## Bitcoin Dips on Weaker Than Expected US Wholesale Prices

**Bitcoin** experienced a slight decline, dropping **1.3% to $102,655**, following the release of the April Producer Price Index (PPI) which showed a surprising **0.5% decline in wholesale prices**. This was contrary to economists' expectations of a **0.2% increase**. The **Core PPI**, excluding food, energy, and trade services, also edged down **0.1%**, marking the first decline since April 2020.

### Market Reaction and Analyst Insights

- **Ethereum** slipped **2.2%**, while **Solana** and **Avalanche** dropped **1.7%** and **2.1%**, respectively.
- **Meme coins** like **Dogecoin** and **Shiba Inu** traded within tight ranges after Tuesday’s CPI data.

Aurélie Barthere, Principal Research Analyst at Nansen, noted that the PPI wasn't a significant catalyst for Bitcoin, especially given the market’s muted response to recent CPI data. However, all eyes are now on **Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s remarks**, which could overshadow the data.

### What to Watch Next

- **Fed Chair Jerome Powell's remarks** could influence market sentiment, with potential implications for Bitcoin and altcoins.
- The **May 30 release of the PCE index** will provide further clarity on potential Fed policy changes.

Tracy Jin, COO of crypto exchange MEXC, warned that a **hawkish tone from Powell** could trigger a brief shakeout, particularly in overheated altcoins, and suggested Bitcoin might retest key support zones near **$97,000** or even slip as low as **$93,000**.

“If Powell signals no urgency to ease policy ... markets could still turn defensive,” an analyst told Decrypt.

Bitcoin's Price Reacts to Unexpected US Wholesale Price Drop - What's Next?

**Ukraine is considering creating a national strategic Bitcoin reserve.** This groundbreaking initiative is set to be developed in collaboration with **Binance**, one of the world's leading cryptocurrency exchanges. Government officials have confirmed that a related bill is currently being drafted and is expected to be submitted shortly.

### **Exploring a National Bitcoin Reserve**

Recent reports from a Ukrainian media outlet reveal that the country is actively working on legislation to establish a **national strategic Bitcoin reserve**. This move signifies a major step towards integrating cryptocurrency into national financial strategies.

**Yaroslav Zhelezniak**, a Member of Parliament and the First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy, has confirmed the preparation of a draft law. Although the text is still under finalization, it is anticipated to be presented soon.

### **Binance's Role and Legal Implications**

**Kirill Khomyakov**, Head of Binance in CEE, Central Asia, and Africa, has expressed support for this initiative. He highlighted that the project would necessitate significant legal reforms, potentially paving the way for clearer cryptocurrency regulations in Ukraine.

Earlier this year, hints were dropped about legislative efforts to enable crypto reserves, but details remained scarce until now. The initiative could mark a turning point for Bitcoin's legitimacy and adoption on a national scale.

### **Previous Legislative Efforts**

In April 2025, a draft law on virtual assets received approval from a key parliamentary committee. However, it was later withdrawn from consideration, reportedly at the request of the President’s Office. The National Securities and Stock Market Commission, while denying responsibility for the withdrawal, submitted over 80 amendments to the bill.

The establishment of a **national Bitcoin reserve** could have a bullish impact on Bitcoin, enhancing investor confidence, improving regulatory frameworks, and driving long-term adoption.

Ukraine is considering creating a national strategic Bitcoin reserve. This initiative will be developed in cooperation with Binance, a leading global crypto exchange. Government officials confirm that a related bill is being drafted and will be submitted soon.

Ukraine Eyes Historic Move: National Bitcoin Reserve in Partnership with Binance

**Arizona's recent legislative moves on cryptocurrency have sparked discussions nationwide.** Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed several crypto-related bills but approved regulations for Bitcoin ATMs, marking a significant moment for crypto governance in the state.

### **The Vetoed Bills**
- **Senate Bill 1373**: Aimed to establish a Digital Assets Strategic Reserve Fund. Governor Hobbs cited "volatility in cryptocurrency markets" as the primary reason for the veto.
- **Senate Bill 1025**: Proposed investing up to 10% of the state's treasury and retirement funds into cryptocurrency.
- **Senate Bill 1024**: Sought to allow cryptocurrency payments for taxes, fines, and fees.

### **Bitcoin ATM Regulations**
The approved bill introduces strict regulations for Bitcoin ATMs, including:
- **Multilingual warnings** about potential scams.
- A **daily cap of $2,000 for new customers** and **$10,500 for returning customers**.
- A **refund policy** for new users scammed within 30 days, covering all fees.

This move reflects a cautious yet progressive approach towards cryptocurrency regulation, balancing innovation with consumer protection.

