Good Morning, Bitcoin - Thursday, January 16th, 2025

What's new

• BitMEX has been issued an additional $100 million fine for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act that occurred between 2015 and 2020.

"Whilst we are disappointed to learn of the imposition of an additional financial penalty, the amount is substantially less than what the Department of Justice have been pursuing us for over 3 years," the company said in a blog post.

• Tether sues Swan Bitcoin over mining venture dispute. The dispute centers around the 2022 Bitcoin mining joint venture, 2040 Energy. Tether is reported to have provided full funding and owns 80% of the venture, while Swan operated the international mining team and holds a 20% ownership stake. The case is now advancing in the High Court of England and Wales.

"Throughout our relationship with Swan, Tether has consistently acted in good faith, supported mutual business objectives, and adhered to all relevant agreements. Conversely, Swan has acted recklessly, and their actions have resulted in significant breaches by them of the agreements between us. Consequently, we have been compelled to take necessary measures to protect our investment," said Tether in a statement.

• A new strategic Bitcoin reserve bill introduced in Texas Senate. The act creates a special fund to own and hold bitcoin, allowing the legislature to direct up to 1% of general revenue for bitcoin purchases. In December, Representative Giovanni Capriglione proposed a different Bitcoin strategic reserve proposal, HB 1598, in the House, which outlines a plan to establish a Bitcoin reserve within the state treasury.

"If passed and signed into law, [the Senate Bill SB 778] would make Texas the first state in the nation to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. This would position our state at the forefront of the digital economy, driving growth and securing economic freedom for our great state," said Texas state Senator Charles Schwertner.

• Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Act introduced in Oklahoma.Rep. Cody Maynard, R-Durant, introduced the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act, aiming to make Oklahoma a leader in sound money principles and advanced fiscal policy. HB 1203 would permit Oklahoma’s state savings accounts and pension funds to invest in digital assets like bitcoin.

"Bitcoin represents freedom from bureaucrats printing away our purchasing power. As a decentralized form of money, Bitcoin cannot be manipulated or created by government entities. It is the ultimate store of value for those who believe in financial freedom and sound money principles," Maynard said.

• South African arrested for transferring $606 in BTC to an alleged terrorist-linked organization in 2017. According to the Hawks, a branch of the South African Police Service, the defendant was apprehended on January 3, 2025, after a multi-year investigation. During his bail hearing on January 10, 2025, he stated his intention to plead not guilty, asserting that the case against him had been exaggerated, reports BitcoinKE.
• US Government to return over 94,000 BTC stolen in 2016 to Bitfinex. According to a court document filed this week, the U.S. government states that more than 94,000 bitcoins, stolen by Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan during the 2016 Bitfinex hack, should be returned to the exchange.
• Turkish man attacked and forced to transfer $285k in cryptocurrency in Thailand. The victim was assaulted by a gang of three people who stole 9.9 baht (~$285,000) worth of cryptocurrency, as well as his laptop.
• Komainu secured $75 million from Blockstream's venture arm in a Series B round. The UK-based, regulated digital assets services firm announced the completion of its Series B fundraising with a $75 million investment from Blockstream's venture arm, subject to regulatory approval. Blockstream's co-founder and CEO, Adam Back, director PeterPaul Pardi, and advisor Nicolas Brand will join Komainu's board as part of the deal.

"Having a closely-aligned technology partner like Blockstream, one of the original visionaries in the digital assets ecosystem, is testament to our determination to become the go-to provider of digital asset services for Bitcoin and the institutional market, as well as increasing institutional adoption," said Paul Frost-Smith, Co-CEO at Komainu.

Use the tools

• Bitcoin Safe v1.0, a free and open-source Bitcoin savings wallet designed for security and ease of use, is now available on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It aims to simplify singlesig and multisig wallet management for non-technical users while retaining some power user features through an intuitive and attractive user interface.

• Liana wallet v9.0 is now available. This version adds several features and improvements, including CSV export of your transactions for accounting purposes, signed Windows binaries to remove warnings when launching the .exe, support for the Jade Plus device, improved handling of change and self-transfer UTXOs, a Taproot descriptor rescan fix, a more robust approach to receive address requests, performance boosts for home page display, and more.
• LDK v0.1 (rust-lightning), a highly performant and flexible implementation of the Lightning Network protocol, has been released.

"While there are certainly many important features which are still being built, the LDK project has come a long way, and the LDK project is happy with the quality of the features included in this release. Thus, the project will begin doing patch releases to fix bugs in prior versions as new features continue to ship in new minor versions," was stated in the release notes.

• AxeOS v2.5.0 includes a patch for a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability that allows a malicious website to replace a user's pool or wallet information. Bitaxe users are urged to upgrade as soon as possible
• Blockstream Green iOS v4.1.3 updates Jade imagery and improves the UI for the 'buy bitcoin' feature.
• LnwCash v0.1.1-beta, a web-based (PWA) ecash wallet, delivers an improved mint setup process and enhanced QR code display.

• Gifbuddy.lol, a web-based GIF tool for the Nostr protocol, now supports the ability to log in with one's pubkey, along with Collections and Favorites tabs.
• Kanbanstr, a kanban board implementation over the Nostr protocol, now supports cloning of cards and tracking of cards.
• verbiricha shipped a few improvements to image handling in chachi.chat.
• Bitcoin Fax allows anyone to send 'no KYC' fax messages all over the globe.
• GrapheneOS v2025011500 is the latest update for the privacy and security-focused mobile OS.

Other stuff

• TheBullishBitcoiner has put together a guide on how to set up BOLT12 Lightning payouts for OCEAN pool with Coinos.io.
• Check out this interview about Bitcoin mining in the Congo and beyond with Sébastien Gouspillou by Frank Corva.

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