David Canellis

Pete Rizzo

This is a segment from the Supply Shock newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supplyshock" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subscribe</a>.



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This week marks the anniversary of two serendipitous Bitcoin posts from celebrities on opposite ends of the cultural spectrum: Neil deGrasse Tyson and Paris Hilton.



Apex influencer Hilton came first, on April Fool’s Day in 2021. In a brief CNBC <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1OJeexYXx4">interview</a>, Hilton was asked whether she was a bitcoin investor, considering her interest in NFTs.



“Yes! I’m very, very excited about that as well. It’s definitely the future,” she replied. It was near-peak bull market at the time, with the price of bitcoin breaking past $60,000 only two weeks earlier.



“Have you been in bitcoin for a while?”



“Yes.”



“Well, I guess it&#8217;s been a good trade,” joked the interviewer.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">oh no. oh no Bitcoin <a href="https://t.co/VaVSqpjtBQ">pic.twitter.com/VaVSqpjtBQ</a>&mdash; Joseph Young (@iamjosephyoung) <a href="https://twitter.com/iamjosephyoung/status/1377893183481384967?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 2, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



One year later, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson was pictured giving two thumbs-up at a rooftop bar along with Bitcoiners Alex Gladstein, <a href="https://x.com/pete_rizzo_/status/1875905143603892262">Saifedean Ammous</a>, and Dan Held.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Tyson expressed curiosity about bitcoin’s resilience, even as its price tumbled alongside global markets shaken by rate hikes, inflation, and geopolitical unrest. Gladstein tweeted:



“Neil asked great questions. One of his first ones was, ‘What if aliens come to earth with much more computing power — couldn’t they mine all the bitcoin?’” Which led to a great Saifedean explanation of the difficulty algorithm.”



What’s clear, looking back, is that these were signposts marking the beginning of the end of Bitcoin’s celebrity era.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson learning about <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bitcoin?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Bitcoin</a> from the best 🙌 <a href="https://t.co/EEasTKcStP">pic.twitter.com/EEasTKcStP</a>&mdash; Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) <a href="https://twitter.com/BitcoinMagazine/status/1510267231032254470?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 2, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



The roots of the celebrity era can be traced to the music industry in late 2013 — also peak bull market — when Snoop Lion (née Snoop Dogg) <a href="https://x.com/snoopdogg/status/407350025677586433">tweeted</a> that he wanted to accept bitcoin for his next album, to be &#8220;delivered by drone.&#8221; The sale never materialized, but the tweet sparked attention from Coinbase and BitPay, both eager to make it happen.



About a week later, Spice Girl Mel B began <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140125122619/https://www.melaniebrown.com/2013/12/09/mel-b-to-accept-bitcoins-via-her-website/">accepting</a> bitcoin for her single “For Once in My Life,” even offering a discount to fans who paid in BTC “due to the extremely low transaction costs of using bitcoins.”



Still, the intent for both Mel B and Snoop Dogg — two of the first celebrities to publicly show interest in Bitcoin — was to experiment with bitcoin as money.



Six months later, 50 Cent raked in 700 BTC (~$400,000) for his 2014 album Animal Ambition, when bitcoin was still trading under $700.



He then forgot about it, only to be reminded by TMZ almost four years later, when a reporter <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2018/01/23/50-cent-made-millions-bitcoin-animal-ambition-album/">pointed</a> out it would’ve been worth between $7 million and $8.5 million. 50 Cent later <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/feb/27/50-cent-denies-reports-he-is-a-bitcoin-millionaire">confirmed</a> that the bitcoin was sold immediately upon receipt.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">50 Cent (0.000046 BTC) posted on instagram about making millions of dollars in Bitcoin and forgetting about doing it <a href="https://t.co/fycFbwMaUZ">https://t.co/fycFbwMaUZ</a> <a href="https://t.co/aD6VLj3zfS">pic.twitter.com/aD6VLj3zfS</a>&mdash; Neeraj K. Agrawal (@NeerajKA) <a href="https://twitter.com/NeerajKA/status/955913503080108032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 23, 2018</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Around the same period, Lily Allen revealed that she had been offered “hundreds of thousands of bitcoins” to livestream a concert about 5 years earlier — but had turned it down with a dismissive “as if.” Some celebs clearly strayed too far from Bitcoin, resulting in <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/kim-kardashian-in-sec-crosshairs-for-ethereummax-promotion">awkward and costly</a> entanglements — the most <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11892491/Gisele-says-blindsided-FTX-failure-trusted-hype-SBF.html">severe</a> of which were ultimately <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/one-year-since-terra">triggered by events</a> that <a href="https://www.nansen.ai/research/blockchain-analysis-the-collapse-of-alameda-and-ftx">occurred</a> only one month after deGrasse Tyson’s thumbs-up picture from April 2022.



If that picture marked the beginning of the end for Bitcoin’s celebrity era, Trump’s recent alignment can be celebrated as the end of the end.&nbsp;



Bitcoin was suddenly no longer a financial quirk, but both bona fide money used by the US President to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4u-L9sS2r4">pay</a> for burgers in bars, and a credible safe-haven asset <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-sovereign-state-era">managed</a> by the Treasury and Commerce secretaries. Any individual celebrity adopting Bitcoin may never be as impressive.



So, what comes next, now that Bitcoin is in its post-celebrity era?&nbsp;



Think of it like music: the “post-” in genres like post-punk signals a turn back toward experimentation. No neater way to bring Bitcoin full circle in the culture than that.



