Trump’s recent IEEPA tariff orders could boost bitcoin and accelerate global de-dollarization, analysts say

"Debanking" has become a buzzword in Washington lately. The term refers to a controversial practice where crypto companies and other businesses have been cut off from banking services, allegedly due to pressure from federal regulators. Many in our industry have dubbed this "Operation Chokepoint 2.0," comparing it to a previous Obama-era initiative that discouraged banks from serving certain legal but high-risk industries. The issue has sparked heated debate, with multiple congressional investigations examining whether regulators improperly pressured banks to deny services to crypto firms and other businesses.

I'm testifying before Congress about it today because my company experienced it firsthand, despite being a federally-regulated bank ourselves — and because debanking is widely misunderstood. To address this threat to American values, we first need to understand what happened.

Rather than regulators issuing clear, transparent rules on who banks can serve, debanking operates through a shadowy and democratically unaccountable process whereby regulators warn banks against serving certain types of customers not based on the individual risk they pose, but on hostility or bias towards an entire industry. Banks, facing the threat of enforcement action, penalties, or worse, are left with no choice but to comply. And law-abiding individuals and businesses are cut off from basic banking services, which can be devastating.

Here's what it looked like for us: in June 2023, we received an urgent call from our bank of two and a half years. Despite an established banking relationship — we were even in active discussions about expanding into new partnerships — the bank abruptly informed us they were closing our account in 30 days because it was not comfortable with our crypto clients’ transactions, even though we told them the funds at issue were client payments for custody fees, and that these were fully documented as part of our rigorous compliance process. Our contact refused to provide any further explanation or allow us to speak to the bank’s risk management team.Read more: Nic Carter - Why You Should (Still) Care About Silvergate

The irony was stark: we ourselves are a federally chartered bank, regulated and supervised by the OCC, subject to the same stringent capital, liquidity, and risk management expectations as any other national bank. Not once in the course of our partnership had our banking partner ever raised an issue with our account. We were a great bank customer — well-capitalized, well-regulated and well-run. Yet out of the blue, our bank abruptly cut us off with no explanation or recourse. While we were eventually able to find banks willing to partner with us, the impact of being nearly shut out of the banking system was devastating. It was extremely disruptive to our business and our clients, and contributed to the difficult decision we made in 2023 to lay off 20% of our workforce.

And we weren’t alone. Legitimate American businesses across our industry found themselves scrambling for basic banking services, spending time and resources on workarounds rather than innovation and growth, causing major disruption and even driving some out of business.

Regulators' actions amounted to a de facto ban on banking the crypto industry, made even more destructive by its seemingly arbitrary enforcement — no one knew why some firms retained access while others were cut off, creating a climate of constant uncertainty. To be clear, if regulators had enacted such a major policy decision through proper channels, like formal notice-and-comment rulemaking, that would be one thing. But no rule was ever proposed, publicly debated, or subjected to legal scrutiny. Nor did Congress ever pass legislation to authorize the choking off of large parts of an industry from the federal banking system.

History shows us that without a permanent fix, this will happen again. Just over seven years ago, the FDIC apologized for the first iteration of “Operation Choke Point” — a concerted campaign to cut off banking to industries disfavored by regulators — promising to retrain its examiners. Fast forward to 2023, and those same debanking efforts, this time with a different politically disfavored industry, occurred again. Without action, Operation 3.0 is only a matter of time, and any industry could be the next target.

So how can we prevent this from happening again? Congressional oversight, like the hearing I will testify at today, is crucial to uncover the facts and hold the agencies accountable. Congress must also act to establish real safeguards: consider legislation requiring banks to provide fair access to banking services within the bounds of existing law, require agencies to annually certify that they are not pressuring banks to discriminate against lawful businesses, establish Inspector General whistleblower hotlines at the OCC, FDIC and Federal Reserve to report examiner misconduct, require banks to provide written explanations for account terminations, and mandate clear appeals processes.

