Picture this: a Soviet-era cynic muttering, “We know they’re lying, they know they’re lying, they know that we know they’re lying, and still they continue to lie.”

Welcome to another act in the American political circus, where the truth is more elusive than a Bitcoin seed phrase.

But first… Speaking of Bitcoin, a shout out to the “magic internet money” for blasting through the $200k NZD pricepoint this week and setting a new all-time high!

Now onto the drama:

According to the U.S. Justice Department, the Epstein client list “doesn’t exist”! Elon Musk challenged Trump on X to “release the Epstein files as promised.” Trump’s response? “Nobody cares about Epstein.” But the boos from the MAGA fanbase and meme-storm on social media say otherwise!

Then there’s Trump’s BRICS tantrum. He’s issuing 100% tariff threats along with 10% additional tariffs, while dismissing the Bloc as “dead” or “breaking up rapidly.” In fact, it is growing stronger with each new member and new initiative, having added Indonesia and unveiled BRICS Pay, a SWIFT rival to fast-track de-dollarization.

China’s quip nails it: BRICS isn’t anti-West; it’s post-West. Ouch!

Then get this – Trump swears he’s the dollar’s biggest cheerleader, vowing to keep it king of global reserves for a long time to come. Yet, an estimated 40-60% of his total net worth moonlights in Bitcoin, Trump & Melania Coins, World Liberty Financial and other crypto side hustles. Preaching dollar supremacy but betting on the Blockchain – classic.

In this fog of half-truths and bold-faced lies, could Trump’s unconventional approach be a miraculous rabbit-out-of-the-hat for a triumphant America?

BlackRock’s CEO doesn’t mince his words, he’s calling Bitcoin ‘the future reserve currency’.

Fiat’s track record, on the other hand, is a museum of failures, yet the dollar’s “forever” myth persists. You can choose to buy the fantasy or bet on a code that doesn’t care who’s in the White House.

Bitcoin’s Blockchain stands alone, an immutable ledger that doesn’t play politics.

Market sentiment has remained in: Greed

Crypto market moves:

Bitcoin made a monster move after last week’s record-high weekly close of $109.2k to another new-high weekly close of $119.1k, adding nearly $10k to its price.
$1.3 billion in shorts were liquidated in seconds as BTC blasted past $120k on Monday and touched just over $123k.
Pulled down on Tuesday to retest the ‘breakout zone’ on news of crypto week stumbling at the startline and higher than expected U.S. inflation (details in following sections)
Bitcoin ETFs logged a record two consecutive days of $1 billion+ inflows totalling nearly $3 billion for the week!
Polymarket now shows a 46% chance that Bitcoin will break $150k in 2025!
Bitcoin RSI key momentum indicator moved up to 73 on the monthly timeframe.
Bitcoin dominance paired back a bit to 63.8% as the ETH / BTC ratio shot up.
Fear and Greed index moved deeper into Greed territory, as Google search volumes finally showed signs of life and retail FOMO starting.
Total crypto market cap is just below $3.8 trillion as most of the top 100 coins finished in the green in the last 7 days.
ETH broke back through the key $3k price level after strong double digit gains.
The big winners this week are ‘little brother’ Stellar (XLM) up +75.1% and ‘big brother’ XRP up +26.6% on bullish breakouts inspired by Bitcoin.
The surprise mover of the week is Algorand (ALGO) up +57.4% on the back of the Tokenised Stocks surge (holding 66% of the market share).

The big loser of the week is Bitcoin Cash (BCH) down -0.6%, overshadowed by BTC.

View all top gainers:Visit the top gainers page to find out more.

Highlights from the crypto space

Bitcoin reached a new all-time high over $123,000 on Monday breaking $200k NZD for the very first time! Driven by a perfect storm of political support, big money FOMO and strong ETF inflows, it looks like the next leg up could well be underway.

Michael Saylor came up with another gem this week, saying “Short Bitcoin if you hate money.” And sadly, rumors are circulating that legendary trader James Wynn has lost it all – as his X account is now closed.

Speaking of speculation… Pump.fun launched its native platform token on Saturday, releasing 150 billion PUMP tokens, 15% of the 1 trillion total supply, at a fixed price of $0.004 USDT per token – with a record breaking $600 million token sell out in just 12 minutes!

But they’ve got some new competition. LetsBonk, a launchpad that utilizes Raydium’s LaunchLab infrastructure to make it easy to create a memecoins, overtook Pump.fun for the number of new Solana tokens created in a 24 hour period last week.

XRP outpaced BTC and ETH in volume as the crypto of choice among retail investors, reclaiming $3 during Monday trading – and is now back at #3 by total market cap.

The Bank of England Governor warned against banks issuing Stablecoins, saying they introduce systemic risks to banking institutions that could destabilize the entire financial system, causing sovereign governments to lose control over their own currencies.

Don’t tell the US as a new paper from the Bank for International Settlements reveals dollar-backed Stablecoins are playing a bigger role than most people realise in shaping the price of U.S. treasury assets – in effect, large stablecoin issuers are operating as a new breed of money market fund. Interesting!

As “stablecoin summer” rages on, a contender for a new focus of attention is elbowing its way on stage: tokenized equities – recently added to large investing platforms like Kraken, BuyBit and Robinhood. CoinFund President said “tokens are a new financial wrapper, akin to the exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that debuted on US exchanges in 1993.”

Onchain lending grew by +30% in June alone, as there are now more than $28B in total open loans across the ecosystem, the highest total ever!

Lawmakers in Washington are gearing up to pass three bills for the Blockchain industry this week, in an event they have dubbed “crypto week.” The CLARITY Act, The GENIUS Act and The Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act. Wowza!