— <a href="https://x.com/dcanellis/">David Canellis</a>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Rizzo’s take, the Bitcoin Historian</h2>



Some celebrities are better price indicators than others.&nbsp;



Patron Saint of Bitcoin Bottoms: Paris Hilton



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfepv6FxDo2ZEuiZjviCCEfGqxnRIv8ZEKi6CxRMAeCSbf2ABTNNv4d7E1_GpOCCD07knPDtSJc8DUIbKkMx5fAu9e4nJNnITEy-kwGBN3YOw_rRtOmcl4AgDBFP34BWYDT9obk3A?key=PVNMjxZsbdy0xg6DokwMECCn" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Paris Hilton with the founders of the failed Ethereum project The DAO (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/jaesonma/photos/futuristic-discussion-with-the-block-chain-disruptors-founders-of-wwwethereumorg/10154189696695120/">2015</a>)</figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeESQUB6iGEk_rNKaCkSaYZLqSoOWez1704MQKbIgsaFmc7nbJtl16dLW3ckpGyEjw1SU5KfeE4xGkgleV-Mo2-YRNLLM04D34klJymtlksuZrYMUoiPt3Sg2p76DDMXR5n-6fMsA?key=PVNMjxZsbdy0xg6DokwMECCn" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Paris Hilton bullish on NFTs (<a href="https://parishilton.com/nft/">2021</a>)</figcaption></figure>



Patron Saint of Bitcoin Tops: Katy Perry



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1682" height="872" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-02-at-1.16.41 PM.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-99975" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-02-at-1.16.41 PM.png?w=1682 1682w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-02-at-1.16.41 PM.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-02-at-1.16.41 PM.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-02-at-1.16.41 PM.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-02-at-1.16.41 PM.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-02-at-1.16.41 PM.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-02-at-1.16.41 PM.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-02-at-1.16.41 PM.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-02-at-1.16.41 PM.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1682px) 100vw, 1682px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Katy Perry posts her “crypto claws” (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/katyperry/p/BeXchJzFkhJ/?hl=en">February 2018</a>)</figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXd_UebgMROYX07_Kcq6AMMlFhwDYd48HPKpL1BEDV0VACYSH7QbM_6WtZayHBx9mS6nkl6frS4GK6R8YDSiPEzA_pVmum95OSJMLu5XWctKgwd0BuJs_59s5yE91hKEV1sLYVAUsA?key=PVNMjxZsbdy0xg6DokwMECCn" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Katy Perry Instagram post (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/katyperry/p/CZ5Qw2-vVoW/?img_index=1">February 2022</a>)</figcaption></figure>



When you see Paris Hilton, buy. When you see Katy Perry, sell. I don’t make the rules.



— Rizzo



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Paris Hilton vs. Katy Perry: Which celebs are bitcoin buy signals?

This is a segment from the Supply Shock newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supplyshock" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subscribe</a>.



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Few things are built to stand the test of time. Bitcoin is.



Engineers design bridges to last only around 100 years. Modern-day dams might be built that only make it to half that. 



Perhaps regular maintenance could stretch those numbers by a few decades. They would still crumble much sooner than Bitcoin was ever intended to.



Today is the 11th anniversary of a testament to exactly that: BIP-42, the clutch proposal that averted a potential supply crisis 240 years from now.



Bitcoin Core contributor <a href="https://x.com/pete_rizzo_/status/1880616287363059980">Pieter Wuille</a> submitted BIP-42 on April Fool’s Day, 2014, years after Satoshi Nakamoto’s last post. BIP-42 was based on a solution proposed by <a href="https://x.com/pete_rizzo_/status/1878079505052413965">Gregory Maxwell</a>. Fittingly, it was both very serious and deeply unserious at the same time.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcxexSwe6D6Dhm0k2ObNvIs8ip8LXwulYlpFsHj7RnslBpy5T5ITyr6oDzmLEi3sbexIIAONmCO811Ta6XOTdTHKQs3rrpRmcZefPRMGtkb3l6KGj_7NtHThZ5Bcf8c6oqRP_j-Mg?key=OWOEEWME-Gq6nfqaq74dza6b" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">BIP-42 doubled as a roast of Satoshi Nakamoto (<a href="https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0042.mediawiki">source</a>).</figcaption></figure>



As it turns out, Satoshi had made a grave but obscure error when coding the logic for bitcoin halvings.&nbsp;



The block reward had been correctly set to halve every 210,000 blocks, all the way down to an unspendable fraction of a sat by the year 2140 or so. This is what makes the BTC supply predictably and provably finite.



But the code was written in such a way that it determines the mining reward using the current block height. And when the block height gets too high — much higher than it is today — Satoshi would’ve had to write special rules informing the software how to process such a calculation safely.



The exact impact of the bug isn’t really knowable, but the largest of unintended consequences would have been that the block reward reverted to its original state of 50 BTC. BTC’s supply issuance curve would be rebooted to 2009.



Left unchecked, the bug would return again and again every two and a half centuries, making for potentially infinite bitcoins over the millennia.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdjMI40BjNZZ0vsmV8py9UXnvBjp6ClH_kHUnIPe0yIFLdhoOvkQZAYWKbJSYMnUuzBWoQ5kxzAVX8e3-lUPN-agTUHcKfVj9BLdg38Y-zX1f0AgKB8PJlh3SUh8rzlbmSEk_-Riw?key=OWOEEWME-Gq6nfqaq74dza6b" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Bitcoin’s circulating supply would hit 126 million in the year 3417, without fixing the supply bug.</figcaption></figure>



“Although it is widely believed that Satoshi was an inflation-hating goldbug, he never said this, and in fact programmed Bitcoin&#8217;s money supply to grow indefinitely, forever,” Wuille wrote.



What’s humbling is that BIP-42 aborted a cataclysmic event that would’ve occurred 10 generations from now — in the approximate year 2265, when the block height should reach 13.44 million (today, it’s under 890,000). That’s over a century after the last slice of spendable bitcoin is expected to be mined, in 2140.&nbsp;



So, I suppose our great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandchildren will have Wuille and Maxwell to thank for making sure that’s so.



— David



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Rizzo’s view, as the Bitcoin Historian</h2>



It’s nice that David can have a laugh over BIP-42. It is one of the more objectively quirky events in Bitcoin development history. That said, a more sober assessment raises thorny questions about the management of the Bitcoin software.&nbsp; One that I always linger on is the natural tension over what defines a “bug” in Bitcoin. Should we consider BIP-42 through the lens of jurisprudence, it helped enshrine two interesting views.&nbsp;



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>First is the assertion that the code which BIP-42 patches is indeed a “bug” because it contradicts what Satoshi wrote, namely, that Bitcoin would have a fixed supply. </li>



<li>Second is the view that the code is a “bug” because it contradicts what he told users to expect (creating a kind of social contract). </li>
</ul>



There’s a truth to both assertions, but it seems to get more problematic when compared to how other code debates were handled. Take the infamous “block size,” for instance. In this case, Satoshi said it would be raised over time, and it’s also what most (if not all early users) expected.



Ergo, the unchanged block size checks similar boxes as BIP-42. Yet no action was ever taken to change it. How to square this circle? Perhaps there’s the issue of safety. It’s true that eliminating the block size could lead to DDOS attacks, block withholding attacks, and potentially contribute to Bitcoin’s ultimate centralization. Equally, it could be said that rebooting the Bitcoin supply would constitute economic attacks. So, perhaps this was what swayed the decision.



