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President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday establishing a government reserve of bitcoin, a key marker in the cryptocurrency’s journey towards possible mainstream acceptance.Under Trump’s new order, the U.S. government will retain the estimated 200,000 Bitcoin it’s already seized in criminal and civil proceedings, according to Trump’s “crypto czar” David Sacks.“The U.S. will not sell any Bitcoin deposited into the Reserve. It will be kept as a store of value. The Reserve is like a digital Fort Knox for the cryptocurrency often called ‘digital gold,'” Sacks said on social media.The executive order calls for a “full accounting” of the government’s Bitcoin holdings, which Sacks said have never been fully audited. He added that the U.S. government has previously sold off about 195,000 Bitcoin over the last decade for $366 million. He said those Bitcoins would be worth about $17 billion if the government hadn’t sold them.Sacks said the order allows for the Treasury and Commerce Departments “to develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional Bitcoin.”Once a skeptic who said a few years ago that Bitcoin “seems like a scam,” Trump has embraced digital currencies and leaned into his unofficial role as the “crypto president” in ways that can both help the crypto industry and enrich himself and his family. Wealthy players in the crypto industry, who felt unfairly targeted by the Biden administration, spent heavily to help Trump win last year’s election.Establishing a Bitcoin reserve was one of several crypto-related promises Trump made on the campaign trail last year. Trump is also pushing Congress to pass industry-friendly legislation, and under his administration the Securities and Exchange Commission has started dropping enforcement actions it had taken against some major crypto companies. On Friday, Trump is set to host many key industry leaders at a White House “Crypto Summit.”Bitcoin is the oldest and most popular cryptocurrency. Created in response to the 2008 financial crisis by an anonymous person or persons, Bitcoin has blossomed from an experiment by libertarian cryptography enthusiasts into an asset with a market cap of about $1.7 trillion. While it hasn’t taken off as a way to pay for everyday things, Bitcoin has found popularity as a store of value that’s not controlled by banks, governments or other powerful entities.Bitcoin’s supply is capped at 21 million coins, a built-in scarcity that supporters say makes it a great hedge against inflation. Critics have long said Bitcoin lacks any inherent value, but it’s so far defied naysayers with remarkable price increases. Some supporters of a strategic Bitcoin reserve said it could one day help pay off the U.S. national debt.Crypto prices soared after Trump’s victory last year, and when the price of Bitcoin first crossed $100,000 in early December, Trump took credit and posted “YOU’RE WELCOME!!!” on social media.But prices have since cooled off. Trump’s executive order did not equate to an immediate price spike for Bitcoin, which was trading around $86,000 shortly after his announcement.The executive order also creates a “U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile,” where the government will hold seized cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin. On Sunday, Trump sent crypto prices on a short-lived surge after a surprise announcement that he wanted the government to hold lesser-known cryptocurrencies XRP, Solana, and Cardano. Alan Suderman, AP Business Writer
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E-Commerce
U.S. employers added solid 151,000 jobs last month, but the outlook is cloudy as President Donald threatens a trade war, purges the federal workforce and promises to deport millions of immigrants.The Labor Department reported Friday that hiring was up from a revised 125,000 in January. Economists had expected 160,000 new jobs last month.The unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.1% as the number jobless Americans rose by 203,000.Employment rose in healthcare, finance, and transportation and warehousing. The federal government shed 10,000 jobs, the most since June 2022, though economists don’t expect Trump’s federal layoffs to have much of an impact until the March jobs report. Restaurants and bars cut nearly 28,000 jobs last month on top of a loss of almost 30,000 in January.