Cryptocurrency
Redefining Money: America’s digital currency dilemma
On Wednesday, Sept. 20, the United States House Financial Services Committee marked up two bills to curb the issuance of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). One of the bills would stop the Federal Reserve from running any test programs on CBDCs without congressional approval, while the other would stop federal banks from using CBDCs for some services and products.
The principal political adversaries to a digital dollar are heavyweights such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who have thrown their hats into the ring to become president a year from November.
In July, DeSantis said that CBDCs would never happen under his administration, citing concerns over consumers losing power over their own money. Kennedy, on the other hand, a known proponent of Bitcoin, is rallying against the digital dollar as it will “vastly magnify the government’s power to suffocate dissent by cutting off access to funds with a keystroke.“
No CBDC in Florida https://t.co/p9pwSTmrlN
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) March 20, 2023
In May, Cointelegraph reported that according to its own research, more than 130 countries were at some stage of research into a CBDC, and only eight had rejected the idea outright. These countries are diverse, from France and Switzerland to Haiti and Bhutan. So, the question must be asked: Why would a country like the United States be so opposed to having its own digital currency?
The idea of a CBDC in itself is nothing too taxing. In essence, digital dollars would be based on blockchain technology rather than having traditional dollars moving around between accounts. That would dramatically decrease transfer times, cut fees, and do away with the “middlemen” — the intermediaries along the way who slow things down and take a cut for themselves.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation found that in 2021, there were still 5.9 million “unbanked’ households in the United States, a massive number by any standard.
A CBDC would mean that the Federal Reserve would effectively oversee all the bank transfers in the country, as there would be no alternative. And having everything under one roof means one mistake or failure would affect everyone rather than be limited to one bank, for instance.
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But perhaps the biggest argument against a CBDC is that, for cryptocurrency purists, having a central institution overseeing a currency is the very thing crypto was designed to avoid. Why now make a U-turn?
Political motivations play a significant role in the discussion in the United States. In March 2022, President Joseph Biden said his administration would “place the highest urgency on research and development efforts into the potential design and deployment options of a United States CBDC.”
This provided fodder for the Republican party to come out against the plan, citing invasion of privacy and claiming it was another form of government control. DeSantis even came out with an Orwellian prediction of the government stopping its citizens from buying fossil fuels or guns if such legislation were in place.
This is not to say that the U.S. hasn’t looked into a CBDC, as it has extensively.
In 2020, the Federal Reserve launched Project Hamilton to study the viability of a CBDC. By 2022, it had developed a system that took elements from the workings of Bitcoin but moved away from its rigid blockchain backbone. The result was a system that can process 1.7 million transactions per second, light years ahead of the Bitcoin blockchain and quicker even than Visa, which can deal with about 65,000 transactions per second.
David Millar, data center coordinator at Santander, told Cointelegraph: “The leaps forward they made during Project Hamilton were truly staggering. When we heard of the progress they were making, we believed that our entire infrastructure would need to be completely revamped within the next five years.”
Nevertheless, the project completed its initial phase in December 2022 and went no further. Once again, voices of dissent from Congress attacked the project, saying it had been carried out solely with academics and the public sector in mind and the average citizen would not benefit. Millar added:
“The time and effort that went into Hamilton and the results they produced; it’s a tragedy that most of it will never see the light of day.”
The issue of privacy is one of the most prominent foes of the digital dollar. The main argument of the dissenters is that if there is to be a digital dollar, it should effectively be like the cash dollar is now, with its benefits of anonymity coupled with the power and speed of a cryptocurrency. Those who favor a digital dollar argue that we already have such a thing, but it’s just not called that yet. Credit card money is digital for all intents and purposes, and are any of us mailing cash to Amazon to pay for things?
The world is moving toward a cashless society, and the U.S. is no exception. In 2022, only 18% of all U.S. payments were made in cash, down from 31% in 2016.
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The U.S. is also a country of strange contradictions. While it surges ahead in many areas, such as technology, its banking system remains rooted in the traditional, with check payments still being the norm. Dragging a whole nation away from that is a tall order.
So, what does the future hold for a potential U.S. CBDC? Well, very little. Project Hamilton closed with no indication of a second phase, and according to Darrell Duffie, a professor of finance at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, while work is continuing, it has slowed to a snail’s pace, and “nobody is charging ahead openly.”
It seems for the foreseeable future, this will be one part of the cryptosphere where the U.S. is not a pioneer.
Bitcoin (BTC) is down almost 7% from its all-time high (ATH), and on-chain signals are flashing a buying opportunity.
According to Darkfost, a pseudonymous analyst at the market intelligence platform CryptoQuant, this buy signal is coming from the Bitcoin Hash Ribbons indicator. This metric tracks the Bitcoin hashrate and is used to identify potential entry points during a market correction.
Is it Time to Buy the Dip?
The Hash Ribbon monitors Bitcoin mining activity and tells when miners are under stress or capitulating by comparing the 30-day and 60-day moving averages of the hashrate. Miner capitulation refers to a period when miners shut down their hardware and sell off their coin reserves to remain afloat because BTC has fallen below a certain price.
On most occasions, the capitulation coincides with the hashrate recovery. The hashrate metric tells how much computational power is required to solve complex math problems and approve transactions on the Bitcoin network. During this period of recovery, mining becomes more difficult.
