Jonathan Goodman is a successful author, a husband, and a father of three. He lost more than 18 bitcoins in the ColdCard hack — savings he had set aside for his children.

Every person he asked told him the same thing: ColdCard was the cold storage device trusted by Bitcoiners. He bought three of them, stored them in a bank safety deposit box, metal-stamped his seed phrases as backup, and never touched them. He was, by every measure, a model of careful long-term Bitcoin custody.

Then, sitting at a library while his wife and kids checked out books downstairs, he saw a post on Facebook: Emergency. Emergency. There’s been a hack. If you have a ColdCard device, check your funds, move them now.

He opened his wallet and saw a red line. And knew.

What went wrong

Engineers call it common cause failure. Jonathan had five layers of protection — but all five were protecting against the same vulnerabilities: theft, phishing, fire, loss. None protected against a faulty entropy source baked into the firmware itself. When the underlying seed generation was compromised, all three devices fell together.

His takeaway is one I think about a lot: we say “don’t trust, verify” — but most of us can’t verify the code ourselves. We’ve been trusting people we respect to have verified it on our behalf. That assumption turned out to be wrong.

On recovery

Jonathan isn’t sure there is a legal path forward to recover any of his funds. The math on a class action is brutal and he doubts whether Coinkite had any kind of large insurance policy.

He’s cooperating with police and with Alex Thorn at Galaxy Digital, who continues tracking funds on-chain. He thinks there’s a reasonable chance the hackers eventually get caught — the blockchain is a transparent ledger and criminals make mistakes.

But recovering the money is a different question, and he’s not counting on it.

What he’s choosing instead

Jonathan is not angry. He told me plainly: what’s the point? He’s choosing to view this as a crucible. A test. Bitcoin was one of four investment pillars — he also held a Bitcoin fund in his Canadian tax-free savings account that he still has — so this was devastating without being existential. His response is to rebuild.

His message to other victims: You did nothing wrong. The shame you may be feeling is not yours to carry. And his message about Bitcoin: this was a failure of one company, not of Bitcoin itself. He’s going to buy more. Just differently.

He’s writing a book about this whole experience — The Invisible Heist — and what it means to trust code we don’t understand with things we can’t afford to lose. Sign up to be notified at theinvisibleheist.com.

If you or someone you know had a ColdCard device, please tell them — the hack is ongoing. Alex Thorn at @IntangibleCoins on X is still accepting victim reports.

The $3 Trillion AI Bet

I’m starting a new series on the show where I take big, complicated stories shaping our economy and break them down in a way that’s easy to understand.

For the first one, I dug into the AI boom.

Nearly $3 trillion is expected to be spent on data centers globally between 2025 and 2028. But AI doesn’t have to fail for that spending to become a problem.

It only has to grow more slowly than investors expect.

The technology can still transform the world while investors spend too much, too fast. We’ve seen that before with railroads and the internet.

And this matters even if you don’t own AI stocks. The companies at the center of this boom dominate the major indexes millions of Americans own through retirement accounts.

I also bring it back to Bitcoin — because this entire buildout increasingly depends on debt, future revenue and continued access to capital.

Bitcoin is the one thing in this story they can’t make more of.

Thanks for watching, commenting, and rating our show 5 stars!

— Natalie

Stay Up-to-Date Each Week With The News Block

And if you’re not already subscribed to The News Block — every week we break down the biggest stories in Bitcoin and macro in a way that’s fast, honest, and actually useful. New episodes drop every Monday in your inbox and wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe at thenewsblock.substack.com so you never miss a beat.

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⚡ My Partnerships and Stack of Tools

These are the companies that power Coin Stories

🏦 Borrow against your Bitcoin without selling it Ledn — Ledn has operated through every market cycle since 2018 and has served clients across more than $11 billion in loan volume. Tether Gold is now live on Ledn, so bitcoin and gold can sit side by side on one platform. Hard assets. Real flexibility. Get 0.25% off your first bitcoin-backed loan→ ledn.io/natalie

Offer subject to terms and eligibility. Digital asset lending involves risk, including loss of collateral.

Bitdeer Technologies Group (NASDAQ: BTDR) — powering AI and Bitcoin mining infrastructure with 3 GW of secured global energy — and owns the entire stack, from equipment manufacturing to data centers to proprietary orchestration software. Learn more at bitdeer.com.

⛏️ Fully-managed Bitcoin mining in the U.S with Abundant Mines — You own the miners. You keep 100% of the Bitcoin. Voted #1 mining company by peers. Get 1 month of free hosting → abundantmines.com/Natalie · Watch my episode with the founders

⚡ Send Bitcoin instantly over Lightning Speed Wallet — Send, receive, or swap stablecoins and digital gold into Bitcoin in one app. Run a business? Speed powers Bitcoin payments for Steak ‘n Shake, and it can do the same for you. Code COINSTORIES10 for 5,000 free sats after your first transaction. → speed.app/natalie

🔐 Self-custody your Bitcoin with Bitkey by Block — Download Bitkey today and use my promo code STORIES to get 10% off the new Bitkey. This episode has been sponsored by Bitkey. Code STORIES for 10% off. → Bitkey.world/STORIES

🧠 Get 1-on-1 help setting up self-custody The Bitcoin Way — Personal guidance to master your own keys and sleep soundly at night. → thebitcoinway.com/natalie

🏛️ Hold Bitcoin in a tax-advantaged retirement account BitcoinIRA — Buy Bitcoin 24/7 inside a Traditional or Roth IRA. → bitcoinira.com/natalie

🛡️ Also in My Personal Stack

Efani — Secure your mobile service against SIM swaps. Trusted by CEOs and VIPs. → efani.com/natalie

CrowdHealth — One of the best decisions I made for both my heath and my bank account was joining CrowdHealth years ago. I never spend more than $200 on health coverage through my CrowdHealth plan and all my health events have been crowd-funded. Get started with a discounted plan at my link. → joincrowdhealth.com/natalie

Thanks for subscribing, and if this newsletter resonated, forward it to one person who needs to read it.

— Natalie

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. I am not a financial advisor. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions and consult a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation. Bitcoin, digital assets, and equities carry significant risk, including the potential loss of principal. Companies, products, and features mentioned in this newsletter may change without notice — including their offerings, availability, terms, financial condition, or regulatory status — and information shared here may become outdated, inaccurate, or incomplete over time. Guests share their own opinions, which do not necessarily reflect mine. Some links in this newsletter are affiliate or sponsor links, meaning I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

Bitcoin’s Best Week in Three Years

Bitcoin just had its best week since March 2023. Up 22% in five days, from the low sixties to above $77,000 by Friday’s close, and then it kept going — clearing $80,000 on Monday for the first time since May 15, and topping out at $81,265 on Tuesday. What a run.

So what happened? A bunch of things hit at once.

The Treasury surprised markets by saying it would double some of its bond buybacks, and long-term yields came down. Washington gave crypto another boost, with the President turning up at a White House meeting with industry leaders. Bearish bets got obliterated — more than $4 billion in short positions were liquidated across the week, including a record $2.7 billion in a single day. And when short sellers get squeezed, they’re forced to buy, which pushes the price even higher.

Then the ETFs came roaring back. Nearly $2 billion flowed in for the week — $1.92 billion, the strongest week since October of last year — including the biggest single day of buying since May at $606 million on Thursday. Of that day, $503 million went straight into BlackRock’s fund. That’s 83% of it, into one product.

Now, some perspective. Bitcoin still isn’t back at the highs. It’s roughly 10% below where it started the year and about 37% below the all-time high of $126,198 set last October.

And Lucy Gazmararian of Token Bay Capital told CNBC she’s expecting “one final flush” before this bear market is really over.

September is historically Bitcoin’s worst performing month of the year, so she could be right. But remember what I told you right before this rally. Fidelity had just noted that Bitcoin’s volatility was lower than about 98.5% of all days in its history, and described the market as a coiled spring.

Well. It finally moved. And this time, it moved up.

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The Treasury Buyback Machine, Explained

So what are these Treasury buybacks everyone keeps talking about? Because honestly, this is the story underneath everything else right now.

Here’s why it matters. Investors have been demanding a lot more interest to lend the U.S. government money for 30 years. The 30-year Treasury yield hit 5.34% this month, its highest since 2007. That’s when Bessent’s Treasury stepped in and announced it would at least double the size of its bond buybacks, from a $2 billion maximum per operation to at least $4 billion.

Okay. So what does a buyback actually do?

Government bonds get resold all the time, like any asset. But the trading concentrates in the newest ones. The older long-term bonds mostly sit untouched for years inside pension funds and insurance portfolios — they’re the overwhelming majority of the debt outstanding, but only about a third of daily trading volume. So when somebody needs to sell one in a hurry, buyers can be scarce. In a stressed market, that’s where trouble starts.

So the Treasury steps in as a buyer. It runs what’s essentially a reverse auction: holders offer up their old bonds, Treasury decides which offers to accept, and everything it buys gets retired — canceled, gone. Worth being precise here, because it often gets described as a guaranteed bid and it isn’t. Treasury sets a maximum per operation, not a minimum, and says outright that it may not buy anything at all in a given operation.

But the government has no spare money. It runs enormous deficits and borrows every week just to pay its bills, so the cash for these buybacks is borrowed too. And the debt has been drifting short. Bills — due back in weeks or months — now make up 22% of all marketable debt outstanding, above the 15 to 20% range Treasury’s own advisory committee has long recommended. Markets absorb bills happily, because they’re practically as good as cash.

Add it up. The hard-to-sell long-term debt shrinks, the easy short-term debt grows, and the total keeps rising. Long-term rates get some relief, but the pressure doesn’t disappear. It gets pushed into the future, because all that short-term debt has to be re-borrowed over and over, at whatever rates come next.

And here’s where this gets interesting.

Janet Yellen’s Treasury launched the modern buyback program, announced May 1, 2024 with the first operation that May 29 — while leaning heavily on short-term borrowing. Bessent was one of the loudest critics of that strategy, arguing it was politically motivated and aimed at juicing the pre-election economy.

One thing worth getting right, because it gets garbled constantly. The name for this — “activist Treasury issuance” — wasn’t Bessent’s. It came from a July 2024 paper by Stephen Miran and Nouriel Roubini, who argued Treasury was “dynamically managing financial conditions and through them, the economy, usurping core functions of the Federal Reserve.” They estimated the effect was worth about a full percentage point of Fed rate cuts. Yellen flatly denied it: “We have never, ever discussed anything of the sort. There is no such strategy.”

And Miran made a prediction. Once one party starts using this to stimulate the economy into election season, he wrote, “it may be used repeatedly by all future administrations.” He’d know. Miran went on to chair Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers and served a stretch on the Federal Reserve Board.

Well. That aged perfectly. Two years later, Bessent didn’t shut the program down. He doubled it. Fortune now calls him “the most interventionist Treasury secretary in financial markets in decades.”

And the relief didn’t even last. The 30-year fell to 5.19% on the announcement and was back at 5.27% two days later, the entire move erased. Yields have drifted back down since, as the risk rally ran. But a multibillion-dollar intervention bought about forty-eight hours.

Meanwhile the government is $1.8 trillion in the hole just ten months into this fiscal year, $169 billion worse than the same point a year ago.

And this is the part I keep coming back to. Yellen used these tools. Bessent criticized that playbook, and now he’s running it himself, louder. Different administration, same underlying problem: the debt keeps getting bigger, and the tools keep getting more creative.

To me, that’s the Bitcoin story underneath all of this.

Druckenmiller Takes On His Own Protégé

Stanley Druckenmiller just did something you don’t see every day. He publicly criticized the policy of his own former protégé, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

These two go back decades. Both were at George Soros’s fund during the legendary 1992 trade that broke the Bank of England — though it’s worth being accurate about the roles. Druckenmiller ran the money and put on the sterling short. Bessent was a young analyst in the London office whose research on Britain’s economic strain helped feed the thesis.

On Monday, Druckenmiller published a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “Let the Bond Market Speak,” calling Bessent’s expanded buybacks “price management — and a mistake far larger than $4 billion suggests.”

His argument, in short: bond yields are a signal, and this Treasury is muffling it. “The long-term Treasury yield is the most important price in the world,” he wrote. “It is also the only fiscal disciplinarian the U.S. has left.” If the 30-year has to trade at 5.5% to clear, that isn’t a crisis — “It is an invoice.”

He also made the point that this isn’t really a liquidity operation at all. Buying back long bonds while funding the purchases with short-term bills shifts interest-rate risk off the public’s books — which he described as a small dose of quantitative easing, run out of the Treasury rather than the Fed, at a moment when inflation is still above target. His line about credibility: “You can’t buy your way out of a solvency conversation with liquidity tools.”

Then it got weird. Readers noticed the op-ed read like AI.

An AI-detection tool flagged it, economist Claudia Sahm posted that the argument was “classic Druck + Claude-isms,” and the whole thing took off. When Jeff Stein of NOTUS asked him about it, Druckenmiller just owned it:

“Of course I used AI. There’s a reason I moved from an English major to being an economics major. I’m not embarrassed by it. I write everything using AI now for the same reason I use a calculator when I do math problems.” He added: “My name is on the piece. It’s my message.”

The Journal stood by it. Editorial page editor Paul Gigot said AI “is a fact of modern life,” and that what matters is “whether what we publish from contributors reflects an author’s original argument” — adding that “nobody can doubt that his op-ed is his genuine opinion.”

The AI thing is a fun sideshow, and honestly a bigger media story than a markets one. But don’t let it bury the substance.

The man who taught Bessent the bond market is telling him the bond market can’t be managed — only answered. When the teacher disagrees with the student this publicly, pay attention.

Until next week, keep stacking!

- Nat

P.S. - Make sure to grab a copy of my new book, “Bitcoin is for Everyone.” I’ve written an approachable book on Bitcoin and the traditional financial system, perfect for your friends and family who are still learning about it.

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Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. I am not a financial advisor. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions and consult a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation. Bitcoin, digital assets, and equities carry significant risk, including the potential loss of principal. Companies, products, and features mentioned in this newsletter may change without notice — including their offerings, availability, terms, financial condition, or regulatory status — and information shared here may become outdated, inaccurate, or incomplete over time. Guests share their own opinions, which do not necessarily reflect mine. Some links in this newsletter are affiliate or sponsor links, meaning I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

What River’s data actually shows

Most River clients have not sold through this bear market. On net, they’re still buying. But recent volumes are among the lowest they’ve been in about a year and a half, around where they were at the peak of the previous bull market. For a company that has grown a lot since then, that tells you something about how heavy this grind has been.

The more telling number is what’s happening across the whole market. River’s estimates show that in Q2, individuals net sold roughly 78,000 Bitcoin. Businesses and institutions net bought around 115,000. Institutions, including ETF buyers, are accumulating. Retail, on balance, is letting go of some of their coins.

Alex actually isn’t worried about that. He said it’s how every mature asset class evolves. As Bitcoin grows, a bigger share of it will end up on institutional balance sheets, the same way most equities, bonds and real estate are. What matters is whether those institutions actually understand Bitcoin. The ones he talks to do. They know turning it into Wall Street coin would undermine the very thing they’re buying.

The data no one is talking about

There are a lot of target buy orders sitting in River’s system at $50,000 and below. But there are actually more target orders above current prices than below, which means more people are positioned to buy on the way up than to catch a falling knife.

And new clients are still coming in. Slower than a year ago, but meaningfully higher than any previous bear market at this stage.

On self-custody after ColdCard

Only about 15% of River clients withdraw their Bitcoin to self-custody. Alex had a great take on this. Telling everyone they must self-custody, he said, is like a chef telling everyone they must cook all their own meals. Some people will and should. For a lot of others, what matters most is that they’re somewhere they genuinely trust, with clear, easy paths to withdraw if they ever want to.

His security advice for right now is practical. Keep your information footprint small. Don’t hand your details to exchanges you don’t actually use. Treat every unsolicited phone call or email as potentially malicious. If someone says they’re contacting you from River or any other institution, don’t respond to them. Log into the app yourself or call the number on the website.

His message for the bear market

“The people who are happiest that they hold Bitcoin did not get in when everyone else was really excited about it.”

Worth remembering.

Michael Saylor & Phong Le — Strategy Retail Investor Q&A

Last week I had the honor of moderating Strategy’s second live retail investor Q&A, putting unfiltered questions directly to Michael Saylor and Phong Le that were submitted by shareholders — people with real money invested in the company and real questions they deserve honest answers to.

I want to say upfront that some of these questions carried strong emotions. One investor wrote in to say he had invested $73,000 for each of his three children into MSTR, and today those investments are worth about $20,000 each. He expressed concern that MSTR was the company’s lowest priority and asked whether Strategy was considering adding a dividend for common stock holders.

Phong’s response was that since Strategy began its Bitcoin strategy in August 2020, Bitcoin is up roughly 32% and MSTR is up about 41%. The equity has actually outperformed Bitcoin over that time. But MSTR is what he called amplified Bitcoin, which means when Bitcoin falls 50%, MSTR tends to fall further. That amplification is the product. And what fixes MSTR, he said, is fixing the credit side of the business — getting STRC back to health — which is where all of the company’s energy is focused right now.

Michael added something worth sitting with. If you’re holding the equity and your time horizon is less than four years, you’re probably in the wrong instrument. If you want a dividend, he said, you should be looking at one of the preferred stocks. MSTR was always designed as amplified, long-duration Bitcoin exposure. That’s the product.

Addressing STRC’s drawdown and lessons learned

Both Michael and Phong were candid about what they’ve taken away from the recent STRC drawdown and recovery. The biggest lesson was the importance of holding U.S. dollar liquidity as a backstop to dividends, which is why Strategy now holds $4.8 billion in cash. Going forward, a portion of every STRC raise will go toward growing that reserve, giving institutional investors the cushion they need before allocating serious capital.

The second lesson was about flexibility. Strategy has always been willing to buy Bitcoin and issue STRC. What the market needed to see was that they could also sell Bitcoin and buy back STRC when the situation calls for it. As Phong put it, you can’t just have a right hand — you have to have a left hand too. Michael added that if Strategy isn’t willing to sell Bitcoin, then Bitcoin isn’t being fairly valued on the balance sheet, and neither is the credit backed by it. Being able to trade both sides of every instrument is what makes the whole system work.

On the MSCI index removal proposal

A shareholder asked about MSCI’s recent proposal to remove Bitcoin treasury companies from their indices. Phong’s answer was matter-of-fact.

MSCI indices represent 3 to 4% of Strategy’s current shares, so removal would create some selling pressure but ultimately be immaterial. More interesting was his view of the proposal itself — that MSCI is out of step with the SEC, FASB, and other indices, all of which have already defined Bitcoin as a legitimate operating asset for Strategy.

He’s hopeful MSCI will reconsider, but even if not, it isn’t a real concern for the company.

On the comparison to J.P. Morgan

One shareholder asked whether modeling Strategy after J.P. Morgan contradicts Bitcoin’s founding philosophy.

Phong’s answer was that Strategy doesn’t want to be J.P. Morgan. The company wants to be the “J.P. Morgan of Digital Assets.” The trust, the scale, the central role in the financial system — those are worth building toward, but in the Bitcoin-native world rather than the traditional one.

The path to get there is holding the most Bitcoin, building products like MSTR and STRC on top of it, and creating a foundation strong enough for others to build on.

On the long game

Michael said something worth quoting directly: “Don’t invest in Bitcoin unless you’re going to hold it for more than four years. Ideally, hold it for ten.” The more Bitcoin Strategy buys, in their view, the higher the price goes over time. The duration of their credit book is roughly 33 years — that’s the timeframe they’re operating in.

On a lighter note to close things out this week…

I am so honored to be the very first guest on Dishing Up Bitcoin, the first Bitcoin cooking show ever made, hosted by Norma Chu — the founder and CEO of DDC Enterprise, the NYSE-listed global Asian food platform that has become one of the most active Bitcoin treasury companies in the consumer space.

Norma and I made dumplings together. And in between wrapping them, we talked about the things you don’t usually get to hear on a typical interview — where we come from, our families, the moments that shaped who we are. I opened up about my family’s bankruptcy after the Great Financial Crisis and how that experience shaped the way I think about money, and eventually how it led me into the Bitcoin space.

