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White House Teases BTC Reserve Announcement
Speaking on a panel yesterday at the Bitcoin 2026 conference in Las Vegas, White House crypto advisor Patrick Witt teased a “big announcement [within] the next few weeks” relating to President Trump’s strategic Bitcoin reserve.
Witt elaborated that officials have been working behind the scenes on implementing Trump’s strategic reserve executive order (EO), and that a “big step forward” is coming.
Last year, President Trump signed an EO creating the strategic Bitcoin reserve and a separate digital asset stockpile. Both are funded primarily through criminal and civil seizures.
Now what’s particularly interesting about Witt’s comments is the timing with three other events happening in Washington DC:  ○ BITCOIN Act: Senator Lummis has reintroduced this bill (renamed the American Reserves Modernization Act (ARMA)), which would codify the reserve and authorize acquiring 1M BTC over five years.
○ CLARITY Act: Another push to get this stablecoin legislation through the Senate Banking Committee will happen in May.
○ Bitcoin as “Power Projection”: That’s what US Admiral Samuel Paparo, Jr. said last week in live testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, when describing Bitcoin’s cybersecurity defenses against other nation-states.
Taken together, Witt’s comments plus these other events indicate that Bitcoin is being taken very seriously in the US capital. Let’s see if any major developments transpire within the next few weeks.
Fed’s Rate Decision Happens Tomorrow
The Federal Reserve’s two-day FOMC meeting wraps up tomorrow, with the rate decision release at 2:00 pm EST, and Chair Powell’s press conference at 2:30 pm EST.
Currently, the market is estimating a 95% - 100% probability that rates remain steady between 3.5% - 3.75%, where it’s sat since January.  The odds for a rate hold are very high because the Fed has zero reasons to lower them. On the inflation side, the biggest concern is oil prices ($100 per barrel), which basically locks in higher inflation levels over the short-term. And that’s not mentioning the latest CPI and PCE numbers, both of which were elevated. Then on the US employment / economy side, there’s resilience. Unemployment is slightly down while consumer spending is up.
So when it comes to the Fed’s dual mandate, the fight is against inflation, given the labor market is showing strength. So for tomorrow, the market will be listening to Powell’s tone and wording for hints on possible cuts, holds, or hikes for later this year.
"DeFi United" Launches to Backstop Kelp DAO Hack
Key DeFi leaders have launched a coordinated rescue effort called “DeFi United” to backstop losses and help make users whole in the wake of the Kelp DAO hack.
As of Monday, the initiative has secured roughly $303M in commitments from major players, including 30K ETH from Consensys, 5K ETH from Etherfi, and 2.5K stETH from Lido, amongst others. The goal is to flip the Kelp DAO hack from a minor catastrophe into a more temporary set-back, and to help restore confidence in the broader ecosystem.  For context, DeFi United comes after an April 18th hack which cascaded into 14% of DeFi’s TVL leaving the ecosystem within 72 hours.
As reported last week, a forged cross-chain message on Kelp DAO’s LayerZero bridge printed 116.5K rsETH - worth $292M - out of thin air. The attacker deposited most of it into Aave and borrowed $190M against the bogus funds, leaving AAVE’s lenders holding hundreds of millions in bad debt. Then panic ensued, resulting in even larger outflows across DeFi.
Last week, we said that if DeFi is going to survive, it must build more robust systems to stop hacks like this from happening. So while DeFi United isn’t preventative, it’s most certainly a step in the right direction.
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