Happy Friday, In A Nutshell this week:

• ⚠️ AI Setback for Bitcoin Services

• 🇬🇧 BBN: Coming to a City Near You

• 🎙️ Saylor Takes Bitcoin Mainstream

• 💸 Block Chooses Bitcoin Over Profits

• 🇷🇺 Russia Regulates… But There’s a Catch

• …and much more

If you enjoy the newsletter, pass it on to a friend.

 🚀⏰ Today’s news should be a ~5.05-minute read (770 words).

🧠 Quote Of The Week

"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me."

— Ayn Rand

⚠️ AI Setback for Bitcoin Services

Boltz has suspended all Bitcoin swap services indefinitely, taking down Lightning and Liquid sidechain transfers for wallets including Aqua and Bull Bitcoin, after months of AI-assisted attacks outpaced its small team's ability to patch.

The non-custodial bridge, which routed swaps between Bitcoin's mainchain, Lightning and Liquid, said the automated probing had sharply accelerated in recent days. No user funds were lost, since Boltz's cryptographic design never gave it custody in the first place.

Boltz described the situation as a "major paradigm shift" for Bitcoin services built on open-source software, warning users not to expect swap services to return anytime soon.

🇬🇧 BBN: Coming to a City Near You

The Bitcoin Business Network is expanding beyond the capital, with launch events in Newcastle, Leeds and Manchester this autumn, in partnership with Hill Dickinson.

Open to members, non-members, and anyone curious how Bitcoin can future-proof their business. Spaces are limited and already filling fast.

• 📍 Newcastle – https://luma.com/4bf6ru6r

• 📍 Leeds – https://luma.com/snl31mlv

• 📍 Manchester – https://luma.com/x5h0vjad

Know a business owner in one of the three who needs to be in the room? Forward this on

🎙️ Saylor Takes Bitcoin Mainstream

Michael Saylor sat down with Steven Bartlett on Diary of a CEO this week, putting the case for Bitcoin in front of the second-biggest podcast in the world.

Saylor told the story of his own turnaround: a struggling software firm that reinvented itself in 2020 by converting its balance sheet into Bitcoin, now the largest corporate holder on Earth. He explained his thesis that Bitcoin will compound near 30% a year for two decades, then credited ChatGPT with helping design their preferred stock structure.

Millions of people who've never paid any attention to Bitcoin just heard the sound-money pitch, possibly for the first time.

💸 Block Chooses Bitcoin Over Profits

Block's Bitcoin Ecosystem gross profit fell 31% after the company made a "strategic decision" to cut certain Cash App fees on Bitcoin purchases.

Bitcoin-related revenue slipped a smaller 13%, with Cash App accounting for most of it. The dip sat oddly alongside the rest of Block's results: overall Cash App gross profit rose 31% and company-wide gross profit climbed 25%.

Block had a number it could have protected and chose Bitcoin's affordability for customers instead.

🇷🇺 Russia Regulates… But There’s a Catch

Vladimir Putin once said nobody could ban Bitcoin. His new law to regulate it just banned its use to pay for anything in Russia.

The law keeps a domestic ban on paying for goods and services in Bitcoin, but carves out cross-border settlements between Russian and foreign firms, a channel Moscow has leaned on since sanctions cut its banks off SWIFT. Retail buyers face a cap worth roughly $3,700 a year.

A head of state can ban how his own citizens use it, but Bitcoin doesn't need permission either way.

🪏 The Man Who Buried £5 Million of Bitcoin Across Yorkshire

Nic Cary reckons there is still up to £2m of Bitcoin buried in geocaches across Yorkshire. He hid it himself, more than thirteen years ago.

Cary first heard about Bitcoin in 2011 on a fishing boat on the Long Island Sound, then moved from the US to York with a backpack to help build the first block explorer out of a two-bedroom flat near the racecourse. That project became Blockchain.com, now FCA-registered, MiCA-licensed across Europe, and confidentially filed for a US listing.

The episode is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify

🔥 What else have you missed?

1. Coldcard hack could have reached $130 million, says Galaxy Research

2. Strategy to match the U.S. government's $1,000 for newborns plus an additional $250

3. Elon Musk asks Grok: Can quantum computers crack Bitcoin's SHA-256?

4. Jack Mallers explains the Coldcard hack in non-technical terms

5. U.S. Treasury said it will borrow $739 billion in Q3, $68 billion more than forecast

6. Breez announces Glow, an open-source Bitcoin to stablecoins app

7. Bitcoin mining difficulty has dropped 14% from this year's high

8. Thailand confirms 0% capital gains tax on Bitcoin

🍾 Friday Fun!

This week’s crossword is now live - Play here

🧞‍♂️ Your wish is our command

Happy Friday, In A Nutshell this week:

• 🚨 Urgent Coldcard Security Alert

• 🌱 Bitcoin Moves to Greener Pastures

• 🍏 App Store or Trap Store?

• 📜 The Clarity Act Misses Its Window

• …and much more

If you enjoy the newsletter, pass it on to a friend.

 🚀⏰ Today’s news should be a ~5.03-minute read (764 words).

🧠 Quote Of The Week

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”

— John Philpot Curran

🚨 Urgent Coldcard Security Alert

Coinkite issued an urgent security advisory after 594 BTC, about $38 million, was swept from roughly 500 single-sig addresses on 30 July. They warned that seeds generated on Coldcard Mk3 firmware 4.0.1 to 5.0.3 may be compromised by a flawed random number generator.

Block engineers say the same randomness flaw may also touch Mk2, Mk4, Q and Mk5 devices, not just the Mk3, and have flagged a further 695 matching transactions worth 488 BTC, putting the total potentially closer to 1,083 BTC. Block says weak 25th-word passphrases and some multisig setups may also be exposed.

If you hold Bitcoin on any Coldcard, check the advisory, keep looking for more updates on the situation and act accordingly to protect your coins.

🌱 Bitcoin Moves to Greener Pastures

Low-carbon sources now make up 59.4% of Bitcoin's energy mix, up from 52.4% in mid-2024, according to preliminary Cambridge data presented this week. Higher than any other reported industry.

Hydropower overtook natural gas as the single largest source, driven largely by Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile, Africa's largest at 5,150 megawatts. Ethiopia now accounts for roughly 2.6% of global hashrate.

Elon Musk once said Tesla would resume taking Bitcoin once miners hit roughly 50% clean energy usage. That line was crossed years ago, and Tesla still hasn't flipped the switch.

Network energy use grew 38% in eighteen months, but emissions grew only 20%, a widening gap between more mining and a cleaner grid.

🍏 App Store or Trap Store?

A lawsuit alleges Apple left a fake Bitcoin wallet app on the App Store for more than a week after one user reported losing $875,000 to it, only for a second user to lose a further $840,000 in that window.

Three plaintiffs say they lost a combined $1.84 million after downloading an app impersonating Sparrow Wallet, a genuine desktop-only piece of software with no iOS version, and entering their seed phrases.

The suit, filed 24 July in California, argues Apple's marketing led users to believe App Store listings were vetted and safe. Apple has since removed the app and says it has terminated the developer accounts behind it.

📜 The Clarity Act Misses Its Window

The Senate's landmark crypto market structure bill, the Clarity Act will miss its window before the August recess, after an ethics dispute over federal officials trading digital assets stalled floor time.

Republicans released an updated draft barring presidents and officials from issuing or sponsoring crypto, but Democrats say the restrictions do not go far enough. A vote is now expected the week of 3 August, with September a real possibility if that slips too.

Bitcoin does not need Washington's permission to keep working. Clear rules would just remove one more excuse for the institutions still sitting on the sidelines.

🚪 Britain's Wealthy Are Heading for the Door

The pound has lost 95% of its purchasing power since 1971. Bitcoin is down 50% from its highs and the mood online is grim.

On the latest episode, Jordan sits down with returning guest Richard Byworth, who argues the bottom is already in. They unpack classic seller exhaustion signals, why family offices are quietly moving into Bitcoin, and why the UK's wealthy are heading for the exit.

The episode is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify

🔥 What else have you missed?

1. The Smarter Web Company inside the UK’s first listed Bitcoin treasury company

2. Elizabeth Warren wants to immediately scrap the US debt ceiling and “protect” the economy

3. Spain’s largest bank reveals a $4.3 million investment in IBIT

4. Ray Dalio confirmed he still holds 1% of his portfolio in Bitcoin

5. Australian Brewery is using excess heat from Bitcoin miners to brew beer

6. Canada: 1 in 4 now hold Bitcoin, up 10% from 2024

7. JAN3 ranks the UK 3rd in list of countries leading Bitcoin adoption

8. Emirates Airline adds Bitcoin Payments

9. Dual Money Era spending sats at every shop “will not happen within our lifetime”

10. Metaplanet has begun offering its own Bitcoin-backed corporate bond in Japan

🍾 Friday Fun!

This week’s crossword is now live - Play here

🧞‍♂️ Your wish is our command

Happy Friday, In A Nutshell this week:

• 🚫 Attention Turns to the Debanking Scandal

• 🚶 Jack Mallers Walks Away

• ⚡ Lightning On Easy Mode

• 📉 The Treasury Strategy Stress Test

• …and much more

If you enjoy the newsletter, pass it on to a friend.

 🚀⏰ Today’s news should be a ~4.41-minute read (698 words).

🧠 Quote Of The Week

"The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that's required to make it work."

— Satoshi Nakamoto

🚫 Attention Turns to the Debanking Scandal

Bitcoiners have spent years dealing with banks closing their accounts over Bitcoin activity, and finally it looks like action is being taken to try and solve it.

A cross-party group of MPs is now investigating banking access, after launching an inquiry into why UK banks keep refusing accounts to licensed crypto firms and consumers.

Podcaster Peter McCormack says Wise closed his account and kept nearly £12,000, blaming Bitcoin even though the money had simply come from a Bitcoin company paying an invoice. Similarly, Isabella Santos reports that Wise outright banned and blacklisted her for good.

Ironically, Wise found out how it feels, as the OCC rejected its own US banking charter and shares fell more than 10%. The bank that keeps freezing Bitcoiners can't get banked itself.

🚶 Jack Mallers Walks Away

Twenty One Capital's Jack Mallers has stepped down as CEO, with Elektron Energy's Raphael Zagury taking over as the firm's planned three-way merger with Strike collapses.

Mallers, who co-founded the Tether-backed treasury company, said he and the board no longer shared the same vision for building it. He explained his decision in a video posted on X, saying he resigned voluntarily, took no severance and forfeited his options.

Strike stays independent. XXI shares fell 18% on the news, and a possible two-way tie-up with Zagury's mining firm Elektron remains "preliminary."

⚡ Lightning On Easy Mode

Lightning Labs has released Wavelength, a toolkit that lets developers add self-custodial Bitcoin payments to any app with a handful of API calls.

