Bitcoin enters 72-hour danger zone as both historic Supreme Court battle and Fed decision threaten to tank the dollar

Bitcoin has entered a 24–72 hour window in which Federal Reserve messaging, dollar pricing, and an active Supreme Court test tied to Fed independence could set the near-term regime traders apply to the asset.

Fed decision and near-term market regime

As of the morning of Jan. 28, markets are waiting on the Fed’s first policy decision of 2026: the Jan. 27–28 meeting concludes later today with the policy statement due at 2:00 p.m. EST and the chair’s press conference at 2:30 p.m. EST, according to the Federal Reserve’s January 2026 calendar.

The Board also posted an advance notice for a closed meeting that was scheduled for Jan. 27 at 10:00 a.m., with an agenda item labeled “Discussion of Monetary Policy Issues.”

The timing detail concentrates attention on rate-path communication before the statement, as shown in the Fed Board’s closed-meeting notice.

Parallel to the Fed window, the Supreme Court heard arguments on Jan. 21 in Trump v. Cook (25A312), a case the Associated Press described as a test of Fed independence, with a decision expected by early summer.

The case is tracked in the Supreme Court docket, with related proceedings available via the court’s oral-argument audio page.

Cornell’s Legal Information Institute summarized the dispute as covering whether removal complied with procedural requirements and whether removal was for sufficient cause, a framing markets have treated as relevant to central bank insulation from politics.

The overview is summarized in Cornell LII’s case page for 25A312.

Dollar, yields, and the hedge narrative

The currency backdrop has already moved. The U.S. dollar index fell to 95.86 and described the level as a four-year low.

The Wall Street Journal tied the slide to confidence and policy uncertainty, including concerns over central bank independence, in its report on the dollar extending its decline.

In rates, the clearest scoreboard for Bitcoin over the next few sessions sits in the decomposition between real yields and inflation compensation.

That split can steer whether the market treats Bitcoin like rate-sensitive risk or like a hedge tied to policy credibility.

FRED’s 10-year real yield series shows a Dec. 2025 monthly reading of 1.90%.

That reading, shown in FRED series FII10, is a reference point traders often use as an anchor for whether real rates are tight enough to constrain long-duration exposures.

FRED’s 10-year breakeven inflation rate printed around 2.31%–2.34% across late January 2026 dates, including 2.33 on Jan. 20 and 2.34 on Jan. 21.

The daily table is available via FRED’s T10YIE data, allowing a near-term check on whether any nominal yield move is coming from real yields or inflation expectations.

Gold has also been part of the same narrative channel as the dollar. The Financial Times reported gold above $5,300 an ounce in the context of dollar weakness and safe-haven behavior.

That cross-asset comparator, described in the FT report, matters for judging whether Bitcoin is co-trading with hedge instruments or with equities.

The transmission mechanism to spot Bitcoin now includes the ETF wrapper, where net flow totals can validate, rather than explain, whichever macro regime takes hold after the Fed communication.

Live ETF data shows an early two-day surge (+$1.59B on Jan. 13–14) that was steadily unwound by persistent outflows, 7 of the 12 sessions were negative, highlighted by -$708.7m on Jan. 21, leaving the period down ~-$298m overall (and ~-$1.76B since Jan. 15).

Confirmation checklist for the next few sessions

For traders tracking this cluster, the question is how to classify Bitcoin’s identity once the Fed sets its near-term reaction function and the institutional-risk story remains in view through the Supreme Court timeline.

One way to formalize the watchlist is to pin the next 24–72 hours on observable dials, then demand confirmation from correlations that can be checked in real time rather than narratives that cannot.

Three analysis paths can guide what constitutes confirmation after the Fed statement and press conference.

In a “hawkish hold” path (analysis), traders would look for real yields to hold up or move higher while breakevens stay flat to lower, a combination consistent with tighter conditions.

They would then check whether Bitcoin weakens alongside that real-yield move and whether U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF net flows soften on the next published prints.

For related context on liquidity and flows, see CryptoSlate’s coverage of spot Bitcoin ETF flows.

In a “dovish hold” path (analysis), the check is whether real yields ease and the dollar extends its downshift, then whether Bitcoin strength lines up with that combination.

Traders would also look for ETF flow totals to turn positive once Farside posts numeric rows rather than dashes.

In an “independence-risk premium dominates” path (analysis), the focus moves to whether the dollar stays under pressure amid the WSJ’s confidence framing and whether gold remains bid.

From there, the test becomes whether Bitcoin co-moves with gold more often than it co-moves with rate-sensitive risk during the same sessions, a dynamic CoinDesk has discussed in the context of a “digital gold” narrative.

The Supreme Court timeline keeps the institutional-risk conversation in the background even after the Fed’s Jan. 28 press conference, because the AP reported the decision is expected by early summer rather than immediately.

That horizon can matter for positioning if markets continue to link the dollar’s slide to concerns about central bank independence, as the WSJ wrote.

In that case, the link pushes more price discovery into FX and hedges than into single data points.

Longer-horizon reference points are also shaping how some desks frame the hedge comparison, though those are models rather than commitments.

Business Insider reported JPMorgan strategists compared Bitcoin and gold on a volatility-adjusted basis and derived a theoretical Bitcoin price near $170,000 over six to 12 months.

The model is described in Business Insider’s report, a figure that traders may use as a guardrail when deciding how much of a gold-style regime shift is already priced.

As of 8:00 a.m. EST on Jan. 28, the actionable items for this week’s tape remain time-stamped and measurable: the Fed’s 2:00 p.m. EST statement and 2:30 p.m. EST press conference later today, the already-argued Supreme Court case the AP says will be decided by early summer, and the DXY level cited at 95.86.

The same checklist includes gold trading above $5,300 per the FT and the next published ETF net flow totals on Farside.

For related CryptoSlate coverage of the Fed-driven tape, see how Bitcoin reacted to Fed signals on quantitative tightening and how BTC moved alongside dollar weakness.