Block 880923: Important News of the Week

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News

• The President of the United States YOLOs a shitcoin on the eve of inauguration. A new meme coin launched by President Donald Trump has hit a capitalization of over $10 billion over the weekend, marking Trump’s latest venture into cryptocurrency and merchandise sales in the lead-up to his inauguration. The coin is already set to list on all major cryptocurrency exchanges.
  • Trump himself doesn't appear to know much about the memecoin. "I don't know much about it other than I launched it. I heard it was very successful. I haven't checked," he told a group of reporters on Tuesday.

"One thing that my cryptolawyer colleagues seem to agree on is that the $TRUMP project is one of the most significant things to happen to the industry, period. The President of the United States just YOLOd a shitcoin on the eve of his inauguration. This was hitherto completely unthinkable," wrote industry lawyer Preston Byrne in a blog post.

• Bitcoin miner MARA dedicates block 879618 to the President-elect Donald Trump. "MARA DIGITAL HOLDINGS Welcomes Donald J. Trump as the 47th President of the United States of America," reads the OP_RETURN messages in the block, followed by the Constitution of the United States.

• Donald Trump signs 'a full and unconditional pardon' for Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. The President made the announcement on his Truth Social platform, adding that "the scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me."

• Tornado Cash sanctions officially overturned. The U.S. District Court in the Western District of Texas has ordered the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to remove addresses associated with Tornado Cash from its Specially Designated National and Blocked Persons (SDN) list, following an Appeals Court ruling that the Treasury Department exceeded its authority in sanctioning the crypto mixer.
• Tornado Cash sanctions reversal has no affect on the trial, says DOJ. Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm seeks to dismiss charges after a Fifth Circuit ruling reversed sanctions against the software. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors now claim that the sanctions reversal doesn't impact the criminal trial against Tornado Cash developers, adding that the case is about control over the Tornado Cash user interface, not the validity of the sanctions.

"The Government's opposition highlights the DOJ's continued willingness to leverage criminal enforcement as a tool to shape the law – in this case specifically to introduce FATF recommendation 66 on the classification of non-custodial UIs as a category of a "Virtual Asset Service Provider", which have not yet been adopted by the US," reported L0la L33tz for The Rage.

• President Trump issues executive order to create a working group on digital assets. The order is intended to set the direction of the White House digital asset policy, focusing on protecting and promoting digital asset users and developers without unlawful censorship, supporting the development of dollar-backed stablecoins, ensuring fair and open access to banking services, providing regulatory clarity based on technology-neutral regulations, and prohibiting Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).

"The Working Group shall evaluate the potential creation and maintenance of a national digital asset stockpile and propose criteria for establishing such a stockpile, potentially derived from cryptocurrencies lawfully seized by the Federal Government through its law enforcement efforts," the order states.

• Gary Gensler resigns as the Chairman of the SEC. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a statement announcing his resignation.
  • Mark Uyeda has replaced Gensler and will serve as interim Chairman of the SEC. President Trump plans to nominate former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins to lead the agency, though Atkins still requires Senate confirmation.
• Caroline Pham named acting chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). She is set to replace Democratic Chair Rostin Behnam, who took office in 2022 and will remain on the Commission until he steps down on February 7.
  • Pham has called for the agency to create a program to support the development of digital asset companies. She is expected to collaborate with 'White House A.I. & Crypto Czar' David Sacks and Paul Atkins on a new regulatory framework for the industry.
• U.S. SEC launches a task force to develop a clear regulatory framework. The task force, led by Hester Peirce, aims to establish clear regulations, crypto company registration procedures, and an effective disclosure, reports Atlas21.
• US SEC rescinds Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) 121. The SEC issued Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) 122, which revokes the contentious SAB 121, and permits financial institutions that hold bitcoin and other digital assets for their customers to decide if the held digital assets should be reported as a liability. This should enable US financial institutions to offer bitcoin and cryptocurrency services with fewer regulatory hurdles.
• Senator Lummis to lead the Senate Banking subcommittee on digital assets. Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott has appointed Lummis as the inaugural chair of the newly established Senate panel focused on digital assets.