Users hold their own keys on-device, while payments route over Lightning and an Ark-style settlement layer, with a unilateral on-chain exit always available. No node-running or channel management is required.

Wavelength becomes the third major Ark implementation to launch, positioning it as Lightning Labs’ answer to Lightning’s “last mile” usability problem.

📉 The Treasury Strategy Stress Test

Two UK Bitcoin treasury companies sold Bitcoin this week.

Satsuma shareholders voted to liquidate the company's entire Bitcoin position and delist from the London Stock Exchange, while The Smarter Web Company sold a slice of its stack to pay down debt.

Satsuma's holders passed the wind-down with over 90% support, ending a run that saw shares fall more than 99% from their 2025 peak after the company bought most of its coins above $113,000. Its remaining 668 BTC will now be sold, and the cash returned to shareholders.

Smarter Web's sale was quite different. It sold 177.89 BTC to clear an $11.7 million debt facility early rather than dilute shareholders with new shares. The company still holds 2,700 BTC.

🎙️ Is The Bottom Already In?

Bitcoin is down roughly 50% from its all-time high, but Keyrock analyst Ben Harvey joins Jordan to lay out why the drawdown may already have bottomed.

They get into why volatility is steadily compressing, how the shift from traders to long-term holders reshaped this cycle, and why treasury companies and "digital credit" could unlock a whole financial system built on Bitcoin as a reserve asset.

The episode is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify

🔥 What else have you missed?

1. UK Gang jailed over $5.4 million Bitcoin scam posing as police

2. Kazakhstan moves to build a national reserve funded by Bitcoin miners

3. Block launches Buzz, a Slack-style workspace built on Nostr that gives access to AI agents

4. BitMEX shuts down after an 11-year run

5. Elon Musk clashes with a reporter for The Economist over the state of the UK

6. Swiss Cantonal Bank BancaStato has begun offering regulated Bitcoin trading

7. Russia's State Duma passes a law recognising Bitcoin as property

🍾 Friday Fun!

This week’s crossword is now live - Play here

🧞‍♂️ Your wish is our command

Happy Friday, In A Nutshell this week:

• 🇬🇧 Fairer Tax for Bitcoin Loans

• 🍊 A Juicy New Treasury Company

• 🇨🇳 Privacy = Guilt

• 🍴 A Fork Nobody Showed Up To

• 🇯🇵 Japan Reclassifies Bitcoin as a Financial Asset

• …and much more

If you enjoy the newsletter, pass it on to a friend.

 🚀⏰ Today’s news should be a ~4.33-minute read (681 words).

🧠 Quote Of The Week

"Nobody spends somebody else's money as carefully as he spends his own."

— Milton Friedman

🇬🇧 Fairer Tax for Bitcoin Loans

HMRC has confirmed Bitcoin loans will get "no gain, no loss" tax treatment from April 2027, ending years of confusion for around 700,000 people.

Under the old rules, simply lending out crypto or entering a liquidity pool could trigger a Capital Gains Tax bill even though the holder never actually cashed out.

The new rule defers any tax until there's a genuine economic disposal, the same principle that already applies to normal asset transfers.

🍊 A Juicy New Treasury Company

Bitcoin analyst Lyn Alden and Jeff Booth raised $40 million for a new Bitcoin treasury company that buys profitable businesses instead of selling shares to fund its stack.

Orange Juice will acquire US businesses earning $1 million to $10 million a year and route their earnings into Bitcoin, rather than relying on repeated stock or debt issuance the way most treasury companies do.

If the underlying businesses keep generating cash, the Bitcoin accumulates itself, no capital raise required.

🇨🇳 Privacy = Guilt

China's Supreme People's Procuratorate has proposed treating the use of mixers as evidence of money laundering, shifting the burden of proof onto the accused.

Under the plan, using a mixer, selling large holdings off-market, or moving funds through anonymous wallets would presume criminal intent unless the defendant can prove otherwise.

The tools built for privacy are being redefined, by law, as proof of guilt.

🍴 A Fork Nobody Showed Up To

BIP-110, a proposal to temporarily restrict how much data Bitcoin blocks can carry, has miner support stuck near zero as it heads into its activation deadline this August.

Cumulative backing has never cleared 1% of hashrate since May, and no major mining pool has signalled support. Michael Saylor and Adam Back both came out against it this week, warning that turning a spam dispute into a consensus rule sets a worse precedent than the spam itself.

Under Bitcoin's rules, a proposal without miner support simply doesn't activate.

🇯🇵 Japan Reclassifies Bitcoin as a Financial Asset

Japan's parliament voted to reclassify Bitcoin as a financial asset, pulling it out of payments law and into the same regime that governs stocks and bonds.

The move opens the door to Japan's first regulated spot Bitcoin ETFs and clears the way for a tax cut, from a 55% top rate down to a flat 20%, from 2028.

A country famous for treating Bitcoin cautiously just decided it belongs in the same room as everything else worth owning.

🤝 Bitcoin Business Network Has a New Home

We've just launched an all-new website for the Bitcoin Business Network, built to reflect where this is heading.

What started as a network has grown into a movement of entrepreneurs and professionals across every sector, all focused on using Bitcoin to drive the UK forward.

Have a look around the new site, and watch our video, which sums it all up in one minute. Big things are coming, and this is just the beginning.

www.joinbbn.com

🔥 What else have you missed?

1. Jordan Walker why it feels like 2022 again, and it's not a bad thing

2. El Salvador, is it run by a Bitcoin dictator?

3. TikTok Shop using Fold eGift cards now allows you to buy Bitcoin

4. Cloudflare opens the door for Bitcoin in AI agent micropayments

5. The Senate voted unanimously that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried should never receive a pardon

6. Kraken Institutional partners with Upshift to build vaults that offer Bitcoin yield

7. Strategy sells $467 million in MSTR shares to increase USD reserve to $3 billion

8. Circle won federal approval to launch its own national trust bank for Bitcoin custody

9. Metaplanet announces study to bring Bitcoin-backed digital credit to Japan

🍾 Friday Fun!

This week’s crossword is now live - Play here

🧞‍♂️ Your wish is our command

Happy Friday, In A Nutshell this week:

• ⬇️ The Last Domino to Fall

• 🔧 Bureaucracy-Fuelled Wrench Attacks

• 🚀 The Passive Rocket Ship

• ⚡ Lightning Strikes Polymarket

• 🇷🇺 Bitcoin Banking Comes to Russia

• …and much more

If you enjoy the newsletter, pass it on to a friend.

 🚀⏰ Today’s news should be a ~4.52-minute read (729 words).

🧠 Quote Of The Week

“Fortune favours the bold.”

— Virgil

⬇️ The Last Domino to Fall

Vanguard, the world's second-largest asset manager and Bitcoin's most stubborn holdout, is hiring its first-ever Head of Digital Assets.

The $10 trillion firm spent years calling Bitcoin an "immature asset class" unsuited to long-term investors, and refused to offer Bitcoin ETFs to its clients even as BlackRock and Fidelity built theirs.

Bloomberg's Eric Balchunas called the hire a win in itself: simply creating a role with "digital assets" in the title is vindication for the industry, in his view, since Vanguard was basically the last domino left standing.

Vanguard isn't launching a Bitcoin fund tomorrow. But the last major sceptic just admitted the debate is over.

🔧 Bureaucracy-Fuelled Wrench Attacks

Bitcoin exchange Bull Bitcoin is asking France's highest administrative court to strike down a new crypto surveillance decree, arguing it endangers holders' physical safety.

The rule, implementing the EU's DAC8 directive, would link real identities to permanent Bitcoin address histories and hand the data to tax authorities across all 27 member states.

Bull Bitcoin points to a 75% surge in "wrench attacks" on crypto holders last year, with France recording the most incidents. Journalist Joe Nakamoto has traced the wave back to leaked KYC records. Click here to watch Joe’s full investigation

A centralised database of who owns what is exactly the target list attackers need.

🚀 The Passive Rocket Ship

SpaceX joined the Nasdaq-100 this week, carrying 18,712 Bitcoin on its balance sheet, worth around $1.2 billion.

Passive funds tracking the index must buy SpaceX shares in proportion to its weighting, to an estimated $4.3 billion in demand for a company holding Bitcoin on its balance sheet.

Three Nasdaq-100 companies now carry Bitcoin exposure, whether tracker fund holders asked for it or not.

⚡ Lightning Strikes Polymarket

Polymarket switched on instant Bitcoin deposits over the Lightning Network this week, cutting the deposit wait time to under a second.

The integration, built on payments firm Spark, is self-custodial throughout: each deposit wallet ties to the user's own keys, not Polymarket's. It gives the prediction market a near-instant on-ramp that traditional bank transfers simply can't match.

Faster, cheaper funding lowers the barrier to actually using Bitcoin over other alternatives. That's real-world utility the traditional financial system still can't offer.

🇷🇺 Bitcoin Banking Comes to Russia

Alfa-Bank, Russia's largest private lender, says it plans to offer Bitcoin trading and custody once the country's crypto law takes effect.

The bank wants to build its own "digital depository" for storing and tracking Bitcoin, joining state-owned Sberbank and VTB in a queue of Russian banks preparing for legal crypto trading, expected to begin in late 2026 or 2027.

Executive Dmitry Vitman said Russia needs its own crypto infrastructure, "otherwise we'll have nothing to offer."

🧊 New Hampshire Gets Cold Feet

New Hampshire's Executive Council voted down a $100 million Bitcoin-backed municipal bond this week, in a tight 3-2 decision.

The bond would have used $175 million of Bitcoin posted by mining firm CleanSpark as collateral, with no state funds or taxpayer money at risk. Moody's had already rated it Ba2, and Governor Kelly Ayotte backed the plan as a way to make New Hampshire "a leader in digital finance."

Councillors said they weren't against Bitcoin itself, just wary of lending the state's name to something this new. "I find myself in a state of ambivalence," said one.

🔥 What else have you missed?

1. Garys Economics gets a lesson in… Economics

2. Strike launched Bitcoin-backed loans that can't be liquidated by volatility

3. President Trump said Bitcoin could eventually be added to the new Trump Accounts

4. Strategy sold 3,588 Bitcoin, its largest disposal ever

5. The SEC committed to letting Bitcoin trade on the same licensed platforms as stocks

6. The White House says a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve stalls as Treasury and Commerce keep fighting over control

7. BitGo adds quantum-risk controls to Bitcoin custody

🍾 Friday Fun!

This week’s crossword is now live - Play here

🧞‍♂️ Your wish is our command

Happy Friday, In A Nutshell this week:

• 📺 The Bottom Will Be Televised

• 🧼 It All Comes Out In The Warsh

• 🇬🇧 Rulebook Britannia

• 🍸 First Dates, First Sats

• 🇰🇷 Changing Its Tune

• …and much more

If you enjoy the newsletter, pass it on to a friend.

