Crypto
Bitcoin Hits Record High After Stablecoin Bill Advances in Senate | PYMNTS.com
Bitcoin reportedly hit an all-time high of $109,730 Wednesday (May 21), driven in part by the Monday (May 19) news that a stablecoin bill advanced in the U.S. Senate.
The cryptocurrency reached its previous record high around the Jan. 20 inauguration of President Donald Trump, which heightened the market’s hopes for regulatory clarity around crypto, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
Bitcoin has also benefited from some investors’ belief that it offers a haven from financial market turmoil, from some companies stockpiling the token, and from the greater variety of bitcoin exposure available to investors, according to the report.
The crypto industry-backed bill in the Senate is set for debate and could pass as soon as this week, per the report.
“It’s the shift of approach from [former Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler and the SEC] to this Trump administration, which has embraced our industry,” Michael Novogratz, founder and CEO of Galaxy Digital, told Bloomberg TV Wednesday. “That freed up the animal spirits both here and abroad.”
The Senate voted to advance the country’s first stablecoin legislation, the GENIUS Act, an acronym for Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins of 2025 Act, on Monday after weeks of political back-and-forth, PYMNTS reported Tuesday (May 20).
“Tonight’s vote is a welcome and long-overdue step toward asserting U.S. leadership in digital assets,” Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said in a press release. “After playing politics, I’m glad many of my Democratic colleagues have returned to the table and are supporting a bipartisan product they helped shape. By moving forward on the GENIUS Act, we are one step closer to delivering a regulatory framework that keeps innovation in America, protects consumers, and safeguards our national security.”
After hitting its previous record high in January upon Trump’s inauguration, the price of bitcoin fell by as much as 30% when new tariffs led to a market downturn.
However, it rose back above the $100,000 mark for the first time in three months on May 8 amid anticipation for a relaxation of global tariff-related tensions following a new trade deal.
“It just speaks to the large amount of demand for digital assets in the industry, and especially bitcoin,” Cosmo Jiang of Pantera Capital told Bloomberg at the time.
Crypto
Rumors are swirling about Venezuela holding $60 billion in Bitcoin—but crypto experts are skeptical | Fortune
Following the United States’ capture of Nicolás Maduro over the weekend, a report came out claiming that Venezuela had $60 billion stored in Bitcoin—leading to speculation that the U.S. could lay claim to cryptocurrency as well as oil. Despite numerous reports of the huge Venezuelan Bitcoin stash, however, a crypto forensic firm is skeptical of the claims.
The news of Venezuela’s Bitcoin holding began to bubble up last Saturday, the same day that Maduro was ousted. The digital publication Project Brazen reported that his regime could control $60 billion in the original cryptocurrency—but offered little in the way of proof.
“The article does not mention any addresses as a starting point, making it difficult to verify any of these speculated claims,” said Aurelie Barthere, principal research analyst at Nansen, about Project Brazen’s report.
Barthere is not the first person to express skepticism about the country’s purported crypto treasure trove. Mauricio di Bartolomeo, the Venezuelan co-founder of the financial services company Ledn, told Fortune on Wednesday that the level of the country’s corruption makes the figure hard to believe. He expanded his argument in an opinion piece he wrote for Coindesk.
Estimates of Venezuela’s crypto holdings vary wildly. Bitcointreasuries.net estimates that the country has $22 million worth of Bitcoin. That figure would make Venezuela the government entity with the ninth-most money tied up in the original cryptocurrency, just behind North Korea.
While the exact size of Venezuela’s Bitcoin wealth is unclear, the country has long been a player in crypto. Maduro introduced a token called the Petro in 2018, which was shuttered six years later. Its citizens have also turned to stablecoins as a way to fight their currency’s hyperinflation.
Trump has said that he will “run” Venezuela, and some have speculated that includes seizing the country’s Bitcoin holdings. Andrew Fierman, head of national security intelligence at Chainalysis, said he could not speak to the likelihood of such a seizure. He did, however, explain what gaining control of assets might look like.
A freezing of assets could occur through centralized services, he says. These services would get a court order for an exchange or an issuer like Tether or Circle who could blacklist an address. The second method is through physical seizure. The U.S. could get control of wallets, devices, and keys through compelled cooperation.
For now, there is unlikely to be a full and accurate account of Venezuela’s Bitcoin holdings until the political situation in the country becomes more stable.
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