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19 Jan 2026, 20:11

Steak ‘n Shake Adds $10 Million in Bitcoin Exposure Alongside BTC 'Strategic Reserve'

Restaurant chain Steak ‘n Shake is doubling down on Bitcoin after crediting the crypto asset with driving rising sales last year.

19 Jan 2026, 19:40

Evening digest: Gold, silver hit record highs as Trump tariff fears slam Bitcoin and Europe stocks

Markets swung hard into risk-off mode Monday as Trump’s Greenland tariff threats reignited US-Europe trade war fears and sent investors scrambling for safety. Gold surged to near $4,700/oz, and silver spiked above $94, crushing the dollar and rattling European equities. Geopolitical shockwaves deepened after Trump invited Putin to a paid “Board of Peace” for Gaza. Meanwhile, the Fed faced fresh political pressure, and Bitcoin slipped below $93,000 amid liquidation-driven selling. Gold, Silver soar to record highs Gold and silver blasted through record highs Monday as Trump’s Greenland tariff threats sent investors sprinting into havens. Spot gold surged 2.1% to near $4,700/oz while silver jumped 4.4% to $94.08/oz, extending a jaw-dropping rally, gold up 6% year-to-date, silver 30%+. The spike reflects a toxic cocktail: escalating US-Europe trade war fears, a weakening dollar as tariff uncertainty spreads, and central bank independence concerns after the Justice Department probed Fed Chair Powell. Silver’s outperformance is particularly sharp, with the gold-silver ratio compressing from 105 in late 2025 to the low 50s. Analysts at StoneX warn that Trump’s Greenland aggression suggests NATO dissolution and European political instability, driving safe-haven demand. Meanwhile, European equities cratered, the Stoxx Autos Index dropped 2.2%, and luxury stocks fell 2.9%. Trump invites to his ‘Board of Peace’ Trump extended an audacious invitation to Putin on Monday to join his newly minted “Board of Peace” overseeing Gaza reconstruction, with permanent membership costing $1 billion per nation. The Kremlin’s cautious response, saying it’s “looking at details,” masks a deeper geopolitical tension: Trump is courting Putin even as Ukraine’s war nears its fourth anniversary with no ceasefire in sight. The board, chaired by Trump for life, features Tony Blair, Jared Kushner, and Mark Carney, but critics immediately flagged the absurdity. Inviting a leader accused of war crimes in Ukraine to govern Gaza’s peace sits poorly with European allies, particularly as Trump publicly blamed Zelenskyy (not Putin) for stalling Ukraine negotiations just days ago. Peskov even praised Trump’s Greenland ambitions, a tacit blessing of NATO’s potential dissolution. The move signals Trump’s reset priorities: making deals with autocrats (Iran sanctions already eased) supersedes supporting democratic allies. Fed Chair backs Cook as Trump escalates political war Fed Chair Jerome Powell will sit in the Supreme Court gallery on Wednesday, an extraordinary show of institutional defiance, as justices weigh Trump’s effort to fire Lisa Cook over unproven mortgage fraud allegations. The timing is explosive: the Justice Department simultaneously probes Powell himself for allegedly misleading Congress on a Fed building renovation, a tactic Powell labeled a “pretext” to pressure him into rate cuts. Legal experts call Trump’s two-front assault on the Fed a coordinated squeeze play. Cook denies the mortgage fraud charges, which rely solely on her 2007 loan application, signed years before joining the Fed. Cook was never charged, and no bank alleged fraud. The broader stakes dwarf Cook’s individual case. If Trump can fire her “for cause” without judicial review, he gains a roadmap to oust Powell too, eroding the Fed’s 113-year independence engineered by Congress. Bitcoin slips below $93,000 Bitcoin tumbled 2.8% to $92,519 Monday as Trump’s Greenland tariff ultimatum triggered a $869.5 million crypto liquidation cascade, with Bitcoin longs alone accounting for $229.5 million in blown-out positions. Ether cratered 3.5% to $3,199, Solana plunged 6.6%, and even the Trump-branded meme token shed 6.4% in the selloff. The culprit isn’t technical; it’s geopolitical risk aversion. Tariffs and NATO dissolution fears don’t directly impact blockchain fundamentals, but they demolish the speculative appetite needed to hold volatile assets. Traders fled crypto for gold’s safe-haven rally, with Bitcoin losing $92.5 billion in market cap overnight. A delayed crypto regulatory bill (lawmakers postponed debate over industry objections, including Coinbase’s) added fuel to the exodus. The post Evening digest: Gold, silver hit record highs as Trump tariff fears slam Bitcoin and Europe stocks appeared first on Invezz

