Bitcoiners Flex Power as Google and Treasury Bow to Backlash

Happy Monday Bitcoiners - it’s Bam with another weekly update!

Each week, we condense the most impactful news releases into a concise, easy-to-read update so you’re always in the know!

Notable events this week include 👇

• The world’s richest sovereign wealth fund doubles its Bitcoin exposure.

• Dorsey’s Block gives Bitcoin mining a major facelift.

• Google backs down from its ban on non-custodial wallets.

Let’s dive in⚡

Weekly Live Stream 🚨

Join Rob Wallace this Monday @ 11 ET for a conversation with Emilio Pagan-Yourno, CEO of Unbank, to break down the biggest headlines in Bitcoin and the current state of the Lightning Network.

Latest News 📰

🙌 Adoption

• Google Play Store announced that non-custodial wallets now need government licenses. After pushback from Bitcoiners, including Jack Dorsey, they reversed, saying the policy doesn’t apply.

• Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin is now accepting Bitcoin for payments.

• El Salvador is now the first country in the world to teach Bitcoin to all students aged seven and up.

⚖️ Legal

• Wisconsin’s Senate Bill 386 would force Bitcoin ATM operators to get money transmitter licenses and collect full customer data, effectively turning them into KYC kiosks.

• The Federal Reserve will end its novel activities supervision program and return to normal oversight, formally ending its discriminatory stance against banks serving Bitcoin and Bitcoin companies.

• Alena Vranova, founder of SatoshiLabs, warns that in 2025 personal risks for Bitcoin investors are at an all-time high: “Every week, at least one Bitcoiner worldwide is kidnapped, tortured, extorted, or worse.”

📈 Markets

• BlackRock’s IBIT hits a record $91B AUM, holding 3.72% of all bitcoin and pulling in inflows even after a $1B market wipeout on hot inflation data.

• Jack Dorsey’s $50B Block Inc. is launching a full-stack Bitcoin banking suite to drive treasury adoption among small businesses, expanding its ecosystem from payments to mining, P2P markets, and self-custody.

• Norges Bank, Norway’s $1.9T sovereign wealth fund, boosts its Bitcoin exposure 83% in Q2 from 6,200 to 11,400 BTC, mostly via Strategy shares with a smaller Metaplanet stake.

🏦 Treasury

• Metaplanet buys another 518 BTC, bringing its total to 18,113 BTC, overtaking Trump Media as the 7th largest corporate holder. It also plans to raise $3.8B through preferred shares to buy more.

• American Bitcoin, backed by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., is in talks with investors to acquire a listed company in Japan and possibly Hong Kong, with plans to turn them into regional Bitcoin treasury vehicles.

• KindlyMD officially merges with David Bailey’s Nakamoto Holdings, raising $540M (with another $200M pending) to pivot from healthcare into a Bitcoin treasury vehicle targeting a 1 million BTC reserve.

⛏️ Mining

• Block unveils Proto Rig, a modular bitcoin miner with swappable hashboards, and Proto Fleet, FOSS management software, aiming to cut costs, extend hardware life, and boost network decentralization.

• Hong Kong-based Cango Inc. acquires a 50 MW mining facility in Georgia, USA, for $19.5M in cash.

• The BBC airs an 8-minute segment on Bitcoin mining in Ethiopia, which now accounts for 5% of global hash rate and generates over $200M annually for the country’s largest power company.

🗳️ Politics

• El Salvador’s National Assembly approves a law allowing Bitcoin service licenses. Institutions with $50M capital can qualify as investment banks and apply to offer digital asset-linked instruments.

• New York State Assemblymember Phil Steck proposes a 0.2% excise tax on all cryptocurrency transactions in NY. He estimates it could raise $158M annually based on Chainalysis data from 2022–2023.

• Treasury Secretary confused markets after saying on Fox Business that the U.S. is “not going to be buying” Bitcoin, then later clarifying they are exploring budget-neutral ways to accumulate more to add to the reserve.

🧠 Bitcoin Trivia 🧠

Bam’s 2 Sats 🧢

From All-Time High to Biggest Red Candle

Just a week after we wrote in this newsletter about the clear path of Bitcoin adoption, what happened? Bitcoin hit a new all-time high above $124K, then quickly delivered the biggest red candle of the year.

The cause of the drawdown? Hard to pinpoint exactly, but it lined up with two key events:

• PPI came in hot at 3.3%, versus the expected 2.5%.

• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on TV that the U.S. holds $15–20B in Bitcoin as a strategic reserve, adding they won’t buy more and are only willing to acquire it through confiscation. Strange, right?

Right after that message, Twitter grew chaotic with people claiming, “they knew, they were lying, they’re politicians after all.” Bessent then posted the following:

From my perspective, it’s a win either way. If they build the reserve through “budget-neutral” purchases, it accelerates Bitcoin’s price appreciation. If not, more Bitcoin stays in the hands of the people instead of governments.

Incentives matter. Metaplanet just overtook Trump Media as the 7th largest Bitcoin treasury holder. Quietly, Trump’s family company climbed into the top 10. That’s a powerful incentive for the administration to lean even harder into Bitcoin.

Even if they don’t, the bigger point is clear: institutions are here, and they’re stacking aggressively.

Do I like that these treasury giants are taking so much? Not really. My only response is to personally make even more aggressive Bitcoin purchases. And maybe, just maybe, you should too.

Stay safe and keep on stacking!
-Bam