 🚀⏰ Today’s news should be a ~4.49-minute read (730 words).

🧠 Quote Of The Week

“I don't believe we shall ever have good money again before we take the thing out of the hands of government.”

— F.A. Hayek

📺 The Bottom Will Be Televised

Channel 4 News has released a documentary tracking how Bitcoin marched into the White House, filmed on the floor of the Las Vegas Bitcoin Conference.

Reporter Helia Ebrahimi meets the lobby behind the most crypto-friendly administration in US history, including David Bailey, who lobbied Trump at Mar-a-Lago and mobilised single-issue voters. She also presses Strategy's Michael Saylor in a feisty exchange on wealth concentration and the risk to investors.

Bitcoin usually only reaches primetime for two reasons: a new all-time high, or a brutal bottom. This is not an all-time high.

🧼 It All Comes Out In The Warsh

After the worst first half in years, Bitcoin found a floor and bounced as Fed Chair Kevin Warsh softened his hawkish tone at the ECB's Sintra forum.

On 1 July it touched $57,950, a 21-month low, after June closed down around 20%. Then Warsh said inflation risks "have come down", weak jobs data followed with just 57,000 US roles added in June, and Bitcoin climbed back above $61,000.

History helps too. July has closed green in nine of the last thirteen years.

🇬🇧 Rulebook Britannia

The FCA has published its final cryptoasset rules, completing a three-year roadmap and pitching the UK as a competitive home for digital-asset firms.

Trading platforms, custodians, intermediaries and stablecoin issuers all come under authorisation, with the gateway opening on 30 September and the full regime live from 25 October 2027. Industry bodies welcomed the clarity, and "pure DeFi" with no identifiable operator is set to sit outside the perimeter.

After years of mixed signals, it appears Britain is finally telling Bitcoin businesses where they stand.

🍸 First Dates, First Sats

Bitcoin payments firm Musqet has teamed up with First Dates' Merlin Griffiths to build an AI sales avatar for hospitality and food-and-drink merchants.

The avatar uses the Channel 4 mixologist's likeness and voice to walk publicans and restaurateurs through choosing a till system, around the clock and across more than 30 languages. Griffiths, who runs his own Leicestershire pub and is a vocal Bitcoiner, said it is worth it "if it saves one publican from a contract they regret".

Bitcoin adoption tends to arrive dressed as good business, not ideology.

🇰🇷 Changing Its Tune

K Wave Media, a Nasdaq-listed South Korean K-pop and content firm, has abandoned its Bitcoin treasury plan to pivot to AI.

The company once targeted up to 10,000 BTC with $1 billion of financing lined up. It has now filed to redirect as much as $485 million toward AI data centres and GPU compute, citing fatter, more predictable margins than Bitcoin's price swings, and plans to sell its remaining 658 BTC gradually.

Treasury plans built on hype rather than conviction were always going to chase the next shiny thing.

🔥 What else have you missed?

1. Strategy authorised a $2bn buyback and a plan to sell up to $1.25bn in Bitcoin to fund dividends

2. Bitcoin whales added more than 270,000 BTC in two weeks, per CryptoQuant

3. Bitcoin Core shipped a release candidate, v31.1rc1, that patches a node-privacy flaw

4. US spot ETFs logged their worst month on record at $4.51bn of outflows in June

5. Bitcoin mining difficulty fell about 10%, the second-largest drop of 2026

🍾 Friday Fun!

This week’s crossword is now live - Play here

🧞‍♂️ Your wish is our command

Happy Friday, In A Nutshell this week:

• ⛏️ Who Really Ran Bitcoin First?

• 🇪🇺 Binance on the Brink

• 🇺🇸 America Slams the Door on a CBDC

• 🇬🇧 Six Prime Ministers in Seven Years

• 🧪 What If Fiat Came With a Risk Warning?

• …and much more

If you enjoy the newsletter, pass it on to a friend.

 🚀⏰ Today’s news should be a ~4.49-minute read (730 words).

🧠 Quote Of The Week

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”

— Richard Feynman

⛏️ Who Really Ran Bitcoin First?

A new five-month forensic investigation re-examines Bitcoin's first 170 blocks and overturns a favourite origin story: that Hal Finney was the second person ever to run the network.

Drawing on Hal's recovered debug.log, his private emails with Satoshi, and the blockchain itself, it shows Hal missed the launch, only joined around Block 49, and that Bitcoin halted eight times in its first 170 blocks. The author pegs Hal as likely the third node, then reinstates him to second, suspecting the mystery Tor node was also Satoshi.

A reminder of how fragile those early days were. Bitcoin was not inevitable. A few people chose to take an anonymous stranger's code seriously, and that is the reason any of this exists.

🇪🇺 Binance on the Brink

With full MiCA enforcement starting on 1 July, Binance is days from losing its licence to operate across the EU.

Every platform serving EU clients now needs formal CASP authorisation, and Binance's current permissions expire on 30 June. A rejection of its application would legally force the exchange to halt services for millions of European users. Binance says it intends to stay in the bloc and will launch a fresh regulatory push regardless.

A licence that can be switched off is a permission, not a property right. It is the clearest possible case for holding Bitcoin you actually control, on a network no regulator can revoke.

🇺🇸 America Slams the Door on a CBDC

The US Senate has passed a bill that bans the Federal Reserve from issuing a retail digital dollar through 2030.

The provision, folded into the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, would stop the Fed from issuing or facilitating a retail CBDC directly or indirectly, while leaving room for open, permissionless private dollar stablecoins. President Trump then cancelled the planned signing ceremony, saying he will not sign until Congress passes a separate bill first.

🇬🇧 Six Prime Ministers in Seven Years

Keir Starmer announced his resignation on Monday, less than two years after a landslide election win.

Following heavy local-election losses and a wave of cabinet resignations, Starmer will stay on until Labour selects a successor, with Andy Burnham the clear frontrunner. He becomes the sixth UK Prime Minister to resign in seven years.

Governments and leaders change on a timetable nobody can predict. The money you hold should not depend on who happens to be standing outside Number 10. That permanence, indifferent to politics, is exactly what Bitcoin was built to offer.

🧪 What If Fiat Came With a Risk Warning?

A new thought experiment flips the FCA's crypto knowledge test back onto fiat, asking what opening a bank account would look like if savers first had to prove they understood the pound.

Before buying Bitcoin in the UK, the FCA requires a risk warning and an "appropriateness assessment." The piece imagines the same gate for a current account: a fiat risk warning, then a quiz on custody, fractional reserves, deposit-protection limits, and how fast the currency is designed to devalue.

🔥 What else have you missed?

1. Bitcoin fell below $60,000 for the first time since 2024, ahead of a $10.5bn options expiry

2. Bitcoin mining difficulty dropped 10% in the second week of June

3. Close to 100 Catholic bishops wrote to the Senate opposing the CLARITY Act

4. The ECB is still pressing ahead with a digital euro, with a pilot due next year

5. The DOJ seized infrastructure tied to Huione in a crypto-laundering crackdown

6. Perception exited beta as a narrative intelligence layer for Bitcoin, with BitGo, Swan, Relai and Bitcoin Well having integrated it.

🍾 Friday Fun!

This week’s crossword is now live - Play here

🧞‍♂️ Your wish is our command

Happy Friday, In A Nutshell this week:

• 💰 The Taxman Takes a Step Too Far

• 🛒 Can I Pay in Bit… Oh

• 🇴🇲 Oman Nationalises Bitcoin Mining

• 🚨 The First Crack in Digital Credit?

• 🇺🇸 New Fed, Same Uncertainty

• …and much more

If you enjoy the newsletter, pass it on to a friend.

 🚀⏰ Today’s news should be a ~4.59-minute read (752 words).

🧠 Quote Of The Week

“People throw rocks at things that shine.”

— Taylor Swift

💰 The Taxman Takes a Step Too Far

Illinois has become the first US state to impose a direct tax on Bitcoin and digital asset transactions, taking effect in January 2027.

The tax is 0.20% on the gross value of any digital asset exchanged, transferred, or stored. It applies regardless of whether any profit is made.

• Move $1 million in Bitcoin and Illinois takes a $2,000 cut.

• Move the same amount through a bank wire or brokerage account, and the state takes nothing.

The law creates a two-tier system that singles out blockchain activity while leaving every comparable financial service untouched. Industry groups say it is a powerful incentive for startups and investment to leave Illinois for friendlier states.

🛒 Can I Pay in Bit… Oh

Square has quietly made Bitcoin payments a standard checkout option, rolling out a new toggle that lets customers pay with BTC at eligible stores directly on the Square Register.

No additional training or setup is required for staff, and no third-party integrations are needed. It simply appears as an option at checkout, making it one of the most seamless Bitcoin payment tools available to date.

When the friction disappears, Bitcoin stops being a novelty and starts being a genuine alternative to fiat payments.

🇴🇲 Oman Nationalises Bitcoin Mining

Oman has launched a mandatory national Bitcoin mining pool, requiring all licensed miners in the country to join a single state-backed platform called Omanhash.

The move consolidates an estimated 10 exahashes per second of mining power under government oversight, giving the state full visibility into revenue, energy use, and newly minted Bitcoin.

Oman has invested over $700 million in mining infrastructure since 2022 and is now pulling that capacity into a controlled national framework rather than banning or restricting it.

🚨 The First Crack in Digital Credit?

Strategy's STRC preferred stock has hit an all-time low, dropping to $82.50 before closing at $88.59, well below its $100 par value and $90 IPO price.

STRC was designed to trade at $100 by paying a variable monthly dividend currently at 11.50%, and had spent months doing exactly that. This stability appears to have encouraged investors to take on heavy leverage to amplify their yield. When the price began to slip, margin calls triggered forced selling, pushing the price lower and triggering further liquidations.

Buyers at current levels pick up an effective yield of around 13.7%, and if STRC returns to par, they pocket an 18% return. According to analyst Jesse Myers, Strategy can cover dividends for 32 years without Bitcoin appreciating at all.

🇺🇸 New Fed, Same Uncertainty

Kevin Warsh chaired his first FOMC meeting as the new Federal Reserve Chair this week, and markets were unsettled by what they heard.

Rates were held steady at 3.50% to 3.75%, but policymakers raised their inflation forecasts, reduced expectations for rate cuts, and left open the possibility of further hikes. Warsh also scrapped forward guidance entirely, adding uncertainty rather than clarity. Bitcoin fell to around $62,000.

Despite this, large Bitcoin wallets have been accumulating, exchange reserves are falling, and 79% of the supply is now held by long-term holders. The price is weak. The conviction is not.