• Trump orders US withdrawal from OECD. The US President directed the Secretary of the Treasury, the US Trade Representative, and the Permanent Representative to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to inform the OECD that commitments made by the previous administration "with respect to the Global Tax Deal have no force or effect within the United States absent an act by the Congress adopting the relevant provisions of the Global Tax Deal."
• US Federal Court rules backdoor searches of Section 702 data unconstitutional. A federal judge has ruled that the federal government's method of searching through information incidentally collected on US-based individuals violates the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution. The landmark ruling comes from the criminal case United States v. Hasbajrami, following more than a decade of litigation.
• More states join the Bitcoin strategic reserve race. According to unconfirmed reports, there are now at least 15 US states working on plans to integrate BTC as part of their asset reserves.
  • Wyoming: Representative Jacob Wasserburger has introduced HB-0201, known as the "State Funds-Investment in Bitcoin Act," which proposes creating a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve for Wyoming. This bill would permit allocating a portion of the state's funds into bitcoin, as part of a diversified investment strategy.
• Massachusetts: According to a proposed bill by Senator Peter Durant, the State Treasurer would be permitted to invest up to 10% of the funds deposited in the Commonwealth Stabilization Fund in bitcoin or digital assets during a fiscal year. Additionally, any bitcoin or other digital assets seized by the commonwealth may also be deposited into the fund.
• Arizona: Senate Bill 1025, by Representative Jeff Weninger and Senator Wendy Rogers, titled the Arizona Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act, would allow public funds to invest up to 10% of public monies under their control in virtual currency holdings.
• California is reportedly working on a Bitcoin-focused bill through Assembly Member Phillip Chen's office, supported by the non-profit Proof of Workforce.
• Utah State Representative Jordan Teuscher has introduced the 'Blockchain and Digital Innovation Amendments' (H.B. 230), which authorizes the state treasurer to invest a portion of public funds in bitcoin and other digital assets.
• Kansas Republican Senator Craig Bowser has introduced Bill No. 34, a proposal that would allow public pension funds to allocate up to 10% of their assets to spot Bitcoin ETFs.
• El Salvador adds 11 more BTC to its reserves. The country's Bitcoin Office announced that it added another 11 BTC to its Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, bringing the country's total holdings to 6,044 coins.

• Some of the latest corporate bitcoin purchases include:
  • MicroStrategy has acquired 11,000 BTC for $1.1 billion and now holds 461,000 coins acquired for ~$29.3 billion.
• Genius Group increased its bitcoin treasury to 420 BTC by purchasing an additional $5 million worth of bitcoin.
• Kurl Technology Group announced an $8 million bitcoin purchase, increasing its total holdings to 510 coins.
• Critical Metals Corp announced a BTC Treasury Strategy, stating that it plans to acquire up to $500m worth of bitcoin.
• Rumble has reportedly made its first bitcoin purchase as part of its $20 million bitcoin treasury strategy.
• Block Inc. hit with $255 million in back to back fines. Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ordered Block, the parent company of Cash App and Square, refund up to $120 million for fraud losses and pay a $55 million fine to the CFPB's victims relief fund. Earlier, Block also agreed to pay $80 million to state regulators over anti-money laundering issues.
• Phemex exchange reportedly hacked of $29M. The Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange has halted withdrawals after reports of a hack. One of its hot wallets was reportedly drained of $29 million worth of cryptocurrencies.
• Ledger co-founder and his wife freed after ransom kidnapped. David Balland, co-founder of Ledger, and his wife, were kidnapped from ther home in France early Tuesday and released Wednesday night following a police operation. According to the prosecutor’s office, the kidnappers demanded a large ransom in cryptocurrency.
  • According to sources close to the case, the kidnappers accepted ransom in Tether (USDT), which was quickly frozen and seized. At least eight people have been arrested thus far in connection to the kidnapping.

• Crypto.com relaunches its exchange in the United States. The move comes roughly 18 months after the company shut down the initial version of the US institutional exchange it was testing.
• Revolut app is specifically banning GrapheneOS users. The Revolut banking app, which has been criticized by GrapheneOS for its poor quality, reportedly justifies the ban by claiming it is "serious about keeping your data secure."

"Revolut's app will stop working against once they start enforcing having a Play Integrity API result showing it's a Google certified device. This is not a security feature but rather anti-competitive behavior from Google deployed by apps like Revolut wanting to pretend they care about security," said the GrapheneOS developers.

• OpenSats announces three new grants for Bitcoin Core developers. The new grantees include contributors L0rinc, kevkevin, and Daniela Brozzoni.
• BTCPay Server Foundation receives $25,000 grant from Unbank. The BTCPay Server Foundation received a $25,000 grant, paid directly in bitcoin, from Unbank, a cash-focused Bitcoin exchange.

"Unbank's support is a testament to the growing recognition of open-source payment solutions in the Bitcoin ecosystem. This grant will help our efforts to enhance BTCPay Server's capabilities and reach," said BTCPay Server core contributor R0ckstar Dev.

