GM, Crypto Briefers!

Bitcoin spent the weekend teasing a breakout above $92K on Fed chaos, only to trip and fall back to the $90K curb like it always does. A DOJ subpoena targeting Fed Chair Powell briefly lit up safe-haven assets; gold hit fresh highs, silver followed, but crypto’s hopium candle didn’t last past the London open.

Meanwhile, real institutional conviction is still flowing: BitMine gobbled up more ETH, Strategy stacked another $1.25B in BTC, and Standard Chartered is now officially betting 2026 will belong to Ethereum.

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Bitcoin retraces to $90K after Fed drama fizzles

Bitcoin surged to $92K Sunday night after a report revealed the DOJ subpoenaed Fed Chair Jerome Powell, sparking safe haven inflows across assets. But BTC’s gains were short-lived. The Fed said that the subpoena wasn’t about office renovations, but rather political pressure linked to interest rate decisions, prompting concerns over central bank independence. Gold and silver hit record highs, with silver breaking $85, while BTC reversed back to $90K during early European hours.

Equities briefly dropped on the US open, then bounced, signaling the market viewed the Fed story as a non-event. Bitcoin, however, failed the safe haven test yet again, trailing precious metals and underperforming risk assets. XMR was a notable exception, hitting a new all-time high near $600 amid the turmoil. Solana also showed resilience, with its ETF maintaining momentum: over $1B in assets, only three red days since launch, and steady inflows since December.

BitMine and Strategy grow treasuries as ETH outperformance bets rise

Institutions are still buying the dip. Strategy added 13,627 BTC for $1.25 billion last week, bringing its total holdings to 687,410 BTC, more than 3% of total supply. Funded through fresh MSTR and STRC sales, the move reinforces Strategy’s long-term conviction in Bitcoin amid macro volatility. The firm still has over $14B in available capital for further buys.

Meanwhile, BitMine boosted its Ethereum treasury to 4.17M ETH after acquiring another 24,266 ETH last week. Its total staked ETH jumped by nearly 600K to 1.26M, making BitMine the largest individual ETH staker globally. BitMine is targeting 5% of ETH’s circulating supply and now controls around 3.45%. It also holds $988M in cash, small BTC reserves, and treasury equity in WLD.

Standard Chartered’s digital asset chief Geoffrey Kendrick reinforced BitMine’s thesis, predicting Ethereum will outperform Bitcoin in 2026. He cited Ethereum’s dominance in stablecoins, RWAs, and DeFi as structural advantages, and set a year-end target of $7,500 for ETH, with the ETH/BTC ratio expected to return toward its 2021 highs near 0.08.