Unfortunately, the first vote failed to get 100% Republican support – but President Trump is still hopeful and pushing to get it all passed this week as planned.

In other crypto news…

Ripple announced it has selected The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation as the primary custodian of Ripple USD (RLUSD) reserves.

In an anti-money laundering crackdown, Crypto ATMs have been considered ‘high risk’ and will be banned in New Zealand.

Emirates Signs MoU with Crypto.com to Integrate Cryptocurrency Payments starting next year.

Apple just approved the first iOS game using BTC Lightning payments.

Michael Saylor’s ‘Strategy’ now has $30,000,000,000 unrealized profit on its Bitcoin investment.

Revolut has selected Morpho as its DeFi backend, in a major step toward bringing Ethereum-native yield products to its global user base.

Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund has reportedly identified cryptocurrencies as a viable asset class for inclusion in the country’s national reserves. Borat says “very nice!”

Bhutan, through its BTC mining program is in the unique position of not giving a brass wazoo what the IMF says or thinks.

BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF is now the company’s most profitable ETF.

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🌎 Macro news TLDR: A protectionist gamble

It’s crypto week in Washington and it’s tariff week for everyone else!

U.S. tariffs, ranging from a 10% base to over 100% compounded are set to start from 1 Aug – aiming to protect and fuel domestic industries and create jobs, but risking price spikes, disrupting supply chains and hammering U.S. businesses reliant on imports.

Inflation could soar (as we’ve seen in June’s report), crushing consumers and small firms.

For Global South nations, especially BRICS, tariffs slash export markets but fuel de-dollarization driving them towards regional trade and away from Western systems like SWIFT.

Globally, interconnected supply chains fracture, forcing costly rerouting.

Diplomatically, tariffs alienate long-term allies like the EU, South Korea and Japan while sparking feuds with friendly neighbors like Mexico and Canada, fraying key partnerships.

Will this protectionist gamble secure America’s future or hasten the very decline it seeks to stall?

Economic news from the Americas

A first round of tariff letters were issued by President Trump last week, imposing rates between 20% and 50% on a raft of countries.

Brazil was hit with 50% tariffs due to its treatment of former president and Trump ally Jair Bolsonaro. In retaliation, Brazil threatened reciprocal tariffs and announced a 20-year trade agreement with China. This could spell trouble for U.S. coffee prices!

President Trump then confirmed on Saturday that the U.S. will impose a 30% tariff on goods from the European Union and Mexico to take effect on Aug. 1, saying “Mexico has been helping me secure the border, BUT, what Mexico has done, is not enough.”

The U.S. customs duty collections jumped again in June, topping $100 billion US for the first time during a fiscal year and helping to produce a surprise $27-billion US budget surplus for the month. Some are already celebrating the win as offsetting the Big, Beautiful spending bill, while others brace for reciprocal tariffs and weigh the cost of strained diplomatic relations.

President Trump also announced a new 50% tariff on all copper (in addition to steel and aluminium) imported into the US saying “today we do copper.” The U.S. produces just over half of all the copper it currently consumes. While the tariff aims to boost domestic production, it will likely lead to increased costs in the near term.

The U.S. and China continue to vie for control over rare earth minerals, those critical elements essential for technologies spanning consumer electronics, industrial applications and military systems. The U.S. government announced a landmark equity stake in MP Materials, the operator of the nation’s only active rare earth mine.

Nvidia has made history again, becoming the first company to break the $4 trillion market cap – with a trailing price to earnings ratio of 53, how much higher can it go?

June’s consumer inflation report weighed on markets on Tuesday, with headline figures showing a 0.3% increase on the month and a 12-month rate of 2.7%. FedWatch is now showing less than 3% chance of a rate cut at the Fed’s end of month meeting.

Over in Europe & the Middle East…

French President Macron has described the U.S. 30% tariff letter as “a slap in the face to diplomatic efforts” – but the E.U. will suspend retaliatory tariffs in hopes of reaching a trade deal with the Trump administration. Commission President Leyen said “this is now the time for negotiations.″

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, the largest bank in the U.S., told an event in Ireland last week that Europe was “losing on competitiveness” and lacked the kind of global, successful corporations common in the U.S.

After some confusion and a sharp u-turn, President Trump confirmed last week that the U.S. would continue to supply weapons to Ukraine via NATO and then followed that up with an announcement of new 100% tariffs on Russian export buyers unless Ukraine peace deal is reached by September.

And in Asia Pacific…

Long-time U.S. allies Japan and South Korea received 25% tariff letters last week. Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba responded by saying it’s “deeply regrettable” – undermining decades long efforts to pull these countries closer to the West and pushing them closer to China.

China’s exports beat expectations in June as businesses continued to rush out shipments ahead of the 1 Aug deadline – exports rose 5.8% in U.S. dollar terms from a year prior. The economy also grew ahead of expectations in June posting GDP of +5.2%.

Australia was not named among those facing tariff letters, instead subjected to universal 10% taxes on all foreign imports – opposition leader said “just because Australia is not getting a letter from Donald Trump does not mean the country is getting a “fair tariff.”

NZ’s manufacturing slump continued to slow the economic recovery in June as the BNZ Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) improved slightly to 48.8 from 47.4 in May. And the services sector, which makes up about two-thirds of GDP, contracted for the fifth consecutive month as the timeline for NZ’s recovery keeps getting pushed further back.

On top of that, the ‘brain drain’ is back as Stats NZ reported that 30,000 Kiwis packed their bags for Australia in the last 12 months – however net migration is still positive, estimated at +24,200 thanks to Immigration.

That’s a wrap for this week!

Stay tuned for the next update.

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