🔥 What else have you missed?

1. UK Government pushes forward on social media ban for under-16s, and state control expansion

2. BlackRock launches new Bitcoin ETF that generates income using a covered call strategy

3. Mexican Billionaire Ricardo Salinas bets 70% of his portfolio on Bitcoin

4. BOJ raised interest rates to a 31-year high

5. France bans non-quantum-resistant encryption certificates from 2027 and mandates full quantum encryption by 2030

6. Anthony Scaramucci thinks Bitcoin will start to rally from Q4 of 2026 into early 2027

7. G7 leaders issue call to crack down on North Korea’s multi-billion-dollar Bitcoin thefts

8. Ledn says bitcoin-backed lending market could reach $1 trillion

9. Kraken launches CFTC-regulated Bitcoin perpetual futures for U.S. traders

10. Brian Armstrong calls for an overhaul of US accredited investor laws

🍾 Friday Fun!

This week’s crossword is now live - Play here

🧞‍♂️ Your wish is our command

Happy Friday, In A Nutshell this week:

• 🏀 Bitcoin’s All-Star Marketing Team?

• 🇸🇻 Five Years On, Still Committed

• ⚔️ AI’s Fight for Control

• 🌿 Madeira’s Bitcoin-Powered Farm

• 🇺🇸 The Plan to Make America’s Bitcoin Untouchable

• …and much more

If you enjoy the newsletter, pass it on to a friend.

 🚀⏰ Today’s news should be a ~5.13-minute read (791 words).

🧠 Quote Of The Week

“The concentration of power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.”

— Milton Friedman

🏀 Bitcoin’s All-Star Marketing Team?

A trailer has dropped for Bitcoin Season, a new documentary following Swan Bitcoin's push to bring Bitcoin-only partnerships into professional basketball.

The film frames Bitcoin not as a financial product but as a tool of player empowerment. Athletes are increasingly taking control of their careers, their brands, and their money, and Bitcoin's fundamentals align naturally with that shift.

The NBA is one of the most culturally influential leagues in the world. Could this be one of the next catalysts for mainstream Bitcoin adoption?

🇸🇻 Five Years On, Still Committed

The first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, El Salvador, is still buying five years on.

The government now holds 7,677 BTC worth approximately $480 million, accumulated through a strategy of buying one Bitcoin per day since November 2022.

Bitcoin was stripped of its mandatory legal tender status in January 2025 as a condition of a $1.4 billion IMF loan, but the government has not sold a single coin and continues to add to its stack.

⚔️ AI’s Fight for Control

Anthropic is positioning itself as the gatekeeper of AI, launching its most powerful model to date while simultaneously calling for government regulation that would give authorities the power to block competitors before they reach the public.

Tighter regulation raises the barrier to entry for smaller companies, and nobody benefits from that more than those already at the top.

It echoes the financial system, where the biggest players shape the rules to suit themselves, which is why Bitcoin exists. As AI becomes the most powerful tool in the world, who controls it has never mattered more.

🌿 Madeira’s Bitcoin-Powered Farm

Joe Nakamoto visited a family farm in Madeira that is growing herbs, succulents, and endemic species, with greenhouses heated by Bitcoin miners.

Fred and Daniela grow these species 400 metres up a mountainside using permaculture methods. Solar panels power the miners for free during the day, and at night, the Bitcoin earned roughly offsets the grid electricity.

The result is greenhouse heating that pays for itself. No banks, no energy company, no industrial food system. Just sun, soil, and sats.

🇺🇸 The Plan to Make America’s Bitcoin Untouchable

The complete text of the American Reserve Modernization Act has been published, revealing the details behind the bill that would permanently bring a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve into US federal law.

• All Bitcoin held in the reserve would be subject to a mandatory 20-year lock-up and cannot be sold, swapped, or disposed of for any reason.

• After that period, the Treasury may sell no more than 10% of holdings every two years, subject to Congressional review.

• Quarterly proof-of-reserve audits are required, and the government cannot use new borrowing or taxes to acquire Bitcoin.

This is legislation designed to make the US Bitcoin reserve permanent, transparent, and untouchable for a generation.

🚫 Not Everyone Gets a Pardon

Sam Bankman-Fried has formally applied for a presidential pardon while serving a 25-year prison sentence for fraud and conspiracy following the collapse of FTX.

In recent months SBF has publicly praised Trump's foreign policy and credited him with fixing the SEC, a clear attempt to win favour. Trump has pardoned Ross Ulbricht, CZ, and the BitMEX founders, but has publicly stated he does not intend to do the same for SBF.

The line has been drawn. Whether Trump holds it remains to be seen.

🔥 What else have you missed?

1. FCA moves to allow funds to allocate 10% exposure to Bitcoin ETNs

2. Over 50% of the Bitcoin supply is now sitting underwater

3. Morgan Stanley now offers loans against spot Bitcoin ETF holdings at 50% LTV

4. SBI Shinsei Bank, a major Japanese bank, to pay up to 20% of deposit interest in Bitcoin

5. Michael Saylor releases The Four Ideologies of Bitcoin

6. Fold sold $45 million BTC to pay off debt and focus on growth

7. Coinbase says institutions aren't panicking about Bitcoin, 'love it even more' at lower prices

8. Jack Mallers asks Michael Saylor to define mNAV in Prague

9. Botanix to wind down Bitcoin Layer 2 network

10. Strategy buys another 1,550 BTC after the controversial 32 BTC sale

🍾 Friday Fun!

This week’s crossword is now live - Play here

🧞‍♂️ Your wish is our command

Happy Friday, In A Nutshell this week:

• 🏠 The First Bitcoin-Backed Home

• 🍭 Bitcoin’s Sugar Rush

• 🏥 GOSH Joins The Bitcoin Business Network

• 🛑 Selling Becomes Part of the Strategy

• 🇮🇷 Iran’s Biggest Exchange Gets Sanctioned

• …and much more

If you enjoy the newsletter, pass it on to a friend.

 🚀⏰ Today’s news should be a ~5.23-minute read (810 words).

🧠 Quote Of The Week

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

— George Bernard Shaw

🏠 The First Bitcoin-Backed Home

Better and Coinbase have closed the first-ever mortgage using Bitcoin as collateral, letting homebuyers fund their down payment without selling their Bitcoin or triggering a capital gains tax bill.

The Bitcoin is held in custody for the life of the loan, returned on full repayment, and there are no margin calls. The first borrower summed it up: "We closed on our home and my Bitcoin stayed intact. We didn't have to liquidate, didn't have to time the market."

For anyone whose wealth is in Bitcoin rather than cash savings, this changes the conversation around homeownership entirely.

🍭 Bitcoin’s Sugar Rush

South American agribusiness is launching Bitcoin mining operations in Brazil powered entirely by electricity generated from sugarcane waste, with a target launch date of 1st July.

Tether backed Adecoagro will power the operation using bagasse, the fibrous waste left over from sugarcane production that mills routinely burn to generate surplus electricity. The initial pilot is 10 megawatts, with over 230 megawatts of renewable capacity already in place to scale from.

Bitcoin miners keep finding energy sources the mainstream headlines miss. Sugarcane waste is just the latest example of the network turning overlooked resources into productive infrastructure.

🏥 GOSH Joins The Bitcoin Business Network

Most businesses think of Bitcoin as something to buy and hold. The companies pulling ahead are treating it as something to build into every layer of how they operate.

The Bitcoin Business Network was built to help UK businesses work out exactly how to integrate it and make it work for them.

With 100 members and growing, last week at the Bitcoin Treasuries Unconference, we announced our newest member: Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity.

This is no longer an idea. It is happening at one of the most recognised and respected institutions in the world.

Join the Bitcoin Business Network

🛑 Selling Becomes Part of the Strategy

Mainstream media has been quick to sound the alarm after Strategy sold 32 Bitcoin, but there is more to the story.

Strategy sold 32 BTC for $2.5 million to fund a preferred stock dividend, less than 0.004% of its total holdings. Saylor had signalled the move in advance, calling it an "inoculation": a small, deliberate sale to prove the mechanism works and prevent panic if a larger sale is ever needed.

The long-term goal has not changed. Accumulate as much Bitcoin as possible. Grow Bitcoin per share. This sale was simply proof that the reserve can be accessed when needed, and that the model holds up.

🇮🇷 Iran’s Biggest Exchange Gets Sanctioned

The US has seized approximately $1 billion in Iran-linked cryptocurrency and also sanctioned the country’s largest exchange.

The seizure includes a $344 million Tether freeze linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard. Following this, sanctions were imposed on Nobitex, Iran's largest crypto exchange, along with three other platforms and key executives.

Centralised crypto can be frozen and sanctioned just like a bank account. This shows why self-custodied Bitcoin is so important: neutral money matters.

🧐 Inside Antidote: London’s Bitcoin Accelerator

The UK has capital, founders, and a track record of building big companies. What it was missing was a home for Bitcoin-native businesses. Antidote is that home.

(Click here to see inside)

We sat down with co-founder Ben Cousens to discuss how they are helping founders become investable and where he thinks Bitcoin adoption is heading next.

The full interview, plus an exclusive discount to use Antidote's co-working space, is available to BBN members. Click here to join.

🔥 What else have you missed?

1. Smarter Web moves to launch UK’s first Bitcoin-backed "Preferred" stock

2. Strait of Hormuz is accepting Bitcoin payments on the Lightning Network

3. Jamie Dimon lashes out at The Clarity Act. Says "We'll fight it”.

4. Lighting + Ark: the scaling solution Bitcoin has been missing?

5. Bitcoin ATMs face a quiet ban no one is talking about

6. CME Group goes live with 24/7 Bitcoin futures and options

7. Democrats push the Labour Department to abandon the Bitcoin 401(k) Rule

8. Scott Bessent backs Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, urges Senate to Pass Clarity Act

9. Lava Card launches a US Bitcoin rewards credit card

10. South Africa's high court rules that Bitcoin constitutes both "capital" and "money".

🍾 Friday Fun!

This week’s crossword is now live - Play here

🧞‍♂️ Your wish is our command

Happy Friday, In A Nutshell this week:

• 🍕 One Slice at a Time

• 🔌 Plugging Treasury Bitcoin Into Lightning

• 🥇 There Is No Second Best

• 🇮🇹 Italian Banking Embraces Bitcoin

• 🇺🇸 America’s 1 Million Bitcoin Plan

• 🎟️ 10% OFF - Europe’s Biggest Bitcoin Conference

• …and much more

If you enjoy the newsletter, pass it on to a friend.

 🚀⏰ Today’s news should be a ~4.48-minute read (720 words).

🧠 Quote Of The Week

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

— Lao Tzu

🍕 One Slice at a Time

Domino's has become one of the UK's biggest high street names to accept Bitcoin payments, with the integration made possible by Musqet.

