Good Morning, Bitcoin - Monday, January 20th, 2025

News

• Bitcoin price flirts with new highs. Bitcoin price surged to a new high of $109,111 on Monday morning before slightly retracing.

• 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.

"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 (a term of art in our industry) on the eve of his inauguration. This was hitherto completely unthinkable," wrote the industry lawyer Preston Byrne in a blog post.

• President Trump is set to be inaugurated later today and has previously said he intends to use executive powers to reduce regulatory burdens for the industry in the United States, establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, commute the sentence of Silk Road's creator Ross Ulbricht, and designate cryptocurrency as a national priority.
• 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.

• 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.

Use the tools

• 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.

• Blitz Wallet v0.3.8 pre-release brings completely revamped contact payments, removes internal transfer payments, moves the project's backend from Netlify to Firebase Functions, and includes a few other improvements and bug fixes.
• pWallet is a lightweight UI for Phoenix Server that can be set up and run entirely using Docker.
• BitaxeOS (ESP-Miner) v2.5.1 has been released with the latest fixes and improvements.
• Bitcoin prediction markets platform Predyx launched Set Markets for trading multiple options within a single market and enhance new markets with dynamic payout structures.
• Rizful.com offers a quick, convenient, and reliable way to set up a disposable Lightning node.

• Eggstr is a platform from deploying Bitcoin and Nostr apps with your own domain.
• 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.

• 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.
• 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.

Other stuff

• 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.

• Do you want more? Subscribe and get No Bullshit GM report straight to your mailbox and No Bullshit Bitcoin on Nostr.
• Feedback or news tips? Drop it here.