I talked to Luke Jr. about this, and here’s what he had to say: “It was the behaviour everyone expected. And also there was no guarantee future CPUs would have the previous behavior for the existing code either.” Unfortunately, due to the tone of the patch, however, we might never know what all the participants had to say.



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126 million BTC? How Bitcoin’s absolute scarcity was saved

Bill Barhydt, the CEO of Abra and an early Bitcoin adopter who famously bought bitcoin when it was <a href="https://x.com/pete_rizzo_/status/1763544742862762180">trading below $5</a>, has sharply criticized Michael Saylor&#8217;s plan to render his substantial personal bitcoin holdings inaccessible to anyone else forever. In a new interview on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mastercard-building-venmo-crypto-blockchain-digital-assets-2025-3">Supply Shock podcast</a> with <a href="https://x.com/pete_rizzo_">Pete Rizzo</a>, Barhydt expressed his frustration, stating Saylor&#8217;s strategy &#8220;makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.



Saylor, known for his bullish stance on Bitcoin and his company Strategy&#8217;s substantial bitcoin investments, recently hinted <a href="https://x.com/pete_rizzo_/status/1904555177077514482">in a CoinDesk interview</a> that he might send his personal stash of over 17,000 BTC to an &#8220;unsendable wallet&#8221; for eternity.



Barhydt acknowledged Saylor&#8217;s perspective that this move would benefit the Bitcoin community by reducing the total supply (and potentially increasing the value of remaining coins) but offered a spirited rebuttal.&nbsp;



&#8220;His perspective is that this is a gift to the Bitcoin community because if you lower the denominator and the numerator, it helps everybody else in terms of the purchasing power. My take is, the Bitcoin community does not need that gift,” he asserted.



<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/496uF9L7LOg?si=AnlW8s4OALbq0xfd" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>







Before founding Abra, a global cryptocurrency wealth management platform, Barhydt held roles at companies like Goldman Sachs and Netscape. He gave the first-ever Bitcoin TED Talk when the price of Bitcoin was just $5.



Instead, Barhydt suggested Saylor could use his bitcoin to fund educational services for low-income individuals, establish bitcoin-based banking operations in developing markets, or develop bitcoin-based remittance services.&nbsp;



He emphasized that these initiatives would provide long-term benefits in terms of increasing the total number of the technology’s users.&nbsp;



Barhydt drew a comparison to the early days of Bitcoin, when enthusiasts like himself gave away bitcoin to promote its use and understanding. &#8220;When we were giving away bitcoin, it wasn&#8217;t like we were telling people, ‘Here, go build your financial fortune.’ It was like, no, you need to understand how this decentralized system allows you to move value between two parties without some trusted third party in the middle,&#8221; Barhydt explained.



He contrasted this with Saylor&#8217;s plan, which he sees as primarily focused on increasing the value of existing bitcoin holdings. &#8220;[Using the money] is a very different perspective than saying, ‘I&#8217;m gonna help the value of your bags by burning my bags,’&#8221; Barhydt stated.



Elsewhere Barhydt questioned Saylor&#8217;s comparison between his own actions and those of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, arguing that Michael Saylor doesn’t need to make a benevolent exit from the software project in quite the same way.&nbsp;



&#8220;Saylor is not perceived to be a benevolent dictator of Bitcoin,&#8221; Barhydt said, arguing that Saylor&#8217;s decision carries different implications for the network.



Listen to the full interview on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=496uF9L7LOg">YouTube</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/supply-shock/id1558223079">Apple Podcasts</a>, or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2yFL2nSsQucf1rzdEKbFZY">Spotify</a>.&nbsp;



Editor’s note: This article was produced with the assistance of AI tooling.



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Investor who bought bitcoin at $5 says Saylor is making a $1.5B mistake

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In this week&#8217;s roundup, David Canellis looks at a 13-year-old job post that transformed crypto, a Kenyan startup combining crypto mining with hydroelectric power, and Gamestop&#8217;s bitcoin buying spree.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Opportunity knocks</h2>



The year is 2012. Skrillex’s &#8220;Bangarang&#8221; is playing somewhere in the background, and you’re debating whether to see The Hunger Games or 21 Jump Street at the cinema.



You decide to scroll Hacker News instead. A new <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/1jka50f/job_post_for_the_role_of_coinbase_cofounder/">post</a> catches your eye — “Apply with me to YC [Y Combinator] in the next 3 days and change the world.”



Brian Armstrong, pre-Coinbase, wrote this 13 years ago. “I’m throwing a hail mary here &#8211; because desperate times call for desperate measures.”



Armstrong had a prototype, “PayPal for bitcoin,” an open-source Android wallet called Bitbank that let users send bitcoin via email addresses. Y Combinator showed interest, Armstrong said, but he’d deferred the meeting until he’d found a ride-or-die co-founder.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdgW-seq22agzzS2DCIZX_InpnCZnHQYgEhFfx5O_f9eo_oRuFepMH4jLvLB_BuWCQJ0sqq2ZI-OPBXUWFBQ9wsgcdTj7tlNOolG-vxN0c7IfjPZ3pCDg_STJLZi8LQkZOwjatKSA?key=bBulffZfSB5fG7bmsTZGRzxR" alt=""/></figure>



“The killer app will be in disrupting transaction fees that are a tax on every transaction in our economy,” Armstrong wrote. “This is going to be super fucking hard, but the payoff is that we have a non-zero chance of really changing the world in big way. This isn&#8217;t another photo-sharing app.”



He wasn’t wrong. While Armstrong didn’t find co-founder Fred Ehrsam until after he’d graduated from Y Combinator, Bitbank did eventually become Coinbase, which is today a $48-billion stock trading on the Nasdaq.&nbsp;



Conviction clearly pays.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Remote work</h2>



Legendary Bitcoiners have famously gone to great lengths in pursuit of the network.



Kenya-based startup Gridless is no different: It’s been busy in northwest Zambia, hauling a shipping container full of 120 mining rigs “across bumpy narrow roads 14 hours from the nearest major city,” <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly4xe373p4o">reported</a> the BBC last week.



The goal was to hook those rigs — which are each making around $5 per day — directly to a hydroelectric power plant harnessing the might of the Zambezi river.&nbsp;



Bitcoin mining now makes up about 30% of the plant’s revenue, and a revenue-sharing agreement with the company that built the plant means cheap power for the machines and cheaper electricity for locals. 



