The Daily: Bitcoin and privacy coins gain as Trump-Powell conflict escalates, Tether freezes $182M in USDT, Strategy makes biggest buy in six months, and more

The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.

Happy Monday! Crypto enters the second full week of 2026 in reset mode, with bitcoin hovering around $91,000 as macro crosscurrents, ETF outflows, and a sweeping derivatives position flush shift the market from late-2025 excess toward a quieter structural rebuild, according to BRN analysts.

In today’s newsletter, bitcoin and privacy coins rise as President Trump and Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s conflict escalates, Tether freezes $182 million in USDT on Tron, Strategy goes big with its latest bitcoin buy, and more.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has reportedly moved $1 billion through UK-registered crypto exchanges since 2023.

P.S. Don’t forget to check out The Funding, a biweekly rundown of crypto VC trends. It’s a great read — and just like The Daily, it’s free to subscribe!

Bitcoin, privacy coins gain as Trump-Powell conflict escalates

Bitcoin climbed above $92,000 late Sunday as markets reacted to escalating political pressure on the Federal Reserve following remarks from Chair Jerome Powell.

• Privacy-focused tokens led the rally, with Monero surging nearly 18% to fresh all-time highs and Zcash jumping almost 10% as investors rotated toward censorship-resistant assets.
• Powell said the U.S. Department of Justice threatened a criminal indictment over his 2025 congressional testimony, framing the move as retaliation for defending central bank independence.
• “The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President,” said Powell, whose term as chair is scheduled to end in May.
• President Trump has repeatedly attacked Powell for resisting deeper and faster rate cuts, intensifying concerns about political interference in monetary policy.
• Analysts said the timing of the rise alongside gains in gold points to a renewed safe-haven bid tied to fears around the dollar and the legacy financial system.
• Traders are now watching Powell’s dispute with the DOJ, U.S. inflation data, and broader policy signals as key catalysts that could drive further volatility this week.

Tether freezes $182 million in USDT tied to five Tron addresses

Tether froze $182 million in USDT across five Tron wallet addresses on Jan. 11 in a coordinated single-day enforcement action, according to onchain data.

• The freezes followed a formal law-enforcement request related to a months-long case and align with Tether’s voluntary wallet-blacklisting policy covering lawful investigations and sanctions compliance, a spokesperson for the stablecoin issuer told The Block.
• Tether has now blocked more than $3 billion in USDT globally, dwarfing rival enforcement activity and freezing roughly 30 times more value than Circle’s USDC since 2023, according to AMLBot.
• The move underscores stablecoins’ central role in illicit crypto activity, which accounted for 84% of illegal transaction volume in 2025, according to Chainalysis.

Strategy makes its largest bitcoin buy in six months

Strategy bought another 13,627 BTC for approximately $1.25 billion at an average price of $91,519 between Jan. 5 and Jan. 11, marking its largest weekly purchase since July and lifting its total holdings to 687,410 BTC.

• The buys were funded through at-the-market sales of Strategy’s common stock, MSTR, and perpetual Stretch preferred stock, STRC.
• Strategy’s latest acquisitions came after MSCI decided not to immediately exclude digital-asset treasury companies from its indexes, easing months of uncertainty for crypto-linked equities.
• MSCI has another quarterly index review in May ahead of a June rebalancing.

Bernstein says window for crypto market structure bill is ‘here and now’

Analysts at Bernstein said the window to pass a U.S. crypto market structure bill is “here and now,” warning that momentum could fade if lawmakers do not act quickly.

• The analysts led by Gautam Chhugani said the biggest risk to passage is a standoff between banks and crypto platforms over whether exchanges should be allowed to offer yield-like rewards on stablecoin balances.
• Bernstein argued the bill’s fate hinges less on token classification or DeFi rules and more on resolving bank concerns about deposit flight as stablecoins scale.
• Tensions escalated earlier on Monday after Coinbase signaled it may reconsider support for the legislation if broader limits on stablecoin rewards are imposed.

Standard Chartered says ‘2026 will be the year of Ethereum’ as bank backs ETH outperformance

Standard Chartered said “2026 will be the year of Ethereum,” backing ETH to outperform BTC even as it cut its year-end price target to $7,500 from $12,000.

• Global Head of Digital Assets Research Geoffrey Kendrick said Ethereum’s dominance in stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets, and DeFi, alongside rising throughput, supports a recovery in the ETH-BTC ratio toward its 0.08 2021 highs.
• The bank also lowered its 2027 and 2028 ETH targets to $15,000 and $22,000, respectively, but raised its longer-term forecasts, introducing a $30,000 target for 2029 and $40,000 for 2030 as onchain adoption and regulatory clarity improve.

In the next 24 hours

• U.S. CPI inflation data is due at 1:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday. Est. MoM 0.3%; Core 0.3%. Est. YoY 2.7%; Core 2.7%.
• Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey will speak at 9 a.m. U.S. FOMC member Thomas Barkin follows at 9 p.m.

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