Norma shared her own story building DDC and what it’s been like leading a public company that’s also stacking Bitcoin.

It was one of the most fun and genuinely open conversations I've done recently, and honestly, it reminded me how much of Bitcoin is really about people, families, and the values we’re trying to protect for the next generation.

Stay Up-to-Date Each Week With The News Block

And if you’re not already subscribed to The News Block — every week we break down the biggest stories in Bitcoin and macro in a way that’s fast, honest, and actually useful. New episodes drop every Monday in your inbox and wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe at thenewsblock.substack.com so you never miss a beat.

Subscribe now

⚡ My Partnerships and Stack of Tools

These are the companies that power Coin Stories

🏦 Borrow against your Bitcoin without selling it Ledn — Ledn has operated through every market cycle since 2018 and has served clients across more than $11 billion in loan volume. Tether Gold is now live on Ledn, so bitcoin and gold can sit side by side on one platform. Hard assets. Real flexibility. Get 0.25% off your first bitcoin-backed loan→ ledn.io/natalie

Offer subject to terms and eligibility. Digital asset lending involves risk, including loss of collateral.

Bitdeer Technologies Group (NASDAQ: BTDR) — powering AI and Bitcoin mining infrastructure with 3 GW of secured global energy — and owns the entire stack, from equipment manufacturing to data centers to proprietary orchestration software. Learn more at bitdeer.com.

⛏️ Fully-managed Bitcoin mining in the U.S with Abundant Mines — You own the miners. You keep 100% of the Bitcoin. Voted #1 mining company by peers. Get 1 month of free hosting → abundantmines.com/Natalie · Watch my episode with the founders

⚡ Send Bitcoin instantly over Lightning Speed Wallet — Send, receive, or swap stablecoins and digital gold into Bitcoin in one app. Run a business? Speed powers Bitcoin payments for Steak ‘n Shake, and it can do the same for you. Code COINSTORIES10 for 5,000 free sats after your first transaction. → speed.app/natalie

🔐 Self-custody your Bitcoin with Bitkey by Block — Download Bitkey today and use my promo code STORIES to get 10% off the new Bitkey. This episode has been sponsored by Bitkey. Code STORIES for 10% off. → Bitkey.world/STORIES

🧠 Get 1-on-1 help setting up self-custody The Bitcoin Way — Personal guidance to master your own keys and sleep soundly at night. → thebitcoinway.com/natalie

🏛️ Hold Bitcoin in a tax-advantaged retirement account BitcoinIRA — Buy Bitcoin 24/7 inside a Traditional or Roth IRA. → bitcoinira.com/natalie

Kalshi is the largest prediction market in the world. Use code HODL and get $25 when you trade $25 → http://kalshi.com/r/HODL

🛡️ Also in My Personal Stack

Efani — Secure your mobile service against SIM swaps. Trusted by CEOs and VIPs. → efani.com/natalie

CrowdHealth — One of the best decisions I made for both my heath and my bank account was joining CrowdHealth years ago. I never spend more than $200 on health coverage through my CrowdHealth plan and all my health events have been crowd-funded. Get started with a discounted plan at my link. → joincrowdhealth.com/natalie

Thanks for subscribing, and if this newsletter resonated, forward it to one person who needs to read it.

— Natalie

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. I am not a financial advisor. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions and consult a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation. Bitcoin, digital assets, and equities carry significant risk, including the potential loss of principal. Companies, products, and features mentioned in this newsletter may change without notice — including their offerings, availability, terms, financial condition, or regulatory status — and information shared here may become outdated, inaccurate, or incomplete over time. Guests share their own opinions, which do not necessarily reflect mine. Some links in this newsletter are affiliate or sponsor links, meaning I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

The short version

• The 30-year Treasury yield hit its highest level since 2007. The Treasury responded by doubling its long-end bond buybacks. Yields fell, the dollar fell, gold rallied, and Bitcoin had its biggest one-day gain since March.

• The SEC proposed its first-ever formal crypto rule-making — and, for the first time in American history, a federal regulator green-lit a bank charter for a company owned by a sitting president’s family.

• Strategy bought back another $132 million of preferred stock. Metaplanet planted a flag in America. MSCI threatened to throw both out of its indexes.

• KPMG signed a clean audit opinion on Tether’s USDT issuer. The skeptics have a shorter list of questions than they used to — but the list isn’t empty.

• Two data breaches in one week reminded Bitcoiners that privacy is security.

• And Bitcoin just came out of one of the quietest stretches in its history.

The Treasury Blinked

Bitcoin surged as much as 7% on Wednesday — its biggest single-day move since March — trading near $69,000, the highest level since June 1. More than $1.4 billion in short positions were liquidated in roughly four hours (CoinDesk).

The trigger came from an unexpected place: the U.S. Treasury.

Long-term government borrowing costs had been climbing to levels that make Washington nervous. The 30-year Treasury yield hit 5.34% this week — its highest since 2007, closing in on that year’s 5.44% peak (Bloomberg, CNBC).

Translation: investors weren’t showing up to buy America’s long-term debt at the price the government wanted to pay.

So the Treasury made a surprise announcement. Beginning September 9, it will at least double the size of its buyback operations in the 10-to-20-year and 20-to-30-year sectors — from a maximum of $2 billion per operation to at least $4 billion (U.S. Treasury press release).

In plain English: the government is stepping in as a much bigger buyer of its own debt.

The reaction was immediate. The 30-year yield fell to 5.187%, its largest one-day drop since late June. The dollar index slid 0.76% to a two-and-a-half-month low. Gold rallied roughly 2.7% to about $4,528 an ounce, its highest since early June (CNBC, Barchart).

The Treasury insists this is about market liquidity, not propping up prices. The official language is that the increase “reflects Treasury’s desire to provide greater liquidity support in longer-dated nominal sectors.” Note also that the press release is institutional — it doesn’t carry Secretary Bessent’s name, though every headline did.

You don’t make a surprise move like this unless you’re worried. Especially when total public debt is now approaching $40 trillion (Reuters).

So let’s call this what it is. Borrowing costs got too high, and the government stepped in to buy its own debt. They’ll never call it money printing. But when debt gets too expensive, they don’t stop borrowing — they find a way to keep the debt machine running.

And that, in a nutshell, is why Bitcoin exists.

Washington’s Big Crypto Week

Three significant developments came out of Washington, and all three matter for different reasons.

1. The SEC proposed its first-ever crypto rulebook

On Tuesday the SEC proposed Regulation Crypto Assets — the agency’s first formal crypto rulemaking, rather than another enforcement action (SEC press release, proposing release).

The proposal creates two exemptions from full securities registration:

• A startup exemption: up to $5 million over four years, with minimal disclosure.

• A fundraising exemption: up to $75 million in any 12-month period, with public offering materials, financial statements, and ongoing reporting.

It also creates the piece everyone has been waiting on: a conditional safe harbor from the term “investment contract.” An issuer that certifies it has “completed or permanently ceased all essential managerial efforts” can have its token fall outside the investment-contract analysis entirely. Antifraud provisions stay in place regardless.

To be clear: this is about tokens, not Bitcoin. Bitcoin has never needed an off-ramp from securities law because it never had a promoter to escape.

Supporters say this finally ends regulation by enforcement. Critics worry it reopens the token casino with a federal blessing. Worth noting: the Commission currently has only three sitting members — Atkins, Peirce and Uyeda, all Republicans — and all three issued supporting statements. There was no dissent, because there is currently no one on the Commission positioned to file one. The comment period runs 60 days from Federal Register publication. For now, it is only a proposal.

2. A first in American history

On Friday, the OCC granted preliminary conditional approval for World Liberty Trust Company, N.A. — the Trump family’s crypto venture — to operate as a national trust bank (OCC Corporate Decision #1385).

To be precise about what this is: not a regular bank. No deposits, no lending. The OCC decision states plainly that stablecoins are not deposits under the FDI Act. What the charter allows is issuing and redeeming the company’s USD1 stablecoin, custodying digital assets in a fiduciary capacity, and managing reserve assets — under federal supervision. The conditions are real, too: $20 million in Tier 1 capital, 180 days of operating expenses in liquid assets, OCC pre-approval of executives, 12 months to raise the capital and 18 months to open.

And these charters aren’t actually unique. The OCC conditionally approved Ripple National Trust Bank, Circle, Paxos, BitGo and Fidelity Digital Assets back in December 2025 (Banking Dive), and Circle National Trust received final approval in July (CoinDesk).

What is unprecedented is the owner. Roughly 38% of the entity is held through an affiliate of Donald Trump and his family. No company owned by a sitting president’s family has ever been granted any kind of federal bank charter.

Senator Elizabeth Warren called it “the most brazen act of self-dealing our financial system has ever seen,” noting that the regulator that approved it ultimately answers to the President (CNN).

The White House response, from spokeswoman Anna Kelly: “President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest.”

3. The White House convened the industry

On Wednesday afternoon, the administration hosted crypto and market-infrastructure executives at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building — Coinbase, Ripple, Gemini, Robinhood, Kalshi, Polymarket, a16z, Paradigm, plus CME Group, Nasdaq, Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE’s parent) and DTCC (The Block, CoinDesk).

One correction to the reporting you may have seen elsewhere: the meeting was chaired by CFTC Chair Michael Selig, with President Trump expected to attend and SEC Chair Paul Atkins present. It’s not the president’s meeting; it’s the CFTC’s, with the president in the room.

The backdrop everyone understands: the CLARITY Act. The Senate returns from recess on September 14, and Majority Leader Thune has already filed cloture — setting up a floor vote at 2:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday, September 15 on the motion to proceed (The Block).

That vote needs 60 votes. Republicans hold 53 seats. So at least seven Democrats have to come along — and the sticking points include ethics and divestment clauses aimed squarely at the president’s own crypto holdings. Which makes the timing of that OCC charter, one month out from the vote, something less than helpful for the bill.

Bitcoin Treasury Companies Make Bold Moves

The world’s biggest Bitcoin treasury companies had a loud week — and then got a reminder of how exposed they are.

Strategy keeps buying back its digital credit

Strategy repurchased 1,388,720 shares of STRC for $132.2 million last week (an average of about $95.20 a share) — its fourth and largest buyback under the $1 billion Digital Credit Securities Repurchase Program, with $653 million of authorization left (Strategy 8-K, Aug 17).

This one was funded by equity, not Bitcoin: the company sold 3,458,866 MSTR shares for $333.7 million net and held its Bitcoin position flat at 840,447 BTC.

The 8-K is explicit — “No bitcoin purchases or sales were made this week.”

That distinction matters, because the previous week’s buyback was funded by selling Bitcoin — 1,690 BTC at an average of ~$64k with the full $108.6 million going straight into the STRC repurchase.

Strategy’s USD reserve now stands at $4.8 billion, which the filing says exists “to support the payment of dividends on Strategy’s preferred stock and interest on its outstanding indebtedness.”

Going deeper: I just held my second retail investor Q&A with Strategy, where I brought your questions directly to the company. It’s streaming on Coin Stories now.

Metaplanet plants a flag in America

Japan’s Metaplanet — the third-largest publicly traded corporate Bitcoin holder at roughly 43,000 BTC — is expanding into the United States.

The company is seeding 2,100 BTC (about $132.1 million) plus $2.5 million in cash into Super League Enterprise (Nasdaq: SLE), which will be renamed Superplanet, Inc. and trade under the ticker SUPA. Metaplanet keeps 95.7% of common stock, locked up for five years. The deal is expected to close in Q4 (Metaplanet announcement, The Block).

CEO Simon Gerovich framed it this way:

“We’ve built one of the world’s largest Bitcoin treasuries from Japan. Superplanet is how we build in America, the deepest capital market in the world… It is one consolidated Bitcoin position, compounding through two listed platforms in Japan and in the U.S.”

Two listings, two currencies, one Bitcoin stack. Raise yen in Tokyo, raise dollars in New York, buy the same asset.

The threat hanging over both

MSCI — one of the world’s largest index providers — is consulting on whether to exclude non-operating companies from its Global Investable Market Indexes (MSCI consultation document).

Pay attention to how the test is written, because it’s smarter than the version MSCI floated last year. It is asset-class agnostic — it never mentions digital assets. A company is eligible only if operating assets exceed 50% of total assets. Fail that, and you’re excluded if you trip at least four of five secondary ratios covering operating expenses, operating cash flow, non-operating fair-value swings, and financing cash flow.

MSCI named the companies it would delete from ACWI IMI: Strategy ($23.9 billion in free float), Yellow Cake plc (a uranium holder — $1.8 billion), and Metaplanet ($654 million). SharpLink and others are on a watchlist. That a uranium company is caught in the same net is the tell: this isn’t an anti-Bitcoin rule, it’s an anti-holding-company rule that happens to catch Bitcoin treasuries.

The consequence is mechanical. Trillions of dollars in index funds automatically own whatever sits in those indexes. JPMorgan has estimated roughly $2.8 billion in forced outflows from MSCI removal alone, and as much as $11.6 billion if other index providers follow (The Block).

Feedback closes September 30. A decision comes by October 16, with implementation no earlier than the November index review.

Strategy’s official response:

Worth remembering that MSCI floated a Bitcoin-specific version of this in October 2025 and declined to adopt it in January. Strategy rose 6% that day.

And a smaller change with real implications

BlackRock has cut the minimum for in-kind exchanges of Bitcoin into IBIT shares from $25 million to $1 million — a 96% reduction. Robbie Mitchnick, BlackRock’s head of digital assets, disclosed it on Bloomberg TV on August 10 and signaled they want to push it lower still.

The mechanics matter: this runs through authorized participants — the large trading firms that service the ETF — not something you do from your phone. But any holder with a million dollars of Bitcoin can now make the swap. And because you’re exchanging rather than selling, it’s generally treated as a non-taxable event with cost basis carrying over — though it’s worth noting the IRS has never formally ruled on it.

That said — you know where I stand. I will always advocate for learning self-custody over handing your keys to an ETF.

Tether Finally Gets Audited

Tether says it finally got audited. Yes, really.

Tether issues USDT, the world’s most-used stablecoin — a token designed to always be worth exactly one dollar. Roughly $180 billion circulates worldwide, much of it in countries with collapsing currencies, all resting on a single promise: that Tether actually holds the reserves backing every token.

KPMG U.S. audited Tether International, S.A. de C.V. — the entity that issues USDT — for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, and issued an unqualified opinion, the best grade an auditor can give (Tether, The Block, Bloomberg).

This is a real financial-statement audit, not a point-in-time attestation — balance sheet, income statement, changes in equity, cash flows. The audited figure shows $6.814 billion in excess reserves over liabilities.

And per Tether, KPMG physically counted and inspected every individual gold bar, rather than relying on custodian reports. After a decade of being told a real audit would expose a hole, that is a milestone.

Now the fine print, because there’s a lot of it.

• The audit is dated. It covers the year ended December 31, 2025 — more than seven months ago. Tether’s own Q2 2026 attestation shows the excess-reserve buffer has since fallen roughly 40%, to $4.11 billion.

• The scope stops at the subsidiary. The audit covers Tether International, not the group parent, Tether Holdings. In fairness, Tether International is the entity that actually issues USDT and carries the liability — so the gap is group-level consolidation, not the token’s backing. But it is a gap.

• Nobody outside gets to read it. Tether is not publicly releasing the audited financial statements or the full KPMG report, citing its status as a private company. Everything above about scope and gold bars comes from Tether’s press release; KPMG has said nothing publicly.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino’s response to the critics, to The Block: “Honestly, I don’t care,” adding that Tether has “proved ourselves many times.”

A Big Four firm just put its name on Tether’s reserves. That’s real, and it’s more than the skeptics expected. The remaining questions are real too. You can decide how much weight to give each.

Data Breaches Put Bitcoiners at Risk

Your personal information is part of your Bitcoin security. This week proved it twice.

Trezor’s shipping partner got hacked

Trezor disclosed that ShipMonk, its fulfilment provider for the U.S., U.K., Sweden, Colombia, Brazil, Italy and Portugal, was breached — exposing data on 13,689 customers. Of those, 11,742 had full exposure: name, email, phone number and shipping address. Another 1,947 had name, city and email exposed (Trezor).

Orders placed between May 10 and August 8 are affected. No devices, systems, private keys or wallet backups were compromised. No funds are at risk.

But understand what did leak: a list of hardware wallet owners, tied to where they live.

Trezor emailed every affected customer directly — if you didn’t get an email, you’re not on the list. Two things to do with this: be suspicious of any message claiming to be from Trezor, and going forward, ship hardware wallets to a P.O. box or a pickup point, not your home.

A much larger breach shows where this leads

Hackers stole data from France’s tax authority, affecting roughly 678,000 individuals and businesses — names, dates of birth, home addresses, phone numbers, family circumstances, reference taxable income and withholding rates. A threat actor listed the database for sale on a hacking forum on August 12; the government began notifying victims on August 17 (The Record).

Why this matters for us: France has become the world capital of wrench attacks — violent robberies and kidnappings targeting crypto holders. CertiK’s Intel3D research counted 33 of 52 verified attacks worldwide in the first half of 2026 in France alone — 63% of global incidents and 85% of European ones, against roughly $124 million in exposure.

A searchable list of French households ranked by taxable income and mapped to home addresses is precisely what those criminals want.

The lesson is the same in both stories: protect your privacy as carefully as you protect your keys.

And the defenders just asked for better tools

More than 40 Bitcoin companies and developer organizations — Coinbase, Block, Strategy, BitGo, Blockstream, Anchorage, Fidelity Digital Assets, Trezor, plus dev shops Brink, Chaincode Labs, Btrust and OpenSats — signed an open letter, coordinated by the Bitcoin Policy Institute, asking AI companies to give vetted security researchers access to their most capable models (CoinDesk).

The letter’s five asks: early access to cyber-capable models including pre-release versions; enough compute to run meaningful reviews; secure environments for examining undisclosed code; eligibility for independent maintainers, not just large firms; and direct lines to lab security teams.

The catalyst was Rob Hamilton, CEO of AnchorWatch and co-lead of the volunteer Bitcoin Red Team, which formed in the wake of the Coldcard exploit — a predictable random-number-generator flaw, traced to a single line of code from 2021, that let attackers brute-force seed phrases and drain north of $116 million without ever touching a device. Hamilton had completed OpenAI’s trusted cyber program and passed KYC, and was still blocked — the second time, within 19 minutes of starting to red-team Bitcoin infrastructure. He said he’d fall back to Chinese open-weight models instead: “It absolutely guts me as a patriotic American to have to do this.”

By August 8 the Red Team had scanned 501 projects and produced 7,958 findings, 1,280 of them high or critical — mostly on those Chinese open models.

Attackers already use frontier AI to hunt for weaknesses. Blocking the defenders only helps them. The letter is at btcpolicy.org/ailetter.

The Lowest Vol Bitcoin Has Ever Been

Bitcoin just came out of one of the calmest stretches in its entire history.

Fidelity Digital Assets posted a striking stat this week: Bitcoin’s volatility had fallen lower than roughly 98.5% of all days in its history. Spot trading volume, measured in coins, had dropped to its lowest level since 2019. For an asset famous for wild swings, the market had almost never been this quiet.

The hard numbers back it up. VanEck’s mid-August ChainCheck puts 30-day annualized realized volatility at 27.2%, down from 30.4% a month earlier — against a 10-year average near 46% and a long-run average closer to 80%. Bitcoin’s daily volatility had actually fallen below the Nasdaq’s (VanEck).

Quiet didn’t mean nothing was happening underneath. By Fidelity’s own Bitcoin Yardstick — a rough price-to-earnings analog that divides market cap by hash rate — Bitcoin had spent 203 consecutive days below one standard deviation, its undervalued zone (Fidelity Q3 2026 Signals Report).

Fidelity’s framing:

“Think of it like a coiled spring: The longer volatility remains compressed, the greater the potential for a meaningful move once it breaks.”

The key question was never whether volatility comes back. It’s what happens when it does.

This week, we got a preview.

