Bitcoin (BTC) outperformed otherwise volatile alternative cryptocurrencies early Monday as the dollar index hit its three-year low in reports of President Donald Trump seeking a way to remove Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
According to data source Coindesk, BTC rose more than 2% to $87,200, reaching its highest since April 2nd. The move marked a bullish resolution on the recent merger between $83,000 and $87,000. Major alternative cryptocurrencies such as XRP, Ethereum’s Ether and Cardano’s Ada’s Ada, each rose more than 1%, slowing BTC.
In the Forex market, hedge funds sold the US dollar to major currencies, including the Euro, Yen and the Australian dollar, pushing the dollar index to 98.5, the lowest since April 2022, according to data from charting platform TradingView. DXY fell 10% in three months. The weakness of the dollar usually eases financial conditions and oils risk-taking in financial markets.
Meanwhile, the gold rally continued, with the price per ounce reaching a record high of $3,382, rising to 28% since the start of the year. The futures tied to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq traded 0.5% lower.
Observers suggest that comments from National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett on Friday regarding Trump’s intention to remove Powell were likely to have led to dollar sales along with the increase in BTC and gold.
“The move to Bitcoin to $87,000 appears to be driven by a sharp drop in the US dollar and a +2% rallies in gold, both driven by Trump’s push to replace the Fed’s chair Powell.
Trump posted on True Social on Thursday that “Powell will not end soon enough,” repeating his call for low interest rates the next day. Earlier last week, Powell said the Fed will wait for more data on the economy before changing borrowing costs during stagflation warnings.
Chicago Federal President Austan Ghoulsby warned that Trump’s move to end Jerome Powell would undermine the Fed’s reliability.