Author: ChandlerZ, Foresight News

On April 22, the U.S. asset market once again found itself at the eye of the storm. The Dow Jones Industrial Index fell 971 points, the Nasdaq dropped more than 2.5%, and the S&P 500 index broke below the 5,200 level. The seven major tech giants all declined, with Tesla and NVIDIA falling more than 5.7% and 4.5%, respectively. The VIX fear index surged 14%, breaking above 33, indicating that systemic risk aversion in the market is rapidly intensifying.

The U.S. Dollar Index also suffered losses, falling below the 98 level and hitting a new low in nearly 1.5 years. The ICE Dollar Index and Bloomberg Dollar Index both recorded some of their worst monthly performances since 2009. At the same time, gold surged past $3,400, setting a new historical high. Bitcoin briefly broke through $88,000 during the early hours, then fell back to around $86,300 following the decline in U.S. stocks. After the U.S. stock market closed, it showed a different strong posture, rising above $88,800, while other altcoins generally did not return to their early peak levels.

According to Coinglass data, a total of $261 million in liquidations occurred across the entire network in the past 24 hours, with long liquidations amounting to $14.1 million and short liquidations reaching $12.1 million. Among them, Bitcoin had $88.5787 million in liquidations, and Ethereum had $67.5928 million in liquidations.

Price changes are just results; deeper than that, it is a collective re-evaluation of the global asset anchoring structure and the historic return of non-sovereign assets within institutional cracks.

The Independence of the Federal Reserve Faces Political Reconfiguration

Trump once again publicly criticized Federal Reserve Chair Powell, demanding "immediate rate cuts, or the economy will slow down," and the market's confidence in the Fed's political neutrality is facing an unprecedented test. This is the second time in just a few days that he has openly pressured the monetary policy path, not only by posting on Truth Social directly pointing out "policy is too tight," but also making statements in multiple occasions about "considering replacing Powell."

According to Bloomberg, Trump's team is currently examining whether they have the legal authority to fire Powell. On April 18, Kevin Hassett, the Director of the White House National Economic Council, publicly confirmed that Trump and his advisory team "are reviewing relevant options."

This move touches a sensitive red line for global investors: whether the Federal Reserve remains an independent central bank free from election politics. For 40 years, the Federal Reserve has played a core role in the global asset allocation system.

However, currently, the question of "whether Powell can retain his position" – which was originally considered an irrelevant issue – has become one of the key variables that global financial capital is focusing on. Therefore, risk-averse funds are accelerating into non-sovereign assets.

Notably, this selling is not a reaction to short-term interest rate paths, but a feedback on the uncertainty of "decision rules" itself. When investors cannot determine whether interest rates are still based on economic fundamentals rather than political cycles, the credit anchor of the dollar begins to loosen.

Over the past decade, global capital has widely allocated to U.S. Treasury bonds and dollar assets due to trust in the Fed's professional judgment and independence. However, once this trust is eroded, U.S. Treasuries will no longer be an unconditional safe-haven asset, and the dollar will no longer inherently possess premium attributes. This will trigger a re-evaluation of the entire global asset anchoring system.

Why Gold and Bitcoin Are Rising in Sync: The "Anchoring Rebuilding Mechanism" in the Gap of Institutional Trust

For a long time, the core asset structure of the global financial system has relied on an implicit assumption of institutional trust, namely that the Fed maintains policy neutrality, the U.S. government fulfills its credit obligations, and market rules remain stable with symmetric information.

It is this institutional trust that gives U.S. Treasury bonds the status of risk-free interest rates and grants the dollar the qualification as a global reserve currency. However, when administrative power frequently intervenes in monetary policy, this assumption faces challenges. In response, the first reaction of global capital is not to wait for the next Fed meeting, but to proactively reassess what assets are truly trustworthy.

Gold has been a store of value for thousands of years. Its price has never been merely a response to inflation, but rather a vote on the stability of institutions. Looking back at history, each rapid rise in gold prices has been accompanied by a retreat of trust in the traditional political monetary system:

• In 1971, the collapse of the Bretton Woods system led to a sharp increase in gold prices after it became decoupled from the dollar;
• After the 2008 global financial crisis, gold prices quickly rose to record highs;
• Currently, as the Fed faces questions about political interference, gold is once again hitting new highs.

This pattern has not changed, because gold's fundamental advantage lies in the fact that it does not rely on national credit, is not subject to policy intervention, and carries no default risk. In the process where institutions become politicized and policies become short-term, gold provides temporal independence and a stable historical expectation.

Bitcoin's synchronized rise with gold is not because it possesses central bank attributes, but precisely because it is not an appendage of any central bank.

Its monetary issuance follows mathematical rules, with the total supply written into code, unaffected by any political term, election cycle, or fiscal deficit pressure. Bitcoin's rise expresses a distrust of the "rule-by-person" monetary system.

When the independence of the Fed is questioned and the dollar is forced to face administrative intervention, part of the market funds begin to view Bitcoin as a "de-politicized store of value candidate."

Especially when the credit of U.S. Treasuries is limited (due to unsustainable fiscal policy), gold prices are overheated (high premiums may weaken risk-adjusted returns), and the compliance channels for crypto ETFs are gradually opening (increasing accessibility), Bitcoin will play a hybrid role as "digital gold" and "decentralized alternative to the U.S. dollar."

Signs of Regulatory Shift: Atkins' Appointment and Systemic Adjustments to the Financial Governance Framework

While Trump continues to pressure the Fed, Paul S. Atkins was sworn in as the 34th Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Although this personnel appointment appears to follow procedures, it actually sends a strong policy signal. As a staunch advocate of the "financial market liberalization" ideology during the Bush era, Atkins has always advocated that regulation should serve the market rather than dominate it. His appointment signifies that the governance philosophy of the U.S. capital market may enter a new turning cycle.

In the current context of cryptocurrency assets, this shift is particularly critical. If Atkins maintains his consistent stance, future developments in areas such as ETF compliance approvals, RWA token issuance, and value distribution mechanisms in token economic models may see an unprecedented easing of policy channels.

However, this liberal approach could also bring structural risks. While it may release short-term positive expectations, it could also lead to ambiguity in regulatory consistency and long-term behavioral expectations. Markets were originally built on a compliance framework with clear rules, defined thresholds, and measurable boundaries. The softening of regulatory stances could easily break this institutional perception, causing disorder among market participants. The cryptocurrency industry has already been on the regulatory edge, and now this edge is not only not clearly defined by rules, but may even be exacerbated by the policy swings caused by the inclination of regulations.

In other words, Atkins' appointment marks a subtle restructuring of the U.S. financial governance framework: by decentralizing traditional regulatory tools, the space for market self-governance is greatly expanded, but at the same time, it may lose the last line of defense for unified governance. For the cryptocurrency asset industry, this is both an opening of a compliance opportunity window and a high-stakes game during the period of institutional evolution.