- Nat

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Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. I am not a financial advisor. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions and consult a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation. Bitcoin, digital assets, and equities carry significant risk, including the potential loss of principal. Companies, products, and features mentioned in this newsletter may change without notice — including their offerings, availability, terms, financial condition, or regulatory status — and information shared here may become outdated, inaccurate, or incomplete over time. Guests share their own opinions, which do not necessarily reflect mine. Some links in this newsletter are affiliate or sponsor links, meaning I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

Mark Moss on Bitcoin as the “Cheat Code,” bear markets, and playing the long game

After weeks of heavy news, I needed to talk to someone who could help me zoom out. That’s exactly what this conversation did.

The centerpiece is an idea Mark has been developing for years. He calls it “retiring with Bitcoin.” A clip of him explaining it from our last episode went viral, and he’s been hearing from people ever since.

Bitcoin is down more than 50% from its all-time high, so the question everyone is asking him now is whether the strategy still works.

His answer is yes.

Volatility isn’t the risk, he told me. Being a forced seller during volatility is the risk. There’s a huge difference. He shared a story from his twenties to make the point. He built a building. Had an $11 million offer in hand. Thought it was worth $12 million, so he held out. Then 2008 hit and the bank forced a sale at $4 million. The asset wasn’t the problem. The capital structure was. Everything Mark does with Bitcoin now is built around never being in that spot again — low loan-to-value ratios, multiple layers of liquidity, and letting the asset appreciate over years, not quarters.

He also broke down the debt-based monetary system in language anyone can follow. Since 1971, money has been created through debt. That means people who own assets have access to cheap capital that wage earners simply don’t. Mark’s argument is that Bitcoin is the first asset in modern history that lets anyone in the world cross from the wage-earner column to the asset-owner column, starting with a single dollar. That’s the cheat code. Not because it’s easy. Because the return profile is unlike anything else available to ordinary people.

We got into self-custody too, which felt especially relevant given everything happening with Coldcard right now. Mark made a point I really liked. He said the Bitcoin community can sometimes fall into purity tests that actually increase risk rather than reduce it. He runs multiple hardware wallets. He keeps some Bitcoin with regulated custodians. And he doesn’t apologize for any of it. Freedom means choosing your own approach.

On the broader market, Mark doesn’t see a 2008-style crash coming. His view is that the government simply can’t afford one. Every crash since then has been shorter and shallower because intervention arrives faster. He thinks liquidity is quietly improving and that by the end of this summer the setup starts to favor Bitcoin again.

On sentiment — which multiple guests this week have called the worst they’ve ever seen — Mark pushed back. He’s been through 2018, 2020, 2022. It’s always different reasons. It’s always equally terrible. And it always ends.

“There’s never been a period where you could have bought Bitcoin and been down for years,” he said. Your timeframe should be at least four years. Act accordingly.

If you needed a reset this week, this is the one.

The Coldcard Attack: What We Know Now About the Hackers

If you want the clearest, most data-driven account of what’s happening with the Coldcard exploit, Alex Thorn is your person.

He’s the head of firm-wide research at Galaxy Digital. Starting from day two of the attacks on July 31st, he’s been running stolen funds through his own analytics stack, encouraging victims to come forward, and turning their reports into forensic intelligence he’s sharing with the FBI, the Treasury Department, exchanges, and blockchain monitoring firms.

Here’s where things stand as of August 10th, when we recorded. Alex has confirmed with high confidence that at least 8,300 addresses have been hit. That’s 1,720 Bitcoin, or roughly $112 million. He believes the number may climb toward 2,100 Bitcoin as more patterns get corroborated. As with any big compromise, the true scale is going to take time to fully emerge.

What makes this one so devastating is that the stolen funds didn’t start in one centralized place. They started in hundreds of individual wallets belonging to people who had done everything right. The average dormancy of the stolen coins is about four years. These weren’t speculators. They weren’t chasing yield. They were quiet, long-term savers — some of whom had air-gapped their devices and never connected to the internet — and they still got hit.

The conversation went to some really important places beyond just the numbers.

On the chance of recovery, there’s cautious optimism in at least one thread. Block Inc. engineers identified that the wave one attacker seems to have used a paid account at a blockchain data provider to query the addresses they ultimately targeted. That’s a real lead. A footprint in the conventional financial system that investigators can follow.

Alex also gave a full update on the Bitcoin Red Team. It’s a volunteer group of about 25 researchers led by Rob Hamilton of AnchorWatch, Calle, James O’Beirne and others, and they’ve been running AI models against open-source Bitcoin projects since the hack. They’ve now looked at over 500 code repositories. One headline finding I want to make sure lands: the signature mathematics underlying all of Bitcoin came back clean after dozens of hours of trying to break it. There is no evidence of anything wrong with Bitcoin itself.

A few things every Bitcoiner should know:

• If you have a vulnerable device — any Coldcard model, seed generated between March 2021 and the patch, without manually introduced entropy like dice rolls — move your funds ASAP.

• If you were a victim, reach out to Alex at @IntangibleCoins on X. You don’t need to give personal information. Include your affected addresses in the first message and he’ll send back a forensic report you can use when filing with the FBI’s IC3.

Alex’s last word to victims: you did nothing wrong. Don’t be ashamed. File your report. It’s the only path to any possibility of recovery.

Share this interview with anyone who may have purchased Coldcard products.

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Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. I am not a financial advisor. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions and consult a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation. Bitcoin, digital assets, and equities carry significant risk, including the potential loss of principal. Companies, products, and features mentioned in this newsletter may change without notice — including their offerings, availability, terms, financial condition, or regulatory status — and information shared here may become outdated, inaccurate, or incomplete over time. Guests share their own opinions, which do not necessarily reflect mine. Some links in this newsletter are affiliate or sponsor links, meaning I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

Bitcoin's Red Team Rises From the Coldcard Hack

Let’s start with the latest on the Coldcard hack — because while the numbers have gotten worse, the response from this community has been remarkable.

First, the update. Researchers now estimate roughly 1,800 Bitcoin — over $116 million — has been drained across multiple waves of attacks. If you haven’t yet moved funds from a seed generated on affected firmware (pretty much any ColdCard purchased from 2021 and on), please don’t wait. Updating the firmware alone doesn’t fix a seed that was created on the vulnerable software — you need a new seed entirely.

But here’s what should give every Bitcoiner a lot of hope.

The highly-technical volunteer group calling itself Bitcoin’s Red Team — led by developer Calle and Rob Hamilton of AnchorWatch, who you heard on my emergency episode. Their mission has been to make sure nothing like this is hiding anywhere else in the ecosystem.

Using cutting-edge AI models, 16 researchers audited more than 390 open-source Bitcoin projects in about 27 hours. They found nearly 5,000 security issues — including 85 critical vulnerabilities — and reported them privately to the developers who maintain those projects, so they can be fixed before attackers find them. The nonprofit OpenSats has been covering the computing costs.

No company ordered this. No government funded it. The community just did it.

Although the work isn’t without obstacles. Just this weekend, Rob shared that OpenAI’s safety systems blocked him from continuing his analysis — even though he’d completed their vetting process for security researchers months ago. His frustration was blunt: attackers don’t follow the rules, so restrictions like these only slow down the defenders. He says he’s now forced to use Chinese open-source AI models to continue protecting Bitcoin infrastructure. I hope someone in Washington, D.C. is paying attention

BIP-110 Falls Flat

Speaking of the community sorting things — let’s turn to a quick update on BIP-110.

BIP 110’s mandatory signaling period began Saturday. Nodes enforcing the proposal rejected non-signaling blocks and briefly formed a separate chain. That chain produced just two blocks before stalling, while Bitcoin’s main network continued uninterrupted and rapidly pulled ahead. No major exchanges recognized the alternative chain.

Bitcoin’s rules remain exactly where they were before the debate began.

Whatever your view on BIP 110, the outcome demonstrated something important about how Bitcoin works. Changing the rules requires overwhelming agreement across miners, node operators, developers, and the broader economic community. That bar wasn’t met. And that’s the system working as designed.

Now, some supporters insist the effort isn't over — arguing that node enforcement, not miner signaling, is what ultimately matters, and a few developers have even prepared contingency code that would change Bitcoin's mining algorithm entirely to keep their chain alive. Whether that goes anywhere remains to be seen.

If you want to understand the perspective of those who supported the proposal, I sat down with Matt Kratter of Bitcoin University for a full conversation. It’s streaming now wherever you get your podcasts.

I think hearing both sides of this debate matters, especially after months of people talking past each other online.

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The CLARITY Act Runs Out of Time (For Now)

Now to the nation’s capitol where The CLARITY Act, the bill that would finally establish a comprehensive federal framework for digital assets in the United States, did not get a vote before the Senate left for its August recess.

Senate Majority Leader Thune confirmed the delay, blaming his Democrat colleagues for blocking it. He said: “We’re getting that queued up first thing when we come back.”

The Senate returns September 14. But the window is shrinking fast. The ethics provision — specifically, whether senior government officials and their families should be restricted from profiting off digital assets — remains unresolved. And prediction markets now put the odds of the CLARITY Act becoming law this year at just 15%. Down from over 70% in May.

After nearly a decade of regulation through enforcement, Congress had a real opportunity to establish lasting rules. Whether they still can depends on what happens in September — and whether midterm politics get in the way.

Michael Saylor had a great tweet about this development saying “Bitcoin doesn’t need CLARITY. America needs clarity.”

Which brings us to Russia — because the contrast couldn’t be sharper.

Russia just passed its first comprehensive crypto law and Putin signed it on August 4th.

The law legalizes crypto trading through licensed exchanges under the Bank of Russia — but bans domestic payments in crypto entirely. You can buy and sell Bitcoin in Russia now, but you can’t spend it at a store.

The catch for ordinary citizens: retail investors are capped at roughly $3,750 in annual crypto purchases. At that limit, a Russian citizen would need about 17 years to accumulate a single Bitcoin at current prices.

But here’s the part that tells you what this law is really about. Cross-border settlements in crypto — meaning international trade — have no cap at all. Russia seems to want to use digital assets to move money around. It just doesn’t want its own citizens using it freely.

The takeaway: Russia is regulating crypto to control it. The U.S. can’t even agree on a framework.

Bessent's Yen Rescue Is Really About America's Debt

And finally, a story about the power of currencies — and who controls them.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made headlines last week by helping engineer the first joint U.S.-Japan currency intervention in decades.

The Japanese yen had been collapsing — trading near its weakest levels since 1986. And here’s why America cares. Japan is the largest foreign holder of U.S. government debt — over $1 trillion in Treasuries. When the yen collapses, Japan’s playbook for defending it is selling dollars — which in practice means selling Treasuries. And if Japanese interest rates rise to protect the currency, Japanese investors have every reason to bring their money home instead of funding America’s deficits.

In other words, a yen crisis would become a Treasury market crisis. With nearly $40 trillion in national debt and trillions to refinance, that’s a risk Washington cannot afford.

So Bessent — who spent decades making billion-dollar currency bets for George Soros — used his old playbook in the new job. Bloomberg reported that he deliberately let reporters see his notepad at a meeting, with a to-do list that included buying as much as $10 billion in yen. The message to the market was loud and clear.

This wasn’t just about helping an ally. It was about protecting the biggest buyer of American debt — because the entire system depends on someone continuing to fund it.

Bitcoin doesn’t have a Treasury Secretary. Nobody can prop it up, push it down, or rewrite its monetary policy to serve a political agenda. In a world where governments are openly intervening in currency markets to keep the debt machine running, that neutrality is the feature.

Until next week, keep stacking.

- Nat

PS - Make sure to grab a copy of my new book, “Bitcoin is for Everyone.” I’ve written an approachable book on Bitcoin and the traditional financial system, perfect for your friends and family who are still learning about it.

You can order a limited number of signed copies and pay in Bitcoin or lightning (powered by Speed Wallet) on my website: shop.talkingbitcoin.com

If you enjoyed reading this post, you should consider subscribing to the News Block.

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Make sure to listen to my latest Coin Stories episodes, including Jack Mallers, Dylan LeClair and Parker Lewis.

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Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. I am not a financial advisor. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions and consult a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation. Bitcoin, digital assets, and equities carry significant risk, including the potential loss of principal. Companies, products, and features mentioned in this newsletter may change without notice — including their offerings, availability, terms, financial condition, or regulatory status — and information shared here may become outdated, inaccurate, or incomplete over time. Guests share their own opinions, which do not necessarily reflect mine. Some links in this newsletter are affiliate or sponsor links, meaning I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

A volunteer group calling itself the Bitcoin Red Team (organized by Calle, with Rob among those running it) spent the past week pointing frontier AI models at the open-source software this ecosystem quietly depends on. In a 27.5-hour sprint on August 4th and 5th, sixteen people spread across the world filed 4,962 findings across 390 projects: 85 critical and 635 high severity, funded by roughly $40,000 from OpenSats. Maintainers have confirmed most of the critical reports.

None of this touches Bitcoin’s protocol. It’s the surrounding layer — wallets, apps, the plumbing everyone uses — much of it built by volunteers who have never had a professional security review and could never afford one.

The Coldcard bug sat in plain sight for five years before anyone found it. It took a small team about a day to surface hundreds of comparable problems elsewhere. The cost of looking has collapsed, for defenders AND attackers. That’s the world we’re in now, and I’m grateful there are people in this community who aren’t waiting for someone else to act.

I will keep covering this as it develops. In the meantime, two episodes worth your time on a completely different subject, both recorded before the Coldcard news.

Parker Lewis on Bitcoin, Money, and Why He Would Rather Hold Cash Than Digital Credit

Parker Lewis is the author of Gradually, Then Suddenly and the founder of Zaprite, a payments company making Bitcoin usable in everyday commerce. He’s been one of Bitcoin’s most thoughtful voices for years, and he came on the show ready to defend a position that some in the industry disagree with.

Parker’s core argument is that Bitcoin is money — full stop. Not just a store of value that needs fiat instruments layered on top of it to become useful, but money in the truest sense of the word. His logic is that you can only store value in something other people will eventually accept in exchange, which means store of value and medium of exchange aren’t opposites. They’re the same thing.

Parker explained why he's been outspoken about Bitcoin treasury companies. His concern isn't with any specific company — it's with how some of these products are being marketed to everyday investors. In his view, when Bitcoin gets packaged into yield-bearing instruments and pitched as a safer or more accessible way to get exposure, it risks distorting what Bitcoin actually is: money that anyone can hold directly, without a middleman. He worries that first-time investors will end up buying complex financial products they don't fully understand, when the simpler path — just buying and holding Bitcoin — was there all along. It's a principled position, and even if you don't agree with all of it, his framing is worth hearing out.

He also pushed back against recent comments that Bitcoin is too volatile for 99% of people. In his view, volatility isn’t a flaw — it’s the natural result of mass adoption happening in real time. Every new wave of people discovering Bitcoin has to price it for the first time, and Bitcoin’s fixed supply can’t respond to that demand the way traditional markets can. That’s what creates the volatility, and it’s exactly what creates the opportunity for people who understand Bitcoin early.

One of my favorite parts of the conversation was Parker’s “ribeye index.” Since 2020, he’s been photographing the price of ribeye steaks at his local grocery store. It was $19.99 then. It’s $37.99 today. That’s roughly 12 to 13% annualized inflation — a lot more than official CPI captures — and it’s exactly the kind of everyday, real-world price erosion that Bitcoin was built to solve.

Whether you agree with Parker or not on every point, the clarity of his thinking is worth the watch.

Coin Stories is powered by our Title Sponsor Ledn

Ledn is the global leader in Bitcoin-backed loans, issuing over $11 billion in loans since 2018, and was the first to offer proof of reserves. With Ledn, you get custody loans, no credit checks, no monthly payments, and more.

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Dylan LeClair on Metaplanet’s Roadmap and the $7 Trillion Opportunity

Dylan LeClair is the head of Bitcoin strategy at Metaplanet — Japan’s largest publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company. Metaplanet holds $2.8 billion in Bitcoin on its balance sheet, and Dylan has been through enough cycles to bring a calm, data-driven perspective to a market that hasn’t felt calm in a while.

Dylan told me the sentiment right now is the most hysterical he’s ever seen in Bitcoin — worse than 2022, when Bitcoin was $16,000 and FTX had just collapsed. The difference this time, he said, is that in 2022 the energy in the room was still electric. Now it’s quiet. Exhausted. Sellers are tapped out.

But Dylan isn’t worried. He’s seen this movie before.

His framework is simple: Bitcoin is a 50% volatility asset. Companies leveraged to Bitcoin are going to be volatile too. That’s just math. The real question is whether Bitcoin is right over a five to ten year horizon — and Dylan is fully convicted that it is.

He also gave one of the clearest explanations I’ve heard of what’s actually been happening in the preferred equity market — the mechanics of why some of these Bitcoin-linked instruments got squeezed, why older convertible bonds sitting above them have been creating pressure, and why the path to stability runs through those older debt structures getting resolved. If you’ve been trying to make sense of the headlines around digital credit instruments over the last few months, this is the explainer you’ve been looking for.

What I found most interesting was what Dylan is building at Metaplanet beyond just holding Bitcoin. In Japan, corporate bond markets pay almost nothing and preferred equity barely exists as an asset class. Through their recent acquisition of Metaplanet Securities, Metaplanet now holds a Type One securities license and is positioning itself as a platform for other Japanese companies to issue Bitcoin-backed instruments. There is roughly $7 trillion in cash sitting idle in Japan earning close to nothing. Dylan believes some of that is about to move.

He ended with a market call: he thinks the bottom is in. The sentiment, the exhaustion, the fact that no one wants to buy — those are the conditions that have historically preceded Bitcoin’s next leg higher.

“There’s no sellers left,” he said. “And then one day it goes up 26% and there’s no news.”

I’ve seen that movie too.

Signed copies of Bitcoin Is For Everyone

Quick reminder — signed copies of my book, Bitcoin Is For Everyone, are now available at shop.talkingbitcoin.com, powered by Speed Wallet.

You can pay with Bitcoin or Lightning, which felt like the right way to launch this. Supply is limited.

Up-to-Date Each Week With The News Block

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⚡ The Stack

These are the companies that power Coin Stories — and you’ll see why I use them myself!

Borrow against your Bitcoin without selling it Ledn — Ledn has operated through every market cycle since 2018 and has served clients across more than $11 billion in loan volume. Tether Gold is now live on Ledn, so bitcoin and gold can sit side by side on one platform. Hard assets. Real flexibility. Get 0.25% off your first bitcoin-backed loan→ ledn.io/natalie

Offer subject to terms and eligibility. Digital asset lending involves risk, including loss of collateral.

Bitdeer Technologies Group (NASDAQ: BTDR) — powering AI and Bitcoin mining infrastructure with 3 GW of secured global energy — and owns the entire stack, from equipment manufacturing to data centers to proprietary orchestration software. Learn more at bitdeer.com.

⛏️ Fully-managed Bitcoin mining in the U.S with Abundant Mines — You own the miners. You keep 100% of the Bitcoin. Voted #1 mining company by peers. Get 1 month of free hosting → abundantmines.com/Natalie · Watch my episode with the founders

⚡ Send Bitcoin instantly over Lightning Speed Wallet — Send, receive, or swap stablecoins and digital gold into Bitcoin in one app. Run a business? Speed powers Bitcoin payments for Steak ‘n Shake, and it can do the same for you. Code COINSTORIES10 for 5,000 free sats after your first transaction. → speed.app/natalie

🔐 Self-custody your Bitcoin with Bitkey by Block — Download Bitkey today and use my promo code STORIES to get 10% off the new Bitkey. This episode has been sponsored by Bitkey. Code STORIES for 10% off. → Bitkey.world/STORIES

🧠 Get 1-on-1 help setting up self-custody The Bitcoin Way — Personal guidance to master your own keys and sleep soundly at night. → thebitcoinway.com/natalie

🏛️ Hold Bitcoin in a tax-advantaged retirement account BitcoinIRA — Buy Bitcoin 24/7 inside a Traditional or Roth IRA. → bitcoinira.com/natalie

🌎 Kalshi is the largest prediction market in the world. Use code HODL to win up to $500 when you trade $25 → http://kalshi.com/r/HODL

🛡️ Also in My Personal Stack

Efani — The most secure mobile service in America. Protects against SIM swaps. Trusted by CEOs and VIPs. → efani.com/natalie

CrowdHealth — One of the best decisions I made for both my heath and my bank account was joining CrowdHealth years ago. I never spend more than $200 on health coverage through my CrowdHealth plan and all my health events have been crowd-funded. Get started with a discounted plan at my link. → joincrowdhealth.com/natalie

Thanks for subscribing, and if this newsletter resonated, forward it to one person who needs to read it.