<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wfwLy8MWbe4?si=9yt8C9iPCpxX3Z_2" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>







Increased revenue for the plant has also led to more reliable power for the people that live there — living proof that proof-of-work can turn stranded energy into real-world progress.



&#8220;Every day we were wasting over half of the energy we could generate, which also meant we [weren’t] earning from that to meet our operating expenses. We needed a major user of power in the area, and that&#8217;s where the game-changing partnership with Gridless came in,&#8221; plant operator Daniel Rea told the BBC.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Game-Start</h2>



GameStop gearing up to run the Strategy playbook is a turning point.



Ignore the mixed market reaction. The original meme stock will be the second large-scale firm to attempt an extreme bitcoin buying spree (mirroring Strategy), after Japanese holding company MetaPlanet.



And that includes issuing 0% convertible notes to the tune of $1.3 billion — cash it will use to buy bitcoin — the exact same move that Strategy has perfected over the past five years or so.&nbsp;



All while GameStop will continue closing its physical stores en masse.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">An announcement regarding Bitcoin <a href="https://t.co/gG8JRarIok">pic.twitter.com/gG8JRarIok</a>&mdash; GameStop (@gamestop) <a href="https://twitter.com/gamestop/status/1904628096705454308?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 25, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



GME initially jumped by about 10% after it announced its bitcoin plan, but then dropped 25% on details of the financing.



All noise. The stock might be a very different beast to Strategy and MetaPlanet, but the three will soon share one common denominator.&nbsp;



Forget Denzel — Bitcoin is the real equalizer.



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Bitbank to Coinbase: Brian Armstrong’s $48 billion job post

This is a segment from the Supply Shock newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supplyshock" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subscribe</a>.



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Greetings, and <a href="https://x.com/pete_rizzo_/status/1905199552266649871">happy 41st birthday</a> to Ross Ulbricht!



By now, rehashing the Silk Road timeline — from a secret psychedelics lab in an off-the-grid Texas cabin to a global clandestine operation with half a dozen employees — doesn’t seem totally useful.



Besides, long-time Bitcoin History readers have already walked through the events that led to Ulbricht’s dramatic 2013 arrest in a San Francisco public library.



Anyone who missed our email from last year can <a href="https://bitcoinhistorynl.beehiiv.com/p/paid-price-200000-btc?utm_source=bitcoinhistorynl.beehiiv.com&amp;utm_medium=newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=he-paid-the-price-200-000-btc">find it in our archives</a> — it’s definitely still worth the read!



Keep in mind, though: That telling of the story misses its happy ending. It was written before President Trump <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/why-trump-freed-ross-ulbricht-the-silk-roads-dread-pirate-roberts">pardoned</a> Ulbricht earlier this year, releasing him from a double-life prison sentence after serving nearly a decade.



To celebrate Ulbricht’s first birthday since his release, let’s instead pay homage to the way he integrated bitcoin payments into Silk Road, for reasons that have been largely lost on modern-day crypto.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">First birthday in freedom today. Beautiful day grilling by the pool. I&#39;ve been given a new life. It&#39;s like being born again.&mdash; Ross Ulbricht (@RealRossU) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealRossU/status/1905404620878590447?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Onto this week’s Bitcoin Legend.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdY_VBTwQDI8dZGPhvQqbQns7ZO-IpZKxOxpWS4bgm8C-M7Qn_X5JOQh70u7NjT_GbB6Cb9rkEYhG7FZ6RzGyltQVe2JbGSnG1ssgThmqLI6K2oCSDfCoP_C7A316Hzu_fYw-v81g?key=v4uBzLAEjvmSTiGzzRF8icXB" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht | Freeross.org modified by Blockworks</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">No turning back</h2>



Bitcoin was the obvious fit for Silk Road. It uniquely separates global payments from both governmental and corporate control, imbuing the user with financial self-sovereignty that goes beyond real-world cash.&nbsp;



“Every single transaction that takes place outside the nexus of state control is a victory for those individuals taking part in the transaction,” Ulbricht <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/04/29/collected-quotations-of-the-dread-pirate-roberts-founder-of-the-drug-site-silk-road-and-radical-libertarian/">wrote</a> in 2012.



It was bitcoin’s uncontrollable nature that matched his vision: a worthy complement to Silk Road’s hidden existence through Tor.&nbsp;



Ulbricht fully understood that bitcoin transfers are immutable. This property, combined with its pseudonymity, forms the basis for what makes bitcoin so interesting as the currency for underground activity: autonomy.



Applied in the right way — with stringent opsec in mind — bitcoin would enable true freedom of commerce on Silk Road.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc3NOKb1sfJDVeEKdcZQhf3OoTWE43EdMwy16Z35HP_5TUhJYdtilCI-O0vw-_7CyR1d_5q0hMhktvL_uxEAH2PQVGPHyZHrwdinr4VPCgED0qgkaedi51Ch3477qqTubGfTGyAKQ?key=v4uBzLAEjvmSTiGzzRF8icXB" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Silk Road was active during one of bitcoin’s first great bull runs, but was taken down just before it hit $1,000 for the first time. (Onchain volume = total onchain volume, not just on Silk Road.)</figcaption></figure>



Ulbricht intended the platform “to be about giving people the freedom to make their own choices, to pursue their own happiness, however they individually saw fit,” and not the “convenient way for people to satisfy their drug addictions” it had partly become, as he <a href="https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/the-long-and-winding-story-of-silk-road-bitcoins-earliest-major-application">once</a> put it.



Silk Road needed guardrails if it was to solely accept bitcoin for payment. Quality control was crowdsourced via a public review system, and to protect users from fraud, Ulbricht positioned Silk Road as mediator for all transactions on the platform.



That meant escrow. In an automated system, any time a purchase was made, the buyer’s bitcoin payment was temporarily held in a wallet controlled by Silk Road admins, including Ulbricht.



Silk Road then notified the seller that payment was received, and the seller could then proceed with shipment. Once the package arrived on the other side, the buyer would lodge a confirmation on the Silk Road site, after which the bitcoin was released to the seller, who could then withdraw the coins to their own wallets.



Moderators manually handled disputes on a case-by-case basis via a ticker system, similar to how Amazon, eBay and Airbnb operate today.