The UK-based Bitcoin payments company has made it live in one store for now, with a broader rollout expected in the coming months.

When a global pizza chain starts taking Lightning payments on the British high street, Bitcoin as everyday money stops being a theory.

🔌 Plugging Treasury Bitcoin Into Lightning

B HODL has launched a Lightning Service Provider platform, deploying its treasury Bitcoin to provide instant payment infrastructure for businesses, developers, and AI agents.

Holding Bitcoin is one thing. Using it to build payment infrastructure is another. This is treasury Bitcoin doing real work.

🥇 There Is No Second Best

Ryan Sean Adams, co-founder of Bankless and one of Ethereum's loudest advocates, has sold his entire ETH position.

His reasoning: not that Ethereum has failed, but that the "ETH is money" thesis has run its course. Competitors ate into its dominance, fees fragmented across L2s, and stablecoins built on Ethereum ultimately ended up strengthening the dollar more than ETH itself.

Ethereum added everything, and the value leaked out everywhere else, whilst Bitcoin stripped everything back to elevate one asset.

🇮🇹 Italian Banking Embraces Bitcoin

Banca Sella has become the first Italian bank to receive authorisation to offer Bitcoin and crypto services under EU regulation.

The bank plans to launch custody and transfer services for digital assets before the end of 2026. It is not alone: Italy's largest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, now holds over €200 million in Bitcoin, and UniCredit has been exploring Bitcoin-linked products.

European banks are moving fast under MiCA, while US banks still lack the regulatory framework to do the same.

🇺🇸 America’s 1 Million Bitcoin Plan

A bipartisan bill in Congress would authorise the US Treasury to buy 1 million Bitcoin over five years, funded by revaluing the government's gold.

It’s 1973 book price of $42 per ounce at today's market price, could unlock over $1.17 trillion in gains with no new debt.

Bitcoin acquired would be held for a minimum of 20 years and treated as a Tier 1 reserve asset, on the same legal footing as gold.

🎟️ 10% OFF - Europe’s Biggest Bitcoin Conference

BTC Prague is back. On 11–13 June, 8,500 Bitcoiners will descend on one of Europe's most beautiful cities for the continent's biggest Bitcoin conference.

Bitcoin In a Nutshell readers get an exclusive 10% off at checkout using code: COLLECTIVE

Speakers include: Michael Saylor, Jack Mallers, Peter McCormack, and many more.

Grab your tickets here

🏨 This Hotelier Discovered Bitcoin 9 Months Ago, and It Changed Everything

Nicholas Dickinson bought his first significant Bitcoin stack at the all-time high. Three months later, he was 40% underwater. He did not panic. He read more books and strengthened his conviction.

Nicholas runs a 50-acre country house hotel in Norfolk and has 40 years in the hospitality industry. In just nine months, he has gone from first-time buyer to thinking in Bitcoin and working out how to bring Bitcoin into his business.

The episode is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify

🔥 What else have you missed?

1. ChatGPT via MoonPay now lets you buy Bitcoin

2. UK introduced new sanctions targeting Russian financial networks

3. Strive acquired 1,109 Bitcoin, increasing its total holdings to 16,500

4. Cathie Wood predicts $1.25M Bitcoin in the next 5 years

5. Strategy at an 8% discount retired $1.5 billion in convertible debt

6. Kevin Warsh officially sworn in as new Federal Reserve Chair

7. IT Worker arrested in Miami over $1.9 Million Bitcoin theft from former boss

8. Mastercard has secured a New York BitLicense

9. Casa launches four security features to combat rising social engineering attacks

🍾 Friday Fun!

This week’s crossword is now live - Play here

🧞‍♂️ Your wish is our command

Happy Friday, In A Nutshell this week:

• 🚀 Rocket Fuel on the Balance Sheet

• 📘 The Human Rights Handbook

• 🏘️ Hashpower Heats 2,800 Homes

• 🚢 Hormuz Shifts to Neutral

• 🇦🇪 The Gulf’s Growing Bitcoin Bet

• …and much more

If you enjoy the newsletter, pass it on to a friend.

 🚀⏰ Today’s news should be a ~5.19-minute read (796 words).

🧠 Quote Of The Week

“What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

🚀 Rocket Fuel on the Balance Sheet

SpaceX has filed for its long-awaited IPO on Nasdaq, revealing it holds 18,712 BTC worth approximately $1.45 billion.

That puts SpaceX among the seven largest corporate Bitcoin holders in the world, ahead of Coinbase, and with the coins purchased at an average cost of around $35,000, they are sitting on roughly $789 million in unrealised gains.

The company has been valued in private markets at $1.75 trillion, a figure that would make it the largest public company to carry Bitcoin on its balance sheet.

Bitcoin is becoming a standard feature on the balance sheets of the world's best companies. Investors are getting exposure whether they realise it or not.

📘 The Human Rights Handbook

The Human Rights Foundation has released a practical guide showing nonprofits and activist groups how to use Bitcoin when governments freeze their bank accounts, block foreign donations, or weaponise financial systems against them.

The guide covers wallet setup, self-custody, multisignature treasury arrangements, and how to convert between Bitcoin and local currencies while managing surveillance risk.

For people living under financial repression, Bitcoin is not a speculative asset. It is the only money that cannot be taken away. This guide makes that accessible.

🏘️ Hashpower Heats 2,800 Homes

Canaan, a Bitcoin mining company, has secured a contract to heat approximately 2,800 homes in the Nordic region using the excess heat generated by its mining equipment.

The mining units capture heat produced during the Bitcoin mining process and push it out as hot water into the local heating network. The project began with a 2 MW first phase and expanded to 8 MW following a follow-on order in March 2026.

Warming thousands of homes is exactly the kind of real-world benefit the mainstream headlines tend to miss.

🚢 Hormuz Shifts to Neutral

Iran has launched a state-backed maritime insurance platform for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, settling policies in Bitcoin.

The timing is deliberate: weeks earlier, US sanctions authorities froze $344 million in USDT held in Iranian wallets. Bitcoin was the only payment rail they could not touch.

Iranian officials believe the Hormuz Safe project, which went live on 16th May, could generate over $10 billion in annual revenue.

A nation-state is now using Bitcoin as critical financial infrastructure, precisely because of its neutrality. No government can freeze it.

🇦🇪 The Gulf’s Growing Bitcoin Bet

Mubadala, Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, has increased its stake in BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF by 16% in Q1 2026, bringing its total position to $566 million.

It has added to its holdings every single quarter since first disclosing Bitcoin exposure in late 2024. Combined with a separate Abu Dhabi vehicle also holding IBIT, the emirate now has over $1 billion in Bitcoin ETF exposure through regulated products.

Abu Dhabi has been steadily and quietly building one of the largest government-linked Bitcoin positions in the world.

💰 Borrow Against Bitcoin Without Selling a Single Sat

The pound has lost 95% of its purchasing power since 1971. Every fiat currency in history has eventually gone to zero.

Piotr, Product Manager at Xapo Bank, joins Jordan to talk about building financial services around the one asset he believes breaks that pattern.

They dive into how Xapo’s underground vaults earned the nickname "Fort Knox of Bitcoin," and why borrowing against Bitcoin rather than selling it could be the smartest financial decision most holders are not making.

The episode is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify

🔥 What else have you missed?

1. Antidote is hiring! 3 new roles and a chance to work full-time in a Bitcoin company

2. Bitcoin Pizza Day: Celebrate at your local meetup

3. Ross Ulbricht and wife Caroline announce they are expecting their first child

4. Hunter Biden is now accepting Bitcoin as payment for his artwork

5. Strategy to repurchase $1.5B of 2029 convertible notes

6. Minnesota signs a bill into law that allows banks and credit unions to offer Bitcoin custody services

7. Nakamoto shares hit new lows and announced a 1-for-40 reverse split

8. Tether buys SoftBank’s stake in Twenty One

9. Mark Cuban sells most of his Bitcoin, says it "lost the plot"

10. Node NBO Bitcoin hub opens in Nairobi

🍾 Friday Fun!

This week’s crossword is now live - Play here

🧞‍♂️ Your wish is our command

Happy Friday, In A Nutshell this week:

• 🔓 AI Unlocks $1.7M in Bitcoin

• 💵 13% Paid Daily

• 🇺🇸 Washington Moves Closer to Clarity

• 🌊 Bitcoin Beach Goes Mainstream

• 🏦 Bitcoin-Aware Fed Chair

• …and much more

If you enjoy the newsletter, pass it on to a friend.

 🚀⏰ Today’s news should be a ~4.59-minute read (750 words).

🧠 Quote Of The Week

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

— Arthur C. Clarke

🔓 AI Unlocks $1.7M in Bitcoin

A Bitcoin holder has recovered $1.7 million worth of BTC using Claude, after being locked out of his wallet for over 11 years.

Back in 2014 he bought Bitcoin at around $250 a coin, but at some point got stoned and changed his wallet password. Since then he was never able to get back in.

As a last resort, he fed his entire old college computer's files into Claude, which found a buried wallet file, cracked the password, and recovered the keys.

AI did in one session what 11 years of manual attempts could not.

💵 13% Paid Daily

Strive Asset Management is converting SATA into the first US-listed stock to pay cash dividends every single business day.

The annual rate stays at 13%, but daily compounding pushes the effective yield to around 13.88% from 16th June.

The company holds 15,009 BTC on its balance sheet and is positioning SATA as a Bitcoin-backed alternative to money market funds for income-focused investors.

It will not be for everyone, but it has the potential to attract a wider pool of investors looking to earn a yield on short-term capital.

🇺🇸 Washington Moves Closer to Clarity

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act has passed the Senate Banking Committee in a 15-9 vote, with two Democrats breaking ranks to back the bill alongside all 13 Republicans.

The Clarity Act would build a federal framework for digital asset trading, splitting oversight between the SEC and CFTC and setting rules for exchanges, brokers, and custodians.

This is the furthest a comprehensive US crypto market structure bill has ever progressed. It now moves to the full Senate, where it will need 60 votes to pass, before heading to the House and then the President's desk to become law.

🌊 Bitcoin Beach Goes Mainstream

Casey Neistat, one of YouTube's most recognised creators with 12.7 million subscribers, visited Bitcoin Beach in his latest vlog to El Salvador.

Most of his audience will not know the significance, but millions of people just saw a place where Bitcoin is working as real money. Not just a speculative investment as it is typically framed.

🏦 Bitcoin-Aware Fed Chair

Kevin Warsh has been confirmed as the next chair of the Federal Reserve in a 54-45 Senate vote, making him the first incoming Fed chair to have held direct exposure to Bitcoin and digital assets.

