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by Coinbits
Monday, Feb 02, 2026 - 20:16

Macro commentators have long predicted Japan would be the match that lights the fiat system ablaze. This week, the match was lit.

The yen weakened against the dollar at the same time Japanese government bond yields surged – a combination that should not occur unless investors are losing confidence in Tokyo's ability to maintain purchasing power and stop deficit spending. On January 23rd, the New York Fed publicly "checked prices" with Wall Street dealers, telegraphing its intention to intervene. The same day, the Bank of Japan held rates steady when it should have raised them to defend the currency and bond market.

As Arthur Hayes explains in his latest essay, the Fed can print dollars to buy yen and Japanese government bonds – strengthening the yen, suppressing JGB yields, and expanding its balance sheet. They will call it something other than quantitative easing (QE). But the mechanics are identical: As bitcoinrs like to say, “money printer go brrrr.”

Bitcoin rises alongside Fed balance sheet expansion. It always has. The only question was what would force the printers back on.

Japan just answered.

In unrelated news…

Tether amasses 140 tons of gold, positions to become "gold central bank" in post-dollar world

Tether is purchasing up to two tons of gold weekly, stockpiling 140 tons worth approximately $23 billion in a Swiss nuclear bunker – making it one of the largest non-governmental gold holders globally. CEO Paolo Ardoino told Bloomberg the company plans to actively trade its reserves and expects Tether to become one of the largest gold central banks as geopolitical rivals seek dollar alternatives.

Gold's rise expands bitcoin's opportunity

Many view gold's 90% rally as competition for bitcoin. It is not. Gold's resurgence validates the thesis that demand for non-sovereign, inflation-resistant assets is exploding – the same thesis underpinning bitcoin. Every dollar fleeing fiat for gold is a dollar that will eventually discover bitcoin's superior properties: portability, divisibility, verifiability, and a supply cap that cannot be debased by mining more.

Coinbase joins Trump Accounts initiative, eyes paying $1,000 child contributions in bitcoin

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced the company will match the federal government's $1,000 Trump Account contribution for eligible children of employees – and hopes to pay it in bitcoin. The Trump Accounts program, created under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, provides every child born between 2025 and 2028 with a government-funded investment account that remains locked until age 18.

Bitcoin takes place in the generational wealth conversation

Armstrong's proposal to deliver matching contributions in bitcoin rather than index funds represents a quiet but significant shift. If Coinbase succeeds, it would mark the first time a major employer pays child benefits in bitcoin – establishing a template for others to follow. The idea that a child born today could reach adulthood with 18 years of bitcoin appreciation, rather than equity index returns, plants a seed that could reshape how Americans think about long-term savings.

Fairshake amasses $193 million war chest ahead of November midterms

The bitcoin and crypto-focused political action committee Fairshake, backed by Coinbase, Ripple, and Andreessen Horowitz, announced it has more than $193 million in cash on hand heading into the 2026 midterm elections. The PAC played a pivotal role in 2024, spending $40 million to defeat bitcoin and crypto critic Senator Sherrod Brown and elect pro-bitcoin candidate Bernie Moreno in Ohio.

Permanent political infrastructure

Two years ago, Washington treated bitcoin as a nuisance to be regulated into submission. Today, a nearly $200 million war chest ensures that any politician who attacks the industry does so at significant electoral risk.

Dollar weakens to four-year low as markets reprice U.S. political risk

The dollar has fallen to its weakest level since the COVID pandemic, not due to recession but because investors are embedding political risk directly into the currency itself. Options markets now show the most expensive hedges against dollar weakness since records began in 2011, while gold has surged above $5,000 per ounce – up 85% over the past year.

Meanwhile, Danish pension fund AkademikerPension announced it will dump its entire U.S. Treasury holdings by month-end, with Chief Investment Officer Anders Schelde telling Bloomberg that American government finances are "not sustainable" and citing "rising credit risk" under Trump's policies.

The search for apolitical money continues

As Peter Earle of the American Institute for Economic Research writes, investors "seek refuge in assets that lie outside the policy sphere altogether" when political actors treat interest rates, exchange rates, and sovereign debt as tools for short-term manipulation.

BITCOIN ADOPTION CONTINUES

El Salvador's central bank purchased $50 million in gold while the government continues adding bitcoin, with gold holdings now exceeding $360 million alongside $635 million in bitcoin reserves.

SEC Chair Paul Atkins will become the first sitting SEC chair to speak at The Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas this April, signaling a historic shift in regulatory posture.

Japan's Metaplanet raised $137 million through a share and warrant issuance, with $91 million earmarked for bitcoin purchases as it pursues a goal of acquiring 210,000 bitcoins by 2027.

Russia will roll out a comprehensive bitcoin framework by July, allowing retail investors to purchase bitcoin through regulated platforms with a 300,000 ruble annual cap.

Nearly 40% of U.S. merchants now accept bitcoin and crypto payments, rising to 50% among large enterprises, with 84% believing bitcoin payments will become common within five years according to a PayPal survey.

Strive retired $110 million of Semler Scientific debt and purchased 334 additional bitcoin, bringing total holdings to 13,132 bitcoins and making it the tenth largest public corporate holder globally.

South Dakota Representative Logan Manhart introduced a bill allowing the State Investment Council to allocate up to 10% of public funds into bitcoin, reviving efforts that stalled last year.

HOW BITCOIN WORKS

Learn one key idea about bitcoin each week. This week:

“Reverse perestroika” and bitcoin's role in a fragmenting world

Rabobank strategist Michael Every published a report this week comparing Trump's economic agenda to Gorbachev's perestroika – but in reverse. Where Gorbachev tried shifting the Soviet Union from military production toward consumption and failed catastrophically, Trump is attempting the opposite: moving America from consumption and financialization back toward productive capital investment and industrial strength.

Every calls this "Capitalism with a national-security face."

The strategy involves extracting $7.7 trillion in pledged foreign investment from trade partners, controlling commodity supply chains, and fragmenting the global monetary system into ideological blocs. Allied nations would transact in dollar stablecoins – tokens that keep actual dollars onshore while extending American financial reach. Non-allied nations would be pushed toward neutral reserve assets.

Here is where bitcoin enters the picture: The report explicitly states that "non-allies could be shifted to a neutral reserve asset such as bitcoin, which the U.S. aims to build a strategic reserve of." Every notes America has already seized bitcoin from adversaries worldwide through law enforcement actions.

When you think about it, this is a remarkable validation of bitcoin. A major institutional bank is now modeling a future where bitcoin serves as the settlement layer for nations outside the American sphere of influence. Not gold, not a “basket of currencies.”

If the dollar-stablecoin system serves American allies and bitcoin serves everyone else, the total addressable market for bitcoin expands to include every nation unwilling to submit to American financial control – which is to say, most of the world by population.

Gorbachev learned that rigid systems cannot adapt. Bitcoin, by contrast, is designed to remain unchanged regardless of who uses it or why.

COIN CHECK

In what year did bitcoin first achieve parity with gold per ounce?

A. 2013
B. 2017
C. 2021
D. 2024

Check your answer at the end of the page.

FROM THE MEME POOL

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ANSWER

Answer: B.

In 2017 1 BTC achieve price parity with one ounce of gold when both were valued around $1,200 - $1,300.

Contributor posts published on Zero Hedge do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Zero Hedge, and are not selected, edited or screened by Zero Hedge editors.
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