GameStop Reveals Reserve, But Inflation Fears Rear Their Head

Bitcoin swung up and down—as usual—over the last week, and while things were looking up midweek, familiar inflation fears helped sink the price by the time Friday rolled around.

The coin’s price was recently at $82,480 per coin, according to CoinGecko, after hitting a nearly three-week high of $88,474 on Monday. As of this writing, Bitcoin is now down by almost 2% on the week.

Bitcoin’s dip came after the U.S. Commerce Department reported Friday that the core Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index, or PCE, was up 0.4% in February—its largest monthly increase in over a year.

Traders are still hesitant with risk-assets like Bitcoin and stocks (which also dropped Friday) as persistent inflation and President Trump’s trade war continue to unsettle the markets. Still, it was an interesting week for Bitcoin.

ETF action

American Bitcoin ETFs took in new investor cash each day from Monday through Thursday, Farside Investors data shows—but finally showed red on Friday amid the broader markets shock.

Even so, the week’s total inflows ended up in the green at approximately $196.4 million. It may not sound like much, but after massive outflows last month, it looks like crypto investors are seeing Bitcoin’s current price—24% below its January all-time high—as a buying opportunity.

GameStop hungry for orange coin

Video game retailer and popular meme stock GameStop updated its Investment Policy on Tuesday to inform investors that it would add “certain cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin” to its balance sheet.

The firm then said Wednesday that it would follow in the footsteps of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) and raise money from investors in the form of debt to buy the asset. GameStop aims to raise $1.3 billion to aid in its Bitcoin acquisition goal.

GameStop first made headlines in 2021 when amateur traders started buying its moribund stock and pumping its price—leading to the meme stock phenomenon.

It’s now trying to strengthen its books by buying “digital gold.” But while the price of GME stock rose on the initial news this week, it’s since plunged following word of the raise, as GameStop investors don’t seem too keen on raising money for the ploy.

Miners hit Florida

Bitcoiners arrived in Fort Lauderdale this week for the world’s biggest mining conference: Mining Disrupt.

Engineers from the top manufacturing companies and vendors pushed a narrative that miners should be dipping their toes into the world of AI data centers to raise their game as BTC’s price dips and difficulty continues to climb.

Decrypt was there to see if it really was as simple as that, and also learned that small businesses are tempted to start the trade in their backyard—but not by mining BTC: DOGE ASICs are still hot, apparently.

Brazil to buy Bitcoin?

The world’s richest country may be keen on stacking sats via a strategic reserve—but will the move inspire other nation states?

In short, it looks like it: Brazil, the second biggest economy in the America’s and biggest in Latin America, might be doing so soon.

Pedro Giocondo Guerra, a bigwig in leftist President Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration, said that buying and holding Bitcoin would be “in the (country’s) public interest.”

Guerra, who is chief of staff to Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, made the comment at a congressional ceremony.

Brazil has a huge crypto market—the biggest in South America—and the Brazilian real was the worst-performing major currency last year. Politicians could be seeing an opportunity.

Trump video debunked

Here’s a fun one to end the week: An obviously doctored video of President Trump started making the rounds on Facebook and Crypto Twitter, showing him cracking out the Bitcoin whitepaper in the Oval Office.

Of course, it wasn’t real—but it riled up some Bitcoin supporters. And while Trump has recently embraced Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, he’s hardly a longtime aficionado, having previously been a skeptic who called it a “scam” and said he was “not a fan” of Bitcoin.

Edited by Andrew Hayward