Warsh has publicly described Bitcoin as "an important asset" and a signal of monetary credibility, saying it functions as a policeman for Fed policy. He holds a stake in Flashnet, a Bitcoin payments startup, and has ties to crypto index manager Bitwise.

The person soon to be in charge of US monetary policy does not see Bitcoin as a threat. That is a notable shift from anything that has come before.

🌍 The Plan to Put a Bitcoiner in Every Boardroom on Earth

What If Every Executive Recruiter on the Planet Became a Bitcoiner? That is not a thought experiment. It is Scott Ellam's actual plan.

Scott is back on the show six months after taking XCE public, explaining how structuring a recruitment business around a Bitcoin treasury can solve the problems that hold most private recruitment firms back from growing and eventually selling.

The episode is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify

🔥 What else have you missed?

1. M-Pesa has integrated Bitcoin Lightning addresses to 40 million users in Africa

2. Bury St Edmunds Bitcoin are hosting an all day “Bitcoin Pizza Day” event

3. King Charles declares UK ministers will proceed with the introduction of Digital ID

4. Square crosses over 1 million Bitcoin-enabled merchants

5. Trump has been buying shares in Strategy, Coinbase and MARA

6. Charles Schwab begins to offer Bitcoin trading to retail users

7. Morgan Stanley's Bitcoin ETF absorbs $194 million in first month with no net daily outflows

8. Dubai government now allows residents to pay taxes & fees with Bitcoin

9. Ordinals explorer Ord.io to shut down

🍾 Friday Fun!

This week’s crossword is now live - Play here

🧞‍♂️ Your wish is our command

Happy Friday, In A Nutshell this week:

• 🇬🇧 Policy Powerhouse Comes to Britain

• 🔄 The Strategy Evolves

• 🎓 The Satoshi Scholarship

• 📈 Bond Markets Sound the Alarm

• ⛏️ Mining Returns to Its Roots

• …and much more

If you enjoy the newsletter, pass it on to a friend.

 🚀⏰ Today’s news should be a ~5.15-minute read (795 words).

🧠 Quote Of The Week

“We cannot become what we want by remaining what we are.”

— Max DePree

🇬🇧 Policy Powerhouse Comes to Britain

The Bitcoin Policy Institute has launched a UK arm to educate British policymakers, regulators, and government officials on Bitcoin, with backing from Xapo Bank.

The US organisation was behind the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and key digital asset legislation, and the timing of their UK expansion is no coincidence.

The UK is building its digital asset regulatory framework under the Financial Services and Markets Act, with an FCA application gateway opening later this year and the full framework expected in 2027.

Antidote are hosting a reception with BPI and Xapo on 13th May. Limited tickets available here

🔄 The Strategy Evolves

Strategy has signalled it is willing to sell portions of its Bitcoin for the first time, but this is not a retreat from its "never sell" stance.

The goal is to unlock an estimated $2.2 billion in tax benefits and fund shareholder dividends, while remaining a net Bitcoin accumulator. Sell tactically, redeploy the proceeds, grow Bitcoin per share.

Strategy is moving from treating Bitcoin as a static reserve to an actively managed treasury asset. The strategy is evolving. The conviction is not.

🎓 The Satoshi Scholarship

Lomond School has launched the "Satoshi Scholarship," a fully funded place covering two years of tuition and boarding at the school in Scotland.

The school became the first in the world to accept Bitcoin for tuition in 2025, runs its own Bitcoin node and mining units, and is now building a BTC treasury funded by community donations.

The scholarship, open to students worldwide, is the latest step in what the school describes as a long-term savings strategy built around sound money principles.

Applications are open and close on the 24th May 2026.

📈 Bond Markets Sound the Alarm

UK borrowing costs have hit their highest level since 1998 as 30-year government bond yields have hit 5.78%.

This is not just a British problem. US, Japanese, and German bond markets are all repricing simultaneously as central banks that were cutting rates earlier this year are now being forced to consider hikes, driven by an energy shock that is keeping inflation stubbornly high.

The UK's position is particularly exposed. With £2.7 trillion in national debt and £106 billion spent annually on interest alone, there is very little room for rates to stay elevated without serious consequences for public finances.

When every major bond market reprices at once and with skyrocketing government debt, the case for a neutral asset that sits outside the system becomes harder to ignore.

⛏️ Mining Returns to Its Roots

Seven of the world's largest Bitcoin mining operations, including ANTPOOL, Block Inc, Foundry, and F2Pool, have joined the Stratum v2 Working Group, a protocol designed to decentralise how Bitcoin mining works.

Stratum v2 is an upgrade to the current mining protocol that improves efficiency, security, and privacy.

Most importantly, it allows individual miners to build their own block templates rather than having pools decide what goes into each block, a meaningful shift toward decentralisation.

☕️ Why the UK Is Finally Waking Up to Bitcoin

The UK has the talent, the capital, and the financial infrastructure. So why aren't more Bitcoin businesses being built here?

Ben Cousens, Chief Strategy Officer at ZBD and co-founder of Antidote, joins Jordan to answer exactly that. Antidote are backing Bitcoin businesses with capital and support, and have built a Bitcoin hub in the heart of London to prove the UK is open for business.

The episode is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify

🔥 What else have you missed?

1. Jeff Walton vs Coffeezilla: The MSTR & STRC Ponzi Debate

2. Netherlands is moving forward to tax on unrealised capital gains on Bitcoin

3. CashApp’s Bitcoin ecosystem made $1.7B in Q1 2026

4. Sequans sells half its Bitcoin holdings as revenue falls and losses mount

5. VanEck says Bitcoin could hit $1 million in five years

6. Paradigm researcher proposes way to protect Satoshi-era bitcoin from quantum threats

7. BlackRock says adding Bitcoin to your portfolio produces "compelling" results.

8. Coinbase cuts 14% of workforce

9. Wall Street firms are now hiring for dozens of Bitcoin and crypto jobs

10. Fidelity Digital Assets says the most important portfolio decision is to get off zero

🍾 Friday Fun!

This week’s crossword is now live - Play here

🧞‍♂️ Your wish is our command

Happy Friday, In A Nutshell this week:

• 🔓 BBN Professional Is Open

• 💳 Bitcoin Becomes Money at Scale

• 🇨🇿 Central Bank Backing, Centre Stage

• 🍔 Upgrading the Whole Business

• 🎬 The Permissionless Movie

• …and much more

If you enjoy the newsletter, pass it on to a friend.

 🚀⏰ Today’s news should be a ~5.15-minute read (792 words).

🧠 Quote Of The Week

“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”

— Ryunosuke Satoro

🔓 BBN Professional Is Open

The businesses that will shape the UK's relationship with Bitcoin are being built right now, and the people inside them are a big part of why. That’s by BBN Professional is now open.

Anyone working inside a business who wants to be part of the mission to make Bitcoin money in the UK can now join. Full access to the BBN network, events, resources, discounts and community for £149 a year (+VAT), with the option to pay monthly.

Change will not come from the top down. It will come from businesses and the people inside them.

Click here to find out more.

💳 Bitcoin Becomes Money at Scale

Block announced that over 800,000 Square merchants now have Bitcoin payments enabled, with a new business activating the feature every eight seconds.

Product Lead Miles Suter took the stage at Bitcoin 2026 in Las Vegas with a clear message: Bitcoin must circulate, not just sit still. The product launches that followed backed it up.

At the conference they also unveiled tap-to-pay Bitcoin using NFC and the Lightning Network on Square, and a 5% Bitcoin Back rewards programme at Square merchants in the US.

🇨🇿 Central Bank Backing, Centre Stage

Czech National Bank Governor Aleš Michl has publicly backed the bank's decision to allocate 1% of its $180 billion foreign exchange reserves to Bitcoin.

The bank's research found Bitcoin has low long-term correlation with traditional reserve assets, meaning it does not move in the same way as stocks, bonds, or gold.

Just a 1% allocation, Michl said, lifts returns in Czech Koruna terms while leaving overall risk unchanged.

When a central bank governor stands on stage at a Bitcoin conference and defends Bitcoin as a legitimate reserve asset, the institutional conversation has shifted permanently.

🍔 Upgrading the Whole Business

Steak 'n Shake could save an estimated $6 million annually, thanks to using Bitcoin as a cheaper way to process payments.

Accepting Bitcoin via the Lightning Network cuts processing costs by 50% compared to credit cards. The savings are being reinvested into the food, with the chain removing microwaves and transitioning to 100% grass-fed beef from June 2026.

Bitcoin received from customers is also flowing directly into a $10 million strategic reserve, which funds a Bitcoin bonus scheme for staff.

This is a business using Bitcoin to make every aspect of the company better.

🎬 The Permissionless Movie

Jack Dorsey and Eugene Jarecki are using Bitcoin to distribute a Julian Assange documentary no mainstream streamer would touch.

Despite premiering at Cannes, "The Six Billion Dollar Man" was passed over by every major streaming platform, until Jack Dorsey stepped in with a distribution idea: a global Bitcoin-powered pay-per-view watch party where ticket buyers receive a credit on the film itself.

When financial institutions cut WikiLeaks off from donation channels in 2011, Bitcoin was the only payment rail that could not be blocked.

He sees this film as the same principle in action: a story that gatekeepers will not carry, distributed through a network they cannot control.

📈 This Is What Bitcoin Adoption Actually Looks Like for Businesses

Will Reeves, CEO of Fold, joins Jordan to break down what Bitcoin adoption actually looks like for businesses right now.

One example stands out: a fast food chain integrated Bitcoin payments in a matter of weeks and saw same-store sales rise 10%. That is not a marketing stunt. That is what early adoption looks like when it starts to compound.

The episode is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify

🔥 What else have you missed?

1. Kevin Warsh approved by Senate Banking Committee to be next Fed Chair

2. Square terminal accepts Bitcoin payment via NFC tap to pay

3. Jack Mallers announces merger of Twenty-One, exchange Strike and miner Elektron Energy

4. Tim Draper you should be scared if you don’t own Bitcoin

5. Morgan Stanley executive says ‘We Are Still So Early on This Journey’

6. Paul Tudor Jones says Bitcoin is 'unequivocally the best inflation hedge'

7. eCash fork sparks backlash over 'reassigned' coins

8. Aven launches Bitcoin-backed Visa card offering up to $1 Million in credit lines

9. Japan's Bitbank rolls out crypto-linked credit card that pays bills in bitcoin

🍾 Friday Fun!

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🧞‍♂️ Your wish is our command

Happy Friday, In A Nutshell this week:

• 🪖 US Military “Running Bitcoin”

• ⚡ Mining Beats the National Grid

• 🐎 Strategy overtakes BlackRock

• 🇬🇧 Coinbase Brings Bitcoin Loans to Britain

• 👥 Satoshi or Satoshis?