— Natalie

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. I am not a financial advisor. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions and consult a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation. Bitcoin, digital assets, and equities carry significant risk, including the potential loss of principal. Companies, products, and features mentioned in this newsletter may change without notice — including their offerings, availability, terms, financial condition, or regulatory status — and information shared here may become outdated, inaccurate, or incomplete over time. Guests share their own opinions, which do not necessarily reflect mine. Some links in this newsletter are affiliate or sponsor links, meaning I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

ColdCard Hack Explained - First Self-Custody Breach at Scale

Let’s start with the story the entire Bitcoin community is talking about right now — because it affects anyone who has ever used a Coldcard hardware wallet.

This past week, an attacker drained more than a thousand Bitcoin — worth tens of millions of dollars — from thousands of wallets that all had one thing in common: their recovery phrases were originally generated on a Coldcard device. The number is still growing as Galaxy Research continues tracking additional waves of the attack.

To be clear — in dollar terms, this is not the largest theft in Bitcoin’s history. Mt. Gox, Bitfinex, and FTX were all bigger. But those were exchanges — centralized platforms where someone else held your keys. This is the first time a major self-custody device has been compromised, at this scale, and that’s what makes it so alarming.

And this is important — it doesn’t matter if you later moved your Bitcoin to a different wallet or even a multisig setup. If the seed was originally created on an affected Coldcard, you could be at risk.

Here’s what happened.

When you set up a Coldcard, you can either let the device generate your recovery phrase for you or create your own using physical dice rolls. Most people take the simpler route and let the device handle it. That recovery phrase is supposed to come from a dedicated hardware random number generator, which produces what’s called entropy — essentially randomness so complex that guessing it is mathematically impossible.

But in March 2021, a code change in a firmware update switched that process. Instead of using the device’s dedicated hardware to generate your recovery phrase, affected Coldcards started using a much weaker method — one that produced recovery phrases that were far, far easier to guess. Think of it like the difference between a combination lock with a billion possible combinations and one with a few thousand. And nobody noticed — not Coinkite, not users, not reviewers — for more than five years.

Click on the video below from the Bitcoin Policy Institute. It explains the hack well:👇

Well, this week, someone figured it out. The attacker reconstructed private keys remotely — never touching a single physical device — and swept wallets clean across thousands of users. Galaxy Research reported that the initial wave drained over a thousand addresses in ~40 minutes, and that the number has increased to more than 1,500 BTC.

Coinkite has confirmed the flaw and published an advisory. It believes that the attacker may have used AI to find the flaw — and acknowledged their own AI review of the same code missed it entirely.

Alright, so I want to say something personally about this…

Coldcard has been a sponsor of this show in the past. I have used the product myself. And I want to be transparent about that, because I owe you that transparency.

I’m sorry. I promoted a product that failed the people who trusted it. When you produce free content, sponsorships are a part of how the work gets funded. I do the best I can to partner with companies I believe in and products I trust, but no product is infallible, and this situation is a painful reminder of that.

My heart goes out to everyone who was affected. Losing Bitcoin — especially from a device you trusted to keep it safe — is devastating.

As soon as this story broke, I recorded an emergency episode with Rob Hamilton from AnchorWatch to walk through what happened, what it means for self-custody, and what steps you should take right now. That episode has no sponsor and no ads — it’s just information. Please go listen to it.

If you own a Coldcard, check Coinkite’s advisory and take the steps recommended.

Self-custody remains the most important principle in Bitcoin, but this serves as a reminder to stay vigilant, diversify your security practices, and never assume any single device is beyond failure.

No one rings a bell when a bear market ends. But when companies are closing, weak hands are selling, and the people still holding are at record conviction — those are the clues.

The News Block is powered exclusively by Ledn.

Ledn is the global leader in Bitcoin-backed loans, issuing over $9 billion in loans since 2018, and was the first to offer proof of reserves. With Ledn, you get custody loans, no credit checks, no monthly payments, and more.

Visit LEDN.io to learn more.

Strategy Makes First STRC Buyback

Now, let’s turn to Strategy, because a significant shift happened this week.

During its Q2 earnings call, Strategy confirmed that it will no longer allocate 100% of future capital raises to Bitcoin purchases. Instead, proceeds will be split between buying Bitcoin and strengthening the company’s cash reserve — with the ratio depending on market conditions.

Saylor explained it this way: “If we sell $1 billion of credit, I don’t think you’ll see 100% BTC, zero USD as the norm. I think it’ll be a ratio.”

For a company that built its entire identity around buying Bitcoin with every dollar it could raise, this is a meaningful evolution. And it drew criticism from analysts who asked why Strategy would slow down its buying when Bitcoin is trading well below its all-time high.

But here’s the context. Strategy has not stopped buying. Over the first seven months of 2026, the company purchased nearly 175,000 Bitcoin and sold about 3,600 — meaning purchases exceeded sales by roughly 48 to 1.

This is not a retreat. It’s a company managing a much larger, more complex capital structure than it had when it started buying Bitcoin in 2020.

The company also made its first STRC buyback — repurchasing roughly $25 million worth of preferred shares at a discount to their $100 par value. CEO Phong Le said buying STRC below par reduces future dividend obligations, making it an attractive use of capital. And Strategy boosted its cash reserve to $3.75 billion — enough to cover more than two years of preferred dividends and interest payments.

The company also said it is not currently considering borrowing against its Bitcoin holdings, citing counterparty and margin risks. That alone should tell you something about how seriously they’re managing risk in this environment.

Fed’s Most Hawkish Dissent in Decades

And finally, the Fed.

The Federal Reserve held rates steady at 3.5 to 3.75% at its meeting this week. That was expected. What wasn’t expected was the dissent.

Three FOMC members — Beth Hammack, Neel Kashkari, and Lorie Logan — voted for a quarter-point rate hike. That’s the most divided FOMC vote since September 2016 and the clearest signal yet that parts of the Fed believe inflation still isn’t under control. Inflation has now been above the Fed’s 2% target for more than five consecutive years.

Long-term Treasury yields moved higher on the news. The 10-year yield just hit roughly 4.7%, and the 30-year yield recently jumped to around 5.3%.

For Bitcoin, this is a headwind. Higher rates mean tighter financial conditions, which typically weigh on risk assets. And with the Fed now openly debating hikes — not cuts — the liquidity tailwind Bitcoin bulls have been hoping for isn’t arriving anytime soon.

But here’s the longer view. The fiscal math hasn’t changed. The U.S. is running structural deficits. The debt keeps growing. Public debt is approaching $40 trillion!

Eventually, the Fed will have to accommodate that reality — whether it wants to or not. It’s just math.

The question is timing, not direction.

Until next week, keep stacking.

- Nat

PS - Make sure to grab a copy of my new book, “Bitcoin is for Everyone.” I’ve written an approachable book on Bitcoin and the traditional financial system, perfect for your friends and family who are still learning about it.

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NEW: What Every Bitcoin Self-Custody Holder Needs to Do Right Now After ColdCard Bug Discovered

In this urgent PSA episode of Coin Stories, recorded as the ColdCard hack unfolded, Natalie Brunell sat down with Rob Hamilton, co-founder and CEO of AnchorWatch and one of the first people to analyze the ColdCard seed attack on-chain.

Note: this show is not sponsored by AnchorWatch.

We cover:

• How ColdCard devices could end up with seed phrases that were guessable — terms like entropy explained simply

• The one thing most people do first that doesn’t actually help: moving your seed to a different brand of device

• Whether your Bitcoin is at risk, and how to tell in a few minutes

• Exactly what to do, step by step — including the test transaction people skip when they’re panicking

Follow Rob Hamilton - his DMs are open.

Make sure to listen to my latest Coin Stories episodes, including Jack Mallers, Julian Liniger, and David Hunter.

Listen on Fountain and Earn Bitcoin: Click here
Listen on Apple Podcasts: Click here
Listen on Spotify: Click here
Listen on YouTube: Click here

That means someone who has never met you, never touched your device, and never seen it connected to the internet can work out your keys. Over 1,000 bitcoins have already been swept from hundreds of wallets, and funds are still moving.

I recorded an emergency episode with Rob Hamilton, co-founder and CEO of AnchorWatch, who was among the first to analyze the sweep on-chain. He explains the whole thing in plain language in about twenty minutes.

Please watch it before you do anything else.

Who is immediately affected

• Mk2 and Mk3 on firmware 4.0.0 through 5.0.3 — confirmed exploited

• Mk4 and Mk5 on firmware before 5.6.0

• Q on firmware before 1.5.0Q

Two things people are getting wrong. First, if you generated your seed on a ColdCard and later moved it onto a Ledger, Jade, Trezor, or anything else, you are still at risk. The flaw is in the seed itself, not the device holding it. Second, multisig does not automatically save you — if two of your three keys came from affected ColdCards, your quorum is compromised.

Your risk is meaningfully lower, though not zero, if you used a BIP-39 passphrase that never touched a computer or a phone, or if you added 50 or more of your own dice rolls at setup.

What to do if you’re moving to another self-custody wallet

1. Generate a new seed on an unaffected device.

2. Send a small test transaction first.

3. Then move the rest.

If you aren’t technical and this feels like too much tonight, sending funds back to an exchange you’ve used before is a better position than sitting on a compromised seed. You can build a proper self-custody setup once the panic has passed.

Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. The worst outcome this weekend would be someone losing their savings to a rushed mistake rather than to the flaw itself.

The team at The Bitcoin Way is also standing by to guide you through this 1-on-1. Visit www.thebitcoinway.com/natalie to schedule a free phone consultation.

One warning

Do not enter your seed phrase into any website offering to check whether you’re affected. No legitimate tool works that way. Every one of them is a thief taking advantage of a frightening night.

Please forward this

Coinkite doesn’t retain customer records. That was a real privacy decision on their part, and it also means they have no way to email the people affected. Word of mouth is the only distribution this story has.

If you know someone who owns a ColdCard, send them this email or the video. That’s the whole ask.

Coinkite’s technical advisory: blog.coinkite.com/entropy-technical-backgrounder/
Rob is on X at @rob1ham, and his DMs are open.

— Natalie

Stay Up-to-Date Each Week With The News Block

And if you’re not already subscribed to The News Block — every week we break down the biggest stories in Bitcoin and macro in a way that’s fast, honest, and actually useful. New episodes drop every Monday in your inbox and wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe at thenewsblock.substack.com so you never miss a beat.

Subscribe now

⚡ The Stack: Tools I Use

These are the companies that power Coin Stories — and you’ll see why I use them myself!

🏦 Borrow against your Bitcoin without selling it Ledn — Ledn has a perfect track record protecting over $11 billion in client value through every market cycle since 2018. Tokenized gold is now live on Ledn, giving you two of the most verifiably scarce, non-sovereign assets ever created, held side by side. Hard assets. Real flexibility. One platform. Get 0.25% off your first loan. → ledn.io/natalie

⚡ Send Bitcoin instantly over Lightning Speed Wallet — Send, receive, or swap stablecoins and digital gold into Bitcoin in one app. Run a business? Speed powers Bitcoin payments for Steak ‘n Shake, and it can do the same for you. Code COINSTORIES10 for 5,000 free sats after your first transaction. → speed.app/natalie

⛏️ Fully-managed Bitcoin mining in the U.S with Abundant Mines — You own the miners. You keep 100% of the Bitcoin. Voted #1 mining company by peers. Get 1 month of free hosting → abundantmines.com/Natalie · Watch my episode with the founders

🔐 Self-custody your Bitcoin safely Bitkey by Block — Download Bitkey today and use my promo code STORIES to get 10% off the new Bitkey. Code STORIES for 10% off. → Bitkey.world/STORIES

🧠 Get 1-on-1 help setting up self-custody The Bitcoin Way — Personal guidance to master your own keys and sleep soundly at night. → thebitcoinway.com/natalie

🏛️ Hold Bitcoin in a tax-advantaged retirement account BitcoinIRA — Buy Bitcoin 24/7 inside a Traditional or Roth IRA. → bitcoinira.com/natalie

🛡️ Also in My Personal Stack

Efani — The most secure mobile service in America. Protects against SIM swaps. Trusted by CEOs and VIPs. → efani.com/natalie

CrowdHealth — I ditched fiat health insurance four years ago and joined CrowdHealth. I never spend more than $200 on health coverage through my CrowdHealth plan. Get started with a discounted plan at my link. → joincrowdhealth.com/natalie

Thanks for subscribing, and if this newsletter resonated, forward it to one person who needs to read it.

— Natalie

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or legal advice. I am not a financial advisor. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions. Information and opinions shared here may change without notice. Some links in this newsletter are affiliate or sponsor links, which means I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

In two incredible, back-to-back episodes of Coin Stories, I sat down with two of the most dynamic builders in the space—Jack Mallers, CEO of Strike, and Nico Lechuga, founding partner at Ego Death Capital and co-founder of Orange Juice. Both conversations pulled back the curtain on what happens when hard money principles collide with legacy Wall Street systems.

Jack Mallers on Stepping Down From Twenty One and the Truth About Corporate Treasuries

In his first unfiltered, one-on-one interview since stepping down as CEO of public treasury firm 21, Jack Mallers set the record straight on why he walked away from hundreds of millions of dollars in equity.

Free from public company SEC restrictions, Jack opened up about the fundamental strategic rift that led to his resignation:

• Why He Stepped Down: Jack co-founded 21 alongside Tether’s leadership to create a hybrid business model, one that generated real products and cash flow while holding a massive Bitcoin treasury. At first he and the board shared a common vision, but in recent months, he said he no longer felt aligned with the board’s direction.

• Turning Down a “Blank Check”: Rather than merging Strike into Twenty One or compromising his principles to lead a public company he no longer fully believed in, Jack chose to walk away.

• The Reality of Bear Markets: Jack gave a candid assessment of the current sentiment and price action, explaining why true global Bitcoin adoption remains under one percent and why “ruthless” bear markets exist to gobble up excess leverage and false promises.

• On Integrity, Humility, and Family: Jack made it clear he doesn't need to be the biggest, on the cover of magazines, or validated by Wall Street. What he cares about is being a better person and builder — and walking away helped him get there.

"I failed in many ways, and I own that... I laid out a vision and set expectations that ultimately weren't met. And some people were impacted by that. And that's real. And that's the guilt that comes with this story."

— Jack Mallers, CEO of Strike

Nico Lechuga on Orange Juice and Fixing Broken Private Equity

Fresh off announcing a $40 million raise led by Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas, Nico Lechuga joined the show to explain how the new holding company, Orange Juice, is offering small business owners an alternative to predatory private equity.

Nico and several co-founders (like Jeff Booth and Lyn Alden) are building a permanent capital vehicle designed to function like a “Berkshire Hathaway on a Bitcoin standard”:

• The Broken Private Equity Model: Traditional PE funds frequently load local family businesses with high-interest debt, drain their free cash flow to pay early investor dividends, and risk bankrupting the company.

• The Orange Juice Alternative: Orange Juice acquires cash-flowing, real-world businesses—such as laundromats, HVAC providers, or local services—for a blend of cash and equity. Instead of forcing unsustainable growth or gutting company culture, Orange Juice holds these companies into perpetuity.

• Building a Hard Money Treasury: The steady free cash flow generated by these underlying businesses is used with conservative leverage to accumulate a long-term Bitcoin treasury.

• Lessons from VC and Hot Sauce: Nico also shared his journey from private equity deals in West Africa to meeting Jeff Booth, deploying venture capital at Ego Death Capital, and creating Señor Lechuga—a bootstrapped hot sauce brand that made it onto Hot Ones and into Joe Rogan’s hands.

This was one of my favorite interviews of the entire year, make sure you don’t miss and share it with those you know!

Stay Up-to-Date Each Week With The News Block

And if you’re not already subscribed to The News Block — every week we break down the biggest stories in Bitcoin and macro in a way that’s fast, honest, and actually useful. New episodes drop every Monday in your inbox and wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe at thenewsblock.substack.com so you never miss a beat.

Subscribe now

⚡ The Stack: Tools I Use and Trust

These are the companies that power Coin Stories — and you’ll see why I use them myself!

🏦 Borrow against your Bitcoin without selling it Ledn — Ledn has a perfect track record protecting over $11 billion in client value through every market cycle since 2018. Tokenized gold is now live on Ledn, giving you two of the most verifiably scarce, non-sovereign assets ever created, held side by side. Hard assets. Real flexibility. One platform. Get 0.25% off your first loan. → ledn.io/natalie

⚡ Send Bitcoin instantly over Lightning Speed Wallet — Send, receive, or swap stablecoins and digital gold into Bitcoin in one app. Run a business? Speed powers Bitcoin payments for Steak ‘n Shake, and it can do the same for you. Code COINSTORIES10 for 5,000 free sats after your first transaction. → speed.app/natalie

⛏️ Fully-managed Bitcoin mining in the U.S with Abundant Mines — You own the miners. You keep 100% of the Bitcoin. Voted #1 mining company by peers. Get 1 month of free hosting → abundantmines.com/Natalie · Watch my episode with the founders

🔐 Self-custody your Bitcoin safely Bitkey by Block — Download Bitkey today and use my promo code STORIES to get 10% off the new Bitkey. This episode has been sponsored by Bitkey. Code STORIES for 10% off. → Bitkey.world/STORIES

🧠 Get 1-on-1 help setting up self-custody The Bitcoin Way — Personal guidance to master your own keys and sleep soundly at night. → thebitcoinway.com/natalie

🏛️ Hold Bitcoin in a tax-advantaged retirement account BitcoinIRA — Buy Bitcoin 24/7 inside a Traditional or Roth IRA. → bitcoinira.com/natalie

🛡️ Also in My Personal Stack

Efani — The most secure mobile service in America. Protects against SIM swaps. Trusted by CEOs and VIPs. → efani.com/natalie

CrowdHealth — I ditched fiat health insurance four years ago and joined CrowdHealth. I never spend more than $200 on health coverage through my CrowdHealth plan. Get started with a discounted plan at my link. → joincrowdhealth.com/natalie

Thanks for subscribing, and if this newsletter resonated, forward it to one person who needs to read it.

— Natalie

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or legal advice. I am not a financial advisor. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions. Information and opinions shared here may change without notice. Some links in this newsletter are affiliate or sponsor links, which means I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

Is This Bear Market Almost Over?

Bitcoin is still about 50% below its all-time high. And at this point in the bear market, the damage isn’t just showing up in the price. It’s showing up in the businesses.

Last week, BitMEX — one of the original crypto exchanges that literally invented the perpetual swap — announced it’s shutting down after 11 years. BitMart is also winding down. And Poolin, once the largest Bitcoin mining pool in the world, filed for bankruptcy with $173 million in obligations.

Other companies are making quieter but equally telling moves. The Smarter Web Company sold Bitcoin to repay debt. Satsuma shareholders voted to sell the company’s remaining Bitcoin, return capital to investors, and delist from the London Stock Exchange. Adam Back’s Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company saw its SPAC merger with Cantor scrapped, and the shareholder vote for a revised deal was postponed indefinitely. And Jack Mallers stepped down as CEO of Twenty One Capital to go back to Strike.

This is what bear markets do. They force hard decisions. Weak balance sheets that looked fine when Bitcoin was at $126,000 start breaking when it’s at $60,000.

And nowhere is that pressure more visible than in mining.

MARA sold $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin earlier this year to repurchase its convertible notes at a discount — cutting its convertible debt by 30%. Bitdeer sold over 1,500 Bitcoin as it pivoted toward AI and data-center infrastructure.

The math is simple. Bitcoin’s price has fallen, but the cost of mining hasn’t. Electricity, infrastructure, equipment — all still expensive. This is observed in Bitcoin’s hash price, which is the amount of revenue a Bitcoin miner earns for providing a unit of computing power to the network. It is currently sitting near historic lows.

And at the same time these miners’ margins are getting squeezed, AI companies are willing to pay a premium for the exact thing miners control: power. So for some miners, the rational move right now is to rent their capacity to AI rather than use it all for mining.

