Like LeBron with any of his teammates, the crypto world is expecting a major alley-oop from Capitol Hill. Yesterday, lawmakers kicked off a bill bonanza that they’ve dubbed “crypto week,” and bitcoin bulls can’t contain their excitement.

The original digital currency hit a new high of $123,000 yesterday, more than double its value from one year ago. The great crypto winter of 2022 has never felt so far away:

• Open interest in bitcoin futures climbed to a record high of $86.3 billion yesterday, according to Coinglass data cited by Bloomberg.
• Investors dumped $2.7 billion into US bitcoin ETFs last week—the asset group’s fifth-biggest net inflow since it debuted in January 2024, per Bloomberg.

Crypto could be en route to a new era by the weekend

The main item on the docket for Congress this week is the GENIUS Act, which would establish a federal framework for stablecoins—digital currencies that are tied to tangible assets like the US dollar. The bill already passed the Senate with support from Republicans and some Democrats.

• Those in favor say it could pull more banks, retailers, and consumers into the stablecoin game, in part by giving companies a blueprint for issuing their own coins.
• Others have railed against the bill, arguing that it could weaken regulation of an industry that the Trump family has a stake in, and that a major loophole could empower Big Tech firms to create their own digital currencies in monopolistic ways.

It’s now being discussed in the Republican-majority House, where two other pieces of crypto legislation are also expected to get the green light this week:

• The CLARITY Act would define when cryptocurrencies count as commodities rather than securities, which would shield digital assets from SEC regulation.
• The Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act would forbid the Federal Reserve from making its own digital currency.

The House is set to vote on all three bills by Friday.

Promise fulfilled: The crypto industry spent more than $119 million on congressional elections last year and gave $18 million to President Trump’s inauguration fund.—ML

Trump threatens 100% tariffs over Ukraine war, makes arms deal with NATO. President Trump said yesterday that he would impose a 100% “secondary tariff” on Russia’s trading partners if Moscow doesn’t make a deal to end its invasion of Ukraine within 50 days. The president also announced an agreement for US companies to sell “billions of dollars worth of military equipment” to European countries that will send them to Ukraine. He expressed disappointment in President Vladimir Putin for not reaching a peace deal sooner, reflecting a recent shift in Trump’s attitude toward the Russian leader.

Supreme Court rules dismantling of the Department of Education can begin. The high court ruled that the Trump administration can start implementing its plans to fire 1,400 Department of Education employees, pausing a Massachusetts federal judge’s order that blocked the layoffs in May. The administration aims to eliminate the department, which would require Congressional action. The Supreme Court’s order didn’t provide a reason and was unsigned, as is customary in response to emergency applications like the one that put the issue before the court. But the court’s three liberal justices issued a dissent, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing that the decision “hands the Executive the power to repeal statutes by firing all those necessary to carry them out.”

JPow’s building reno is getting a lot of attention. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell asked the central bank’s inspector general to review a $2.5 billion building renovation project after its budget overruns prompted severe criticism from the White House. The request came after National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told ABC on Sunday that the president could fire Powell “if there’s cause.” With President Trump having previously expressed a desire to axe Powell for not lowering interest rates, many Fed watchers see the building project as a potential cause the White House could use to get rid of Powell before his term ends and install someone new.—AR

Just like scrappy passengers filling their pockets with underwear instead of checking a bag, Delta adopted a clever tactic to avoid shelling out for tariffs. The airline recently confirmed it was removing engines from its new Airbus A321neo planes in Europe and sending them stateside to be installed on grounded aircraft.

Shipping only the engines—which happen to be made in the US—instead of entire Airbus planes, allows Delta to avoid a 10% tariff on European planes, a charge that would’ve squeezed its already low margins. Instead, the company is using the new engines to fix its grounded planes, expanding the airline’s fleet without having to import new aircraft.

Delta didn’t invent tariff equilibristics

The practice of avoiding tariffs by altering or reclassifying a product in customs documents is as old as tariffs themselves, but with the recent trade war, it’s going into hyperdrive. Some companies are shifting the assembly of their US-bound products from China to lower-tariff countries like Vietnam, while still relying on Chinese components and tech expertise.

But…in some cases, anti-tariff tricks can cross into illegal territory, and the Justice Department said it’ll ramp up enforcement against practices like misclassifying products or underreporting their value. Ford was fined $365 million last year for installing temporary seats in its cargo vans to import them as lower-tariff passenger cars.—SK

If you’re sorting through emails and sipping your morning coffee in a downtown high-rise, there’s a good chance you’re a man—or at least surrounded by them. Per the Wall Street Journal, new surveys suggest men are flocking back to the office post-Covid more than women, and researchers warn that this widening gender gap could push women out of the race for promotions.

A Labor Department survey released last month found that the percentage of men working remotely in 2024 dropped to 29% from 34% the year before, while the share of women (36%) working from home stayed the same:

• Even as many companies that demanded five-day commutes have settled for some form of a hybrid model, workers who show face tend to be rewarded the most.
• 86% of CEOs in a recent KPMG survey said they would favor employees they see around the office for raises and promotions.

Women and men still rank WFH flexibility higher than traditional benefits like parental leave and health insurance—but men continue to benefit from it more in terms of career advancement, experts say.

Big picture: Employers with strict RTO policies are making their workforces less diverse at a time when many of the same companies are rolling back DEI pledges or shedding employees after pandemic-era hiring booms.—MM

Getting the balanced breakfast that flashes at the end of the commercial is about to get more expensive. Orange juice futures spiked to a four-month high of $3.14 a pound as traders gulped down President Trump’s threat last week to slap a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods next month, Bloomberg reports.

• Brazil is the No. 1 OJ supplier for the US, with almost $1 billion worth of juice brought into the US last year. That’s nearly three times as much as what came in from Mexico, the next biggest importer, per Bloomberg.
• The potential hit to the juice supply chain comes as Brazil helped keep the breakfast staple on the table while Florida’s orange juice output shrank because of storms and crop disease.

But don’t think you’ll just have coffee in the morning instead, because those prices are likely to be impacted by tariffs on Brazil, too. And oranges are not the only fruit potentially experiencing a tariff-driven cost hike. Tomato prices are expected to rise due to trade tensions with Mexico. New duties of 20.91% on most tomatoes from Mexico, intended to fight the “dumping” of cheap goods, were scheduled to kick in yesterday, after the US pulled out of a 1996 trade deal known as the Tomato Suspension Agreement in April. That’s likely to make it pricier to make salsa since Mexican-grown tomatoes currently account for almost 70% of the US market, with $3.12 billion worth entering the states last year.—AR