Read more: U.S. Regulator Told Banks to Avoid Crypto, Letters Obtained by Coinbase Reveal

Such protections would ensure that no federal regulator can abuse its authority to quietly choke off law-abiding individuals, companies, and industries again. More immediate steps that the new Administration and Congress can take are to rescind the January 2023 joint banking regulators' guidance that served as the nail in the coffin for many crypto businesses, and rescind the OCC's interpretive letter 1179, which imposed arbitrary pre-clearance requirements that effectively locked many banks out of crypto activities.

These aren't just procedural changes — they are essential to protect American innovation and ensure democratic accountability. When regulators have to own their decisions and defend them before the public and the courts, the backroom pressure campaigns end and transparency and rule of law prevails. The scrutiny should be on implied threats from bureaucrats, not on legitimate businesses following the rules. Until these reforms are implemented, everyone is at risk.

XRP price is down 3.2% on Feb. 5, forming a low of $2.55 on the daily chart. But a rebound with a candle close above $2.70 will signal a strong trend reversal for the altcoin.

Standard Chartered's Geoffrey Kendrick has a bold long-term forecast for bitcoin, predicting that the cryptocurrency will reach $500,000 by 2028. He attributes this potential rise to two key factors: growing investor access and declining volatility.

"Access is improving under the [Donald] Trump administration," Kendrick, Standard Chartered's global head of digital assets research, told The Block in an email Wednesday. "Institutional inflows will continue to gather pace. And vol will gradually come lower as the quality of flows improves and other infrastructure (eg. options markets) expand."

These potential factors are "enough to drive Bitcoin to $500,000 before Trump leaves office," Kendrick said.

Bitcoin is currently trading at about $98,700, according to The Block's bitcoin price page.

Increasing investor access and decreasing volatility

Kendrick noted in a new report Wednesday that the launch of U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs in January 2024 has significantly expanded investor access, bringing in $39 billion in net inflows so far. He expects bitcoin's volatility to decline as the ETF market matures and as financial infrastructure improves — particularly with the expansion of options markets and institutional counterparties.

Gold provides a useful comparison, Kendrick said, pointing to how its price surged 4.3 times after exchange-traded products (ETPs) were introduced in 2004. He expects bitcoin ETFs to follow a similar path but within two years instead of seven.

"As vol falls, Bitcoin's share of an optimized two-asset portfolio with gold increases," Kendrick said. "Investor access and lower vol should lead to price appreciation longer-term as portfolios continue to move towards their optimal/logical state."

Beyond the maturing ETF market, Kendrick sees further improvements under the Trump administration, particularly after the repeal of SAB 121, which lifted accounting restrictions for companies holding digital assets. He also pointed to Trump's executive order to evaluate a national digital asset stockpile, suggesting it could encourage central banks to consider bitcoin investments.

“Given these developments, which are in line with our previous expectations, we continue to target BTC to reach the $200,000 level by year-end 2025. Thereafter, we see BTC reaching levels around $300,000 by end-2026, $400,000 by end-2027 and $500,000 by end-2028, remaining there until end-2029,” Kendrick concluded.

Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.

© 2024 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

With the asset recently printing a higher low on the charts, Stellar is displaying early indications of a possible trend reversal. This might suggest that buyers are gradually taking over to counteract pressure from sellers. Declining volume levels, however, indicate that bullish momentum is not yet fully confirmed, so caution is still required.

XLM has shown some resilience after reaching a local low of $0.315 and is currently trading around $0.341. It appears that buyers are trying to regain control and sellers are losing strength, as indicated by the higher low formation, than previous lows around $0.300. Recovering the $0.365-$0.380 range, which corresponds to the 50 EMA, is necessary for a confirmed reversal of XLM. Chart by TradingView">

Strong bullish signals would indicate a breakout above $0.398 and pave the way for a move toward $0.420 and higher. A significant issue is the volume profile's decline. Even though the low was higher, the lack of substantial buying volume raises the possibility that the recovery is not very strong. In the absence of a spike in demand, any upward movement might be feeble and encounter fierce resistance close to $0.365.