That doesn’t mean they’re abandoning Bitcoin. It means they’re adapting. I hosted MARA CEO Fred Thiel on the show last week to talk about exactly this — check that episode out.

Now, here’s the thing about bear markets. They tend to follow a pattern.

Across the last three major downturns, Bitcoin hit its cycle low an average of 384 days after peaking. If this cycle follows that average, we’d be looking at a potential bottom sometime around late October.

Past drawdowns were also deeper — roughly 80%. Could that happen again? It’s possible. But Bitcoin’s market is fundamentally different now. It’s larger, more liquid, and held by a much broader investor base.

And here’s the stat that really stands out. According to Checkonchain, 84% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply is now held by long-term holders — an all-time high.

As River put it: “Bitcoin conviction is at an all-time high.”

No one rings a bell when a bear market ends. But when companies are closing, weak hands are selling, and the people still holding are at record conviction — those are the clues.

The News Block is powered exclusively by Ledn.

Ledn is the global leader in Bitcoin-backed loans, issuing over $9 billion in loans since 2018, and was the first to offer proof of reserves. With Ledn, you get custody loans, no credit checks, no monthly payments, and more.

Visit LEDN.io to learn more.

AI Agents Paid Each Other Independently Over Lightning

Now here’s a story that sounds like science fiction — but it happened last week.

AI agents paid each other in Bitcoin. For real.

Lightning Labs launched a new toolkit called Wavelength that lets apps and AI agents send and receive Bitcoin payments without needing a bank account, a credit card, or anyone’s permission. At the same time, Block — Jack Dorsey’s company — released an open-source workspace called Buzz where AI agents can communicate and work together.

And then VP of Product at Lightning Labs, Michael Levin, combined the two. In a proof of concept, Levin got two independent AI agents to talk to each other through Buzz, complete tasks, and pay one another in Bitcoin over the Lightning Network.

One machine performed a service. Another machine paid for it. And Bitcoin settled the transaction — instantly.

It’s early. But it’s a glimpse of what an AI-powered economy could look like — and it runs on Bitcoin, not dollars.

“Big Bitcoin” Unites to Defend Network & Strategy Completes First STRC Buyback

And finally, a major institutional development.

Nine companies — including BlackRock, Fidelity, Coinbase, Block, and Strategy — announced the Bitcoin Security Consortium last week, pledging $15 million over the next three years to fund Bitcoin developers and researchers. Their first focus: preparing for quantum computing.

No quantum computer today can break Bitcoin. But a powerful enough one could eventually threaten the cryptography Bitcoin relies on. And because Bitcoin is designed to change slowly, it makes sense to start preparing now.

Galaxy, one of the founding members, also launched its own $5 million initiative focused specifically on quantum-resistant development.

This is what it looks like when major institutions start treating Bitcoin like critical global financial infrastructure — not something to trade, but something to protect.

Now, not everyone sees it that way. Critics are already calling this “Big Bitcoin” — arguing that when BlackRock, Fidelity, and Strategy are the ones funding developers, it starts to look less like a decentralized network and more like an industry cartel.

The concern is understandable given what happened in fiat.But safeguards matter. There’s no pooled fund — each company independently chooses which developers to support. The consortium will not take positions on protocol changes.

And Brink’s Mike Schmidt, who coordinates the effort as a volunteer, insisted on both conditions. The companies provide resources. Bitcoin’s developer community keeps control. Funding open-source development is not the same as controlling it.

Meanwhile, Strategy continued to show what active capital management looks like. This morning, the company disclosed that it repurchased 288,930 shares of STRC for $25 million at an average price of $86.52 — the first buyback under the Digital Credit framework it announced last month.

The company also boosted its cash reserve to $3.75 billion, representing over two years of dividend coverage.

Buying STRC below $100 lets Strategy retire preferred equity at a discount and reduce future dividend costs — exactly the kind of move the framework was designed for.

That’s the other side of a bear market. It doesn’t just test companies — it rewards the ones that prepared.

Bull markets reward attention. Bear markets reward builders.

Until next week, keep stacking.

- Nat

PS - Make sure to grab a copy of my new book, “Bitcoin is for Everyone.” I’ve written an approachable book on Bitcoin and the traditional financial system, perfect for your friends and family who are still learning about it.

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NEW: The Surprising Truth About Who’s Buying Bitcoin in Europe

This week, Fred Thiel joins Coin Stories for a wide-ranging and candid conversation.

Fred runs MARA (formerly Marathon Digital Holdings), one of the biggest public Bitcoin miners in the world. We get into why so many miners are pivoting to AI, what that means for Bitcoin, and his honest, big-picture read on where Bitcoin fits as an asset over the long run. Fred explains why power — not chips — has become the real bottleneck in tech, how MARA came to control over 4 gigawatts of it, and why that puts Bitcoin miners in a surprisingly valuable position.

We discuss:

• Why so many Bitcoin miners are pivoting to AI right now, and what it means for the network

• How Fred thinks about Bitcoin today — and why he’s put it “in a different box”

• The story behind MARA selling 20,000 Bitcoin

• Why Fred says power has become the most valuable asset in tech

• Where he sees Bitcoin’s price versus its longer-term value

• His candid take on whether Bitcoin becomes money

• The quantum question for older wallets, and a simple step to stay protected

Make sure to listen to my latest Coin Stories episodes, including Julian Liniger, David Hunter, and Lyn Alden.

Listen on Fountain and Earn Bitcoin: Click here
Listen on Apple Podcasts: Click here
Listen on Spotify: Click here
Listen on YouTube: Click here

Links to Items Mentioned in this Issue:
BitMEX Ends Operations After 11 Years
BitMart to Wind Down Its Exchange
Satsuma Shareholders Approve Bitcoin Treasury Liquidation
Smarter Web Company Sells Bitcoin to Repay Debt
Poolin Files for Bankruptcy
Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company Scraps Original SPAC Terms
Jack Mallers Steps Down as Twenty One Capital CEO
MARA Sells $1.5 Billion of Bitcoin Amid AI Shift
Bitdeer Empties Its Bitcoin Treasury as Miners Pivot to AI
84% of Bitcoin Is Held by Long-Term Holders
Bitcoin Conviction Is at an All-Time High
Lightning Labs Launches Wavelength
Jensen Huang Explains Why Open AI Models Matter
Mark Zuckerberg on Open Source and Preventing Centralization
Elon Musk Says X’s Code Will Be Open Source and Audited
Jack Dorsey Announces Buzz
Michael Levin Demonstrates Buzz and Wavelength Working Together
Mike Schmidt Explains the Bitcoin Security Consortium
Brian Armstrong on Preparing Bitcoin for Quantum Computing
Official Bitcoin Security Consortium Announcement
BlackRock, Coinbase and Strategy Join $15 Million Security Consortium
Galaxy Launches the Bitcoin Quantum Readiness Initiative
Strategy Executes First STRC Buyback
Strategy Announces Its New Bitcoin Capital-Markets Metrics

He also shared some genuinely surprising takes on Bitcoin’s role in the global financial system. Here’s a preview.

How MARA became a four-gigawatt energy company

MARA now controls about four gigawatts of power capacity. That’s enough electricity to power millions of homes — and it puts MARA in a very unique position as AI capital reshapes the energy landscape.

Fred walked me through the picture. AI companies are racing to build data centers, and demand for power has completely blown past supply. It takes 6 to 7 years to build a new plant, and hyperscalers like Google can’t wait that long. That means anyone sitting on ready-to-go power and land right now — including Bitcoin miners — is in what Fred calls “a golden position.”

Fred also broke down the economics in a way I found eye-opening. A Bitcoin mining site costs about $1 million per megawatt to build. A data center site — just the infrastructure, before adding any compute — runs $10 to $15 million per megawatt. Once you factor in the GPUs, a single data center can easily cost hundreds of millions.

MARA’s strategy is to partner rather than go it alone. Their deal with Starwood Digital Ventures gives them the design expertise, hyperscaler relationships, and construction capacity you need to build data centers at scale. In the meantime, MARA can keep mining Bitcoin on their sites until AI tenants are ready to move in — a two-year process at minimum. And because their mining rigs are containerized, they can physically move them from site to site as capacity comes online.

Fred was also honest about the timing. When I asked if he wished MARA had pivoted to AI sooner, he acknowledged it in hindsight — but said they deliberately waited because they didn’t have the internal expertise to compete on data center design and construction. Waiting for the right partner mattered more than being first.

MARA sold 20,000 Bitcoin — Fred’s reasoning

Yes, MARA also sold 20,000 Bitcoin from its balance sheet — and honestly, at this point, corporate Bitcoin sales aren’t the shocking headlines they used to be. Plenty of companies are actively managing their treasuries this year, and MARA is one of them.

Fred laid out the reasoning. The sale allowed MARA to retire about $1 billion in convertible debt at a discount, effectively locking in an equivalent price of $80,000 per coin. As the CEO of a publicly traded company, Fred said his job is to make decisions that serve shareholders — which sometimes means paying down expensive debt and freeing up capital for other investments.

Whether you agree with the move or not, it’s worth hearing him make the case himself.

Where he sees Bitcoin going next

Some of the most interesting parts of the conversation were toward the end of the show. Fred believes strongly in Bitcoin as a long-term store of value and inflation hedge. But he also had some pretty candid views on Bitcoin’s role as everyday money that surprised me.

His take is that Bitcoin isn’t likely to become the dominant medium for daily transactions — instead, he expects stablecoins to handle most of that volume, especially in AI-driven commerce. He also pointed to declining transaction fees and shrinking block rewards as real headwinds for miners.

Whether you agree or not, hearing it from someone running one of the largest mining operations in the world is worth your time.

Stream the show wherever you listen to podcasts.

NEW: Signed copies of Bitcoin Is For Everyone

One last thing I’m excited to share. I’ve been getting so many messages from people asking if there’s a way to buy a copy of my book, Bitcoin Is For Everyone, using sats — and now there is.

You can grab a limited number of signed copies from my new shop at shop.talkingbitcoin.com, powered by Speed Wallet. The whole point of the book is to make Bitcoin approachable for anyone, so being able to actually pay for it in Bitcoin closes the loop!

Supply is genuinely limited, so if you’ve been thinking about grabbing one for yourself or someone you’re trying to orange pill, this is the moment.

📦 Order your signed copy: shop.talkingbitcoin.com

Stay Up-to-Date Each Week With The News Block

And if you’re not already subscribed to The News Block — every week we break down the biggest stories in Bitcoin and macro in a way that’s fast, honest, and actually useful. New episodes drop every Monday in your inbox and wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe at thenewsblock.substack.com so you never miss a beat.

Subscribe now

⚡ The Stack: Tools I Use and Trust

These are the companies that power Coin Stories — and you’ll see why I use them myself!

⚡ Send Bitcoin instantly over Lightning Speed Wallet — Send, receive, or swap stablecoins and digital gold into Bitcoin in one app. Run a business? Speed powers Bitcoin payments for Steak ‘n Shake, and it can do the same for you. Code COINSTORIES10 for 5,000 free sats after your first transaction. → speed.app/natalie

🏦 Borrow against your Bitcoin without selling it Ledn — Ledn has a perfect track record protecting over $11 billion in client value through every market cycle since 2018. Tokenized gold is now live on Ledn, giving you two of the most verifiably scarce, non-sovereign assets ever created, held side by side. Hard assets. Real flexibility. One platform. Get 0.25% off your first loan. → ledn.io/natalie

⛏️ Fully-managed Bitcoin mining in the U.S with Abundant Mines — You own the miners. You keep 100% of the Bitcoin. Voted #1 mining company by peers. Get 1 month of free hosting → abundantmines.com/Natalie · Watch my episode with the founders

🔐 Self-custody your Bitcoin safely Bitkey by Block — Named to TIME’s Best Inventions of 2024 for Privacy & Security. Code STORIES for 10% off. → bitkey.world

🧠 Get 1-on-1 help setting up self-custody The Bitcoin Way — Personal guidance to master your own keys and sleep soundly at night. → thebitcoinway.com/natalie

🏛️ Hold Bitcoin in a tax-advantaged retirement account BitcoinIRA — Buy Bitcoin 24/7 inside a Traditional or Roth IRA. → bitcoinira.com/natalie

🛡️ Also in My Personal Stack

Efani — The most secure mobile service in America. Protects against SIM swaps. Trusted by CEOs and VIPs. → efani.com/natalie

CrowdHealth — I ditched fiat health insurance four years ago and joined CrowdHealth. Discounted plan at my link. → joincrowdhealth.com/natalie

Thanks for subscribing, and if this newsletter resonated, forward it to one person who needs to read it.

— Natalie

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or legal advice. I am not a financial advisor. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions. Information and opinions shared here may change without notice. Some links in this newsletter are affiliate or sponsor links, which means I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

CLARITY Act Faces Critical Test

Alright, everyone, welcome back to the News Block.

Bitcoin held up surprisingly well this past week despite another escalation in the conflict between the United States and Iran over the weekend.

Oil prices moved sharply higher as the two sides exchanged additional attacks, yet Bitcoin is still hovering just below $65,000 at the time of recording.

And while geopolitical uncertainty continues to dominate the headlines, another potentially major catalyst for the digital asset industry is approaching in Washington.

NYDIG recently called the CLARITY Act “the most important forward catalyst for the industry.”

That may sound like an exaggeration, but the bill could finally establish a comprehensive federal framework for digital asset markets in the United States.

It would help determine which assets and activities fall under the SEC, which fall under the CFTC, and what rules apply to exchanges, stablecoins, custody, tokenization and decentralized finance.

The House passed its version last year with strong bipartisan support. Then, in May, the Senate Banking Committee advanced the bill by a vote of 15 to 9.

But getting it out of committee was the easy part.

The bill now needs enough support to clear a 60-vote threshold in the full Senate, and the biggest remaining obstacle is an ethics provision that would limit the ability of senior government officials and their families to profit from digital assets while serving in office.

That issue became even more contentious after President Trump’s latest financial disclosure showed that he earned more than $1.4 billion from his family’s crypto ventures in 2025.

Two Democrats who helped advance the bill out of committee, Senators Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks, have said they will not support final passage without meaningful ethics restrictions.

President Trump met with Republican senators and senior White House officials on Thursday to discuss possible language. But as of this weekend, there has been no public announcement of a bipartisan agreement.

Stablecoin rewards have also been a major sticking point.

Banks want Congress to close loopholes that could allow exchanges or affiliated companies to pay yield on stablecoins because they fear digital dollars could pull deposits out of the traditional banking system.

With the ethics issue still unresolved and time running out, prediction markets recently put the odds of the CLARITY Act becoming law this year at just 31%.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune wants action before the Senate leaves for its summer recess on August 7.

That makes the next few weeks critical.

If lawmakers cannot reach a bipartisan compromise before then, the path becomes much more difficult as Congress turns to a government-funding deadline and the November midterm elections.

And even if the bill passes the Senate, any changes would still need approval from the House before it could reach President Trump’s desk.

For Bitcoin, the direct impact would be smaller than it would be for altcoins, exchanges and other crypto companies.

Bitcoin is already widely treated as a commodity and already has regulated futures and spot ETFs.

But passage would still matter.

It could make it easier for regulated banks to custody Bitcoin, execute trades and integrate it more deeply into lending, collateral and prime-brokerage markets.

More importantly, it would replace rules that can shift from one administration to the next with durable legislation passed by Congress.

If the CLARITY Act fails, the industry would remain dependent on SEC and CFTC interpretations that could be challenged in court or reversed by a future administration.

After nearly a decade of regulation through enforcement and constantly changing interpretations, Congress now has a narrow window to establish lasting rules for digital assets in the United States.

If lawmakers miss it, what NYDIG called the industry’s most important forward catalyst could become another missed opportunity in Washington.

The News Block is powered exclusively by Ledn.

Ledn is the global leader in Bitcoin-backed loans, issuing over $9 billion in loans since 2018, and was the first to offer proof of reserves. With Ledn, you get custody loans, no credit checks, no monthly payments, and more.

Visit LEDN.io to learn more.

The Debate Over BIP-110 Proposal Intensifies

Now let’s turn to the fight happening inside Bitcoin itself.

The debate over BIP-110 escalated this weekend and has become one of Bitcoin’s most divisive internal battles since the block size wars of 2017.

BIP-110 is a temporary, one-year soft fork designed to make it harder to store arbitrary data, including images and tokens, on the blockchain.

Supporters say that data burdens node operators and pulls Bitcoin away from its core purpose as money. Critics say changing Bitcoin’s rules to discourage certain uses would cross a dangerous line.

Michael Saylor and Lyn Alden both came out against it this weekend, but for different reasons.

Saylor believes it is dangerous because it would change Bitcoin’s neutral rules to discourage disputed uses. Lyn believes it is premature and would not meaningfully stop spam.

Saylor made his case in a 110-point essay titled “110 Reasons BIP 110 Is a Bad Idea,” calling it the “Bitcoin Iatrogenic Proposal,” meaning a treatment that causes more harm than the condition it was meant to fix.

His core point is that Bitcoin cannot read intent.

The network cannot know whether data represents an image, a contract, a proof or a future application. Saylor argues that targeting transaction structures could restrict legitimate uses, close off paths for innovation and set a precedent for using consensus rules to police disputed activity.

He believes unwanted activity should be handled through the fee market and voluntary policies adopted by miners and node operators, rather than by changing consensus for everyone.

As he put it:

“Bitcoin does not need guardians of purity. It needs guardians of neutrality.”

Lyn reached the same conclusion from a more practical angle.

She argues that BIP-110 would not materially reduce spam. It would mostly push the same data into other parts of transactions, potentially in ways that are less efficient for the network.

OP_RETURN, she explained, is not the cheapest place to put data. It has simply been one of the least harmful. Restricting it does not eliminate demand. It changes which bucket the spam goes into.

Lyn also rejected claims that Bitcoin faces an emergency and could fail unless the fork passes. Bitcoin already has a block-size limit and fee market constraining how much data can enter the network.

She noted that BIP-110 is less than a year old, lacks broad consensus and relies on an implementation with only one maintainer.

She remains open to better proposals and supports people’s right to attempt a fork. But before changing Bitcoin’s rules, she wants evidence that the problem is serious, the solution would work and more important improvements would not be disrupted.

As she put it: “If it could change easily, I’d sell it.”

Her broader concern is that this fight is distracting Bitcoiners from larger threats to privacy and usability, including expanding financial surveillance. She compared it to focusing on paper cuts while someone is swinging a machete.

And for anyone who wants to hear Lyn unpack her position on BIP-110 in more detail, I highly recommend checking out my recent interview with her.

The next test comes in early August. BIP-110 can lock in early if 55% of miners signal support, but signaling remained below 1% as of this weekend.

That shows BIP-110 is nowhere close to broad miner support. Enforcing it without broad agreement could leave supporters on a small minority chain.

August will show whether support grows or the proposal remains isolated.

There is no CEO, board or central authority that can force a change through Bitcoin. Developers can propose rules, miners can signal and node operators can choose their software, but the broader network ultimately decides what it recognizes as Bitcoin.

That process is slow and messy. But in a world that never stops changing, Bitcoin’s resistance to change is one of its strongest and most distinctive traits.

Bitcoin Bear Markets Are For Building

Before we go, a quick rapid-fire round of stories that caught my eye.

We already mentioned Lyn Alden. Apparently, weighing in on BIP-110 was not enough to keep her busy, because she also helped launch a new company called Orange Juice alongside my friend Jeff Booth, Nico Lechuga, Andi Pitt and others.

The company raised $40 million and plans to acquire, improve and permanently own cash-flowing American businesses, then reinvest the profits into additional acquisitions and a Bitcoin treasury.

It is another example of the different business models emerging around Bitcoin — this one anchored by durable cash flows from operating businesses.

A big congratulations to the entire Orange Juice team!

Citadel Securities, one of the world’s largest market makers, also invested $400 million in Crypto.com, valuing the exchange at $20 billion.

It’s just another signpost that major financial institutions continue investing in digital-asset infrastructure despite the recent price action.

Prices may be down, but serious capital is still allocating and building for the future.

And finally, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned four wallets tied to Iran’s central bank, and Tether froze roughly $131 million in USDT held in those wallets.

An important distinction: these were stablecoins, not bitcoin.

Tether can blacklist an address and prevent those tokens from moving. Bitcoin has no issuer with a freeze button.

