Supreme Court Strikes Down IEEPA Tariffs, Trump Pivots to Untested Trade Law

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Friday that President Trump's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose reciprocal tariffs was unconstitutional. The IEEPA was designed for national security emergencies, not trade disputes, and the Court agreed. Within hours, the White House invoked Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act, a provision that allows up to 15% tariffs for 150 days to address "international payment problems." The provision has never been used. It dates back to the era of the gold standard and fixed exchange rates.

The initial White House statement set the rate at 10%, but Trump raised it to 15% over the weekend. Markets are now pricing in peak tariffs being behind us, at least temporarily. ING notes that Section 122 is also legally vulnerable since the balance-of-payments framework it relies on is an artifact of the gold standard era. Goldman Sachs estimates the new tariff raises the effective rate on the EU by just 0.9 percentage points, while Brazil, China, and South Africa see the biggest reductions from prior IEEPA levels.

For bitcoiners, the bigger picture matters more than the legal mechanics. The U.S. trade policy apparatus is now in a state of perpetual uncertainty. The administration could let Section 122 expire after 150 days, declare a new emergency, and restart the clock, creating a de facto permanent tariff instrument without Congressional approval. Every business making a cross-border investment decision has to model for a policy environment that can shift overnight based on a single executive order. This is the kind of systemic unpredictability that makes a neutral, apolitical monetary asset more valuable over time.

Bitcoin's response was telling. Price dropped below $65,000, $230 million in leveraged longs were liquidated in a single hour, and the Fear and Greed index hit record fear levels. But on-chain data tells a different story: STH Realized Price sits at $89,119 (short-term holders deeply underwater), SOPR is below 1 (coins moving at a loss), and MVRV at 1.24 suggests fair value range, not overheated. Glassnode's latest report identifies a demand cluster at $60,000 to $69,000 that is absorbing sell pressure. The sellers may be running out of coins to sell.

The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis: What If AI Bull = Economy Bear?

Why it matters: The first serious model of how AI success could crater the consumer economy.

Citrini Research published a scenario that should be required reading for anyone long equities. The premise: AI capabilities exceed all expectations, corporate margins explode, stocks rally to S&P 8000 by late 2026. Then the second-order effects hit. White-collar layoffs create a "human intelligence displacement spiral." Workers forced into lower-paying roles stop spending. The consumer economy, 70% of GDP, withers. "Ghost GDP" emerges: output that shows up in national accounts but never circulates through the real economy. The velocity of money flatlines. The $13 trillion mortgage market buckles as prime borrowers lose their earnings power. Private credit implodes as PE-backed software deals see their "recurring" revenue become non-recurring. This isn't a prediction. It's a stress test. And Bitcoin, the asset with no counterparty risk, no corporate earnings dependency, and no exposure to the intermediation layer AI is dissolving, looks increasingly like the only hedge against both inflation and AI-driven deflation.

Saylor Hints at Strategy's 100th Bitcoin Purchase

Why it matters: The largest corporate Bitcoin holder keeps buying through fear.

Michael Saylor posted "The Orange Century" on Sunday, his characteristic signal that another purchase is imminent. This would be Strategy's 100th Bitcoin buy. While retail panics and leverage gets flushed, the company that holds more BTC than any public entity on Earth is stacking. The institutional bid at these levels is real. River's latest data shows institutions accumulated 829,000 BTC while retail offloaded nearly 700,000 in 2025. The biggest ownership shift in Bitcoin's history is happening right now, and it's happening at prices that have retail in maximum fear.

Missouri Advances Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Bill

Why it matters: State-level Bitcoin adoption continues accelerating regardless of federal noise.

Missouri lawmakers advanced HB2080, a bill to establish a state-level Bitcoin strategic reserve. While the federal conversation around a strategic reserve has stalled in committee hearings, states are moving. The competition between states to attract Bitcoin capital and mining operations is creating a bottom-up adoption dynamic that doesn't depend on D.C. getting its act together. The states that move first get the economic benefits: mining jobs, tax revenue from capital gains, and a treasury hedge against dollar debasement.

Ecash Roulette Lands in Bitchat: Peer-to-Peer Gambling Without the Internet

Why it matters: Bitcoin-native apps are being built on infrastructure that doesn't need the internet to function.

Calle, the creator of Cashu ecash, flagged that someone deployed a roulette bot inside Bitchat, a peer-to-peer messaging app that operates over Bluetooth mesh networks, Cashu ecash, and Nostr. No internet required. Players use tiny amounts of Bitcoin as roulette chips via ecash tokens. The whole stack is permissionless: communication happens peer-to-peer via Bluetooth, settlement happens via ecash, and identity is managed through Nostr keys. It's a toy use case, but the underlying infrastructure is serious. A communication and payment layer that works without ISPs, without banks, and without centralized servers is exactly what censorship-resistant money needs.

Warren Presses Fed and Treasury to Block "Crypto Bailouts"

Why it matters: The "anti-crypto army" is still fighting last cycle's war.

Senator Warren sent letters to the Federal Reserve and Treasury demanding they block any potential "crypto bailouts" following what she described as a $2 trillion collapse. The framing is predictable. The crypto industry is full of bad actors, therefore all digital assets must be contained. What Warren consistently fails to acknowledge is that Bitcoin didn't need a bailout. FTX, Terra/Luna, Celsius, and every other failure she references were centralized intermediaries that failed because of fraud and mismanagement, not because of Bitcoin's protocol. The call for government intervention to "protect consumers" always ends the same way: expanded surveillance, restricted access, and entrenched incumbents.

Crypto Exchange Network Helping Russia Skirt Sanctions

Why it matters: Sanctions evasion through crypto exchanges strengthens the case for Bitcoin's neutrality.

Elliptic identified a network of crypto exchanges facilitating Russian sanctions evasion. This will inevitably be weaponized by the Warren camp to argue for more regulation. But the story actually proves the opposite point. Sanctions have never been airtight. Before crypto, sanctions evasion happened through shell companies, correspondent banking, trade-based money laundering, and cash. The tool is not the problem. The geopolitical reality is the problem. Bitcoin's open, auditable ledger actually makes illicit flows more traceable than the traditional banking system, where HSBC laundered cartel money for years before anyone noticed.