Bitcoin has lost some of its momentum this week after surging higher on news former president Donald Trump could be about to drop a bitcoin bombshell.
The bitcoin price has dropped back away from the closely-watched $70,000 per bitcoin level despite billionaire investor Mark Cuban issuing a “crazy” bitcoin price prediction.
Now, after Treasury secretary Janet Yellen admitted her fears over the future of the U.S. dollar, Tesla billionaire Elon Musk has warned the U.S. dollar is heading for “destruction” and the spiraling $35 trillion debt pile could “bankrupt” the U.S.—something some analysts think could push the bitcoin price higher.
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“Where are we with dollar value destruction, you might ask,” Musk posted to X alongside an image suggesting the U.S. is on the cusp of hyperinflation. “America is going bankrupt [by the way],” Musk added, replying to the cofounder of the meme-based bitcoin rival dogecoin who highlighted the soaring cost of interest payments on U.S. debt.
U.S. debt interest payments are forecast to hit $870 billion this year, according to a recent analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, after runaway inflation pushed the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates at a never-before-seen clip in the aftermath of huge Covid-era spending and money-printing.
Earlier this year, Bank of America analysts warned the U.S. debt load is about to ramp up to add $1 trillion every 100 days—fueling a bitcoin price surge.
“The U.S. national debt is rising by $1 trillion every 100 days,” Michael Hartnett, chief strategist of Bank of America, wrote in a note to clients seen by CNBC, adding it’s “little wonder ‘debt debasement’ trades [such as gold and bitcoin are] closing in on all-time highs.”
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Hartnett predicted the newly created spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that have taken Wall Street by storm over the last few months are on course for a “blowout year,” in part because of the collapse of the U.S. dollar.
This week, Musk, who’s thrown his weight behind Trump in the aftermath of the failed assassination attempt on the former president, fanned wild speculation that Trump could be about to make a game-changing bitcoin announcement.
“Bitcoin is now a proxy for a Trump victory,” Sean McNulty, director of trading at Arbelos Markets, told Bloomberg, citing expectations among traders that Trump would herald a far friendlier regulatory and political backdrop than the Biden administration.