Stories like this highlight the fundamental difference between digital dollars and truly permissionless, censorship-resistant money.

Until next week, keep stacking.

- Nat

PS - Make sure to grab a copy of my new book, “Bitcoin is for Everyone.” I’ve written an approachable book on Bitcoin and the traditional financial system, perfect for your friends and family who are still learning about it.

If you enjoyed reading this post, you should consider subscribing to the News Block.

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NEW: The Surprising Truth About Who's Buying Bitcoin in Europe

This week on Coin Stories, Natalie sits down with Julian Liniger, co-founder and CEO of Relai, Europe’s leading Bitcoin-only exchange, live at ‪BTC Prague.

After onboarding more than 100,000 Europeans to Bitcoin, Julian has a rare, ground-level view of who’s actually buying and it’s not who you’d expect. He shares what his data reveals about everyday people turning to Bitcoin, why European savers feel squeezed, why retail interest has gone quiet, and where he thinks the price goes from here.

We discuss:

• Who’s really buying Bitcoin in Europe, and why it’s older, more ordinary people than anyone expected

• Why so many Europeans are turning to Bitcoin to escape high taxes and a rising cost of living

• Why retail buyers have gone quiet, and what tends to bring them rushing back

• Julian’s honest read on whether the worst is behind us, and his forecast for the next bull market

• How Relai grew into a leading Bitcoin exchange across Europe, and its plan to one day go public

Make sure to listen to my latest Coin Stories episodes, including David Hunter, Lyn Alden, and Mauricio Di Bartolomeo.

Listen on Fountain and Earn Bitcoin: Click here
Listen on Apple Podcasts: Click here
Listen on Spotify: Click here
Listen on YouTube: Click here

Links to Items Mentioned in this Issue:
NYDIG: What Happens If CLARITY Fails
Crypto Bill Faces What Could Be Final Test Over Trump Conflicts of Interest
‘Positive’ Meeting With Trump on Ethics Raises Hopes for Passage of CLARITY
Polymarket Traders Cut CLARITY Act Passage Odds to Record Low
High-Level White House Meeting Said to Be Planned to Hash Out CLARITY Act
Phong Le Announces Strategy’s Banking Adoption Index
Saylor Urges Bitcoin to Reject BIP-110 in 110-Point Essay as Soft Fork’s August Showdown Approaches
Michael Saylor Says Proposal to Clean Up the Blockchain Is a Bad Idea
Michael Saylor: 110 Reasons Bitcoin Needs Guardians of Neutrality
Lyn Alden on Why BIP-110 Doesn’t Materially Reduce Spam
Lyn Alden on the Motte-and-Bailey Marketing Around the Fork
Lyn Alden: “If It Could Change Easily, I’d Sell It”
Lyn Alden on the Bigger Threats to Bitcoin’s Privacy and Usability
Jeff Booth, Lyn Alden and Team Raise $40 Million to Build a Bitcoin-Powered Permanent Capital Company
Inside ORANGE JUICE: A New Model for Buying Businesses and Building a Bitcoin Treasury
Citadel Securities Makes a $400 Million Bet on Crypto.com at a $20 Billion Valuation
Tether Freezes $131 Million After U.S. Sanctions Iran Central Bank-Linked Wallets

The dominant Bitcoin buyer in Europe today is 40 to 50 years old, often living in a rural area, and quietly looking to protect their savings. Not a crypto trader or a tech enthusiast. Just a working professional who has watched their currency lose purchasing power year after year and finally decided to do something about it.

Julian told me Relai is seeing steady inflows from everyday people — taxi drivers, hairdressers, small business owners — setting up automated savings plans alongside wealthier clients moving significant capital. What they all have in common is that they’re not there for the technology or the excitement. They’ve simply recognized Bitcoin as a hard asset that holds its value over time, and they want in.

The Middle Class Getting Left Behind

But there’s a group that isn’t buying, and their absence tells the more important story.

A huge portion of Europe’s middle class is stuck in a punishing cost-of-living crisis. Income taxes as high as 50%, plus additional wealth and capital gains taxes, plus doubled grocery prices and skyrocketing rents. Julian’s point is that these people aren’t ignoring Bitcoin because they don’t understand it. He says they’re ignoring it because they don’t have the mental bandwidth or the money left over to think about anything beyond keeping up with rising bills.

And the small slice of European retail investors who do have some savings to deploy? Many are skipping Bitcoin entirely and chasing the American AI boom and high-profile tech IPOs instead.

The European Landscape: Crushing Regs and Media FUD

Julian didn’t hold back on the regulatory environment either. He described a European media and central bank ecosystem that functions like an echo chamber — pushing outdated stories about Bitcoin being used for crime, manufacturing new fears about quantum computing threats, and doing whatever it takes to keep citizens locked into the euro. The goal, he said, is to slow adoption at any cost.

But the tide is turning. Relai just secured its full MiCA license, Europe’s rigorous new crypto regulatory framework. That means Relai can now legally offer its services across every EU country under the same standards traditional banks operate under. It’s a huge milestone — and a sign that even as governments push back, the infrastructure for European Bitcoin adoption is being built anyway.

Independent media is breaking through. Alternative platforms are giving people access to real information. And as the euro continues its structural decline, more Europeans will look for a lifeboat. The retail market may be distracted by tech stock hype for now, but Julian believes the shift toward fixed-supply assets like Bitcoin is inevitable.

A conversation every Bitcoiner needs to hear

Here’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: you can do everything right — cold storage, multisig, a seed phrase nobody could ever guess — and none of it protects you from a wrench attack.

2026 is on pace to be the worst year on record for physical attacks on Bitcoiners, and France has become the case study nobody wanted.

So we asked a simple question — who’s the one person to learn this from? Claude and ChatGPT both gave me the same name: Jameson Lopp, co-founder and CSO of Casa, and the person who keeps the archive tracking these attacks worldwide.

On July 21, Jameson is doing a live, no-hype session on how not to become the next name on that list. He’ll cover why France became ground zero, how to know your own risk level, what actually protects you versus what’s just for show, and he’ll answer your questions live.

Every Bitcoiner should hear this conversation and take steps to protect themselves.

🔒 Register here: https://meanwhile.bm/webinars/bitcoin-wrench-attacks/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=natalie_partnership&utm_campaign=bitcoin-wrench-attacks_webinar

Stay Up-to-Date Each Week With The News Block

And if you’re not already subscribed to The News Block — every week we break down the biggest stories in Bitcoin and macro in a way that’s fast, honest, and actually useful. New episodes drop every Monday in your inbox and wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe at thenewsblock.substack.com so you never miss a beat.

Subscribe now

⚡ The Stack: Tools I Use and Trust

These are the companies that power Coin Stories — and you’ll see why I use them myself!

⚡ Send Bitcoin instantly over Lightning Speed Wallet — Send, receive, or swap stablecoins and digital gold into Bitcoin in one app. Run a business? Speed powers Bitcoin payments for Steak ‘n Shake, and it can do the same for you. Code COINSTORIES10 for 5,000 free sats after your first transaction. → speed.app/natalie

🏦 Borrow against your Bitcoin without selling it Ledn — Ledn has a perfect track record protecting over $11 billion in client value through every market cycle since 2018. Tokenized gold is now live on Ledn, giving you two of the most verifiably scarce, non-sovereign assets ever created, held side by side. Hard assets. Real flexibility. One platform. Get 0.25% off your first loan. → ledn.io/natalie

⛏️ Fully-managed Bitcoin mining in the U.S with Abundant Mines — You own the miners. You keep 100% of the Bitcoin. Voted #1 mining company by peers. Get 1 month of free hosting → abundantmines.com/Natalie · Watch my episode with the founders

🔐 Download Bitkey today and use my promo code STORIES to get 10% off the new Bitkey. → bitkey.world

🧠 Get 1-on-1 help setting up self-custody The Bitcoin Way — Personal guidance to master your own keys and sleep soundly at night. → thebitcoinway.com/natalie

🏛️ Hold Bitcoin in a tax-advantaged retirement account BitcoinIRA — Buy Bitcoin 24/7 inside a Traditional or Roth IRA. → bitcoinira.com/natalie

🛡️ Also in My Personal Stack

Efani — The most secure mobile service in America. Protects against SIM swaps. Trusted by CEOs and VIPs. → efani.com/natalie

CrowdHealth — I ditched fiat health insurance four years ago and joined CrowdHealth. Discounted plan at my link. → joincrowdhealth.com/natalie

Thanks for subscribing, and if this newsletter resonated, forward it to one person who needs to read it.

— Natalie

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or legal advice. I am not a financial advisor. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions. Information and opinions shared here may change without notice. Some links in this newsletter are affiliate or sponsor links, which means I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

Bitcoin & Gold Just Made History for the Wrong Reasons

Alright… let’s start with a quick update on Bitcoin’s price action, because for the first time in a while, it is showing some signs of life.

Bitcoin climbed back above $64,000 this past week and, as of Sunday’s close, was up around 9% so far in July.

That strength is notable when you consider everything happening in the background.

Hostilities between the United States and Iran flared up again this weekend. Iran also claimed it had closed the Strait of Hormuz, a passageway for roughly one-fifth of global oil supplies.

The United States disputes that claim, but the uncertainty surrounding the conflict continues to hang over markets.

And yet investors have largely looked through it.

The S&P 500 remains close to record highs and, according to Charlie Bilello, has already recorded 24 all-time highs this year.

Even more interesting, the rally appears to be broadening.

The equal-weighted S&P 500—which gives roughly the same importance to every company—has recorded 31 all-time highs this year, showing that more stocks are starting to participate.

According to The Kobeissi Letter, if the current pace continues, the index could record around 60 all-time highs in 2026, making it the second-highest annual total on record.

So despite war, inflation concerns and anxiety over government debt, stocks have remained remarkably resilient.

But the market has not been nearly as kind to Bitcoin and gold.

Even after Bitcoin’s rebound, it remains down roughly 30% this year. Gold is down around 7%.

According to Charlie Bilello, they are the two worst-performing major assets of 2026—a combination he says we have never seen before in any previous calendar year.

So could Bitcoin’s recent strength be the beginning of a more sustained rally?

Maybe.

One strong move does not mean the bear market is over.

But perhaps the more important pivot is not happening on the price chart.

It is happening inside one of the largest—and historically most conservative—institutions in global finance.

This past week, a new Vanguard job posting immediately caught the attention of the Bitcoin community.

The title?

Head of Digital Assets.

Vanguard is the second-largest asset manager in the world, overseeing roughly $12 trillion and serving more than 50 million investors.

So naturally, many Bitcoiners said: “Vanguard has finally bent the knee to Bitcoin.”

To understand why, we have to go back to January 2024, when Vanguard refused to allow its brokerage customers to purchase the newly launched spot Bitcoin ETFs.

That made Vanguard a major outlier as BlackRock, Fidelity and other institutions embraced the products and attracted billions of dollars in assets.

But by the end of 2025, Vanguard had begun softening its position, allowing spot Bitcoin ETFs onto its brokerage platform.

But now, it appears the firm is taking it a step further.

According to the job description, its new Head of Digital Assets will lead Vanguard Personal Wealth’s strategy, roadmap and execution across the digital-asset economy.

In other words, Vanguard is no longer debating whether it needs a digital-asset strategy.

It’s deciding how to build one.

That is the game theory of Bitcoin adoption playing out in real time.

Competitors met client demand, built expertise and captured tens of billions of dollars in assets, and eventually Vanguard decided it could no longer afford to remain on the sidelines.

And Vanguard’s shift is part of something much larger happening across the United States.

On June 23rd, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent delivered a speech outlining a new vision for America’s economic role in the 21st century.

His third principle was that America will write the rules of the next economy and he specifically mentions digital assets as one of the key technologies that will shape the future of money.👇

Vanguard appears to have received the message: digital assets are becoming part of the financial system, and clients increasingly expect access.

Bear markets have a way of directing everyone’s attention toward price.

But beneath the surface, custody improves, distribution expands, regulation becomes clearer and financial institutions build expertise.

More investors gain access to Bitcoin through platforms they already know and trust.

That is often what adoption looks like before it appears in the price.

It is rarely one dramatic moment when the entire financial system suddenly embraces Bitcoin.

It is the steady erosion of resistance, one institution at a time.

Those are the kinds of developments that can help lay the groundwork for Bitcoin to reach new heights in the next cycle.

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Home Prices Are Falling When Priced in BTC

Okay… and stocks are not the only assets making new highs.

Housing is too.

According to Redfin, U.S. home sale prices has now hit a new record high of $409,000.

And that record is part of a much larger move.

According to Fidelity Digital Assets, the average U.S. home has appreciated by more than $100,000 since 2020.

For existing homeowners, on paper, that can look like good news.

But for everyone trying to enter the market, it pulls the ladder farther out of reach.

Because a home is not just another asset on a balance sheet.

It is where people raise families, put down roots and begin building generational wealth.

For me—and for millions of other Americans—homeownership has always been closely tied to the American Dream.

It represents the idea that if you work hard, you can afford a roof over your family’s head, build financial security and move up the socioeconomic ladder.

But more Americans are starting to question whether that dream still works.

As the country marked its 250th birthday, Hometap surveyed 1,000 U.S. homeowners about the state of homeownership.

More than one-third said homeownership had largely or completely fallen short of its role as a cornerstone of the American Dream.

And when respondents were asked to describe that dream in a single word, half chose either “eroding” or “broken.”

The affordability numbers tell the same story.

The National Association of Home Builders estimates that roughly 65% of U.S. households—or more than 88 million—cannot afford the median-priced new home, even assuming a 6% mortgage rate.

In other words, nearly two-thirds of American households are already priced out.

But a new chart from Fidelity Digital Assets offers a very different way to understand what is happening.

Instead of measuring the average home in dollars, Fidelity measured it in Bitcoin.

And the picture completely changes.

In the first quarter of 2020, the average U.S. home cost more than 50 Bitcoin.

By the first quarter of 2026, it cost approximately five.

So while the average home became more expensive in dollars, it became roughly 10 times less expensive when measured in Bitcoin.

Now, that does not mean housing suddenly became affordable for everyone who owns Bitcoin.

But it does mean Bitcoin’s purchasing power relative to housing increased significantly. The fact is that today, it takes far fewer bitcoin to buy the average home than it did six years ago.

And that illustrates something incredibly important.

Prices do not only tell us about the asset being measured.

They also tell us about the money being used to measure it.

During roughly this same period, the broad U.S. money supply expanded at a historic pace. The M2 money supply increased by around 40% between February 2020 and April 2022.

Of course, monetary inflation was not the only force pushing home prices higher.

A shortage of housing, ultra-low interest rates, changing migration patterns and rising construction costs all played a role.

But it is hard to ignore what happened as trillions of new dollars entered the financial system.

Scarce assets repriced materially higher in dollar terms.

And that is what makes changing your unit of account so powerful.

The average U.S. home keeps getting more expensive in dollars.

But priced in Bitcoin, it has collapsed.

When you begin pricing the world in Bitcoin, you start to see what fiat debasement can hide.

Sometimes the asset is not becoming dramatically more valuable.

The measuring stick is simply becoming weaker.

And that is why viewing prices through a Bitcoin lens can be such a powerful shift in perspective.

The Debate Over BIP-110 Proposal Is Heating Up

And one more story worth your attention — the biggest governance debate in Bitcoin since the 2017 block size wars. A proposal called BIP-110 would introduce a temporary one-year soft fork that limits arbitrary data storage on the Bitcoin blockchain, such as large inscriptions, images, and certain token protocols.

Supporters argue this data has bloated the chain, raised node operating costs, and shifted focus away from Bitcoin’s core role as money.

Critics argue that enforcing these limits at the consensus level sets a risky precedent, as it would invalidate some currently valid transactions and could lead to chain splits or erode Bitcoin’s permissionless nature.

Some critics also say the restrictions are bypassable and that the proposal does not address the economic incentives allowing users to pay fees to store data on the chain.

The key signaling deadline arrives in early August. Miner support remains very low — under 1% so far — while roughly 15% of nodes are now running BIP-110-compatible software.

Michael Saylor addressed it directly on X this past week, writing:

Lyn Alden also shared her perspective in my recent interview with her. She expressed caution about the proposal and questioned whether it fully addresses the underlying incentives driving data storage on Bitcoin. That full conversation is streaming now wherever you get your podcasts.

Until next week, keep stacking.

- Nat

PS - Make sure to grab a copy of my new book, “Bitcoin is for Everyone.” I’ve written an approachable book on Bitcoin and the traditional financial system, perfect for your friends and family who are still learning about it.

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NEW: Lyn Alden: Is Strategy in Trouble? A Clear-Eyed Look at STRC

Is Bitcoin’s bear market almost over? Macro analyst Lyn Alden joins Coin Stories to give her honest read on Bitcoin’s price, where we go from here, and why she says no rescue is coming.

Lyn returns to cut through the noise: why hard assets like Bitcoin and gold have been left behind, and why Bitcoin has to prove itself on its own merits. She also breaks down the volatility around Strategy’s ($MSTR) digital credit instrument $STRC, and the protocol fight dividing the Bitcoin community right now. We discuss:

• Whether Bitcoin has hit its floor — and the lowest sentiment Lyn says she’s ever seen

• Why Bitcoin proxies and leveraged products are no substitute for real, self-custodied Bitcoin

• What actually happened with Strategy’s $STRC — and how worried holders should be

• Her grounded take on the Bitcoin protocol wars (Core, Knots), and why she says the “existential threat” talk is overblown

• Why the big money print everyone’s waiting for still isn’t coming — and what it means for your money
  

Make sure to listen to my latest Coin Stories episodes, including Mauricio Di Bartolomeo, Best of Bitcoin, and Michael Saylor.

Listen on Fountain and Earn Bitcoin: Click here
Listen on Apple Podcasts: Click here
Listen on Spotify: Click here
Listen on YouTube: Click here

Links to Items Mentioned in this Issue:
Scott Bessent’s “American Economic Statecraft in the 21st Century” Speech
U.S. and Iran Exchange Attacks as Tehran Says the Strait of Hormuz Is Closed
Bitcoin Rallies Above $64,000 as a Momentum Indicator Turns Bullish
The Equal-Weighted S&P 500 Has Recorded 31 All-Time Highs in 2026
Bitcoin and Gold Are 2026’s Worst-Performing Major Assets
Vanguard Is Hiring a Head of Digital Assets
Head of Digital Assets, Personal Wealth — Official Vanguard Job Posting
Vanguard Spent Years Fighting Crypto. Now It Is Planning for It
Vanguard Oversees ~$12 Trillion as the World’s Second-Largest Asset Manager
Vanguard by the Numbers: More Than 50 Million Investors
Vanguard Refuses to Offer Spot Bitcoin ETFs on Its Platform
Vanguard Explains Its Decision to Allow Third-Party Cryptocurrency Funds
BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF Generates More Revenue Than Its Flagship S&P 500 Fund
Matthew Sigel Highlights Vanguard’s Search for a Digital-Assets Leader
Matt Hougan on Bessent’s Vision for U.S. Digital-Asset Leadership
Chart Chatter: It’s the Unit of Account, Not the Asset
Survey Finds Half of Homeowners Call the American Dream “Eroding” or “Broken”
Most Americans Can’t Afford New Homes Today

I’ll be honest with you: this bear market has been a grind and I’ve felt it too. Every conference feels a little quieter, the retail excitement that defined the last cycle has drifted somewhere else, and if you’ve been staring at the charts these past few months wondering why Bitcoin feels so heavy…you’re not imagining it.

So I brought back the one person I always want to hear from when the picture gets murky. Lyn Alden has a way of taking something that feels chaotic and showing you the machinery underneath it, without ever reaching for hype or doom. This conversation was one of our most substantive yet, and I left it feeling steadier than when I started.

Why Bitcoin’s price has felt so heavy

Lyn’s read is that we’re living through a massive rotation of capital, and Bitcoin is on the wrong side of it right now.

The big tech companies have completely changed their playbook. For years they were cash machines — they’d spend a little, earn a lot, and hand the rest back to shareholders. Now they’re pouring enormous sums into data centers and chips, some of them spending more than they bring in. That trade got so fast and so profitable that money came rushing in from everywhere else, and the assets that suffered were the quiet, patient ones. Gold. Bitcoin.

