BTC Bull Market, Global Liquidity, The Dollar Milkshake | BMTV Sep. 23, 2026

Grace Remington (0:00)

Good morning and happy Wednesday. Welcome into BMTV. I'm Grace Remington with Sean Hagan. Another packed house for you today. We have James Seyffart, Bloomberg ETF Analyst joining us on the show alongside Chris Giancarlo, former CFTC Commissioner, Peter Bakvar, CIO at OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners, and Brent Johnson, CEO of Santiago Capital. So a lot to look forward to today.

Sean Hagan (0:23)

A lot to look forward to do today. It's gonna be a pretty exciting show.

Grace Remington (0:27)

All right, well, let's get into the headlines. The US dollar has risen to its strongest level in two months with the dollar index up a quarter percentage point to 179 as investors assess the possibility of further Federal Reserve rate kites. The euro has fallen to its lowest level since late July while the yen remains under pressure near 158 per dollar. The Nasdaq closed at a record high on Tuesday, rising almost half a percentage point as Micron Technology and other AI-related stocks extended recent gains. The S&P 500 was nearly flat while the Dow fell just under a fourth of a percentage point as oil prices hovered around 100 dollars a barrel. Russia is cutting its 2026 natural gas production and export forecasts according to a draft government document seen by Reuters. The downgrade comes as Europe prepares to wind down its remaining Russian gas purchases while Russia has also lowered its 2026 oil output forecast to a 17-year low.

Bitcoin was the focus at a United Nations digital cooperation event where PayStan CEO Jeremy Almond argued that Bitcoin could serve as public digital infrastructure for the global economy. Pakistan's digital assets minister also highlighted the country's new strategic Bitcoin reserve, saying nations need to build institutional capacity today for an uncertain financial future.

President Donald Trump's latest ethics filing show his accounts purchased between $51,002 and $115,000 worth of strategy or MSTR stock in July. The filing also discloses a strategy stock sale of between $1,001 and $15,000 on July 8th while no spot Bitcoin ETF holdings were reported. US spot Bitcoin ETFs have turned positive for the year with investors pouring about $320 million into the funds on a net basis in 2026 According to Bloomberg, the funds have attracted roughly $4.6 billion since August 19th as Bitcoin's recovery has revived investor demand. And with that, let's go to the markets. Bitcoin relatively flat this morning, sitting at a price of 85,791.

But of course, it's up over 13% on the week. Gold kind of losing ground after recent rallies. It sits at $4,345 per ounce today. And of course, you just heard in the headlines, equities rallying off of AI and tech, the SPY down. Well, this morning off of open, down just a little bit after closing near record highs yesterday, sitting at $772.06 and QQQ Nasdaq hit an all-time high yesterday, but QQQ today down 0.3 of a percentage point at $744.80. So Sean, anything standing out to you so far today?

Sean Hagan (3:23)

Yeah. Well, what stands out to me the most is the President Trump filing, where he's loading up bags of micro strategy, pretty much sniped the absolute bottom there for MSTR. And the reason it stands out to me is, you know, a lot of times the market has goldfish memories, right? But think about what happened when he recommended Dell. Think about what happened when he recommended Intel. Think about Micron. Think about Palantir. Those are all massively up since Donald Trump got involved. And, you know, notably Intel was up about 474 percent from Trump's call to peak. So I think that raises the question for everyone watching the markets. You know, are your micro strategy bags packed and ready?

Grace Remington (4:08)

Mm-hmm. Let's hope they are. Well, let's get more into that UN story. The United Nations Digital Cooperation Day happening on Tuesday, and PayStand CEO Jeremy Allman made the case for Bitcoin as critical financial infrastructure for the digital age. This reporting came from Frank Corva of Forbes and formerly Bitcoin Magazine. Allman's argument as AI reshapes labor, money needs to catch up too. He says Bitcoin, unlike stable coins, is truly open, not controlled by a handful of private issuers, and can bring banking to billions who lack it. Sharing the panel was Bilal Saqib, Pakistan's Minister of State and Chairman of its Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority. He explained why his country launched a strategic Bitcoin reserve, calling it preparation for the future of global finance. Corva's reporting also highlights motive, a Bitcoin project in Peru helping unbanked women build financial independence.

Sean Hagan (5:06)

Yeah, that's really big news too. It's good to see Frank Corva in the mix, former Bitcoin Magazine employee there. He does incredible work. Frank is always leading at the edge of a lot of these narratives and breaking that news for the global audience. While the markets are eyeing the institutional adoption side of Bitcoin, it's also important to remember that there's real people and communities out there using Bitcoin every single day. And that messaging being at the UN is not only appropriate in what they should be largely focused on, but it also feeds into the bigger picture of the Bitcoin thesis.