Crypto News Daily Squeeze

Political pressure is creeping into the Fed

Written by Gode S.,

Web3 Market Analyst

Last Updated: January 13, 2026

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GM. Just when you thought the fruit bowl was empty, along comes a pomegranate-sized crypto update.

Crack it open and let's see what's inside:

🍍 DOJ vs. Jerome Powell;

📈 BitGo wants to go public;

🍋 Unlicensed sports betting crackdown in TN, South Korea lets public companies invest in top 20 coins + more

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🍍 Market flavor today

Find out more about the Fear & Greed Index here.

Name		Price	24H	7D
Crypto Market Cap: $3.11T 0.75% (24H)
	Bitcoin BTC	$91,779.24	1.13%	-2.21%
	Ethereum ETH	$3,131.89	0.60%	-1.76%
	XRP XRP	$2.10	0.48%	-3.39%
	BNB BNB	$905.14	-0.29%	-0.10%
	Solana SOL	$142.55	3.02%	5.02%

Prices as of 11:00 AM EST. Click here to see live data.

The market feels like it just heard a noise downstairs at 2 AM. Not screaming, just kind of standing there, holding a bat, whispering, "Did you hear that too?"

The reason: markets reacted to new legal pressure on Fed Chair Jerome Powell and what that could mean for US monetary policy.

News started circulating that the US Department of Justice is advancing a criminal investigation related to Powell's past congressional testimony about cost overruns at the Fed's HQ renovation.

Powell publicly denied wrongdoing and stated the renovation was handled according to law.

... But the key issue for markets wasn't the renovation itself - it was the implication that the Fed chair could face political or legal pressure to loosen interest-rate policy sooner than expected.

Fed tweet about Powell's message

Source: @federalreserve

Markets immediately repriced that risk:

👉 Gold set a new all-time high (translation: investors started hedging against weaker confidence in US monetary policy and the dollar);

👉 Bitcoin rose to $92K.

This happened because if investors believe political pressure could influence the Fed, they begin pricing earlier rate cuts, lower real yields, and higher long-term inflation risk.

Bitcoin doesn't need to be a perfect hedge to benefit from that trade - it just needs to be an alternative asset with global liquidity. In that moment, it was.

But as the initial reaction faded, price stabilized. Bitcoin pulled back toward $90.5K.

That wasn't a reversal - it was the market pausing. The headline changed expectations, but there was no confirmation yet that policy outcomes would actually change.

So, traders stopped chasing and decided to wait.

Bitcoin price chart from BitDegree, 01-12

Source: BitDegree

What matters is whether upcoming events validate the current narrative or kill it:

🗓️ Tomorrow: CPI and Core CPI release

This is the most important data of the week.

A soft print supports the idea of easier policy ahead.

A hot print undermines the entire "political pressure = rate cuts" narrative.

🗓️ Wednesday: Supreme Court ruling on Trump's tariffs, PPI and Core PPI release

Tariffs directly affect inflation expectations and the dollar.

PPI tells you whether inflation pressure is building upstream - critical confirmation after CPI.

🗓️ Thursday: Senate voting on Clarity Act

This matters because this Act tells the market what's legal and what's not - which tokens count as securities, which don't, and what US exchanges are actually allowed to run without worrying about a surprise lawsuit.

And less legal guessing = more institutional money willing to show up.

So yeah. The market isn't bullish or bearish right now. It's suspicious.

And when markets get suspicious, they don't relax. They wait, finger hovering over the buy button... bat still in hand.

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🥝 Memecoin harvest

Pumps so big, even your grandma's asking for a wallet 🧓

Data as of 09:34 AM EST.

Check out these memecoins and plenty more here.

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📈 BitGo wants to go public

BitGo just did something pretty important: they filed to go public in the US.

Going public (aka an Initial Public Offering, aka an IPO) simply means this: BitGo wants its company shares to trade on a regular stock exchange.

They're aiming to raise about $201M, and the company would be valued at close to $2B.

Tweet about BitGo's IPO terms

Source: @AccessIPOs

Now, if you're like, "Congrats... but also, wtf is BitGo? 🤠" - let's break it down.

BitGo operates in a part of crypto most people never see.

It provides custody and security infrastructure for institutions that already own digital assets and need them stored, moved, and managed safely.

Think controls, approvals, audit trails - systems designed so no single person can move large sums alone.

That role exists because crypto changed.

Early on, crypto was built around individuals holding their own keys. That model works when the stakes are small and the setup is simple.

However, it breaks down once you introduce funds, companies, boards, and compliance requirements. At that scale, responsibility has to be distributed and documented.

That's the gap BitGo fills.

Political pressure is creeping into the Fed

Now add the IPO on top of that.

Going public forces a company into a much tighter operating environment:

👉 Financials become public;

👉 Auditors and regulators get a closer look;

👉 Investors expect consistency, controls, and explanations that hold up under scrutiny.

That pressure can slow things down - but it also creates trust. And trust is what crypto still lacks at the institutional level.

So, this move isn't about attracting retail traders or driving short-term excitement. It's about building credibility where it actually matters: with large pools of capital that need crypto to function like infrastructure.

And the takeaway here is that crypto's most meaningful progress right now is happening in the background - in custody, governance, and transparency - as the industry learns how to operate under real-world expectations.

That part isn't flashy.

But it's how systems become durable.