• Breez raises $5M to bring bitcoin payments to every app. The company has announced raising a $5 million funding round from Entrée Capital, ego death capital, Plan ₿ Fund, and Timechain.
• Blockstream launches Blockstream Asset Management (BAM). The company announced the launch of Blockstream Asset Management and two Bitcoin-based investment funds, the Blockstream Income Fund and the Blockstream Alpha Fund, set to open in Q1 2025. These funds target institutions and accredited investors seeking secure Bitcoin investments. Additionally, the Blockstream Yield Fund will be released later this year, offering consistent, low-risk returns for Bitcoin holders, per blog post by Blockstream.
• Rumble announces Rumble Wallet. The CEO of the video sharing and cloud computing platform, Chris Pavlovski, confirmed the development of Rumble Wallet, adding that it is "a massive internal project which creates a new way for creators to transact" with BTC and USDT. Rumble raised $755M from Tether last month, and has started purchasing bitcoin for its reserves. Besides, the company recently signed a Cloud Agreement with the Government of El Salvador.

• Adopting Bitcoin Cape Town 2025 took place this week. Day 1 and day 2 talks are available.
• The Baltcoin Honeybadger 2025 conference is set to take place on August 9-10, 2025. More details are coming soon.
• OP_NEXT 2025 to take place on April 11-12, 2025. OP_NEXT is a Bitcoin scaling conference that brings Bitcoin stakeholders together to discuss new ideas how to bring Bitcoin to the next billion users. It will take place at the MicroStrategy HQ in Tysons, VA.

Updates and releases

• Bull Bitcoin expands to Europe. According to the service terms and conditions, it is now available in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden. Previously supported countries include Canada, Costa Rica, and Mexico. Checkout the new platform at: app.bullbitcoin.com.

"We arrive in Europe with a brand-new platform, the culmination of nearly three years of rigorous development. This third version of Bull Bitcoin is designed to deliver a superior Bitcoin experience to European users, combining speed, security, efficiency, and unwavering commitment to sovereignty," said the project.

• BTCPay Server v2.0.6 includes a security fix for merchants using on-chain refunds and pull payments with automated payout processors, along with several bug fixes and improvements.
• Bitcoin Safe v1.0.1, a free and open-source Bitcoin desktop savings wallet designed for security and ease of use, is now available. The latest update fixes missing HWI support in Windows and Mac builds, adds a Dark mode, and implements a delete coin category.

• Blixt Wallet v0.7.1, an open source Lightning Bitcoin Wallet for Android and iOS, powered by LND and the Bitcoin SPV client Neutrino, updates LND to v0.18.4.
• Blitz wallet v0.3.8-beta has been released with enhancements such as the removal of internal transfer payments, revamped contact payments, migration of the backend from Netlify to Firebase Functions, and other changes.

"Due to changes in app signing you might need to delete the previous version of the app before downloading this version. Make sure to have your seed phrase written down," was stated in the release notes.

• Blockstream Green Desktop v2.0.18 reverts Qt to 6.8.0 to fix crash on macOS Intel, and prevents overflow in the unit selector.
• Breez SDK - Nodeless v0.6.2 has been released. This version of the Liquid implementation brings real-time synchronization of payment metadata and swap information for a better multi-device experience, the ability to pay to BIP-353 addresses, and the capability to receive BTC without specifying an amount, among other things.
• Andry Schroder released a new and improved version of bitcoin-submittx, a stand-alone Bitcoin P2P transaction submission tool for submitting transactions more privately. It features TOR stream isolation, a switch to PySocks, auto-fetching of peers from DNS seeds, selectable logging levels, and general code cleanup and improvements.
• Nix-bitcoin v0.0.118 is now out with the latest package updates.
• Swiss Bitcoin Pay app v2.3.5 brings better support for currencies with non-2 decimals, and sats and BTC invoicing.
• scure-btc-singer v1.6.0, an audited and minimal library for creating, signing, and decoding Bitcoin transactions, added support for v3 transactions and Pay to Anchor Output types, and more.
• Kyoto v0.8.0, a simple, memory-conservative, and private Bitcoin client for developers to build wallet applications, added the ability to request the minimum fee rate from connected peers, along with other bug fixes and improvements.
• pWallet is a lightweight UI for Phoenix Server that can be set up and run entirely using Docker.
• MullvadVPN has reportedly started experimenting with accepting Lightning payments. The feature is currently in beta.

• BitaxeOS (ESP-Miner) v2.5.1 has been released with the latest fixes and improvements.
• Boltz Client v2.3.7 is a patch release that fixes an issue with the version of the binaries. It now also allows for querying submarine swaps by their payment hash in the client's gRPC interface.
• Bitcoin prediction markets platform Predyx launched Set Markets for trading multiple options within a single market and enhance new markets with dynamic payout structures.
• Casa launched Casa Business, a self-custody solution for businesses involved with bitcoin and few other digital assets.
• Taproot Assets v0.5.1-alpha RC is now available for testing.
• Rizful.com offers a quick, convenient, and reliable way to set up a disposable Lightning node.