19 Jan 2026, 18:45

India’s central bank proposes linking CBDCs of BRICS nations to reduce the bloc's dependence on the U.S. dollar

India is joining the long list of countries attempting to break away from U.S. dependence following President Donald Trump’s aggressive trade strategies. India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, has proposed linking the digital currencies of the BRICS alliance member states to make payments across borders easier. How will linking digital currencies change international trade? The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has suggested that the 2026 BRICS summit, which is set to be held in the country, include a formal proposal to connect the central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) of its members. The BRICS group currently includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, and Indonesia. Connecting the central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) will make “cross-border trade and tourism payments easier.” Under the current system, most international trades are settled using the U.S. dollar. This often requires using Western-led systems like SWIFT. With linked CBDCs, BRICS nations could settle trades directly with one another. The RBI’s proposal builds on an agreement made in Rio de Janeiro, 2025, that focused on making payment systems “interoperable.” While no BRICS member has fully launched a public CBDC, all five original members are running advanced pilot programs like India’s “e-rupee,” which has already reached 7 million retail users. China has also been aggressively supporting the international use of its digital yuan. For the linking to be successful, the involved countries must agree on “interoperable technology” and governance rules. To fix trade imbalances, like when Russia previously ended up with a massive surplus of Indian rupees that it could not easily spend, the RBI is exploring “bilateral foreign exchange swap arrangements” that would allow central banks to exchange currencies at fixed rates to settle debts every week or month. Why is the BRICS alliance moving away from the U.S. dollar? U.S. President Donald Trump has recently called the BRICS alliance “anti-American” and has repeatedly threatened to impose 100% tariffs on countries that try to move away from the dollar. These threats have created trade friction between the U.S. and several BRICS members, including India. The RBI has stated that its efforts to promote the rupee are not intended to be “anti-dollar,” but rather to protect its own economic interests. India has recently developed a closer relationship with Russia and China on trade issues to avoid the impact of U.S. trade wars. RBI Deputy Governor T. Rabi Sankar recently warned that stablecoins pose risks to “monetary stability” and “banking intermediation,” and so the country is promoting the state-backed digital rupee to dissuade citizens from using dollar-pegged stablecoins for daily payments. With the addition of major oil producers like the UAE and Iran, as well as a large economy like Indonesia, to the BRICS alliance, it now has more power to create its own financial network. In late 2025, reports showed that a multi-CBDC platform involving China and the UAE, known as the “ mBridge ” project, is technically possible. Don’t just read crypto news. Understand it. Subscribe to our newsletter. It's free .

19 Jan 2026, 18:04

Powell Stands Firm in Federal Reserve Showdown with Trump

Trump pushes for lower interest rates, challenges Fed's independence. Powell plans to attend Supreme Court case on Fed member's dismissal. Continue Reading: Powell Stands Firm in Federal Reserve Showdown with Trump The post Powell Stands Firm in Federal Reserve Showdown with Trump appeared first on COINTURK NEWS .

