We’re about to find out if the crypto market is big enough to raise the price of U.S. bonds and the dollar

Photo: US President Donald Trump during a signing ceremony for the GENIUS Act in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, July 18, 2025. Trump signed the first federal bill to regulate stablecoins, hailing it as a "giant step to cement American dominance of global finance and crypto technology" and delivering a major victory for the digital asset industry. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Credit: Al Drago—Bloomberg via Getty Images)

• President Trump’s GENIUS Act legalizes stablecoins and requires them to be backed by U.S. dollars or Treasuries. That’s going to increase demand for dollar-backed assets and, maybe, cement the dollar’s reserve currency status. Bitcoin and Ether have both risen as a result, alongside a modest recovery in the U.S. dollar.

Bitcoin is up. Ether is up. And the dollar is up—a little. These things might be related if you believe, as many in the cryptocurrency world do, that the Trump Administration’s regulatory support for crypto will revolutionize digital payments.