White House Reshares CIA Warning on China Tech Rivalry

The White House has reshares a post from CIA Director John Ratcliffe on Friday, highlighting Washington's growing concern over technological rivalry with China. The repost comes as trade and monetary policy intersect, particularly in the context of inflation and interest-rate expectations that drive crypto markets.

According to the source, any government response to intelligence about this rivalry carries a long tail. Tariffs and supply-chain decisions feed price pressure, which shapes what the Federal Reserve does with rates. Rate expectations are what traders in Bitcoin watch most closely right now.

Crypto enters the China race through the national security lens. Cryptocurrency and blockchain were unmentioned in the Trump administration's national security strategy released in December 2020, but officials keep placing crypto inside the China contest. CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis said in May that crypto was 'another area of technological competition where we need to make sure the United States is well-positioned against China and other adversaries.'

Expectations for Federal Reserve policy have become a key driver of crypto markets, with Bitcoin reacting sharply to inflation data and shifts in interest-rate expectations. After the latest U.S. inflation data, traders assigned roughly an 84.5% probability that the Fed would hold rates steady at the upcoming July meeting, not cut rates.