• …and much more

If you enjoy the newsletter, pass it on to a friend.

 🚀⏰ Today’s news should be a ~5.10-minute read (775 words).

🧠 Quote Of The Week

“Innovation is seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.”

— Albert Szent-Györgyi

🪖 US Military “Running Bitcoin”

US commander Admiral Samuel Paparo has confirmed that the US military is actively running a node on the Bitcoin network.

He confirmed they are conducting operational tests using the Bitcoin protocol to secure and protect networks.

Paparo was clear that the military's interest is in Bitcoin as a computer science tool, not a financial asset, describing its cryptography and proof-of-work architecture as having direct strategic value.

When a four-star admiral is briefing Congress on Bitcoin's military applications, the "it's just speculation" narrative becomes very hard to sustain.

⚡ Mining Beats the National Grid

A Yorkshire gas field large enough to meet over 10% of the UK's annual energy needs is set to mine Bitcoin instead of supplying the national grid.

Rather than connecting to the national grid, Reabold plans to use the early output to power a Bitcoin mining operation as a revenue stream to fund further development of the field.

Reabold has since clarified that Bitcoin mining at the site will be small-scale and exploratory, describing it as a proof of concept rather than a pivot away from domestic energy supply.

When Bitcoin mining makes more financial sense than supplying the national grid, it says less about Bitcoin and more about the state of UK energy policy.

🐎 Strategy overtakes BlackRock

Strategy has purchased $2.54 billion worth of Bitcoin in one week, retaking the crown as the single largest corporate holder of Bitcoin in the world and overtaking BlackRock in the process.

Importantly, $2.17 billion of the purchase was funded through STRC, its preferred stock instrument, demonstrating just how effectively Saylor has built a financial machine designed to do one thing: accumulate Bitcoin.

Strategy now holds more than 3.8% of Bitcoin's entire fixed supply of 21 million coins.

🇬🇧 Coinbase Brings Bitcoin Loans to Britain

Coinbase has launched bitcoin-backed loans for UK users, allowing people to borrow up to $5 million in USDC stablecoins using Bitcoin as collateral.

The product has already generated over $2.17 billion in loan originations since launching in the US in early 2025, and the UK is its first international expansion.

The key pitch is that borrowing against Bitcoin avoids triggering a Capital Gains Tax event. Under UK rules, however, that may not be the case. The mechanics of the product could constitute a disposal under current HMRC guidance, so it is worth doing your due diligence before taking out a loan.

👥 Satoshi or Satoshis?

A new documentary called "Finding Satoshi" argues that Satoshi Nakamoto was not one person but two.

The film is the result of a four-year investigation, naming Hal Finney and Len Sassaman, both now deceased, as the co-creators. It argued Finney wrote the code while Sassaman wrote the whitepaper.

No cryptographic proof exists and the debate will never be fully settled, but this is arguably the most credible and well-researched case made to date.

Whoever Satoshi was, the mystery only adds to Bitcoin's story.

🇷🇺 Russia Regulates Bitcoin

Russia has passed the first stage of a new law that would officially recognise Bitcoin as property and allow it to be used for international payments.

Bitcoin still cannot be used for everyday purchases inside Russia, and all exchanges would need a government licence to operate, but the main appeal for Russia is using Bitcoin (and crypto) to settle trade with other countries, bypassing the traditional banking system.

Russia is moving to bring Bitcoin under formal regulation, opening it up for international trade while keeping domestic use tightly controlled.

🔥 What else have you missed?

1. FCA raids eight illegal peer-to-peer trading hubs

2. Charles Schwab releases educational video on Bitcoin

3. Strategy is proposing to pay semi-monthly dividends on STRC

4. Satoshi statue in Lugano vandalised again

5. Kevin Warsh says "Digital Assets are already a part of the fabric of the US financial system."

6. New York sues Coinbase and Gemini over alleged illegal prediction market operations

7. U.S. Treasury Secretary presses Senate to pass crypto market structure legislation

8. Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin ETF tops $139M in assets, within 9 days

9. Pantera Capital pushing Satsuma to sell $50M Bitcoin holding

🍾 Friday Fun!

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🧞‍♂️ Your wish is our command

Happy Friday, In A Nutshell this week:

• ❄️ Satoshi Frozen Out?

• 🇬🇧 Farage Sparks Debate in Westminster

• 🏦 Schwab Makes Access Easy

• 🎶 Fair Pay, Powered by Bitcoin

• 🇵🇰 Pakistan Unlocks Bitcoin

• …and much more

If you enjoy the newsletter, pass it on to a friend.

 🚀⏰ Today’s news should be a ~5.10-minute read (775 words).

🧠 Quote Of The Week

“The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.”

— Linus Pauling

❄️ Satoshi Frozen Out?

A group of Bitcoin developers including Jameson Lopp has proposed a plan that could eventually freeze coins left in older-style addresses, as part of a broader migration to quantum-resistant cryptography.

The proposal, BIP-361, outlines a phased transition that would render unmigrated coins permanently unspendable. Estimates suggest over a third of all bitcoin in circulation sits in vulnerable addresses, including coins attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto.

The proposal is still in draft form with no activation timeline set, and any changes to Bitcoin require broad consensus across the network before they can happen.

🇬🇧 Farage Sparks Debate in Westminster

Nigel Farage has executed a £2 million bitcoin purchase on behalf of Stack BTC, becoming the first sitting UK MP in history to publicly buy Bitcoin.

The move prompted Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper to write to the FCA, arguing that Farage's dual role as investor and promoter could expose retail investors to harm. The FCA has confirmed it will review the matter.

The negative press is predictable, but step back and the bigger picture is hard to ignore. The man widely tipped as the next Prime Minister is actively investing in, promoting, and building the UK's bitcoin industry. Whatever your politics, that is a significant moment.

🏦 Schwab Makes Access Easy

Charles Schwab, with around $12 trillion in assets under management, is launching direct spot Bitcoin trading for retail clients through a new platform called Schwab Crypto.

The rollout begins in phases over the coming weeks, letting US clients buy and sell Bitcoin alongside their existing stocks and funds in one place.

When one of the world's largest brokerages makes Bitcoin as easy to buy as a stock, the barrier to ownership for tens of millions of everyday investors effectively disappears.

🎶 Fair Pay, Powered by Bitcoin

Fountain and Antidote are hosting a live music event where every artist gets paid directly by the audience, in real time, as they perform.

This is what creator independence looks like in practice: money flowing directly from audience to artist, no middleman required.

Every ticket comes with £5 in Fountain credits so you can pay your favourite performer while they're on stage, plus an open bar 🤫

• 📅 30th April 2026

• 🕰️ 7.30pm to 10.30pm

• 🎟️ £10 per ticket

Click here to get your ticket!

🇵🇰 Pakistan Unlocks Bitcoin

Pakistan has reopened its banking system to Bitcoin after seven years of keeping the door firmly shut.

The change follows a new law passed in 2026, and means banks can now offer accounts and basic financial services to licensed Bitcoin and crypto businesses.

Banks still cannot buy, hold, or trade crypto themselves, and strict rules around compliance and customer funds all apply. It is, however, a monumental shift in stance toward Bitcoin.

🤝 Why This Nonprofit Started Accepting Bitcoin

Sheela Sharma, CEO of Portobello Business Centre, is now bringing Bitcoin into a 30-year-old West London nonprofit that helps fund the next generation of entrepreneurs.

After spending 14 years in investment banking, Sheela now leads Portobello Business Centre in supporting underserved founders, 70% of whom are women. By accepting Bitcoin donations, the organisation hopes to expand its impact.

The episode is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify

🔥 What else have you missed?

1. Renewablox hosting live webinar sharing plans to bring commercial-scale Bitcoin mining to the UK

2. Liz Truss talks CPAC-GB, whats next for Britain and embracing Bitcoin

3. Kevin Warsh, Trump’s Fed pick, reveals stake in Bitcoin lightning startup

4. Coffeezilla, the YouTube investigator known for exposing crypto scams with over 4.5 million subscribers, has likened STRC to a Ponzi scheme

5. Deutsche Börse takes $200 Million stake in Kraken

6. Spencer Riley has accepted Bitcoin as payment for its services, believed to be a first for a listed UK recruitment business

7. CPAC-GB event discount for Bitcoin Collective readers

8. Goldman Sachs files for Bitcoin premium income ETF

9. Tether launches self-custodial wallet supporting Bitcoin

10. Halfway point in Bitcoin halving cycle, with supply set to tightens in 2028

11. Chinese commentator 'Professor Jiang' publicly exposes his lack of Bitcoin understanding, claiming it's a "CIA operation."

🍾 Friday Fun!

This week’s crossword is now live - Play here

🧞‍♂️ Your wish is our command

Happy Friday, In A Nutshell this week:

• 💧 The Bitcoin Faucet Returns

• 🚢 When Trust Breaks, Bitcoin Works

• 🎙️ Bitcoin to Zero… Again?

• 🌊 The Wall Street Wave

• 🇯🇵 Official Recognition Granted

• …and much more

If you enjoy the newsletter, pass it on to a friend.

 🚀⏰ Today’s news should be a ~5.03-minute read (756 words).

🧠 Quote Of The Week

“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

💧 The Bitcoin Faucet Returns

Block has launched a $1 million Bitcoin giveaway, but it is not one big prize. The Bitcoin is being given away in smaller amounts to people who try simple actions across its products.

That includes buying Bitcoin through Cash App, spending Bitcoin at a Square merchant, and moving it into cold storage with Bitkey.

It echoes Bitcoin’s early faucet days, where small amounts were given away to help people learn by doing, rather than just reading about it.

🚢 When Trust Breaks, Bitcoin Works

Iran is reportedly requiring ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz to pay transit fees not in dollars, but in Bitcoin.

The move appears to be driven by sanctions, as using Bitcoin allows value to move outside traditional banking systems, making it harder to block or control.

Fees are reportedly linked to oil cargo size, with payments made before passage is granted.

Whatever side you take politically, global trade still needs a neutral way to settle when trust between countries breaks down.

🎙️ Bitcoin to Zero… Again?

Professor Steve Keen, famous for predicting the 2008 financial crash, warned on Diary of a CEO that “Bitcoin is going to zero”, arguing that its energy use makes it unsustainable.

The problem is that his case leans on an outdated view of Bitcoin mining and misses basic mechanics like difficulty adjustment, as well as more recent evidence challenging the old environmental narrative.

The bigger issue is that when respected economists misunderstand Bitcoin and share flawed claims on one of the world’s largest podcasts, it keeps the everyday benefits of Bitcoin hidden from a mainstream audience.

The claims have received pushback from Daniel Batten, an environmentalist, climate tech investor and Bitcoin mining analyst, and show how early we still are in Bitcoin’s journey.