Arizona recently proposed multiple cryptocurrency bills, which were all vetoed by Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs. She also approved a bill to regulate bitcoin ATMs by requiring multilingual warnings about scams and putting a cap of $2,000 a day for new customers and $10,500 per day for returning customers, according to a report by Coin Telegraph.

Arizona Governor Takes a Stand: Vetoes Crypto Bills but Greenlights Bitcoin ATM Regulations

**Bitcoin** has surged past the **$104,000** mark, marking a significant double-digit increase over the past week. Currently trading at **$104,271**, BTC is inching closer to its all-time high of **$109,000**. This upward movement isn't happening in a vacuum; it's closely linked to broader macroeconomic improvements, including eased trade tensions between the US and China, which has sparked a renewed risk appetite among investors.

### **Taker Buy Sell Ratio: A Bullish Signal**

A critical indicator, the **Taker Buy Sell Ratio**, has risen to **1.02**, a level historically associated with pivotal moments in Bitcoin's price trajectory. This metric, which compares the volume of market buy orders to sell orders, suggests aggressive buying activity is on the rise. Similar levels were observed during Bitcoin's late 2022 lows and the October 2023 breakout above **$30,000**.

![Bitcoin Taker Buy Sell Ratio](https://s3.tradingview.com/news/image/newsbtc:0b664bfa7094b-386c43ad09613584b72e4fe86c95edd0-resized.jpeg)

Analysts caution, however, that while this indicator points to potential continued upward momentum, it has also preceded periods of high volatility in the past.

### **Institutional Support Strengthens Market**

The **realized price** of Bitcoin, reflecting the average purchase price of all circulating BTC, continues to climb. This trend, driven by institutional inflows through **spot Bitcoin ETFs** and corporate acquisitions, indicates a robust market structure unlike previous cycles where a reversal in realized price often led to corrections.

![Bitcoin’s realized price](https://s3.tradingview.com/news/image/newsbtc:0b664bfa7094b-2259ebe353e8bea4827141180ea0fd71-resized.jpeg)

With macroeconomic conditions favorable and on-chain metrics bullish, Bitcoin's rally may have further to go.

Bitcoin has been able to climb above the $104,000 level, following a notable double-digit increase over the past week. At the time of writing, BTC trades at $104,271, narrowing the gap to its all-time high of $109,000.This recent price surge is not occurring in isolation. Instead, it appears closel…

Bitcoin's Bullish Signal: Key Indicator That Foreshadowed Past Rallies Activates Again

The 220 winners of a cryptocurrency contest were told on Monday to look out for an email featuring “the most exclusive invitation in the world”. As a reward for spending immense amounts of money, in some cases millions of dollars, they had won the prize of attending a private gala with **Donald Trump** at his own Washington DC golf club later this month.

Awarding access to the president in exchange for investment in his crypto endeavor was Trump’s latest conflict of interest in a political career filled with, in the words of one of his most repeated catchphrases, “many such cases”. Real estate holdings, a media company, merchandising deals, **fraud** and most recently Qatar’s gift of a $400m plane are only some of the myriad of entanglements that government ethics watchdogs have warned about for a decade now.

Trump’s foray into cryptocurrency is a unique combination and escalation of these conflicts. It involves him leveraging his presidency for personal gain, potentially opening himself up to foreign influence and operating in an industry he has immense power to deregulate. It marries Trump’s unscrupulous business tendencies with an industry that is notorious for fraud, scams and a lack of transparency. It may also become the most lucrative business he’s ever been involved in.

### Auctioning off influence

Trump’s shift from cryptocurrency skeptic to industry operator last year was already a concern for ethics and transparency advocates, who worried that, if elected, he could potentially push through crypto-friendly legislation that would benefit his personal financial interests. The auctioning off of direct access to the president through a crypto scheme intensified fears around political corruption and attempts to buy influence, especially given the opaque nature of the contest. The names of the winners are still unknown.

The rules of the Trump dinner contest stated that the top 220 buyers of $TRUMP, which were listed on a public leaderboard on the coin’s website, would receive an invitation to dine with the president. The top 20 on the leaderboard would gain even more personal access through a VIP reception featuring Trump. The leaderboard only disclosed contestants’ usernames and crypto wallet codes, no other identifying information. Winners could also write down any name they chose on the invite, according to the website’s frequently asked questions page, adding another layer of uncertainty to who will actually attend.

One of the primary worries from Democrats and ethics groups surrounding the contest is that it may allow foreign actors to purchase influence with Trump through investment in his cryptocurrency. Multiple analyses of the $TRUMP leaderboard have already found that a large percentage of the top buyers used foreign crypto exchanges that prohibit US users from trading on their platforms, suggesting that the winners may be foreign residents.

