Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent published an unusually direct critique of the Fed, accusing it of “gain of function” monetary engineering since 2008 — QE, MBS purchases, and balance sheet manipulation.

His argument: the Fed has consistently misread growth and inflation, distorted price signals, and entrenched wealth inequality by debasing currency to support asset markets.

Bessent stops short of naming the fiat system as the root problem, but the implication is clear, the Fed can’t be trusted with independence.

The subtext: the Treasury wants a larger role in steering monetary policy, an escalation that risks politicizing the Fed and accelerating dollar debasement.

A Putin advisor warned that Washington intends to “solve its problems at the world’s expense” by moving U.S. debt into the “crypto cloud.”

This is already happening: Tether was the fifth-largest buyer of Treasuries in 2024, showing stablecoins’ role in recycling demand for U.S. debt.

Stablecoins aren’t a panacea, their absorption capacity is limited, but they extend dollar reach globally and preserve U.S. financial dominance.

The bigger play: combining Fed, Treasury, and stablecoin infrastructure gives Washington deeper control over the monetary system at home and abroad.

Gold has rallied ~40% this year, its strongest inflation-adjusted move since the late 1970s, signaling broad loss of trust in fiat.

Central banks are accumulating gold at record pace, reversing decades of declining reserve shares (from ~90% a century ago to ~10% a decade ago).

Historically, Bitcoin lags gold before breaking out harder. If the gold-to-Bitcoin ratio follows past patterns, Bitcoin could be set up for a sharp move higher into year-end.

Together, gold and Bitcoin form the twin pillars of the coming reset, gold for central banks, Bitcoin for sovereigns, institutions, and individuals.

The UAE has mined an estimated $700M in Bitcoin, joining Bhutan and others using natural resources to acquire BTC.

Franklin Templeton’s $1.6T partnership with Binance, and Stripe’s new “Tempo” stablecoin platform, mark a decisive shift: digital assets are moving from the fringes to the financial core.

Five years ago, a Binance–Franklin tie-up would have been unthinkable; today, it shows how quickly regulators and institutions are normalizing Bitcoin and stablecoins.

Allocators who continue to treat Bitcoin as speculative are missing its transition into the mainstream of both sovereign and institutional finance..

A supply chain attack on widely used developer packages highlighted vulnerabilities in software wallets and the broader custody stack.

While hardware wallets offered some insulation, most rely on companion software. meaning even “cold storage” setups can be compromised.

For investors with material allocations, the mental burden of questioning whether devices, updates, or software are compromised is unsustainable.

The lesson: peace of mind requires redundancy, insurance, and multi-institution custody. Without institutional-grade solutions, adoption will stall as wealthier investors refuse to take existential risks with savings.