, I think, will be treated differently-positively, but differently."
This suggests that it could be a Bitcoin-only reserve.
Now, moving over to El Salvador, there's concern that the country's Bitcoin-buying strategy has been compromised due to strict rules imposed by the IMF in the latest funding deal.
The IMF published details about their recent $3.5 billion loan package, which specifically prohibits voluntary accumulation of Bitcoin by the public sector.
Despite this, President Nayib Bukele shared a post on X showing El Salvador's Bitcoin portfolio tracker, which indicates they are still accumulating one Bitcoin a day-and sometimes more. He said:
"No, it's not stopping. If it didn't stop when the world demonized us and most Bitcoiners abandoned us, it won't stop now, and it won't stop in the future."
However, some in the community are not totally convinced, with Samson Mow suggesting that the buys will stop within a few months and Joe Nakamoto putting forward the idea that they could simply be transferring funds from other wallets they have that aren't publicly known.
Either way, there are still gaps in the community's understanding, and many are calling for more transparency from Bukele.
Now, for our final story-in the state of Texas, their Bitcoin reserve bill has passed a Senate Banking Committee meeting, moving a step closer to getting passed into law.
There are currently 19 states actively progressing their Bitcoin legislation, with Utah being the furthest ahead. Although it's slow progress, it's hugely positive for Bitcoin that these bills are getting such a positive reaction from lawmakers, with only five states choosing to axe their bills altogether.
But 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.