Good Morning, Bitcoin - Wednesday, January 15th, 2025

News

• Iran's Central Bank blocks payment gateways to cryptocurrency exchanges amid currency crisis. The bank has unexpectedly blocked payment gateways for cryptocurrency exchanges, restricting citizens to the weakening national currency without prior notice or preparation. This action specifically targets the Iranian rial payment channels used by digital currency exchanges, although the ability to withdraw funds remains functional.

"These restrictive and destructive decisions in technology policymaking not only eliminate Iran's limited opportunity for economic growth through new technologies but also drive away the country's most important asset - its capable human capital," said the industry leaders in an open letter to President Masoud Pezeshkian.

• Donald Trump is set to sign a flurry of executive orders on January 20th. According to the Washington Post, the U.S. President-elect will issue a series of executive orders, some of which are intended to strengthen the cryptocurrency sector and modify existing banking policies.

• Tom Emmer has been appointed as vice chairman of the House Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence. "With President Trump in the White House and Gary Gensler confined to the waste bin of Washington, we have an excellent opportunity ensure that the future of digital assets is guided by Americans, with American values," said the Congressman on Tuesday.
• Corporate Bitcoin purchases are set to grow exponentially in 2025, says Bitwise. Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer of Bitwise, shared an investor note predicting that over the next 12–18 months, hundreds of companies will include Bitcoin in their treasury reserves due to improved Bitcoin accounting standards.

Some of the latest bitcoin treasury purchases and announcements by public corporations include:

• The UK government is proposing a ban on ransomware payouts. The plan aims to prohibit public sector bodies, including schools and the NHS, from making cryptocurrency ransomware payments. This proposal, part of a consultation launched by the Home Office, seeks to make these institutions less attractive targets for hackers.
• In 2024, North Korea stole over $659 million worth of cryptocurrencies. According to a joint statement by Japan, South Korea, and the United States on Tuesday, North Korean-backed hackers stole at least $659 million through various cryptocurrency heists in 2024, and they also deployed IT workers to infiltrate blockchain companies as insider threats.
• John Galt has joined the BDK Foundation as the latest grantee. "John will be working on developing our membership program, partnerships, and onboarding new members. Reach out at hello@bitcoindevkit.org," said the organization.
• Applications to the Sovereign Engineering Cohort 4 (SEC-04) are now open. The fourth edition, titled 'Building it Right,' is set to take place from March 3 to April 11, 2025. Learn more about it here.

Use the tools

• Nunchuk Android v1.9.58 and iOS v1.9.68 deliver a revamped add key flow, introduce the Honey Badger Premier tier, and include multiple bug fixes and improvements.
• Mostro v0.13.0, a Lightning network-based peer-to-peer exchange protocol over Nostr, delivers a major step forward in improving privacy for users through a key management implementation.

• Olas v0.1.8, an Instagram-like client for Nostr, now shows reaction, comment, and zap counts on the content view.
• BTCMap Android v0.9.0, an app for easily finding places to spend sats anywhere, has made a switch to vector maps, fixed verification reports, and changed marker colors in Light mode.
• LNBeats.com is a Lightning-powered, value-for-value music streaming app.

• TollGate is a set of tools that enable WiFi routers to accept bitcoin payments for internet access. Learn more about it here.
• Bostr2 v1.1.1, a Nostr relay bouncer designed to save users' mobile bandwidth, has been released with a client IP forwarder and fixes for the user agent changer.
• Elements v23.2.5, an open-source implementation of advanced blockchain features extending the Bitcoin protocol, has been released.
• Liana wallet v9.0rc1 is now available for testing.

Other stuff

• Frank Corva wrote an article on how Nostr has become the world's largest Bitcoin circular economy.
• Lightning Dev Kit has published a case study featuring LQWD, a Lightning liquidity provider.
• Lightning.news shared a comprehensive guide to Lightning wallets in 2025.

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