She’s careful to say this isn’t a verdict on Bitcoin. It’s a story about where the marginal dollar went. The fast money chased something shinier, and Bitcoin was left to sit.

What struck me most was when she said this is the lowest Bitcoin sentiment she has ever seen — lower than 2022, when the price was collapsing to $16,000 and FTX had just imploded. Back then the energy in the room was still electric. Now it’s quiet. Her point isn’t that something is wrong with Bitcoin. It’s that when nobody’s watching, the asset has to stand on its own merits. And in her view, it does.

What really happened with Strategy’s STRC

We didn’t avoid the elephant in the room. A lot of you have written to me with questions and real anxiety about STRC, so I asked Lyn to walk through it clearly.

She explains what actually happened: large trading players had stacked leverage on top of the product, and when Bitcoin drew down, that leverage unwound all at once. The reserves fell well below what the company had told investors to expect, and once the market noticed, the volatility followed.

Lyn doesn’t pull punches here, and she doesn’t grandstand either. She’s direct about where she thinks the risks weren’t always communicated and what the company can do better — that from an investor’s perspective, you don’t want to see a company drift far from its own guidance. And she gives real credit for the response: the board-level floors, the commitment to rebuilding reserves, the willingness to buy back securities when it makes sense. Reasonable steps, in her view, taken quickly once the signal came.

But her bottom line is the part I hope everyone hears. Leveraged corporate products, however well designed, are never a substitute for the clean simplicity of Bitcoin you hold yourself. There is a spectrum of exposure out there, and it matters where you sit on it.

We also cover the protocol debate, explained calmly

I’ll admit this one has been frustrating to observe on Bitcoin X. The disagreements over updates to Bitcoin’s protocol has turned harsh — the personal attacks, the claims that Bitcoin itself is on the line — and the tone has gotten so loud that a lot of good people have simply tuned out. It’s hard to find the signal.

Lyn is exactly the person for this. She brings an engineer’s background to the technical questions and, refreshingly, no appetite for the drama.

She walks through what’s actually being debated, and then makes a point I keep thinking about: whenever there’s a well-funded, coordinated push to change Bitcoin quickly, that in itself makes her more skeptical. Not because the idea is necessarily wrong, but because urgency and marketing are not how a monetary network should be changed. She’s held that line consistently, in both directions, no matter who’s doing the pushing.

And on the biggest question — is any of this an existential threat to Bitcoin? Her answer is measured, and it might disappoint the loudest voices on both sides.

The big picture

Lyn stands by her “gradual print” thesis, and if you’ve been waiting for the big one, brace yourself.

There is no economic cliff around the corner. No emergency money-printing event that suddenly wakes everyone up. Instead there’s what there’s always been: a slow, steady, deeply predictable erosion of what your money is worth. Money supply grinding upward. The Fed easing along quietly. Nothing dramatic enough to make the news — which is precisely the point.

I joked with her that I’m not going to get to refinance my family’s mortgage at 3 percent. But there’s something clarifying in her answer. If the system is designed to dilute your purchasing power a little every year, then the strategy doesn’t depend on a crisis at all. Ignore the noise. Focus on the fundamentals. Accumulate scarce, high-quality assets when nobody else wants them.

That’s where we are right now. Nobody wants them.

If you’re not already subscribed to The News Block — every week we break down the biggest stories in Bitcoin and macro in a way that’s fast, honest, and actually useful. New episodes drop every Monday in your inbox and wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe at thenewsblock.substack.com so you never miss a beat.

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— Natalie

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or legal advice. I am not a financial advisor. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions. Information and opinions shared here may change without notice. Some links in this newsletter are affiliate or sponsor links, which means I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

President Trump’s $1.4 Billion Crypto Payday

I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend. There’s a lot to get to this week, but we have to start with one number: $1.4 billion.

Last week, President Trump’s annual financial disclosure was released, all 927 pages of it. And according to Reuters, the President reported more than $1.4 billion in income from his family’s crypto ventures in 2025.

That included nearly $800 million connected to World Liberty Financial, the crypto company he co-founded with his sons, and another $635 million tied to the Official Trump meme token.

And Bloomberg put that number into perspective with a striking chart. Trump’s crypto haul was larger than the earnings of many of the biggest publicly traded crypto companies in America. It was even more than Coinbase, which earned about $1.26 billion.

So just think about that for a second.

One man, while serving as President of the United States, reported more income from crypto than some of the largest listed crypto companies whose entire business is digital assets.

And look, I want to be fair, because this show always tries to be.

This administration has done real, good things for Bitcoin. The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Ending the debanking of Bitcoin companies. Putting pro-Bitcoin voices in key seats. Those things matter, and I’ve said so on this show many times.

But this is different. And we have to call it what it is.

Because the Official Trump token and World Liberty were not Bitcoin. They weren’t even trying to be Bitcoin. They were politically branded crypto tokens tied to the President, his sons, and their closest affiliates.

And the structure looked a lot like the same crypto playbook this industry has spent a decade trying to grow out of.

A token gets printed out of thin air. Insiders and affiliates get the early advantage. Retail gets marketed into the hype. The price spikes. Early entrants sell into that demand. And everyday buyers are left holding the bag.

The only thing that made this case unique was that the person involved was the sitting President of the United States.

And the on-chain data shows exactly how it played out.

According to Nansen data reported by CoinDesk, roughly 1.5 million wallets bought the Official Trump token. About two out of every three are now sitting on combined realized and paper losses of $3.8 billion after the token collapsed from a high of around $75 to roughly $1.78, down about 97% from its peak.

But here is the stat that really tells the story.

Across every wallet that ever bought the token, winners and losers combined, the entire group is net positive by about $236 million.

Trump reported a $636 million payout tied to the token.

Read that again.

The coin generated nearly three times as much money for the President as it did for all token buyers combined.

That is not sound money. That is not financial innovation. That is the same pump-and-dump pattern we have seen over and over again in crypto.

It is a wealth transfer with a marketing budget.

And this whole story reminded me of a chart River shared this past week showing the five-year performance of Bitcoin versus other major cryptocurrencies.

As of June 24th, the chart shows that Bitcoin is up 81% over the past 5 years, while almost every other token on the chart is down. Many were down 80%, 90%, and even nearly 100%.

And that’s the part people miss so often.

Other cryptos can create a lot of short-term excitement, but most tokens do not accrue value over time. They spike during a hype cycle, insiders and early buyers exit, and then the token slowly bleeds out because there is no durable monetary premium underneath it.

Bitcoin is the exception because it has the fundamentals these tokens lack: true scarcity, decentralization, liquidity, security, and a global network effect.

Bitcoin had no founder enrichment scheme. No pre-mine. No insider allocation. No CEO. No board. No family business. No politician collecting a royalty check.

No one can print more of it. No one can change the monetary policy. And no one can rug you by changing the supply.

That’s the whole point.

Bitcoin is not a product being sold by a powerful person. It is a neutral monetary network that anyone can use, and no one can control.

And that distinction matters now more than ever because the political consequences of Trump’s various crypto projects are already showing up in Washington.

Congress is still working on the CLARITY Act, the market structure bill that the digital asset industry has been waiting for. But Trump’s disclosure has now given Democrats new ammunition to demand ethics provisions that would restrict presidents, vice presidents, senior officials, members of Congress, and their families from profiting from crypto while in office.

Senator Elizabeth Warren has already said crypto legislation must prevent senior officials and their families from profiting off the industry. Senator Ruben Gallego, one of the few Democrats who voted to advance the bill out of committee, has also said he wants to crack down on Trump’s crypto dealings.

And this is the danger.

Bitcoin is neutral. Bitcoin is apolitical. Bitcoin does not care who you voted for. It does not belong to Republicans, Democrats, Trump, Biden, Congress, or any government.

But because the grift got wrapped in the same word, “crypto,” Democrats now have an easy way to tie Bitcoin to Trump, turn it into a partisan issue, and slow down any efforts to push its adoption in Washington.

The Trump administration deserves credit for advancing Bitcoin policy. But these token ventures were an ethical disaster. They undermine trust. They burn retail investors. They give Bitcoin’s critics exactly the talking points they need. And they make it harder for serious builders, investors, and policymakers to separate Bitcoin from the crypto casino that surrounds it.

And here’s what I keep coming back to.

I wish someone had advised President Trump to focus only on Bitcoin. Just Bitcoin.

The President’s disclosures did show that he owns approximately $50 million in Bitcoin. So that’s a positive.

But I wish someone had told him to avoid the meme coins. Avoid the tokens.

There would be no billions in retail losses. No ethics fight. No ammunition for Bitcoin’s critics.

Just a President who recognized the hardest asset on earth and pushed for its adoption.

Instead, he reached for the quick money. And maybe that is the tell.

Because the people who really understand Bitcoin never needed to put their name on a coin.

The best coin in the world is the one no name can touch.

And that is exactly why Bitcoin is the only one that was never designed to leave you holding the bag.

The News Block is powered exclusively by Ledn.

Ledn is the global leader in Bitcoin-backed loans, issuing over $9 billion in loans since 2018, and was the first to offer proof of reserves. With Ledn, you get custody loans, no credit checks, no monthly payments, and more.

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Strategy Sells 3,588 BTC in Largest Sale Yet

Alright… so Bitcoin bear markets never feel like an opportunity in real time.

They can feel scary and exhausting.

Bitcoin is still roughly 50% below its all-time high. Sentiment is weak. Investors are frustrated. Every rally seems to get sold. Every headline feels negative. And every debate inside the Bitcoin community suddenly feels existential.

Today, we had Strategy come out and announce its largest BTC sale yet, selling 3,588 BTC ($216 million) to fund dividends on its perpetual preferred equity instruments, such as STRC.

The market took Strategy’s sale in stride, with BTC, MSTR, and STRC all rising on the day.

The sale was telegraphed by the company last week in an announcement as part of its new Bitcoin Monetization Program, so the market seems to have absorbed the news well.

It’s important to note that this sale is not a sign of Strategy losing conviction. The purpose of this sale is to strengthen the creditworthiness of Strategy’s preferred instruments, thereby leading to more BTC accumulation in the long run.

And besides, Strategy still remains a massive net buyer of Bitcoin in 2026. In the last quarter, the company acquired 83,903 BTC. In other words, this sale represents just 4% of the BTC Strategy accumulated in the last quarter alone.

So, all in all, don’t believe the headlines when it comes to Strategy selling. The company is thinking in decades, not quarters.

Some Rare On-chain Signals Are Flashing Bullish Signs

However, there are signs under Bitcoin’s hood that provide hints at who’s been buying.

According to CryptoQuant, Bitcoin’s long-term holders have returned to net accumulation. These are wallets that have held bitcoin for at least 155 days, so this is not hot money trading every move. This is the cohort that tends to step in when the market is weak, and everyone else is selling.

And that matters because those same long-term holders are also feeling real pain.

DurdenBTC put it well on X this week, saying, “It’s not the tourists underwater this time — it’s the long-term holders.”

According to the chart he shared, roughly 45% of long-term holder supply is now sitting at a loss. That is the same general zone reached around prior cycle bottoms.

Another chart showed that Bitcoin’s overall supply in profit is sitting near historical lows. This is only the sixth time since 2011 that supply-in-profit has fallen to these levels. The last time was late 2022, when Bitcoin was around $16,000.

And what happened over the next two years?

Bitcoin went up eight times.

Now, history does not repeat perfectly. No single metric guarantees a bottom.

But the bigger picture is what matters.

Bitcoin’s supply-in-profit is near historic lows, and yet long-term holders are not panic-selling into that pain. They are buying more.

That’s the signal.

It suggests Bitcoin is once again moving from people who bought for a quick trade to people who understand that they own one of the hardest forms of money ever discovered.

Just like every bear market before.

Even Dave Portnoy seems to get it now.

The Barstool Sports founder and former guest on this show said this past week that, after years of mistiming Bitcoin, he is not selling this time, saying, “I’d rather go down with the ship this time.”

Credit where it’s due, Dave. He seems to have finally learned his lesson trying to time Bitcoin.

Because that is the lesson most people learn only after getting chopped up a few times. You try to trade it. You sell right before it rips. You buy right before it drops. And eventually, Bitcoin teaches you that the hard part is not finding the perfect entry.

The hard part is sitting on your hands and holding through the part of the cycle when everyone else loses conviction.

And that’s exactly where we are now.

Bear markets do not just show up in the price. They show up in the culture.

You see more infighting. More frustration. More purity tests. More debates that start to feel like a verdict on Bitcoin’s future.

We’re seeing that today around Bitcoin treasury companies, institutional adoption, protocol proposals, and the quantum debate.

Some of those conversations are important. Bitcoin should be debated. Serious risks should be discussed. But bear markets have a way of turning every disagreement into a referendum on Bitcoin itself.

And that is why Michael Saylor’s latest long-form post was so timely.

The piece was titled, “Bitcoin Evolves by Not Changing.”

His core argument was that Bitcoin’s greatest evolution over the next decade will come from changing less at the protocol layer and mattering more everywhere else.

But Bitcoin itself does not need to become everything.

Saylor’s point is that Bitcoin is not a technology stock, a payments company, or a software platform competing to add features.

Bitcoin is a monetary network.

Its purpose is not to move fast and break things.

Its purpose is to move slowly without breaking.

That distinction matters.

Bitcoin’s base layer is not optimized for buying coffee. It is optimized for final settlement: high-value transactions, treasury reserves, collateral settlement, and final ownership transfer.

The world can innovate around Bitcoin, but Bitcoin’s job is to remain the thing that does not change.

And this connects directly to the debates happening right now.

Saylor wrote that Bitcoin’s immune system is hard consensus. The most important feature is not that Bitcoin can be upgraded easily. The most important feature is that it cannot be changed casually.

That is not a weakness.

That is the source of its strength.

Of course, the risks are real. Bad ideas can compromise the edges. Custodians can obscure the asset. Leverage can distort the market. Political actors can try to control the interfaces.

But the protocol can remain sound while the financial system around it makes mistakes.

Bitcoin does not eliminate human error.

It exposes it.

And this is where Saylor’s point connects back to the bear market.

Price changes. Sentiment changes. Narratives change. The debates change. The critics get louder. Even Bitcoiners start arguing with each other.

But Bitcoin keeps doing the same thing.

Producing blocks. Enforcing the rules. Protecting the 21 million supply cap. Settling value without asking permission.

That is what long-term holders are betting on when they accumulate through the pain.

They are not betting on perfect timing.

They are betting on the one thing in this market that never changes.

Bitcoin evolves by not changing.

And in a world where everything else feels unstable, that may be its greatest feature of all.

And on that note, I sat down with Lyn Alden for a brand new conversation where we get into this exact topic, including the protocol debate and what it means for Bitcoin’s future. That episode drops tomorrow — don’t miss it.

The price is being tested. The thesis is not. Bear markets are when conviction gets separated from speculation.

Until next week, keep stacking.

- Nat

PS - Make sure to grab a copy of my new book, “Bitcoin is for Everyone.” I’ve written an approachable book on Bitcoin and the traditional financial system, perfect for your friends and family who are still learning about it.

If you enjoyed reading this post, you should consider subscribing to the News Block.

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NEW: Why Have Bitcoin and Gold Prices Crashed? Is $40,000 BTC Approaching Bottom?

Ledn Co-Founder Mauricio Di Bartolomeo joins Natalie Brunell for a first-time announcement: Tether’s tokenized gold (XAUt) is coming to Ledn — the first step toward gold-backed loans later this year.

He answers the Bitcoin purists on adding gold, breaks down Ledn’s first S&P investment-grade bond backed by Bitcoin loans, and gives a firsthand account of Venezuela after Maduro’s capture.

Topics we cover:

• XAUt tokenized gold (real bars in Tether’s Swiss vaults) coming to Ledn, with gold-backed loans later this year

• Inside Ledn’s first S&P investment-grade bond backed by Bitcoin loans — and how the ABS market could scale Bitcoin credit toward $1 trillion

• Mauricio’s answer to Bitcoiners who don’t like credit products or investing in other assets

• Watch Natalie Take My First Bitcoin-Backed Loan

• Why Ledn caps loans at 50% LTV, and how auto top-off protects borrowers from liquidation

• His read on “seller exhaustion” and why he expects a more resilient summer

• Venezuela after Maduro’s capture — and the crackdown on its illegal gold mines
  

Make sure to listen to my latest Coin Stories episodes, including the Best of Bitcoin, Michael Saylor, and Amy Oldenburg.

Listen on Fountain and Earn Bitcoin: Click here
Listen on Apple Podcasts: Click here
Listen on Spotify: Click here
Listen on YouTube: Click here

Links to Items Mentioned in this Issue:
Trump Reports More Than $1.4B in Crypto Income for 2025
Trump Insists There’s Nothing Wrong With His Big Crypto Gains
Trump Pocketed More Than $1B From Crypto Ties as Industry Headed Toward Slump
Trump Says There’s ‘Nothing Wrong’ With Family’s Crypto Windfall
Trump’s Crypto Token Buyers Are Down $3.8B, Blockchain Data Shows
Nearly 1 Million Wallets Are Down $3.8B on Trump’s Memecoin
Trump Financial Disclosures Show Hundreds of Millions in Crypto-Related Income
Trump’s Memecoin Investors Are Down Billions
Clarity and Congress’s Summer Break — State of Crypto
River’s Chart on 5-Year Crypto Performance
Bitcoin Magazine on Trump’s Crypto Disclosure
Bitcoin Long-Term Holders Have Returned to Accumulation, Glassnode Says
Barstool’s Portnoy Plans to Hold BTC Down to $0 After Timing It Wrong Every Time
Michael Saylor: “Bitcoin Evolves by Not Changing”
DurdenBTC: ~45% of Long-Term Holder Supply in Loss
DurdenBTC: Bitcoin Supply-in-Profit at Historical Lows
Bitfinex: Long-Term Holder Supply in Loss
Strategy Sells 3,588 BTC in Largest Sale Yet

First — I hope you all had a great 4th of July holiday. Second — thank you for your patience. Our weekly Coin Stories newsletter was on pause while my team and I took some time off, but we’re back and I’ve got a lot to share with you.

The last few weeks have been a lot to take in. Range-bound prices, endless AI headlines, a $500 billion capital drain into tech, and a rising tide of criticism aimed at some of the most important people building infrastructure for Bitcoin’s next chapter. There’s a lot of noise. And a lot of it is missing the point.

That’s exactly what my recent conversation with Michael Saylor at BTC Prague was about.

The real story behind the digital credit debate

You’ve probably seen the outrage online — the accusations that Strategy has abandoned Bitcoin’s core principles, the criticism of digital credit, the arguments that this whole thing is some kind of Ponzi. I sat down with Michael to hear him out directly. What he laid out was a fundamentally different framework than what most people are seeing. Strategy isn’t a passive ETF or a static Bitcoin pile. It’s a corporate reserve banking machine, using novel credit structures to continuously raise capital and accumulate more Bitcoin over the long term. Every instrument they’ve built — the preferred equity, the digital credit products, the balance sheet architecture — is designed to do one thing: increase Bitcoin per share over time.

This is one of the most important interviews I’ve done this year. If you’ve been trying to make sense of the criticism, or you want to understand what Strategy is actually building, this is the one to watch.

🎧 Watch my full conversation with Michael Saylor here:

(Again, this one dropped in June — but if you haven’t seen it yet, it’s more relevant than ever given everything happening with digital credit right now.)

A new way to think about using your Bitcoin — plus a major Ledn announcement

I also want to share my conversation with Mauricio Di Bartolomeo, co-founder of Ledn, from that same BTC Prague trip.

Mauricio and I got into something that comes up in almost every Bitcoin household — the tension between wanting to hold every last sat forever and actually using Bitcoin to live your life. He shared a story that stuck with me. A maximalist husband refuses to touch a single sat. His pregnant wife points out they’re squeezed into a one-bedroom apartment and asks him, “Isn’t the whole point of this so we can have a good life?”

Mauricio’s answer is worth hearing. Bitcoin is permissionless, and a Bitcoin-backed loan is just a financial tool. Same as a mortgage. It’s meant to give you a tailwind in the fiat world without forcing you to give up your upside.