The wallet of the top $TRUMP buyer on the leaderboard, who owns more than $18m worth of the coin, has been linked to Hong Kong-based crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun. In 2023, the Securities and Exchange commission (SEC) charged Sun with fraud and other securities violations related to cryptocurrency trading. Since Trump took office, however, the SEC has paused that investigation. Sun also invested tens of millions of dollars into the Trump family’s other crypto ventures last year, and is an adviser to the World Liberty Financial company that Trump’s sons control.

The $TRUMP coin has also attracted foreign-tied investors beyond the contest. On Monday, a small technology company called GD Culture group that has a Chinese subsidiary company and has a TikTok e-commerce business announced that it had secured $300m in funding to buy up $TRUMP coins. Its purchase would coincide with Trump deciding how to handle TikTok’s potential ban or forced sale within the US.

### The Trump family business isn’t real estate any more

The Trump family’s entrance into cryptocurrency is a relatively recent development, but since the start of last year, the Trumps have thrown themselves into the industry. Trump heavily courted crypto investors during the presidential election campaign, becoming the first candidate to accept crypto donations and promising to turn the US into the “crypto capital of the planet” at a Bitcoin conference in July. Later that year, Trump announced the creation of the World Liberty Financial crypto venture – a company that has raised around $550m and which the Trump family controls.

Trump’s reach into the crypto world deepened following his election victory, as he became involved in the creation of so-called memecoins that tend to fluctuate wildly through speculative trading. The $TRUMP cryptocurrency, along with a $MELANIA coin, launched in mid-January days before his inauguration. The value of $TRUMP initially surged to around $75 a coin before crashing down, only to begin slowly increasing in value after Trump announced that the top buyers of the coin would win an exclusive dinner with him.

Since then, crypto firms associated with Trump have expanded to create another cryptocurrency called USD1, a vague “Trump reward points” program and an Exchange-Traded Fund or ETF. This week, Eric Trump also announced that a Bitcoin mining firm the family controls would go public.

Trump’s personal involvement in each of these projects is convoluted, and the companies that control the various aspects of the family’s crypto empire are set up somewhat like nesting dolls. He does not directly own the company that made the $TRUMP memecoin, for instance. Instead, the Trump Organization owns a firm called CIC Digital LLC, which, along with another company called Fight Fight Fight LLC, oversees and profits from the trade of the coin. Those two LLCs also hold around 80% of the coin’s reserves, a share that on paper is worth more than $2bn at current market value.

The Trump family’s burgeoning crypto empire is a remarkable turnaround from when Trump called Bitcoin a “scam” in 2021 and said it should be highly regulated. There have been huge developments in the cryptocurrency world since then, but the most pertinent in this case may be that Trump now stands to profit from it.

### Backlash to Trump deregulating crypto

While the Trump family has been building out its crypto businesses, the Trump administration has also been pushing for the deregulation of the industry and appointed a pro-crypto head of the SEC. In April, the Department of Justice closed its cryptocurrency fraud investigations unit to align with a pro-crypto executive order from Trump.

These moves towards deregulation are happening while the crypto industry is still rife with scams, and only a few years after Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraudulent management of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange resulted in one of the largest financial scandals in modern history. The potential loosening of rules and backing of the crypto industry has effects that go beyond corruption concerns and financial impacts as well. Bitcoin mining facilities that have expanded across the US are also causing energy supply issues, environmental concerns and noise pollution issues, all of which are regulated by agencies that Trump can influence.

Democratic lawmakers and even some Republicans have pushed back against Trump’s conflicts of interest, with some Trump allies suggesting that the dinner was a step too far. Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal formalized those concerns last week by announcing an ethics inquiry into the president’s crypto operations.

“President Trump’s financial entanglements to the $TRUMP coin, as well as the attempted use of the White House to host competitions to prop up the value of $TRUMP, represents an unprecedented, pay-to-play scheme to provide access to the Presidency to the highest bidder,” Blumenthal wrote in a letter last week.

Trump’s crypto ventures have also derailed a landmark bill to regulate some forms of cryptocurrency, called the Genius act, that formerly had bipartisan support. Senate Democrats, along with three Republicans, voted down a procedural motion that would have allowed the bill to proceed in its current form – arguing that it needed stronger protections to prevent the sort of conflicts Trump was creating.

“It has been shocking to see Donald Trump move at breakneck speed to use his position as president to reap billions of dollars for himself personally and for his family,” Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren said in a speech last week opposing the bill. “The biggest corruption scandal in modern history is unfolding right now and no one is paying attention to it”.

Trump’s foray into cryptocurrency involves him leveraging his presidency for personal gain and operating in an industry he has power over

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