Market experts say buying BTC during miner capitulation yields significant returns, and the best buy signals are seen during hashrate recoveries. Recently, Bitcoin’s hashrate has been reaching new highs, with the latest being 1.016 billion TH/S. The network’s mining difficulty also surged past 126 trillion during the last adjustment on May 30.
“We recently got a new buy signal from the Hash Ribbons indicator. This metric helps us assess the level of stress in the Bitcoin mining ecosystem. It’s not a big surprise considering that the hashrate has recently reached new all-time highs,” Darkfost stated.
Miners Are Selling Their BTC
Furthermore, the CryptoQuant analyst noted that the Hash Ribbon’s flashing a buy signal is a short-term negative. This is because miners selling their BTC to stay operational create long-term profitable opportunities.
Darkfost explained that the indicator has always been accurate except once, during the 2021 China mining ban event. Hence, the possibility of the metric being correct this time is high.
“Bottom line, this signal is telling you that buying the dip around here is a smart move,” he added.
The analysis comes as a solo BTC miner defied hashrate odds and beat mining giants to validate a block on the Bitcoin network, earning a reward worth over $330,000. Mining successes like this are extremely rare due to the high computational power required to approve transactions.
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[PRESS RELEASE – Dubai, UAE, June 5th, 2025]
The next-generation web3 investor and market maker DWF Labs has announced that the USD1 stablecoin has gone live on DWF Liquid Markets. Its introduction means that more than 1,000 counterparties can access USD1 via DWF’s institutional-grade trading solution.
Developed by World Liberty Financial, USD1 operates as a fiat-backed stablecoin for institutional and retail traders. Custodied by BitGo, USD1 is fully backed by short-term US government treasuries, US dollar deposits, and other cash equivalents.
USD1 will form a cornerstone of DWF Liquid Markets which supports instant OTC trades using a request for quote (RFQ) model. This enables traders to tap into competitive price quotes and execute OTC trades privately with no market impact. Characterized by deep liquidity and 24/7 access, DWF Liquid Markets is optimized for facilitating large trades of leading crypto assets.
Andrei Grachev, Managing Partner at DWF Labs, said: “Stablecoin diversity is integral to supporting a robust trading ecosystem that isn’t reliant on any single dollar-based asset. The launch of USD1 on DWF Liquid Markers supports this goal, giving professional traders access to a versatile and transparent stablecoin that can serve as a base pair for all their trading activity.”
The introduction of USD1 on DWF Liquid Markets will significantly expand access to the institutional-friendly stablecoin which is fully backed by a reserve portfolio audited regularly by a leading accounting firm.
Initially launched on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain, USD1 will eventually expand to other protocols in the future. Each token is designed to maintain a value of $1 USD and is fully backed by a reserve portfolio audited regularly by a third-party accounting firm.
About DWF Labs
DWF Labs is the new generation Web3 investor and market maker, one of the world’s largest high-frequency cryptocurrency trading entities, which trades spot and derivatives markets on over 60 top exchanges.
Learn more: https://www.dwf-labs.com/
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Bitcoin climbed to a fresh peak in May, but upward momentum slowed as long-term holders began locking in profits. Its price has remained relatively stable this week, fluctuating within a narrow range of $103,000 to $106,000.
At the time of writing, the crypto asset trades below $105,000, which represents a minor decline over the past day. Despite the subdued price action, Bitcoin is seeing an increased user participation.
Strong BTC Network Growth
Bitcoin’s on-chain activity has spiked sharply this week, according to the latest analysis from Santiment. On May 29, the network registered 556,830 newly created wallets – the highest daily total since December 2, 2023, representing a significant surge in user growth.
Just days later, on June 2, Bitcoin saw its most active circulation day since December 8, 2024, with 241,360 BTC moved. These activity spikes coincide with Bitcoin’s price trading just below $105,000.
Santiment noted that rising network growth and token circulation are typically bullish indicators, pointing to a renewed interest and broader utility at a time when the crypto market continues to consolidate.
The latest activity comes as Bitcoin sees renewed bullish accumulation, with new whales, wallets holding 1,000+ BTC with coins aged under six months, doubling their holdings to 1.1 million BTC since March. This 600K BTC surge, which is around $63 billion, now represents 5.6% of the total supply, indicating intensified fresh capital inflows.
Unlike long-held coins, these recent buys suggest increased investor conviction. Combined with a 30% drop in exchange balances and increasing institutional adoption, market experts view this behavior as a setup for a supply squeeze.
While increased network activity and accumulation trends paint a strong demand-side picture, miner-focused metrics are now offering additional insights into the current market setup.
Bitcoin Hash Ribbons Flash Rare Buy Signal
Bitcoin’s Hash Ribbons indicator has issued a new buy signal, highlighting stress within the mining sector. The tool monitors the 30-day and 60-day hashrate moving averages to detect periods when mining becomes less profitable.
Such stress often forces miners to sell their BTC, adding short-term selling pressure. However, this has historically reflected attractive buying opportunities for long-term investors. Given Bitcoin’s hash rate has recently hit all-time highs, the emergence of this signal suggests the current market dip may be worth buying.
It’s important to note that, aside from 2021’s mining ban in China, this indicator has proven consistently reliable in identifying solid entry points.
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