There’s no question that these processes were riddled with trust assumptions. Both buyers and sellers were required to trust that Silk Road wouldn’t simply vanish with all their bitcoin, and that Silk Road was well equipped to safeguard user funds at all.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcVfTQZJbeeZarnXH4pkN5Zgf-PqRarafAZBsIz84WxnU_-hOG5MTTZMLsKHif57mcJ_LE0FVSpKT0iZ7EXpMWbVPnAt3zkDs66bHRMfe_RqpezValUaTkTDmOHw46h0yM11uz5ag?key=v4uBzLAEjvmSTiGzzRF8icXB" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">This Silk Road payment flowchart was Exhibit 113 A during Ulbricht’s trial</figcaption></figure>



Users also had to believe that moderators would manage disputes appropriately. At times, mods required users to submit potentially-incriminating photographic evidence, including shipping labels and tracking information, which would also need to be protected against leaks and theft.



Regardless, the system worked. By the time the Feds shuttered Silk Road, it had processed 9.5 million BTC in sales — 80% of bitcoin’s circulating supply at the time — and earned 600,000 BTC in commissions, which in September 2013 was <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140220003018/https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb/UlbrichtCriminalComplaint.pdf">equivalent</a> to $1.2 billion and $80 million, respectively.



Still, Silk Road largely integrated bitcoin in all the right ways. The platform automatically generated a new bitcoin address for every transaction — making them harder to trace. All transactions also took place over Tor, which, when used correctly, can keep IP addresses hidden.



If Silk Road had been built today, maybe it might’ve held escrowed coins in a multisig wallet. At least that would spread some of the trust around. Bitcoin multisigs wouldn’t be <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Pay_to_script_hash#:%7E:text=342ftSRCvFHfCeFFBuz4xwbeqnDw6BGUey%20is%20a%20Bitcoin%20address,good%20example%20to%20understand%20P2SH.">enabled</a> until April 2012 — more than a year after Silk Road first launched.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Fit for purpose</h2>



Setting aside those concerns, bitcoin and only bitcoin could do what Ulbricht needed.&nbsp;



This is especially true, considering there were only a <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/historical/20130428/">handful</a> of alternative cryptocurrencies in Silk Road’s heyday, including Litecoin, Peercoin and Namecoin, all of which had a tiny fraction of bitcoin’s market cap and liquidity.



Let’s say Silk Road was launched on Ethereum in 2025. Perhaps for faster payments, more flexible escrow functionality, or stablecoin support (Silk Road actually allowed users to lock the dollar value of their bitcoin at time of purchase to minimize the impact of price volatility).



If that was the case, hypothetically, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-is-not-under-attack-understanding-mev-boost-relays">one OFAC sanction</a> on Silk Road’s contracts would immediately make it somewhat harder for its transactions to be processed — 31% of all Ethereum blocks right now are <a href="https://www.mevwatch.info/">configured</a> to uphold OFAC directives through censorship. In November, that figure was over 70%.



Not to mention, practically all major stablecoins have in-built functionality that allows their issuers to freeze and confiscate tokens at will, which they regularly do upon request from law enforcement.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bitcoin?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Bitcoin</a> price: $12.20 <a href="https://t.co/w3yalprfg6">pic.twitter.com/w3yalprfg6</a>&mdash; The Bitcoin Historian (@pete_rizzo_) <a href="https://twitter.com/pete_rizzo_/status/1862866887899541947?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 30, 2024</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Such features clearly clash with the notion of an independent, libertarian marketplace, regardless of the power held by Ulbricht and the rest of the Silk Road team on the platform.&nbsp;



Silk Road’s legacy is then this: For all the philosophical distance separating “bitcoin” from “crypto” today, the idealistic platform that Ulbricht built was the divergence catalyst. It was a schism point that cracked open the massive fault line now dividing the space.&nbsp;



Through bitcoin, Silk Road undermined the traditional financial system and, even more critically, the entire social order. Ulbricht acted as a freedom maximalist building freedom tech, with none of the cosplay.&nbsp;



It’s a goal far removed from the compliant commerce that stablecoins and their smart contract platforms — which emerged in the wake of Silk Road’s demise — aspire to serve.&nbsp;



Those systems have grown to augment legacy finance rather than free us from it in the ways Ulbricht had hoped.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Unexpected results</h2>



Of course, even Bitcoin’s robust censorship resistance was not enough to protect Ulbricht from the US government. The same goes for other Silk Road operators and power users.



In total, more than 144,000 BTC ($26 million then, $12.6 billion today) was seized from wallets initially controlled by Ulbricht, plus an additional 120,000 BTC from two hackers who’d separately stolen bitcoin from Silk Road while it was active.



It’s likely that tens of thousands more coins were seized from Silk Road users in less high-profile cases over the years.



Therein lies the rub. Bitcoin is clearly resistant in digital space, and Ulbricht was brilliant enough to understand that Silk Road could be the very first killer crypto app. In many ways, there’s been no second-best to this day.



The same can’t be said in our physical meatspace. Ulbricht’s coins were literally taken from him by force and <a href="https://jlopp.github.io/us-marshals-bitcoin-auctions/">sold for relative pennies</a> on their current dollar value.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">There were no stars in prison. The overhead floodlights drowned them out completely. It was like a 5th wall above, cutting me off from the world. I went far from all the lights last night, laid down on a boulder, and looked up at the stars. No more walls. <a href="https://t.co/9StRTIjt77">pic.twitter.com/9StRTIjt77</a>&mdash; Ross Ulbricht (@RealRossU) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealRossU/status/1902450286469509275?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 19, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



In turn, the US government response to the Silk Road case has formed the playbook for what’s become the Feds’ strategic bitcoin reserve.&nbsp;



Seized coins may never be sold again, and at this stage, the only way the reserve can get any bigger is for authorities to seize even more coins from even more sovereign individuals, no doubt landing some in prison for a sentence comparable to the time Ulbricht served.



And those coins are only valuable, in part, due to the implicit promise that they can’t be tampered with under normal circumstances.&nbsp;



Nothing can square that irony in any way that’s satisfactory, and when bitcoin does indeed become a boon to the Treasury Department, then it will awkwardly have Ulbricht and Silk Road to thank.



Luckily for Ulbricht, he’s just received a gift far greater than any bitcoin stash — freedom — leading to what I can only imagine is the happiest of 41st birthdays.



To Ross. Bitcoin could never be what it is today without him.



