Happy Monday Bitcoiners, it's Bam here from Bitcoin News.

Our goal is to help save you time by personally curating the most impactful Bitcoin events of the week into an easy-to-read update.

This week’s notable events include Metaplanet continuing to acquire Bitcoin for its reserves and Trump announcing JD Vance, who holds a sizable Bitcoin position, as his Vice President.

Let’s dive in for more! ⚡

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LATEST NEWS 📰

🙌 ADOPTION

• Long-term Bitcoin holders are actively accumulating once again, adding 6,500 BTC to their wallets.

• Arthur Hayes, co-founder and former CEO of BitMEX, launches a $250,000 Bitcoin Developers grant program through his family office fund, Maelstrom.

• French pension funds can now invest in Bitcoin with the launch of the first ETN in Paris.

⚖️ LEGAL

• WazirX, one of India’s top crypto exchanges, suffers a major cyberattack, allegedly by North Korea-linked hackers, resulting in over $230 million in losses.

• Trump asserts that Bitcoin is “not going away” and wants the U.S. to lead in Bitcoin and crypto innovation ahead of China and other countries.

• China and Russia, along with other BRICS nations, are starting to settle some trades in stablecoins, bypassing US SWIFT sanctions.

📈 MARKETS

• Metaplanet purchases an additional ~21.88 Bitcoin for ¥200 million, bringing their total holdings to approximately 225.6 BTC.

• Bitcoin Depot, a publicly traded company and the leading Bitcoin ATM provider in the USA, announces plans to allocate a portion of its cash reserves to Bitcoin.

• Bitcoin ETFs have come storming back in July, amassing $2 billion worth of Bitcoin in the first three weeks of the month.

⛏️ MINING

• Cipher Mining, a Bitcoin miner valued at $2.2B, is exploring a sale amid soaring demand for data centers, making mining companies attractive targets for AI firms.

• Fog Hashing runs six Antminer S19Kpro’s quietly in its immersion cooling kit.

• Paraguayan authorities seize 450 Bitcoin ASICs from a warehouse, with both Paraguay and Venezuela seizing over 10,000 ASICs this year.

🗳️ POLITICS

• JD Vance is announced as Trump’s VP. Vance has disclosed owning between $100-250k of Bitcoin as well as having 6% of his portfolio allocated in FBTC.

• Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss donate 16 BTC, worth $1,000,000, to John Deaton, a pro-Bitcoin candidate aiming to replace Elizabeth Warren as a U.S. Senator.

• People's Bank of China (PBoC) turns the printers on and injects over $100bn in stimulus this week as China’s top leaders met for the third plenum. Held roughly every five years, this meeting sets the direction for China’s economic policies.

BAMS 2 SATS 🧢

Last weekend ended with an unexpected price surge, leaving us questioning if Bitcoin would continue higher or retrace. Now, it appears the dip has ended, and sentiment has turned resoundingly bullish again.

The German Government made a significant error by selling 49,858 Bitcoin for $2.89 billion, at an average price of $57,900 per BTC. This decision could be compared to Gordon Brown's sale of the UK's gold reserves at a generational bottom.

Had Germany held onto their Bitcoin, they would have gained approximately $460 million in value over just the last week, given the current Bitcoin price surge. Germany’s folly is now tracked live on the website “NotMadeInGermany.com”.

Funnily enough, the website’s name echoes Donald Trump’s recent promotion of wanting all remaining Bitcoin to be made in the USA.

The tune is definitely changing. We’re shifting from needing to check the blockchain to see if big players are accumulating (which they are) to hearing politicians and bankers publicly reconsidering their stance on the internet’s native currency.

It began with public companies adopting Bitcoin as a reserve asset. MicroStrategy and Metaplanet have demonstrated the immense returns and potential of this strategy.

Since August 2020, MicroStrategy has outperformed every other company, becoming one of the top 300 by market cap in the US. Metaplanet, since starting to buy Bitcoin in April 2024, has seen its stock yield a 700% return this year.

The natural progression now is for countries to jump on the Bitcoin wagon, and we have two examples taking different approaches.

1. El Salvador is heavily accumulating Bitcoin, finally seeing profits after a long bear market, and has started a DCA strategy of buying 1 Bitcoin per day for their reserves.

2. In contrast, Germany sold off their Bitcoin for money they could print, only to realize they could have had a much more valuable portfolio by holding.

Bitcoin has become a hot topic in the US presidential elections, with Republicans trying to capture the attention of bitcoiners after witnessing Democrats demonize the industry for the last 3 years.

This week, Trump revealed that Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s chief executive, who Trump is considering for Treasury Secretary and has previously criticized Bitcoin, has changed his tune on BTC.

It is also being speculated that Trump could announce Bitcoin as a “strategic reserve asset” during his speech at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville this week.

Is this what sparked the sudden Bitcoin appreciation? Hard to tell, but it’s clear he is aware that other nations hold significant amounts of Bitcoin, which might lead to competition between nation-states.

“If I throw it aside, another country, most likely China, will pick it up—they’re pretty advanced in that sphere. It’s a baby, an infant right now. But I don’t want to be responsible for allowing another country to take over this sphere.” - President Donald Trump on Bitcoin

Even if this isn’t the reason for the sudden price surge, it’s notable that while retail investors seem to be sleeping, US Bitcoin ETFs have bought 37,300 BTC ($2.5B) in the last 10 trading days.

As mentioned earlier, the tune is definitely changing, presenting an opportunity to accumulate as much Bitcoin as possible before its price appreciates in a parabolic fashion. We should at least make it more expensive for Larry Fink to acquire that much Bitcoin.

Keep on stacking!
Bam

How Much Bitcoin You Need to Retire

This week, Luke Mikic is joined by Luke Broyles for an epic Bitcoin conversation on the streets of Prague.

Don’t miss these two of the most bullish voices in Bitcoin as they discuss what’s next in this space.