{"id":19734,"date":"2026-01-13T12:50:59","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T12:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/u-s-allies-huddle-on-rare-earth-squeeze-as-china-refines-87-of-supply-what-does-it-mean-for-crypto\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T12:51:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T12:51:35","slug":"u-s-allies-huddle-on-rare-earth-squeeze-as-china-refines-87-of-supply-what-does-it-mean-for-crypto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/u-s-allies-huddle-on-rare-earth-squeeze-as-china-refines-87-of-supply-what-does-it-mean-for-crypto\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. allies huddle on rare earth squeeze as China refines 87% of supply, what does it mean for crypto?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-detail__content blocks\">\n<p>Scott Bessent gathers 11 finance ministers and EU officials as China\u2019s 87% rare earth refining grip and record silver prices expose fresh U.S. supply\u2011chain risk.<\/p>\n<div id=\"cn-block-summary-block_64c36a03f1aa5f87f23558c04d2c8c6a\" class=\"cn-block-summary\">\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__nav tabs\">\n        <span class=\"tabs__item is-selected\">Summary<\/span>\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__content\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met 11 finance ministers, an EU commissioner and trade officials to discuss mineral supply constraints.\u200b<\/li>\n<li>China now refines up to 87% of global rare earths, while silver trades at record highs, underscoring leverage over strategic and industrial inputs.\u200b<\/li>\n<li>No new policies emerged, but the Trump administration is using rare earths talks to tackle national\u2011security risks in tech, defense and manufacturing supply chains.\u200b<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- .cn-block-summary --><\/p>\n<p>U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent convened a meeting with global finance ministers on Monday to address concerns over mineral supply constraints, according to reports.<\/p>\n<p>The <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/china\/us-urges-partners-allies-increase-critical-minerals-supply-chain-resiliency-2026-01-12\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">meeting<\/a> brought together finance ministers from 11 countries, a European Union commissioner, and U.S. trade officials to discuss the matter, the reports stated.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Rare earths in China and what it means for the crypto market<\/h2>\n<p>The gathering comes as China refines up to 87% of the world\u2019s rare earth minerals, according to industry data. Silver prices have reached record levels in recent trading sessions, market data showed.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p>\n<p>The meeting focused on coordination among allied nations regarding mineral supply chains and China\u2019s dominant position in rare earth processing, according to sources familiar with the discussions.<\/p>\n<p>No immediate policy announcements emerged from the Monday session. Representatives from the Treasury Department did not provide additional comment on the meeting\u2019s outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>The rare earth minerals discussion represents the latest effort by the Trump administration to address supply chain vulnerabilities in critical materials used in technology, defense, and manufacturing sectors.<\/p>\n<p>From a crypto angle, supply\u2011chain stress historically correlates with:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Bid in hard\u2011asset proxies (gold, silver, sometimes BTC) when policy uncertainty rises.\u200b<\/li>\n<li>Narrative tailwinds for \u201creal\u2011world assets\u201d and tokenized commodities like the Salus and SAGINT mineral deals on IOTA and Sui.\u200b<\/li>\n<li>Higher sensitivity of BTC to trade and tariff headlines, as seen when Trump\u2019s earlier China tariffs triggered sharp crypto drawdowns before d\u00e9tente rallies reversed them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scott Bessent gathers 11 finance ministers and EU officials as China\u2019s 87% rare earth refining grip and record silver prices expose fresh U.S. supply\u2011chain risk. Summary U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19734"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19735,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19734\/revisions\/19735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}