— David



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Rizzo’s take, from the Bitcoin Historian</h2>



“What did you get done this week?” Such was the subject line for Elon Musk’s now infamous emails to the US government, but as David points out above, that same email could be sent to the crypto industry today.



Or I’d imagine that might be Ross Ulbricht’s reaction to his realization this week that <a href="https://x.com/RealRossU/status/1904577765434941886">eBay is slow on verifying his identity</a>, a fact that is momentarily keeping him from auctioning his belongings. Is it real user friction? An elaborate troll? On today’s hyper commercialized internet, where Snoop Dogg might “<a href="https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/can.2024.0003#:~:text=On%20November%2016%2C%202023%2C%20the,what%20seemed%20like%20a%20decision">give up smoke</a>” and then sell you a grill, perhaps you can forgive the incredulity. Ross, I would hope, has skipped the web’s descent into a maze of ref-links.



Still, one can’t help but think that Ross might be wondering what bitcoin and crypto have accomplished in his absence, perhaps now more than ever. As the eBay example shows, online commerce frictions remain substantial, despite bitcoin’s initial promise to quell them.



Indeed, there were a host of social commentators who suggested as such, proposing that Ross should relaunch the Silk Road or something like it.



Certainly if there’s someone who could help us chart a course forward, it would be Ross. Far-fetched? Maybe. Then again, so was the idea that any president would pardon him in the first place. If there’s anything I’ve learned in bitcoin, it’s to expect the improbable.&nbsp;



— Rizzo



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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supplyshock">Supply Shock</a>: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.</li>
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How Silk Road carved the fault line that separates ‘bitcoin’ and ‘crypto’

Trace Mayer, a renowned early bitcoin podcaster and advocate who began purchasing the currency as an investment at $0.25, has expressed doubts about the US government&#8217;s ability to acquire a substantial portion of the bitcoin supply.



While evangelists like Strategy Executive Chair Michael Saylor and Senator Cynthia Lummis have touted a 5 million BTC figure as an achievable, even desirable, goal for the country, Mayer cast doubt on the idea in his latest interview on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sEHul3ATiU">Supply Shock podcast</a>. 



Speaking to host Pete Rizzo at the Digital Asset Summit in New York, Mayer, who is believed to hold <a href="https://x.com/TraceMayer/status/914164953258569728">over 25,000 BTC</a>, noted that such a strategy would have a substantial impact on the global bitcoin price, stating: 



&#8220;They would have a hard time…Where are they going to get 5 million coins? How many coins got added into the ETFs?…[Meanwhile], the price moved from $30,000 to $80,000.&#8221; Elsewhere, Mayer suggested alternative strategies to encourage government bitcoin adoption and accumulation. &#8220;Maybe you don&#8217;t have to pay capital gains tax on bitcoin or crypto gains if you pay your taxes with them. That might be a way to induce more supply to come out,&#8221; Mayer said, arguing the government shouldn’t &#8220;go into the market and smash buy.”&nbsp;



<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0sEHul3ATiU?si=qwh0oTiXmfzmmYRy" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>



 Still, while acknowledging that bitcoin is &#8220;a geopolitical asset,&#8221; Mayer questioned the urgency for the US to accelerate its dominance in the space. &#8220;Why would it be in the interest of the US to accelerate that any faster than it needs to? Because then it might be paying a cost that&#8217;s higher than what it otherwise needs to pay.&#8221;



Mayer went so far as to speculate that America could pursue a strategy of maintaining the US dollar&#8217;s dominance while integrating Bitcoin into the US financial system. &#8220;Keep the world reserve currency, drain all the other nations of their physical bullion, and the thing that could potentially challenge gold, dominate that too,&#8221; he advised. &#8220;Have it integrated into your financial system, have it seated onto the balance sheets of your companies, have your individual citizens owning and holding it, have policy that encourages financial innovation, and that way you dominate.&#8221; Mayer also suggested that the US could &#8220;extend your dollar with the stablecoins&#8221; to exert influence on other superpowers&#8217; &#8220;monetary sovereignty.&#8221;



Though this might find America acting like a superpower, Mayer was quick to note that bitcoin is money, and that money is power on the global stage. While he was unsure of how bitcoin will reshape the global power structure, he noted it will undoubtedly do so. &#8220;This is incredibly exciting,&#8221; he told Rizzo, noting that bitcoin is simply &#8220;fulfilling its destiny&#8221; as a potential &#8220;world reserve settlement currency.&#8221;



Editor’s note: This article was produced with the assistance of AI tooling.



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Bitcoin investor who bought at $0.25 says US will never buy 5 million BTC

This is a segment from the Supply Shock newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supplyshock" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subscribe</a>.



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We’re back with another collection of cool bitcoin stuff from all corners of the internet.&nbsp;



First, a quick reminder to join Pete Rizzo, the Bitcoin Historian, twice a week as he explores the latest in bitcoin with a historical twist, featuring interviews with the most important developers and investors in the space today.&nbsp;



<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/introducing-supply-shock-new-bitcoin-brand">Read more about the Supply Shock vision.</a>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">WE ARE LIVE! Supply Shock, the best Bitcoin podcast in crypto, drops today. Hosted by The Bitcoin Historian <a href="https://twitter.com/pete_rizzo_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@pete_rizzo_</a>, Supply Shock is for everyone who wants to stay on top of the biggest cryptoasset in the world and understand the lore that got it there. <a href="https://t.co/R8vGq5orKd">pic.twitter.com/R8vGq5orKd</a>&mdash; Supply Shock (@SupplyShockBW) <a href="https://twitter.com/SupplyShockBW/status/1895116065861955651?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 27, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Now, onto the roundup!



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A presidential first</h2>



It’s hard to beat this: the first sitting US president to ever address a bitcoin and crypto conference.



“A very big hello to everyone at the Blockworks Digital Asset Summit; it’s an honor to speak with you about how the United States is going to dominate crypto and the next generation of financial technologies,” Trump told the crowd in New York last Thursday, in a pre-recorded message.



Trump re-upped his pledge to make the US an “undisputed bitcoin superpower,” and end the Biden administration’s “regulatory war” on bitcoin. That includes the “lawless Operation Chokepoint 2.0,” which has seen US-based bitcoin companies struggle to maintain banking partners.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">WATCH: The complete Presidential address at the Digital Asset Summit <a href="https://t.co/PL2BoGJiws">pic.twitter.com/PL2BoGJiws</a>&mdash; Blockworks (@Blockworks_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Blockworks_/status/1902738351385350400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 20, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



“It was a form of lawfare through government weaponization. Frankly, it was a disgrace,” Trump said.



Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor appeared onstage shortly after the Trump address to present his <a href="https://www.michael.com/21-truths-of-bitcoin">21 Truths of Bitcoin</a>, followed by a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25eDzdyN4Q0">sit-down interview</a> with Rizzo for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@SupplyShockBW">Supply Shock</a>.&nbsp;



Name a more iconic trio.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Moby Degen</h2>



This past week, a spiritual sequel to 2014’s <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2014/10/bearwhale-is-freaking-out-the-bitcoin-markets.html">story of the BearWhale</a> played out on Hyperliquid with a <a href="https://x.com/0xsudogm/status/1890658737603698722">tokenized</a> version of bitcoin…only the bulls weren’t so lucky this time around.



One trader — whom ZachXBT later <a href="https://x.com/zachxbt/status/1901904031351509266">linked</a> to a string of allegedly dodgy behavior — had opened a short position with 40x leverage reportedly worth as much as $449 million.&nbsp;



In this case, the whale would profit if bitcoin stayed under $83,923, or be liquidated if it exceeded $85,940. This would’ve led to forced buying of bitcoin to cover the short, and potentially additional short squeezes to boot.



So some traders tried to band together to liquidate the whale. But the whale took evasive <a href="https://ambcrypto.com/crypto-whale-vs-justin-sun-will-bitcoin-bulls-take-down-hyperliquids-biggest-short/">maneuvers</a>: they added margin, momentarily controlled order books with huge buy-and-sell walls, and scaled back their shorts slowly.&nbsp;



They even <a href="https://x.com/ericonomic/status/1901200128041521408">attempted</a> to FUD stablecoin Tether.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">7 figs size only in DM please, we already have 8 figs committed&mdash; CBB (bera era) (@Cbb0fe) <a href="https://twitter.com/Cbb0fe/status/1901286942173511686?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



In the end, the whale was calculated to have closed their short with $9 million profit. “We lost the war, but it&#8217;s been a long time since we had this much fun on the internet,” <a href="https://x.com/Cbb0fe/status/1901897942140641584">tweeted</a> trader CBB.&nbsp;



“Gg to the shorter for the win 🫡”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Working as intended</h2>



It was five years ago on Saturday that Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said the quiet part out loud.



The world was gripped by the first act of the coronavirus pandemic at the time: closures of schools, cinemas, gyms, and restaurants; shelter-in-place orders; and worldwide market crashes.



60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley had <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-and-economy-best-and-worst-case-scenarios-60-minutes-2020-03-22/">asked</a> Kashkari what he’d say to someone who’s worried about the collapse of the US banking system — and may be headed to an ATM to withdraw $3,000.



Kashkari reassured them that they don’t need to withdraw the cash. The ATM and the banks were safe.



“And there&#8217;s an infinite amount of cash at the Federal Reserve. We will do whatever we need to do to make sure that there&#8217;s enough cash in the banking system,” Kashkari said.



<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OSQeLMhOLtU?si=mhcuF30ZGOOt4BzE" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>







What better advertisement for Bitcoin than that? The price of bitcoin has appreciated by 1,300% since the 60 Minutes spot, while the US dollar has lost 24% of its value due to inflation.&nbsp;



Who could’ve possibly predicted this?



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/daily">Blockworks Daily</a>: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Empire</a>: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forwardguidance">Forward Guidance</a>: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">0xResearch</a>: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.</li>



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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thedrop">The Drop</a>: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supplyshock">Supply Shock</a>: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.</li>
</ul>

Bitcoin price up 1,300% since the Fed said it had ‘infinite cash’

This is a segment from the Supply Shock newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supplyshock" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subscribe</a>.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Bitcoin has multiple personalities, equal parts money, freedom, resistance and hope.



MicroStrategy chairman Michael Saylor sits below all of them as bitcoin’s id — its rawest instincts, personified.



Thursday marked the 25th anniversary of Saylor <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2000/03/michael-saylor.html">losing $6 billion in one day</a> ($11 billion adjusted for inflation) as the dot-com bubble burst. That event was among the biggest single-day personal losses in human history until that point.&nbsp;



This is his comeback story.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Premium domains</h2>



Saylor was not always the apex Bitcoin bull. He did, however, understand digital scarcity long before the first block was ever mined: in domain names.



After founding MicroStrategy in 1989 and spending years building it up as a data mining and business intelligence operation, Saylor in the ‘90s had the bright idea to start buying up “premium” domain names: simple, single-word domains with potentially universal appeal and, preferably, over 500 million hits on Google Search.



Angel.com. Alarm.com. Wisdom.com. Emma.com. Speaker.com. Alert.com. Voice.com. Hope.com. Only one person could ever own each one at a time, and MicroStrategy spent $2 million overall acquiring those types of premium domains — at an average of around $100,000 each — alongside thousands of less valuable secondary domains.



“I bought all these domains because I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to own a part of the English language?’” Saylor said on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8TwxyhkTIQ">My First Million podcast</a>. He personally owns Michael.com and one for his nickname, Mike.com.



“I mean, [as to] owning ‘hope’ or owning ‘voice’ — eventually, there’ll be a Google Voice, or some telecom company will want to launch a service. And what a great domain to launch on — a word like ‘Voice.com.’”



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdBwge8WT2RV6gJncFpPEi-krFuB9PTnaSkXBQiitsn-Z4b6Eg-Xgb6PPt2lHRk7wkWobOqhyLabP8p1PZmRQvM6TQMzhssSd_-_piU2vT13r_qokycmL99jc_WsLrEdp-eBLFH1g?key=y2TEMfTsQ9h7Ei8GaCPtYnlE" alt=""/></figure>



Alarm.com and Angel.com were later commercialized with real companies, respectively spun up by Saylor and MicroStrategy’s research and development division.&nbsp;



MicroStrategy eventually <a href="https://www.pehub.com/abs-capital-buys-alarmcom/">sold</a> Alarm.com and its associated business for $27.7 million in 2009 to venture capital firm ABS Capital Partners. In 2013, software company Genesys <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/microstrategy-announces-sale-of-angel-subsidiary-193265481.html">acquired</a> Angel.com with its business for $110 million cash, and quickly rebranded it under its own corporate umbrella.



Saylor, meanwhile, was adamant that Voice.com was worth $1 billion to the right buyer.



