Americas Crypto Daybook: Bitcoin Surge Fuels AI and Memecoins, Highlighting Hedge Potential

By Omkar Godbole (all times Eastern Time unless otherwise stated) The decentralized nature of Bitcoin, allowing for peer-to-peer transactions free from governmental and corporate interference, has long been a cornerstone of its appeal. This notion is particularly pertinent in light of recent reports suggesting President Donald Trump is considering the removal of Jerome Powell as the chair of the Federal Reserve, the world's most powerful central bank. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett discussed Trump's intentions on Friday, prompting markets to react early Monday with a sell-off of the dollar and U.S. stock futures. The Dollar Index, which monitors the currency's exchange rate against major fiat currencies, dipped to a three-year low of 98.00, while gold reached new heights above $3,400 per ounce. Bitcoin surpassed $87,000, confirming a bullish breakout from its recent sideways trend between $83,000 and $86,000, suggesting potential for further gains. This uptick saw significant growth in the gaming, AI, and memecoin sectors, with smaller tokens like ENJ and MAGIC experiencing gains of over 50% within 24 hours. Conversely, MANTRA saw a 15% decline. According to Matrixport, a crypto financial services platform, "A weaker dollar could attract renewed interest from American investors, underscoring bitcoin's potential as a hedge against a declining dollar value." On-chain data indicates heightened volatility as prices approach the $90,000 mark. "Cost-basis clusters show minimal overhead supply below this range, implying the market could advance quickly before a larger group of holders reaches break-even and begins taking profit," analytics firm IntoTheBlock noted in a Telegram post. In other news, Charles Schwab CEO Rick Wurster expressed the financial services firm's intention to support spot crypto trading within the next year, citing an increase in client inquiries about crypto. Slovenia's Finance Ministry has proposed a 25% tax on capital gains from the sale of cryptocurrencies for fiat or the use of tokens for goods and services, set to take effect in 2026. Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain, has proposed replacing the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with RISC-V, an open-source instruction set architecture used for developing custom processors. Buterin believes this change could address one of Ethereum's key scaling bottlenecks by significantly improving the efficiency and simplicity of smart contract execution. Ethereum briefly ceded its position to its main rival, the Solana network, in terms of the total staked value of their native tokens, ETH and SOL. Uniswap founder Hayden Adams warned that Ethereum could fall behind Solana if it reverts to relying on the layer 1 blockchain instead of layer-2 scaling products. In macro news, China has stated it will retaliate against countries that collaborate with the U.S. to isolate Beijing in the trade war initiated by Trump. Remain vigilant. Key Points to Watch Upcoming Token Events Conferences: Token Talk By Shaurya Malwa Derivatives Positioning Market Trends: Bitcoin Statistics: Technical Analysis Crypto Equities ETF Flows U.S. equity markets were closed on Friday. Overnight Market Movements Chart of the Day While You Were Sleeping Ethereum News