• Fedimint v0.6.0-rc0 is now available for testing.
• Damus v1.12 update introduces the rendering of GIFs and video files while composing posts, the ability to paste GIF images like JPEG or PNG files, along with some other UX improvements and bug fixes.
• Fountain v1.11.4 is now available on iOS and Android. The latest version brings Nostr connect improvements and various bug fixes.
• Nostrmo v2.9.5, a Flutter Nostr client for Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, Web, and Linux, adds PC tray and PC notice support, support for some Linux packages, and more.
• Blossom Audit v0.2.0 is a simple CLI tool that lets users run pre-built audits against any Blossom server. It comes with NIP-46 remote signer support.

• Plebeian App launched a new and updated Plebean.market.

"The Plebeian app is proud to announce the launch of its Minimum Viable Product (MVP), a decentralized marketplace and community builder that empowers individuals to sell their value in a peer-to-peer open marketplace. After four years of development and multiple pivots, the Plebeian app has settled on NOSTR to demonstrate a proof of concept that is poised to disrupt traditional commerce," announced the project.

• Eggstr is a platform from deploying Bitcoin and Nostr apps with your own domain.
• Olas v0.1.9, an Instagram-like Nostr client for image sharing, has been released.
• Nostr Media Uploads for WordPress 0.11-beta fixes image dimensions not loading for .avif format.
• Nak v0.10.1, a command line tool for doing all things Nostr, has been released.
• Amber v3.1.9, a Nostr event signer for Android, adds missing logs for relay errors and changes the listen for new connections button text and icons.
• Citrine v0.7.1, a local Nostr relay for Android, now listens for Pokey broadcasts, brings back the restore follows button, and adds a notification when backing up the database.
• Clavis is a prototype for a new Bitcoin hardware signer with a dual-account system for enhanced security and convenience. Support the project's development here.

• Cesar Dias has released Nosotros v0.1.0, a Nostr web client optimized for desktop and mobile platforms. Check it out here.
• PullThatUpJamie v0.1.1 by Cascadr is a podcast search tool designed to help users find specific moments in an expanding collection of shows.
• Validating Lightning Signer (VLS) v0.13.0-rc.1 is now available for testing.
• Hurricash by Super Testnet is "almost like a Coinpool except everyone has to exit with the same amount as everyone else."

• Burak shared a demo for NOIST. It's a non-interactive, single-session (t)-of-(n) threshold signature scheme where multiple untrusted entities jointly produce digital signatures in constant time. A disruptive signer can't force a session restart, and the output is a single 64-byte BIP-340 compatible Schnorr signature.
  • Learn why it matters for Brollup here. Code, test vectors and formal spec are available here. "Please note that there is currently no formal security proof, and the spec is subject to change," said the developer.

Guides and research

• Bitcoin Optech newsletter #338 announces a draft BIP for referencing unspendable keys in descriptors, examines how implementations are using PSBTv2, and corrects in depth our description last week of a new offchain DLC protocol.
• HRF's Financial Freedom report #58 is available here.
• Dustin Dannenhauer shared an update on the performance of DVMDash, a monitoring and debugging tool for Data Vending Machine (DVM) activity on Nostr.
• Matt Crosby published a deep dive into Bitcoin’s on-chain metrics, market sentiment, and macro perspective.
• Hashrate Index released the 2024 Bitcoin Mining Year review. Read the full report here.

• Loïc Morel of PlanB Network shared a tutorial for Bacca (Ledger installer) tool, which allows Ledger users to set up a new device without having to use Ledger Live.
• Btrust, a non-profit committed to decentralizing Bitcoin software development, shared its year 2024 review. Check it out here.
• The second edition of The Simplest Bitcoin Book by Keysa Luna is available here. Download a free PDF or order a paperback version.
• Alex Black wrote a blog post titled Nostr: What Is It, And How It Could Change The World.
• StackStates.com is a site tracking the state-level adoption of Bitcoin in the United States.

• CoinMetrics published a reflection on the first year of Bitcoin ETFs.
• John Arnold disentangles facts from fiction when it comes to Bitcoin and quantum computing.
• Ripple Radios announced a new mesh protocol dubbed MeshCore.
• Lightning.news shared a review of the ParmanodL Bitcoin node.
• Check out this write-up on a '0-click deanonymization attack' targeting users of multiple major platforms via Cloudflare.

Mining stats

• The average hashrate (7-day SMA) of the Bitcoin network is currently around 778 EH/s. The next mining difficulty adjustment is expected in ~12 hours.

Lightning stats

• The Lightning Network capacity has increased by 22 BTC this week. However, according to amboss.space, there are 76 fewer nodes and 286 fewer channels.

Nostr stats

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