A second sell-off could push XLM back toward $0.315 or possibly test the crucial support zone at $0.300 if Stellar is unable to maintain above $0.341. The reversal scenario might be deemed invalid by a breakdown below this level, which would push XLM even lower.

Early reversal signals are being flashed by Stellar, but the volume decline raises questions about whether any rally can last. A full-fledged reversal may be in progress with a target of $0.420 or higher if buying pressure builds and XLM breaks above $0.365 to $0.398. However, the asset might return to lower levels if $0.341 is not held. Before assuming a bullish breakout, traders should keep a close eye on volume for confirmation.

Michael Saylor, a cofounder and executive chairman of MicroStrategy Bitcoin-focused behemoth, has taken to his account on the X social media platform (widely known as Twitter in the past) to deliver an enigmatic BTC-themed message to his millions of followers.

The day before, Saylor celebrated his 60th birthday, sharing his “only birthday wish” with the community.

"Big Strategy Day" announced by Saylor

Saylor published a tweet saying “₿ig Strategy Day” without going into much detail, triggering a puzzled reaction from the Bitcoin community. However, it is definitely about Bitcoin, since the “B” letter in the tweet has two vertical strokes at the bottom and top of it.

Michael Saylor’s followers on the X social media network seem to have gotten intrigued and began supporting his seemingly bullish BTC mood or asking what he meant by his tweet. “You dumping?” asked one X user. Another one asked: “what are you saying bro?? give us more.” Another user inquired: “Is this when we go to the moon?”

The tweet could be related to the next step in Saylor’s company’s Bitcoin strategy. Earlier this week, Saylor tweeted that last week, MicroStrategy did not sell any A class common stock under its at-the-market equity offering program and did not buy Bitcoin for the first time since 2025 started. Saylor’s tweet said that as of Feb. 2, the company holds 471,107 Bitcoins that it had purchased for roughly $30.4 billion at an average price of $64,511 per BTC.

The media reacted to that tweet with headlines screaming that MicroStrategy might have stopped its regular Bitcoin buys.

Michael Saylor's only birthday wish

On Feb. 4, Saylor turned 60. On that day, he tweeted, saying, “I have only one birthday wish.” This wish seems to be depicted in the AI-image Saylor shared with his tweet – himself standing in front of an orange birthday cake with four candles in it.

The cake has a B with four vertical strokes on it, representing Bitcoin, and the four green candles are likely to be green candles on a Bitcoin/U.S. dollar chart, which means Michael Saylor’s only wish is for the bellwether crypto to begin soaring again.

Over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin has demonstrated a marginal increase of 2.14%, rising from $96,450 to trade at the $98,540 level.

Ethereum layer-2 project MegaETH is bucking the trend, opting out of the airdrop farming frenzy and unveiling The Fluffle, a non-fungible token (NFT) collection that grants network participants ownership stakes.

The 10,000-piece NFT collection represents 5% of the MegaETH network, with allocations set to evolve alongside the project. The NFTs are soulbound, meaning they cannot be transferred.

The NFT sale will be offered in two installments, with the first directed at over 80,000 whitelisted addresses. Each will be priced at 1 Ether . At current prices, the sales could net $28 million.

“We chose to launch a soulbound NFT collection because it avoids invasive KYC [Know Your Customer] requirements, remains anti-sybil, and uses stringent AML [Anti-Money Laundering] procedures,” MegaETH said in an X thread, adding that none of its team members will hold the NFTs.

The MegaETH project has been highly anticipated due to its advertised 100,000 transactions per second, and it includes Ethereum co-founders Vitalik Buterin and Joe Lubin among its backers. According to MegaETH co-founder Yilong Yi, the network’s public testnet is set to launch in early March.

MegaETH’s NFT plans come at a time when the sector is hemorrhaging interest. Total secondary NFT sales across blockchains haven’t broken the $1 billion mark since April 2024, according to CryptoSlam data. The number of unique buyers has remained below 1 million since May, while December’s brief market rebound has since faded.