“The solid February jobs report shows that the economy remains healthy, but fears of what could come next are likely to overshadow the positive news from today’s release,” said Josh Jamner, investment analyst at ClearBridge Investments.The job market has been remarkably resilient over the past year despite high interest rates.Hiring continued, defying expectations that the United States would tip into a recession. The economy’s unexpectedly strong recovery from the pandemic recession of 2020 set loose an inflationary surge that peaked in June 2022 when prices came in 9.1% higher than they’d been a year earlier.In response, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate 11 times in 2022 and 2023, taking it to the highest level in more than two decades. The economy remained sturdy despite the higher borrowing costs, thanks to strong consumer spending, big productivity gains at businesses and an influx of immigrants who eased labor shortages.Inflation came downdropping to 2.4% in Septemberallowing the Fed to reverse course and cut rates three times in 2024. The rate-cutting was expected to continue this year, but progress on inflation has stalled since summer, and the Fed has held off.Average hourly earnings rose 0.3% last month, down from a 0.4% increase in January.Fed officials will likely see the figures as supporting their current wait-and-see approach toward interest-rate cuts. With inflation still modestly above the Fed’s 2% target, several have made clear in recent remarks that they would like to see more progress before cutting their benchmark rate any further.Steady hiring and an expanding economy make it easier for the Fed to stay on the sidelines. Should companies start laying off workers and the unemployment rate rise, pressure could rise on the Fed to cut rates.On Thursday, Fed governor Chris Waller suggested a cut was unlikely at the central bank’s March meeting, adding that Fed officials would like to see more data before making any further moves. AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this story. Paul Wiseman, AP Economics Writer
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E-Commerce
Nearly two months after an explosion sent flaming debris raining down on the Turks and Caicos, SpaceX launched another mammoth Starship rocket on Thursday, but lost contact minutes into the test flight as the spacecraft came tumbling down and broke apart.This time, wreckage from the latest explosion was seen streaming from the skies over Florida. It was not immediately known whether the spacecraft’s self-destruct system had kicked in to blow it up.The 403-foot (123-meter) rocket blasted off from Texas. SpaceX caught the first-stage booster back at the pad with giant mechanical arms, but engines on the spacecraft on top started shutting down as it streaked eastward for what was supposed to be a controlled entry over the Indian Ocean, half a world away. Contact was lost less than 10 minutes into the flight as the spacecraft went into an out-of-control spin.Starship reached nearly 90 miles (150 kilometers) in altitude before trouble struck and before four mock satellites could be deployed. It was not immediately clear where it came down, but images of flaming debris were captured from Florida, including near Cape Canaveral, and posted online.The space-skimming flight was supposed to last an hour. The Federal Aviation Administration said it would require SpaceX to investigate the accident.“Unfortunately this happened last time too, so we have some practice at this now,” SpaceX flight commentator Dan Huot said from the launch site.SpaceX later confirmed that the spacecraft experienced “a rapid unscheduled disassembly” during the ascent engine firing and said it alerted safety officials.Flights were briefly grounded at Orlando International Airport “due to space launch debris in the area,” the airport posted on X.Starship didn’t make it quite as high or as far as last time.NASA has booked Starship to land its astronauts on the moon later this decade. SpaceX’s Elon Musk is aiming for Mars with Starship, the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket.Like last time, Starship had mock satellites to release once the craft reached space on this eighth test flight as a practice for future missions. They resembled SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites, thousands of which currently orbit Earth, and were meant to fall back down following their brief taste of space.Starship’s flaps, computers and fuel system were redesigned in preparation for the next big step: returning the spacecraft to the launch site just like the booster.During the last demo, SpaceX captured the booster at the launch pad, but the spacecraft blew up several minutes later over the Atlantic. No injuries or major damage were reported.According to an investigation that remains ongoing, leaking fuel triggered a series of fires that shut down the spacecraft’s engines. The on-board self-destruct system kicked in as planned.SpaceX said it made several improvements to the spacecraft following the accident, and the Federal Aviation Administration recently cleared Starship once more for launch.Starships soar out of the southernmost tip of Texas near the Mexican border. SpaceX is building another Starship complex at Cape Canaveral, home to the company’s smaller Falcon rockets that ferry astronauts and satellites to orbit. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Marcia Dunn, AP Aerospace Writer
Category:
E-Commerce
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