He also broke news on the show — tokenized gold is coming to Ledn, with gold-backed loans launching later this year. That means Tether’s physical gold bars vaulted in Switzerland become collateral you can borrow against. And this news comes right after Ledn closed a $188 million asset-backed security bond that earned a BBB- investment-grade rating from S&P — the first of its kind. Bitcoin credit is now being packaged with the same rigor as traditional mortgages, and Wall Street is paying attention.

🎧 Watch my Ledn interview here or wherever you stream your podcasts:

Sign up for Ledn and get .25% off your first loan at https://www/ledn.io/natalie.

Jeff Booth, Whitney Webb, Col. Douglas Macgregor, and Michael Saylor — in one essential 35-minute watch

Finally, if you’re feeling overwhelmed by the macro picture — the noise, the AI headlines, the price action, the criticism — I put something together that I think will help.

We went back through the archives and pulled the most-viewed conversations this show has ever done, and wove them into a single 35-minute compilation. Four of the sharpest minds in macro, security, and technology walking through what’s actually broken, why Bitcoin is the answer, and what everyday people can do about it.

You’ll hear from Jeff Booth, whose framework for deflation completely changed how I think about technology and the economy — he makes the case that the natural state of a free market is falling prices and that fiat inflation is what’s been keeping us all on a treadmill.

You’ll hear from Whitney Webb, one of the most fearless investigative journalists working today, breaking down the systems of institutional power that most people never see and explaining why individual sovereignty matters more now than at any point in modern history.

You’ll hear from Colonel Douglas Macgregor, a decorated combat veteran who’s spent decades inside the U.S. defense and foreign policy machine. His perspective on where America stands geopolitically — and what it means for the dollar — is essential.

And you’ll hear from Michael Saylor making the case for Bitcoin as a once-in-humanity innovation, and why he believes it’s the most important asset any individual, institution, or nation can hold.

Four voices. One clear narrative. Thirty-five minutes.

If you know someone who’s still trying to understand all of this — a family member, a friend who’s asked questions, someone who’s overwhelmed by the noise — this is the piece to send them. It’s the closest thing to a Bitcoin masterclass we’ve ever put together.

🎧 Watch the compilation here:

A quick note from me

I want to say thank you. Truly.

The last few weeks reminded me how much this community means to me — the messages, the DMs, the people at BTC Prague who came up and told me the show has helped them understand Bitcoin, or gifted the book to someone they love. That’s why I do this. And it’s why we’re going to keep pushing to bring you the best conversations, the sharpest analysis, and the most useful breakdowns of what’s actually happening in Bitcoin and macro.

There’s a lot coming soon — new interviews already in the works, some big changes to the show I can’t wait to share, and a few surprises I think you’re going to love. Stay tuned.

If you’re not already subscribed to The News Block — every week we break down the biggest stories in Bitcoin and macro in a way that’s fast, honest, and actually useful. New episodes drop every Monday in your inbox and wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe at thenewsblock.substack.com so you never miss a beat.

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⚡ The Stack: Tools I Use and Trust

These are the companies that power Coin Stories — and you’ll see why I use them myself!

🏦 Borrow against your Bitcoin without selling it Ledn — The global leader in Bitcoin-backed loans. $10B+ issued since 2018. No credit checks, no monthly payments. 0.25% off your first loan. → ledn.io/natalie

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🧠 Get 1-on-1 help setting up self-custody The Bitcoin Way — Personal guidance to master your own keys and sleep soundly at night. → thebitcoinway.com/natalie

🏛️ Hold Bitcoin in a tax-advantaged retirement account BitcoinIRA — Buy Bitcoin 24/7 inside a Traditional or Roth IRA. → bitcoinira.com/natalie

🛡️ Also in My Personal Stack

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Thanks for subscribing, and if this newsletter resonated, forward it to one person who needs to read it.

— Natalie

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or legal advice. I am not a financial advisor. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions. Information and opinions shared here may change without notice. Some links in this newsletter are affiliate or sponsor links, which means I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

Strategy Unveils a $3.8 Billion Plan After STRC Crashes

Last week was the worst week in the short history of digital credit — the new class of Bitcoin-backed preferred stocks issued by companies like Strategy and Strive.

Strategy’s STRC fell as low as $71.25. Strive’s SATA dropped to around $79. For instruments designed to trade at $100, that was a sharp and sudden crack.

The critics piled on. Social media was full of people declaring STRC dead, Strategy broken, and the entire Bitcoin treasury model a house of cards.

So all eyes were on Michael Saylor and the Strategy team this week.

On Monday, Strategy announced a new Digital Credit Capital Framework — essentially telling the market: we hear you, and here’s how we’re going to address it.

The headline number: Strategy has set aside $3.8 billion in liquidity to cover its dividend and interest obligations — enough to pay every preferred shareholder for more than two years, even if the company never issues another share.

That $3.8 billion comes from two sources. First, a $2.55 billion cash reserve — earmarked exclusively for dividends and interest, nothing else. The board established a hard floor: management said it will maintain at least 12 months of coverage at all times, and going below that requires board approval. Second, a new program that gives the company the ability to sell up to $1.25 billion in Bitcoin if needed to top up that reserve.

It’s worth noting that much of that cash reserve was built by selling MSTR common stock — so the reassurance for preferred shareholders came at a cost to common shareholders in the form of dilution. That’s a tradeoff the company clearly decided was necessary to stabilize the capital structure.

And the Bitcoin sale option is the part getting a lot of attention — and the most pushback. Critics immediately said, “Saylor is selling over a billion in Bitcoin. He said he’d never sell!”

But here’s the context. The $1.25 billion represents less than 2.5% of Strategy’s total Bitcoin holdings of 847,363 BTC. The goal isn’t to become a seller of Bitcoin. The goal is to have enough flexibility to avoid issuing common stock at bad prices — especially when the stock is trading near the value of the Bitcoin it holds.

As CFO Andrew Kang put it: “Bitcoin is capital. This program gives Strategy the flexibility to use a portion of its Bitcoin reserve to strengthen digital credit.”

On top of that, Strategy raised STRC’s dividend from 11.5% to 12% to make it more attractive to income investors. And they authorized up to $2 billion in buybacks — $1 billion for their preferred securities and $1 billion for MSTR common stock.

That last part is a big deal — and a notable shift. Saylor has historically been critical of stock buybacks so the fact that he’s now authorizing them tells you how seriously he’s taking the need to defend the capital structure.

CEO Phong Le framed it this way: “Strategy is evolving from one-way capital issuance to active capital management. We intend to move between issuing securities when capital is attractive and repurchasing securities when our instruments trade at levels that make buybacks accretive.”

That’s a meaningful evolution. Until now, the model has been one-directional: issue shares, raise cash, buy Bitcoin. Now they’re saying, we’ll also buy back our own securities when the market misprices them — and if needed, we’ll sell a small amount of Bitcoin to fund those buybacks rather than dilute common shareholders.

The market responded. STRC and MSTR both rallied about 12% on Monday. STRC climbed back into the mid-$80s.

Last week, the critics had their moment. This week, Strategy answered.

The News Block is powered exclusively by Ledn.

Ledn is the global leader in Bitcoin-backed loans, issuing over $9 billion in loans since 2018, and was the first to offer proof of reserves. With Ledn, you get custody loans, no credit checks, no monthly payments, and more.

Visit LEDN.io to learn more.

Illinois Passes Absurd Digital Assets Tax Into Law

Now let’s zoom out — because every bear market comes with the same soundtrack.

The price is down. The skeptics get louder. And one by one, high-profile investors announce they’ve sold or lost faith.

Last month, Mark Cuban sold most of his Bitcoin. This week, billionaire Jeremy Grantham went on CNBC and called Bitcoin “useless” and “speculative,” predicting it would “dwindle away with a whimper.”

Lyn Alden has joked that there are really only two phases in Bitcoin’s cycle: “Bitcoin is a bubble” and “Bitcoin is dead.” Right now, we’re in the “Bitcoin is dead” phase.

But has anything actually changed about Bitcoin itself? The supply is still capped at 21 million. The network keeps producing blocks every ten minutes whether the price is at $60,000 or $126,000. None of the properties these critics originally acknowledged have changed. What changed was the price.

Meanwhile, the world around Bitcoin has only gotten worse — for fiat, not for Bitcoin. Global debt hit a record $348 trillion at the end of 2025. Governments can’t realistically tax or grow their way out of it. Which means they’ll do what they’ve always done: print more money and let the currency absorb the damage.

Two pieces of research this week underscored that reality. The IMF warned that stocks and bonds are increasingly falling together during stress — because governments keep flooding the market with debt.

The old assumption that bonds cushion your portfolio when stocks fall? The IMF says it no longer holds.

And UBS’s 2026 Global Family Office Report found that 65% of family offices expect confidence in the dollar to weaken and 56% fear a debt crisis within five years. Their response? Increasing allocations to hard assets — including Bitcoin.

So when someone tells you Bitcoin has failed because the price is down, ask a different question: has the need for a scarce, decentralized asset that no government controls gone up or down? The answer is obvious.

Before I close, one quick development:

Ledn announced a partnership with Tether to accept tokenized gold as collateral for loans. Gold holders will be able to borrow against their position without selling, using the same custody model Ledn built for Bitcoin — collateral held one-to-one and never rehypothecated. I sat down with Ledn co-founder Mauricio Di Bartolomeo to talk about this and much more — that episode drops tomorrow.

At the end of the day, the “debasement trade” isn’t a trade at all — it’s a permanent feature of the system we live in. And Bitcoin and gold remain some of the only assets built to protect against it.

The price of both are being tested. But the investment thesis is not.

Until next week, keep stacking.

- Nat

PS - Make sure to grab a copy of my new book, “Bitcoin is for Everyone.” I’ve written an approachable book on Bitcoin and the traditional financial system, perfect for your friends and family who are still learning about it.

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NEW: The Best Bitcoin Advice From Our Most-Watched Episodes

Four of the biggest voices in Bitcoin — Michael Saylor, Whitney Webb, Jeff Booth, and Col. Douglas Macgregor — in one episode. I went back through the show's most-watched, most-shared moments and built them into a single story: what’s broken with the money, why Bitcoin fixes it, and what you can actually do about it.

In about 35 minutes, you’ll hear the clearest case for why the system feels rigged, why these four believe Bitcoin is the way out, and the one line Saylor leaves you with: Bitcoin will win — but not everyone wins with it.

Topics:

• Why Jeff Booth says we’ve never actually lived in a free market

• Michael Saylor on why Bitcoin is “the best asset, with no second best”

• How broken money quietly concentrates wealth at the very top

• Whitney Webb on digital ID, programmable money, and how to opt out

• Why no politician or billionaire is coming to save you

• The mindset shift that turns doom into building something better
  

Make sure to listen to my latest Coin Stories episodes, including Michael Saylor, Amy Oldenburg, and Luke Gromen.

Listen on Fountain and Earn Bitcoin: Click here
Listen on Apple Podcasts: Click here
Listen on Spotify: Click here
Listen on YouTube: Click here

Links to Items Mentioned in this Issue:

Michael Saylor — Digital Credit Capital Framework announcement
Strategy Announces New Digital Credit Capital Framework
Strategy Opens the Door to Selling Bitcoin Under New Capital Plan
Saylor’s Strategy Initiates Buybacks, BTC Monetization Program, Lifts STRC Dividend
Strategy Says It May Sell Up to $1.25 Billion of Bitcoin
Billionaire Investor Jeremy Grantham Says Bitcoin Will ‘Dwindle Away With a Whimper’
Stock-Bond Diversification Offers Less Protection From Market Selloffs
Global Family Office Report 2026

Digital Credit Has Its Worst Day in History

While AI stocks and mega-IPOs have been dominating the market, Bitcoin has been left behind — down about 50% from its all-time high. And now, the pain is spreading into the emerging digital credit market.

Last Thursday was what Strive CEO Matt Cole called “the most difficult day in the history of digital credit.” Strategy’s STRC fell to a low of $82.53 before recovering to close at $88.59 heading into the long weekend. Strive’s SATA dropped from par into the low $90s before rebounding to $97.71 — within 1.3% of its target range.

For those unfamiliar, STRC and SATA are preferred stocks designed to trade around $100, pay high dividends — 11.5% for STRC, 13% for SATA — and, when they trade at or above par, the companies can issue new shares and use the proceeds to buy Bitcoin.

Many investors saw the decline as a credit event — a sign that the market was losing confidence in the issuers. But Cole argued the opposite. His view is that this was a leverage liquidation event, not a deterioration in underlying credit quality.

And it’s really not hard to see how the leverage built up. These instruments were offering double-digit yields with relatively low volatility. That attracted investors who didn’t just buy — they borrowed against them. Some were running carry trades, borrowing money at 5 or 6% and buying STRC yielding 11.5%, pocketing the spread. That works until it doesn’t. When prices fall, margin calls arrive, forced selling cascades, and price action becomes completely disconnected from fundamentals.

We’ve seen this movie before. Some of the largest hedge fund blowups in history involved leveraged positions in U.S. Treasuries, as investors got overextended trying to squeeze extra yield from assets they viewed as safe. Cole believes a similar dynamic played out here.

Now, here’s something worth understanding about the mechanics.

STRC’s dividend is based on its $100 par value, not its market price. So when the stock falls below $100, the yield actually goes up. An investor buying STRC at $85 receives the same dividend payment as someone who bought at $100 — which means they’re earning roughly 13.5% instead of 11.5%. The lower the price, the higher the yield. That creates a natural incentive for income-focused buyers to step in as the discount widens.

Separately, investors are also working through broader questions about the company — including how Strategy’s guidance has evolved over time, its willingness to sell Bitcoin, the mNAV levels at which it would issue shares, and the decision to use cash reserves to pay down debt. Saylor addressed many of these directly in my recent interview with him — I’d encourage you to listen if you want to understand how he thinks about the math.

On Friday, Saylor also addressed the broader pressure on X, sharing a video from a speech he gave in October 2022 — when Bitcoin was near $20,000, and Strategy’s debt briefly exceeded its reserves.

And the company is still buying. Strategy announced on Monday that it had acquired an additional 520 BTC and increased its USD reserve by $300 million. Strive also joined the party, announcing that it had acquired an additional 759 BTC. So, whatever the noise around digital credit, the accumulation hasn’t stopped.

But what concerns me isn’t the debate itself. It’s how that debate is playing out.

I’ve watched people who know each other well — people who’ve shared meals and have each other’s phone numbers — tear into each other publicly online this week. Complex disagreements about financial instruments and business models are being reduced to gotcha moments and 280-character attacks.

I’d love to see more of these debates happen in X Spaces, on podcasts, or over the phone — anywhere that allows for tone, context, and real conversation. Bear markets are stressful. People are hurting. But this community has been through worse, and the people in it are better than what I’ve been seeing online.

Debate is healthy. Personal attacks are not. And Bitcoin doesn’t need us to agree on everything — it needs us to disagree better.

The News Block is powered exclusively by Ledn.

Ledn is the global leader in Bitcoin-backed loans, issuing over $9 billion in loans since 2018, and was the first to offer proof of reserves. With Ledn, you get custody loans, no credit checks, no monthly payments, and more.

Visit LEDN.io to learn more.

Illinois Passes Absurd Digital Assets Tax Into Law

Illinois may have just passed one of the most absurd digital asset taxes in the country.

Buried inside the state budget at the last minute was a new 0.2% tax on digital asset activity — including exchanging, transferring, or storing digital assets for customers in Illinois.

In other words, this is not just a tax on profits. It is a tax on activity itself. Transactions. Transfers. Custody. Potentially even moving Bitcoin to a personal wallet.

First, they fumbled the Chicago Bears. Now, Illinois wants to tax Bitcoin transactions, risking losing all the Bitcoiners and companies in the state too.

And this is what happens when governments run out of money. For those who don’t know, Illinois has one of the worst financial outlooks of all the states in the United States. But instead of reducing their wasteful spending and asking why businesses, residents, and capital are leaving, they look for the next thing to tax.

For major Chicago trading firms like DRW and Jump Trading, the economics could get ugly fast. If every digital asset transaction or transfer comes with an added tax, firms will eventually ask the obvious question: why stay?

Citadel has already left Chicago for Miami. And if this tax holds, it may only be a matter of time before other major financial firms and digital asset companies follow. The economics simply stop making sense.

The good news is that there is already pushback. Just days after the law passed, Illinois lawmakers introduced HB5798, a bill that would fully repeal the Digital Asset Tax Act.

So this may be headed for a court fight, a legislative reversal, or both.

But the bigger message from Illinois is clear: tax first, think later.

And this is the beauty of Bitcoin.

When you save in liquid, digital money that can be self-custodied with 12 words, your wealth is no longer trapped by bad policy.

When governments punish innovation, productivity, and savings with ridiculous taxes, people can vote with their feet.

If Illinois keeps this law in place, don’t be surprised to see Bitcoiners and digital asset companies leave — taking their capital, talent, jobs, and productivity to states that actually respect and embrace them.

Kevin Warsh’s Reign as Fed Chairman Has Begun

Now let’s zoom out to the macro, because there were two major developments this week.

Kevin Warsh chaired his first Federal Reserve meeting on Wednesday — and he made it clear that a new era has begun.

The Fed held rates steady at 3.5 to 3.75%. But what Warsh did beyond the rate decision was dramatic. He gutted the policy statement, reducing it from 341 words to 130. He refused to submit his own dot in the dot plot. And he announced five task forces to overhaul how the Fed communicates, measures inflation, and manages its balance sheet — even hinting that the 2% inflation target could eventually be revisited.

In short, Warsh killed forward guidance. The Fed, which used to narrate its every move, has gone quiet — on purpose. Meanwhile, the dot plot came in hawkish — nine officials now see at least one rate hike before year-end, and inflation projections jumped to 3.6%.

Killing forward guidance makes fiat monetary policy even MORE opaque. We have to trust a small group of individuals making decisions behind closed doors to dictate the price of money, and now they won’t even tell us what they’re planning. Now contrast that with Bitcoin’s transparent, programmable monetary policy, which is available for all of us to audit.

James Lavish, whose newsletter I highly recommend, made a critical point this week: when the Fed stops telling you what it plans to do, you have to watch what it actually does. And the Fed is quietly growing its balance sheet again — buying roughly $26 billion in Treasuries a month under a program it insists is “not QE.”

The hawkish words say one thing. The balance sheet says another.

One development could shift this picture. The U.S. and Iran signed a deal this week to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Oil initially dropped more than 4%. But the deal is already fraying — on Saturday, Iran re-declared the Strait closed, citing Israeli strikes in Lebanon as violations.

The U.S. disputes that, with CENTCOM stating plainly: “Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz.” Vance is in Switzerland right now for the next round of talks. This deal is fragile, and the energy shock driving inflation all year is far from over.

Here’s why all of this matters for Bitcoin. The fiscal reality hasn’t changed. The deficit is structural. The debt keeps growing. And the Fed is already quietly printing again — no matter what it says at the podium.

The underlying problem is the same: the money is broken. And Bitcoin is the fix.

Until next week, keep stacking.

- Nat

PS - Make sure to grab a copy of my new book, “Bitcoin is for Everyone.” I’ve written an approachable book on Bitcoin and the traditional financial system, perfect for your friends and family who are still learning about it.

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NEW: Michael Saylor Answers His Critics and the Short Sellers

Natalie Brunell sits down with Strategy’s Michael Saylor at BTC Prague, just after he took heat for selling 32 Bitcoin — and for recent comments defending how he measures the company’s growth and what its stock is really worth. Saylor answers the critics and short sellers head-on, explaining why “never sell your Bitcoin” is advice for everyday holders, no longer a rule for a company built to buy Bitcoin and pay out Bitcoin-backed dividends.

We discuss:

• Why “never sell your Bitcoin” is advice for individual retail investors

• How the company is built to survive a crash

• Why he argues Bitcoin needs credit to keep winning

• The four ideologies of Bitcoin

• When he expects capital to rotate back from AI into Bitcoin
  

Make sure to listen to my latest Coin Stories episodes, including Amy Oldenburg, Luke Gromen, and Ben Hunnewell.

Listen on Fountain and Earn Bitcoin: Click here
Listen on Apple Podcasts: Click here
Listen on Spotify: Click here
Listen on YouTube: Click here