🌊 The Wall Street Wave

Morgan Stanley has become the first major US bank to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF, bringing Bitcoin exposure directly onto one of Wall Street’s biggest platforms.

The fund debuted with roughly $30.6 million in net inflows and about $34 million in trading volume, making it Morgan Stanley’s strongest first day of trading for any ETF it has launched.

It’s another step in Bitcoin’s move into mainstream finance, with access now being built into the systems traditional investors already use and trust.

🇯🇵 Official Recognition Granted

Japan has approved a new bill to recognise Bitcoin as a regulated financial asset, improving oversight and investor protection.

The rules aim to bring clearer structure to the market, including stricter requirements for companies operating in the space and better safeguards for users.

It’s part of a broader trend where governments are not banning Bitcoin, but instead trying to bring it into a more controlled, regulated framework.

🚀 This UK Company Holds Nearly 2,700 Bitcoin. What Next?

Andrew Webley CEO of The Smarter Web Company is back for a third episode.

Since July Smarter Web has secured a LSE main market listing, entered the FTSE All-Share and FTSE Small Cap indices, grown its Bitcoin stack to nearly 2,700 BTC, and completed an acquisition that has increased revenue by roughly 10x.

The episode is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify

The Smarter Web Company are hosting the Bitcoin Treasuries Unconference UK on 29th May, in Bristol.

Our readers get 10% OFF with code: JORDAN

🔥 What else have you missed?

1. Liz Truss goes live on X Spaces with The Bitcoin Collective (Set a reminder)

2. Adam Back dismisses The New York Times accusations that he is Satoshi

3. Rubik's Cube is officially launching Bitcoin edition

4. $5 Wrench attack solved through geographically distributed Multisig?

5. Nunchuk released open-source Bitcoin AI agent tools

6. 10 Bitcoin companies have banking charters awaiting approval

7. Bernstein says quantum is a 'manageable upgrade cycle' for Bitcoin

8. Grant Cardone “it doesn't bother me at all” being underwater on $184,000,000 Bitcoin purchase

9. Riot Platforms sells $290 million worth of Bitcoin

10. Charles Schwab finds a 1% Bitcoin Allocation Can Drastically Reshape Portfolio

🍾 Friday Fun!

This week’s crossword is now live - Play here

🧞‍♂️ Your wish is our command

Happy Friday, In A Nutshell this week:

• 💳 Cashback, but Better

• 🇬🇧 Locked Out of Learning

• ⚛️ Bitcoin Isn’t Ignoring Quantum

• 🕊️ Funding Freedom Tools

• 👥 Access Goes Mainstream

• ♻️ Family Business, Building a Circular Economy

• …and much more

If you enjoy the newsletter, pass it on to a friend.

 🚀⏰ Today’s news should be a ~5.32-minute read (726 words).

🧠 Quote Of The Week

“Customers don’t care about your technology. They care about what it does for them.”

— Clayton Christensen

💳 Cashback, but Better

Kraken has increased rewards on its Krak debit card to up to 2% cashback, with rewards paid in Bitcoin. Amazingly, this is available in the UK.

It turns everyday spending, and even salaries, into a simple way for normal people to build a Bitcoin stack, acting as an entry point to learn more about it.

Moving away from typical reward points to Bitcoin cashback is far more appealing, as the rewards can be spent or withdrawn without complicated catches.

🇬🇧 Locked Out of Learning

UK residents are being blocked from educational pages on Ledger and Trezor, including guides on UTXOs, multisig, public and private keys, and even hardware wallet security.

The restrictions appear to stem from the FCA’s crypto financial promotions regime, with rules now going far beyond buying or trading pages.

While the same content remains accessible elsewhere, this leaves UK users less informed about technology they already own and how to store it. Blocking education does not protect users, it leaves them less equipped to use Bitcoin safely.

⚛️ Bitcoin Isn’t Ignoring Quantum

Fresh concern has followed a new Google Quantum AI paper, which argues that future quantum computers may be able to break the cryptography used by Bitcoin with fewer resources than previously thought.

Despite the urgency of the paper, Bitcoin already has a path to adapt long before quantum becomes a real-world problem.

This would not need to happen overnight. If quantum machines ever become powerful enough to matter, Bitcoin can be upgraded with new forms of security that protect wallets from that threat.

🕊️ Funding Freedom Tools

The Human Rights Foundation has funded 26 new Bitcoin projects through its Bitcoin Development Fund, supporting work focused on privacy, censorship resistance, and open-source tools.

The grants target developers building in areas where Bitcoin matters most, especially in regions facing financial repression or limited access to banking.

It’s another reminder that Bitcoin development is not just about price or speculation, but about building tools that support freedom and resilience globally.

👥 Access Goes Mainstream

Interactive Brokers has expanded its offering in the European Economic Area to include Bitcoin trading.

Rather than needing to sign up to a crypto exchange, users can now gain Bitcoin exposure alongside stocks, options and other assets in one place.

It’s another step in Bitcoin’s integration into mainstream finance, giving traditional investors easier access through a platform they already use.

♻️ Family Business, Building a Circular Economy

English Lakes Hotels has integrated Bitcoin by accepting payments, but for Managing Director Ben Berry, that's just the beginning.

Ben is building on the family business's legacy by creating a circular economy of Bitcoin-native suppliers, spreading the impact far beyond his own business.

🚀 A Big Night with BBN

We've pulled together something special for our upcoming BBN quarterly event. Former ministers, energy innovators, and Bitcoin veterans in the same room, at London's Bitcoin accelerator Antidote.

This is a members-only event. Members can bring up to two guests, so if you know someone who should be in the room, bring them along.

Click here for more details about the UK Bitcoin Business Network.

A huge thank you to our sponsors CoinCorner and My Health Protected for making this event possible 🤝

🔥 What else have you missed?

1. Bitcoin Treasuries are cracking as public companies turn into BTC Sellers

2. UK Case to be on a Bitcoin Standard

3. Strategy’s AI generation STRC goes viral triggering Bitcoin skeptics

4. Metaplanet adds 5,075 Bitcoin becoming third-largest public holder

5. SpaceX files to go public holding over 8,000 BTC

6. Square begins automatic Bitcoin payment rollout to millions of U.S. merchants

7. Grant Cardone foundation to accept Bitcoin donations

8. PARITY Act draft gives stablecoins a tax break, while leaving Bitcoin out entirely

9. Primal nostr app launch Primal Wallet

🍾 Friday Fun!

This week’s crossword is now live - Play here

🧞‍♂️ Your wish is our command

Happy Friday, In A Nutshell this week:

• 🏠 Mortgages Backed by Bitcoin

• 🚫 Shutting Off Donations

• 🎮 GameStop Gives Up Custody

• 🌍 Changing Model for Humanitarian Funding

• 🇺🇸 Pushing to Make Bitcoin Money

• …and much more

If you enjoy the newsletter, pass it on to a friend.

 🚀⏰ Today’s news should be a ~5.01-minute read (768 words).

🧠 Quote Of The Week

“The future is already here — it’s just not evenly distributed.”

— William Gibson

🏠 Mortgages Backed by Bitcoin

A new US mortgage structure backed by Fannie Mae lets homebuyers use Bitcoin as collateral for a down payment, without having to sell it first.

The structure uses two loans: a standard Fannie-backed mortgage, plus a separate loan secured against the buyer’s crypto. That means borrowers can keep their BTC exposure and potentially avoid triggering capital gains tax by selling.

The product is being offered through Coinbase and Better Home & Finance, and Coinbase says its loans feature no margin calls or collateral top-ups, though rates are expected to be around 0.5% to 1.5% higher than a standard mortgage.

This is another sign that Bitcoin is moving deeper into mainstream finance and can now help unlock real-world assets like housing.

🚫 Shutting Off Donations

The UK is moving to ban political donations made in Bitcoin, with ministers arguing it could be used to bypass transparency rules and obscure the source of funds.

Officials say the change is aimed at protecting the integrity of elections, ensuring all political donations can be clearly traced and verified.

It’s another sign that while Bitcoin is gaining traction, the UK government continues to drag its heels when it comes to innovation, defaulting to caution whenever new technology touches sensitive areas like politics and influence.

🎮 GameStop Gives Up Custody

After buying 4,710 BTC, GameStop has now pledged all but one coin in a Coinbase collateral agreement.

As a result, GameStop reportedly fell from the 21st largest public Bitcoin holder to the 190th overnight. Not because it sold, but because the coins are no longer legally sitting on its balance sheet.

There’s a big difference between owning Bitcoin and putting it back into the same old leveraged financial system.

🌍 Changing Model for Humanitarian Funding

Amnesty International has joined a growing list of charities and human rights groups that now see Bitcoin as a useful tool for protecting freedom and getting support to people more effectively.

Alongside groups like the Human Rights Foundation and Humanitarian Relief Fund, it reflects a wider shift in how charities think about money, moving beyond traditional rails that are often slow, costly, or easy to block.

Bitcoin is quietly changing the charity model from the ground up, not just as a donation tool, but as a way to defend human rights and improve how aid moves.

🇺🇸 Pushing to Make Bitcoin Money

The Bitcoin Policy Institute, alongside firms like River, Block and Coinbase, are pushing for a de minimis tax exemption so small Bitcoin payments don’t trigger capital gains tax.

In the US, buying a coffee with BTC can create a taxable event, which makes everyday spending impractical. The proposal would remove that friction and allow Bitcoin to function more like money.

That would lay the groundwork for a real Bitcoin circular economy in the world’s largest economy.

🔵 Coinbase UK CEO: Why Britain Is Still Getting It Wrong

Keith Grose, CEO of Coinbase UK, joins Jordan to give his honest view on where the UK stands, what’s going wrong, and what needs to change.

The UK says it wants to be a global crypto hub, but banks are still closing accounts for people who touch Bitcoin. At the same time, stablecoin holding caps are being proposed, and the FCA’s U-turn on Bitcoin ETNs has raised fresh concerns for retail investors.

The episode is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify

🔥 What else have you missed?

1. Morgan Stanley’s launch for long‑awaited spot Bitcoin ETF becomes imminent

2. Bhutan offloads another $37M in Bitcoin

3. Strategy announces new $42 billion plan to buy more Bitcoin

4. BlackRock says AI agents are more likely to transact in Bitcoin as "computer-native money"

5. MARA fund major AI pivot by selling 15,133 BTC

6. Swan Bitcoin files to subpoena Cantor Fitzgerald and Howard Lutnick

7. Charles Schwab says Bitcoin volatility "has calmed down”

8. Hargreaves Lansdown experiences IT issues affecting thousands of customers

9. China classrooms are teaching lessons on Bitcoin

🍾 Friday Fun!

This week’s crossword is now live - Play here

🧞‍♂️ Your wish is our command