If you hold either US dollars or Bitcoin, then you're a little poorer this morning than when you went to bed last night. It doesn't matter whether there's cash in your pocket or sats in your wallet; both have less purchasing power today than they did yesterday.
That's because Bitcoin is down, the dollar is down too, but the feeling isn't quite the same. That quiet little subtraction before you have even had coffee usually doesn't take the value of the dollar itself into account, unless you live outside the US.
Today’s charts make it obvious. $BTC slid roughly 3% overnight, the kind of move that feels personal when you are holding it, the kind of move that makes people say “see,” like it proves a point.
At the same time, the dollar weakened on the foreign exchange side, roughly 0.7% on the day by the DXY gauge, which is small enough to shrug at, and large enough to matter if you are keeping score.
The difference is that one of these moves gets called a dump, and the other gets called background noise, because the paper in your wallet still says one dollar.
That is the trick with cash, it looks the same while it changes.
The dollar isn't worth a dollar anymore
The scrumpled-up dollar you recently found in an old jacket you haven't worn in three years feels the same, but trust me, it's not. If you're struggling to understand this, Frank Reynolds has a great explanation.
