Treasury Secretary Confirms US To Acquire Bitcoin For Reserve Via Budget-Neutral Tactics

Key points:

Japan's economy expanded an annualised 1.0% in the April-June quarter, government data showed on Friday, beating forecasts, though analysts expect the full hit to growth from U.S. tariffs will not be seen until future releases.

Resilient exports and capital expenditure underpinned the growth in the second quarter, likely supporting the case for the Bank of Japan to resume hiking interest rates and normalise monetary policy.

But economists warn that global economic uncertainties fuelled by U.S. tariffs could weigh on the world's fourth-largest economy in the coming months.

The increase in GDP compared with median market expectations for a 0.4% gain in a Reuters poll and followed a revised 0.6% rise in the previous quarter.

The reading translates into a quarterly rise of 0.3%, better than the median estimate of a 0.1% uptick.

Private consumption, which accounts for more than half of economic output, rose 0.2%, compared with a market estimate of a 0.1% increase. It grew at the same pace as the previous quarter.

Consumption and wage trends are key factors the BOJ is watching to gauge economic strength and determine the timing of its next interest rate action.

Capital spending, a key driver of domestic demand, rose 1.3% in the second quarter, versus a rise of 0.5% in the Reuters poll.

Net external demand, or exports minus imports, contributed 0.3 of a point to growth, versus an 0.8 point negative contribution in the January-March period.

The government last week cut its inflation-adjusted growth forecast for this fiscal year to 0.7% from the initially projected 1.2%, predicting U.S. tariffs would slow capital expenditure while persistent inflation weighs on consumption.

Exports have so far avoided a major hit from U.S. tariffs as Japanese automakers, the country's biggest exporters, have mostly absorbed additional tariff costs by cutting prices in a bid to keep domestic plants running.

However, economists expect exports will suffer in the coming months as they start passing on costs to U.S. customers.

Source: Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he is nominating a federal prosecutor who testified in 2018 in support of her former boss Brett Kavanaugh being confirmed to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court to become a life-tenured judge herself.

Trumpin a post on his social media platform Truth Social said he was nominating Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Taibleson in Wisconsin to fill a vacancy on the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Republican president said she had "learned from some of the BEST and most HIGHLY RESPECTED Legal Minds in the Country," after serving as a law clerk to former conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in 2016, and Kavanaugh when he was on an intermediate appeals court.

She is Trump's sixth nominee of his second term to serve on one of the nation's 13 appeals courts that sit below the Supreme Court. Trump has announced 22 judicial nominations overall since returning to office in January as he seeks to add to the 234 judicial appointments he made in his first term.

Taibleson clerked for Kavanaugh from 2010 to 2011 when he was a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia Circuit and testified in 2018 in support of Trump's decision in his first term to pick him for a seat on the Supreme Court.

The Republican-led Senate confirmed Kavanaugh 50-48 after a grueling confirmation battle in which he faced allegations that became public that he sexually assaulted a woman while in high school, which he denied.

Those allegations became public after Taibleson had appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee. In her testimony, she highlighted how a majority of the law clerks Kavanaugh hired had been women and, upon hiring them, "goes to bat for us."

After clerking for Kavanaugh, she then clerked for Scalia and then worked at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis before joining the U.S. Department of Justice.

She served from 2019 to 2022 in the U.S. Office of the Solicitor General and today works in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Source: Reuters

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Thursday that an Israeli settlement plan is not in line with international law, and she called on Israeli authorities not to move ahead with it.

Israel's far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has announced that work would start on a long-delayed settlement that would divide the West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem.

"The decision of Israeli authorities to advance the E1 settlement plan further undermines the two-state solution while being a breach of international law," Kallas said in a statement. "The EU reiterates its call on Israel to halt settlement construction," she added.

Source: Reuters

Key Points:

Scott Bessent, U.S. Treasury Secretary, announced that the Trump administration will not purchase additional Bitcoin and will instead rely on confiscated assets to build reserves.

The policy clarification led to a significant drop in Bitcoin's price, influencing market sentiment and raising questions about America's approach to cryptocurrency reserves.

Scott Bessent, U.S. Treasury Secretary, declared the Trump administration will not purchase additional Bitcoin. The policy focuses on building reserves through confiscated assets, leading to an immediate market reaction with BTC prices dropping by over $5,000. Scott Bessent shared insights on market trends here:

Bessent's announcement involved key figures like Senator Cynthia Lummis, who supports budget-neutral methods. The decision marks a significant shift, emphasizing the use of seized Bitcoin to maintain the U.S. reserve.

The statement created turmoil in the Bitcoin market, sharply affecting BTC prices. Investors reacted swiftly after the announcement, causing the market to dip below $119,000, highlighting the direct impact of governmental policies. On the legislative side, Senator Lummis pointed out:

“The United States government cannot solve its $37 trillion debt crisis through direct Bitcoin purchases.”

This approach shifts a longstanding practice of auctioning seized assets, ushering in new policy ramifications.

As the U.S. steers clear of direct purchases, the policy emphasizes economic adjustments through existing assets. This marks an unprecedented move, focusing on a seizure-centric policy for building strategic reserves. Insights from industry experts suggest potential long-term effects on Bitcoin's perceived value and government's crypto handling approach. David Sacks, White House AI and Crypto Czar, discusses impactful tech developments and their implications on the governmental approach to cryptocurrency here:

Technologically, this decision could alter future regulatory frameworks within the crypto space.

Source: CryptoSlate

Source: Reuters

Source: Cryptoslate