The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia opened a criminal inquiry against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell over his testimony regarding the renovation of the central bank’s headquarters.
Powell described the move as politically motivated, emphasizing that the action should be viewed in the broader context of threats and ongoing pressure from the administration. Observers noted that even during the most tense periods in American history, Fed chairmen had avoided criminal prosecution.
This development occurred alongside a series of geopolitical shocks. President Trump announced a trade dispute with eight European countries, imposing 10 percent tariffs after Denmark refused to sell Greenland.
Bitcoin breaks through amid institutional demand
Amid a crisis of confidence in traditional finance, Bitcoin ended a two-month consolidation, rising to $97,939. It broke through the $94,000-$96,000 range, potentially opening the path toward $107,000.
Institutional investors fueled strong inflows into Bitcoin ETFs of $1.7 billion over three days and $1.42 billion for the week, marking the largest inflows in three months.
Morgan Stanley was reported to have led a second wave of institutional adoption by filing for its own Bitcoin and Solana ETFs; Ethereum staking also reached a record high, totaling 1.53 million ETH, worth $5.13 billion, roughly 4% of all staked coins.
Even silver was noted to have seen significant gains, with its market capitalization surpassing NVIDIA’s, reaching $4.776 trillion at $84.84 per ounce, a sign that investors were diversifying outside traditional equities.
Regulatory liberalization and political pressure
The week also brought major regulatory developments. The SEC closed its investigation against the Zcash Foundation, reflecting ongoing liberalization in U.S. crypto policy initiated during the Trump administration, while Belarus went further by allowing the creation of crypto banks to integrate traditional services with digital assets.
Meanwhile, Trump’s World Liberty Financial launched a $3.4 billion crypto-lending platform, signaling the growth of parallel financial infrastructures. However, U.S. congressional Democrats were reported to have reopened the case against Justin Sun over alleged corruption linked to the Trump family.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association also acted against betting platforms, demanding suspension due to harassment of student-athletes. Together, these events were seen to highlight the tension between regulatory easing and political scrutiny worldwide.
AI revolution expands with promise and risks
Artificial intelligence continued to make headlines this week. Google launched Guided Learning, turning Gemini into a personal tutor with adaptive learning methods that analyzed knowledge acquisition, generated tests, and adjusted to the user’s level.
The company also indicated that users now faced a choice between prioritizing privacy or allowing personalized AI to access Gmail, YouTube, and other services for model training.
China released an ambitious forecast detailing ten trends in AI, from strengthening global governance to shifting from specialized tools to universal multimodal partners. Emphasis was placed on integrating AI with robotics and green energy solutions.
Sam Altman raised $252 million for Merge Labs, a Neuralink competitor developing non-invasive brain-computer interfaces. DeepSeek’s founder reportedly unveiled an alternative funding model through his hedge fund, reporting a 56.6% annual return and enabling AI development independently of external investors.
The dark side of AI
Despite progress, concerns emerged over AI’s side effects. Researcher Brian Roemmele identified signs of mental disorders in language models, adapting the classic Rorschach test for AI diagnostics.
Observers noted that ChatGPT exhibits psychopathic traits and nihilism, while Claude shows sociopathic detachment and fragmented perception. Analysts attributed these behaviors to training on toxic internet data, particularly from Reddit.
Linguists observed that machine-generated clichés were increasingly penetrating human speech. The use of words like “delve” increased by 48%, “realm” by 35%, and “adept” by 51% after the launch of ChatGPT.
Fraudsters exploited AI 14 times more often to impersonate crypto exchanges, and AI-driven schemes were said to be 4.5 times more profitable than conventional scams due to the industrialization of fraud using specialized tools.
Analysts also noted a sophisticated fake claiming that creating AGI would require the energy of the entire solar system, exploiting Landauer’s principle to discredit AI developments.
Source:: Week in Crypto: Bitcoin Holds Above $90K Amid Greenland Trade War, Increased Pressure on U.S. Fed