19 Jan 2026, 17:27

Gold, Silver Smash Records as Trump Sets Feb. 1 Tariffs Over Greenland Standoff

Gold (XAU/USD) printed $4,689.39/oz and silver (XAG/USD) tagged $94.08/oz today, after President Donald Trump tied a new tariff schedule to a Greenland standoff in a Truth Social post on Saturday that set explicit start dates and step-ups. Trump Sets Feb. 1 Tariff Start Date in Greenland Dispute Trump wrote that the U.S. will impose a 10% tariff from Feb. 1, 2026, on “any and all goods” from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands, and Finland , then lift the rate to 25% from June 1, 2026 , until “the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland” occurs. Eight #European countries targeted by #US President Donald #Trump for a 10% #tariff for opposing American control of Greenland on Sunday warned that his threats “undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral.” FRANCE 24 takes a closer look. pic.twitter.com/4GnDxkWwA2 — FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) January 19, 2026 “This Tariff will be due and payable until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland,” Trump stated in the post. Price action favored the higher-beta metal: spot silver rose ~4.4% intraday to $93.85/oz after the $94.08/oz print, while spot gold rose ~1.6% to $4,670.01/oz after the $4,689.39/oz high. Cross-asset tape confirmed “risk-off” positioning: European equities traded lower on Jan. 19, 2026, as the tariff timeline hit, with Germany’s DAX falling 1.1% and the CAC 40 in Paris falling 1.3% in early moves cited by AP News . The next macro catalyst sits on the rates channel: the Bank of Japan has scheduled its Monetary Policy Meeting for Jan. 22-23, 2026 , with the Statement on Monetary Policy slated for Jan. 23 and the Summary of Opinions due Feb. 2 . Liquidity note for desks running metal exposure: U.S. markets are closed on Jan. 19, 2026, for Martin Luther King Jr. Day , which historically concentrates price discovery into futures/FX venues and can widen intraday slippage on leveraged metal products. What Markets Are Pricing In Gold’s record print at $4,689/oz matters less than the tariff calendar at Feb. 1 and June 1 because systematic macro books map those dates into USD rate volatility and cross-asset correlation spikes. If the BoJ on Jan. 23 indicates tighter policy while Washington simultaneously escalates trade restrictions, desks should expect convex moves in JPY crosses and mechanically higher demand for collateral-friendly havens, with silver’s $94/oz spike acting as a tell for funds that express the same hedge through higher beta and industrial tightness rather than pure store-of-value exposure. The post Gold, Silver Smash Records as Trump Sets Feb. 1 Tariffs Over Greenland Standoff appeared first on Cryptonews .

19 Jan 2026, 16:52

UBS names IBM, Alphabet, and Microsoft as quantum leaders

IBM, Alphabet, and Microsoft sit at the top of UBS’s latest ranking of companies pushing toward practical quantum computing. The call comes at a time when tech stocks already trade at rich levels, and investors are hunting for the next corner that could shape what comes next. UBS says this part of the market stands out because it targets problems current machines cannot handle at scale. The bank says interest has picked up over the past year as IBM, Alphabet, and Microsoft all stepped up efforts to build systems that work outside research labs. Smaller names have also drawn attention. IonQ is the clearest example. The stock jumped hard over the past 12 months and then dropped just as fast. UBS says that pattern shows how early and unstable this market still is. UBS lays out where computing power could hit first UBS analyst Madeleine Jenkins led a team of 11 analysts who put together a 103-page report for clients. The group describes the market as fragmented and immature. They still see three clear areas where the technology could matter most. Those areas are molecular simulation, optimization and AI, and cryptography. UBS says these use cases explain why Wall Street is paying closer attention now. The analysts wrote that progress has been slow and full of setbacks, but recent results stand out. They say the field is starting to show real technical gains. The report states that by using the behavior of very small particles, quantum computing could deliver huge processing power at far lower cost than today’s systems. UBS estimates that full advantage could arrive in the 2030s. At that stage, matching the output with standard hardware would need the equivalent of 10²¹ GPUs. UBS says building the new systems could cost only tens of millions of dollars. The report explains that there are several ways to build a qubit, which is the basic unit of quantum information. Right now, two approaches lead the pack. Those are superconducting qubits and trapped-ion qubits. Jenkins says these two paths narrow leadership to a small group of companies. Alphabet and IBM focus on superconducting designs. Microsoft and Amazon offer mixed setups through cloud platforms. Big tech strategies meet volatile pure plays UBS calls Google, which sits under Alphabet, a pioneer in quantum software and error correction. The report points to the Willow chip released in December 2024. UBS says Willow reduced errors as more qubits were added. It also ran a standard benchmark task in under five minutes. UBS says a top classical supercomputer would need about 10 septillion years to do the same job. Microsoft and Amazon take broader paths. Microsoft works with smaller hardware specialists such as IonQ while also researching a topological design. UBS says this design could lead to a faster and more stable qubit if it works as planned. Amazon also supports several approaches through its cloud services. UBS rates Microsoft and Amazon as buys. Alphabet carries a neutral rating. Jenkins says the outcome depends on which qubit design succeeds first. UBS also highlights public companies that focus only on this space. Those include IonQ, D-Wave Quantum, and Rigetti Computing. These stocks have shown sharp gains followed by steep drops. IonQ is the largest of the group. Its market value has topped $17 billion. The stock rose 72% over the past year through Wednesday and then fell 34% since mid-October. FactSet data show IonQ’s adjusted beta at 2.37. UBS says that means the stock moves more than twice as much as the broader market. If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter .