Why Isn't a Weak Dollar Boosting Bitcoin?
Plus, Tether launched its stablecoin for the U.S.
Olivia Capozzalo & Squiffs _
January 28, 2026
gm Defiers!
Today’s big story:
- The value of the U.S. dollar has dropped notably over the past year; but Bitcoin, long hailed as a hedge against fiat debasement, continues to underperform stocks and precious metals.
In other news:
- Tether launches USAT
- PUMP outperforms as memecoins pick up
- USDAI announces governance token
- ZetaChain 2.0 brings private memory and AI interoperability to creators [SPONSORED]
- 5 crypto lending platforms & loans for fast capital access [SPONSORED]
The Defiant’s 2025 in review:
- How Digital Asset Treasuries Went Mainstream in 2025
- RWAs Became Wall Street’s Gateway to Crypto in 2025
- Prediction Markets Expand from DeFi Niche to Global News Sources
- Stablecoins Became Crypto’s First Mainstream Use Case in 2025
- Looking Ahead: The Biggest Names in Crypto Predict New Bitcoin Highs and a Tokenization Boom in 2026
Read more below! But first, please give our sponsors some love; they make this newsletter possible.
Stellar: The Proving Ground for Real-World Privacy
The latest Stellar upgrade, X-Ray, delivers zero-knowledge cryptography that lets developers build privacy into their apps—protecting what matters while keeping Stellar radically open, trusted, and ready for real-world finance.
We’re back! Here’s what you need to know in web3 today
📈 Markets in the Past 24 Hours
| TICKER | VALUE | 24H | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Bitcoin | $89,357 | 1.47 % |
 | Ethereum | $3,005.09 | 1.84 % |
 | BNB | $900.05 | 1.06 % |
 | XRP | $1.91 | 1.17 % |
 | Solana | $125.76 | 0.42 % |
Today’s Big Story
Crypto Languishes as Dollar Craters
Bitcoin was born in the wake of the global financial crisis as an immutable and alternative store of value in the face of monetary debasement and the erosion of trust in central banks. However, 18 years later, amid rising global economic uncertainty, gold and silver are having their best year in decades, while Bitcoin continues to languish.
Since the Trump administration took over in January 2025, the U.S. Dollar index (DXY) has declined 12%, boosting gold and silver, which have soared 100% and 287% over the same period. Meanwhile, BTC has barely outpaced the dollar and has severely underperformed equities, dropping by 8% over that period.
DXY vs BTC vs GOLD vs SILVER
Investors could have owned essentially anything other than dollars or cryptocurrency over the last year and done well. Even Pokémon cards and subsequent betas, such as One Piece trading cards, have gone up significantly.
However, despite its recent underperformance, optimists are beginning to believe a perfect storm is coming Bitcoin’s way, where metals become too expensive for serious allocations, and the U.S. administration continues to push the dollar aside.
Yesterday’s comments from President Trump about the dollar doing “great” sent the DXY tumbling further, leaving many to wonder where exactly to park their savings.
Bitcoin shot up above $90K on the president’s remarks, and now some crypto-native bears are feeling a change of heart about the crypto market’s use case as a hedge against debasement and a sovereign currency in the face of global economic turmoil.
One trader known as Cryptoyieldinfo on X returned to social media today for the first time since November, stating, “There is no end to USD debasement. Gold/silver have been good but are now expensive, and people are starting to look elsewhere. Suspect bitcoin will double in price surprisingly fast in coming months.”
Meanwhile, institutional investors, such as Jeff Park, the CIO at ProCap, said on X just a couple of weeks ago, “It will be shamelessly clear that the political class has been fully captured, choosing institutional cartels over consumer prosperity. Bitcoin is the best escape hatch from sanctioned debasement and organized plunder.”
The idea of sovereign currency expands beyond just the idea of “the dollar is going down, therefore I must own something that doesn’t go down,” because truly sovereign assets automatically become more valuable than any native currency during global turmoil.
For example, if an investor was forecasting a potential macroeconomic shift of power from the western hemisphere to the eastern hemisphere: instead of gambling on the winner by holding the US dollar or the Yuan, investors can simply hold scarce and sovereign assets such as gold, or something like Bitcoin, which is not only sovereign, but has existing and proven digital transaction infrastructure.
While the stage is set for a Bitcoin megatrend, the market's current state is leaving most bulls cautiously sidelined. Gold has been warning of this growing rift between the U.S. administration and the rest of the world since the Tariff Wars began in 2025, yet BTC is clearly being left behind.
Given what the market is telling us, it’s irresponsible and borderline delusional to full-port Bitcoin as the clear winner in this new regime, and the asset class remains stuck in no-man's land.
But if the current macro trend continues, BTC has no choice but to “put up or shut up” and start performing in the environment it was built for, or fade out and live to fight another day.
Squiffs, resident degen at The Defiant
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🎬WATCH
How Stablecoins Are Rewiring Global Payments | Borderless CPO Alex Garn
In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, Chris Storaker sits down with Alex Garn, chief product officer at Borderless, to unpack how stablecoins are quietly transforming cross-border payments — and what it actually takes to move money at scale across jurisdictions.
We explore why stablecoins are moving beyond trading and DeFi collateral into real-world enterprise payments, where they already outperform legacy rails on settlement speed, transparency, and custody — especially across emerging market corridors like Latin America and Southeast Asia.
Top News in the Past 24 Hours
- Tether Launches Regulated USAT Stablecoin Tether has launched its new dollar-backed stablecoin, USAT, designed to comply with the new stablecoin regulatory framework in the United States.Why it matters: Tether is the issuer of the world’s largest stabelcoin by market cap, USDT.
- PUMP Surges as Memecoin Market Picks Up Solana-based memecoin launchpad pumpfun’s PUMP token was one of yesterday’s top gainers as memecoin activity begins to pick up again. The token is still up 27% on the week after the rally. Why it matters: Despite the rally, PUMP is still trading 25% below its ICO price, a $4 billion FDV.
- USDAI Gears Up for Token Launch and Airdrop USDAI, a stablecoin protocol that issues loans against GPUs, announced the upcoming launch of its native CHIP token, slated for Q1 2026. Why it matters: In August, USDAI raised $13 million in a Series A round led by Framework Ventures, with backing from Dragonfly, Bullish, Arbitrum and others.
Trending on The Defiant
- Theo Launches Yield-Bearing Tokenized Gold as Price Tops $5,100
- Ethereum Ecosystem Grew in 2025 Even as ETH Price Lagged: Everstake
- Bitcoin Slips Under $88K as Markets Await Fed Decision
- Zama’s Encrypted Ethereum Token Auction Draws $118M in Commitments
- VanEck Launches First U.S.-Listed Avalanche ETF
- Bitcoin Trades Near $88,000 as ETF Outflows Deepen and Gold Continues to Rally
That’s it for today — if you enjoyed this newsletter, tell your friends! https://thedefiant.io/subscribe
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