It was around this time, in December 2013, that Saylor first publicly commented on Bitcoin: “Lacking a credible sponsor, Bitcoin is in imminent danger of being regulated out of existence,” Saylor <a href="https://x.com/saylor/status/409356401375739905">tweeted</a>.&nbsp;



He posted again another week later, after bitcoin had fallen by up to two-thirds from an all-time high of $1,242:



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bitcoin?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Bitcoin</a> days are numbered. It seems like just a matter of time before it suffers the same fate as online gambling.&mdash; Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) <a href="https://twitter.com/saylor/status/413478389329428480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2013</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Sunk cost</h2>



Saylor wouldn’t really return to Bitcoin until mid-2020, at least publicly, and going by the timeline of events, a premium domain sale to a crypto startup might’ve been his lightbulb moment, with a capital ₿.



In May 2019 — one year before MicroStrategy first showed intent to buy bitcoin — the company behind upstart blockchain EOS, Block.one, had <a href="https://b1.com/press/block-one-introduces-social-media-application-voice/">announced</a> a new social media app in the form of Voice, which promised to pay token payouts to users for posting and sharing content.



Block.one was previously calculated to have <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/31/a-blockchain-start-up-just-raised-4-billion-without-a-live-product.html">raised</a> $4.1 billion in ETH during a year-long initial coin offering that started in mid-2017 and ended around a year before Voice was revealed.



“They [Block.one] contacted us, one of their domain brokers, and they asked, ‘Do you want to sell it? We’ll give you $150,000.’ I said no. I thought nothing of it, because I just couldn’t see the point,” Saylor recounted.



“They come back and say, ‘They doubled it to $300,000.’ I said, ‘Tell them no.’ So a couple days later they [Saylor’s colleagues] go, ‘Well the broker’s really insistent; they went to $600,000.’ I said no. So they said, ‘Well, what should we say?’ I said, ‘Don’t tell them anything. Tell them we’re not interested. It’s got to be something serious.’”



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcjSGsnDrPLsMidWxNatJd63lj6msqkd5SCVr58-dxIUVaRdcEHtV-gv4gGLb9GB8TJnSxDi87L0lCZm-uYY_6yIB3OSPucXHUkLqxWeAM6sTAIlUp1CniPQkbq9GY6GNMi-NbgMg?key=y2TEMfTsQ9h7Ei8GaCPtYnlE" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">MSTR returned to all-time highs last November after more than two decades — thanks to its Bitcoin plan. EOS is down 75% in the past five years. Source: TradingView.</figcaption></figure>



Block.one then offered $1.2 million, which Saylor rejected. Then $2.5 million. Then $5 million. Then around $10 million.



“When it got to $12 million, I said I’d get on the phone for half an hour. That call started with someone saying, ‘Well, how about $22 million?’ And I said, “Let me explain. This is like my daughter. I’m willing to marry her off, but only to a man that values her more than I value her.”



MicroStrategy <a href="https://domainnamewire.com/2019/06/18/record-breaker-voice-com-domain-name-sells-for-staggering-30-million/">closed</a> the deal in June 2019 for $30 million — 200 times above Block.one’s initial offer. It’s still the largest known pure domain name sale in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_domain_names">history</a>, nearly doubling the previous record of $17 million, which <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dougyoung/2015/02/06/qihoo-eyes-360-brand-with-record-domain-buy/">Qihoo paid for 360.com</a> in 2015.



Block.one went on to <a href="https://protos.com/block-one-social-media-voice-offline-unfinished-nft-platform/">sink another $150 million</a> into Voice.com’s development over the next two years before shutting it down in late 2023. Voice <a href="https://x.com/VoiceHQ/status/1702041043980492946">stated</a> that “the ongoing uncertainty in the crypto and NFT market will continue for more time than we have.”



Conversely, Saylor and MicroStrategy began buying bitcoin, positioning themselves to capitalize immensely on an impending bitcoin rally fueled by anticipation of ETFs from BlackRock, Fidelity and others.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How it started</h2>



One year after the domain sale closed, in July 2020, Saylor said in a quarterly earnings <a href="https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2020/07/28/microstrategy-mstr-q2-2020-earnings-call-transcrip.aspx">call</a> that MicroStrategy may start buying bitcoin over the next year as part of a new capital allocation strategy.



The plan was to invest $250 million over the next 12 months in alternative assets — “which may include stocks, bonds, commodities such as gold, digital assets such as bitcoin, or other asset types,” while buying back $250 million in company stock from shareholders.



Except it didn’t take a year. MicroStrategy bought 21,454 BTC for $250 million in less than two weeks, and in August 2020 <a href="https://x.com/saylor/status/1293141856700768257">declared</a> bitcoin its primary treasury reserve asset.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bitcoin?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Bitcoin</a> is a swarm of cyber hornets serving the goddess of wisdom, feeding on the fire of truth, exponentially growing ever smarter, faster, and stronger behind a wall of encrypted energy.&mdash; Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) <a href="https://twitter.com/saylor/status/1307029562321231873?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 18, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Bitcoin was then trading for under $12,000, and within four months had broken its $20,000 price record, which had previously held for almost three years.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Corner the market</h2>



By December 2020, MicroStrategy had <a href="https://www.strategy.com/press/microstrategy-announces-proposed-private-offering-of-400-million-of-convertible-senior-notes">opened</a> its first debt sale since opting into bitcoin — $400 million with 0.75% interest — which it pledged to spend on buying more coins. Then a second raise two months later, and a third four months after the second.



So by the time Block.one wound down Voice in September 2023, MicroStrategy was sitting on $4.2 billion in BTC at the very early stages of a monster bull run.



Since then, MicroStrategy has spent almost $27.8 billion to acquire an additional 340,860 BTC ($28.7 billion). Bitcoin has more than tripled in price in that time, while MicroStrategy has dropped the “Micro” from its name and only <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/strategy-rebrand-and-2025-targets">goes by Strategy</a> these days.



Strategy now holds a total of 499,096 BTC — 2.5% of the circulating supply — and is valuable enough to be included in the benchmark Nasdaq 100 stock market index. Saylor has relentlessly bull-posted the entire time, picking up where former evangelists such as Roger Ver left off.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">21 Rules of ₿itcoin 1. Those who understand buy Bitcoin. 2. Those who don’t, criticize Bitcoin. 3. Everyone is against Bitcoin before they are for it. 4. You will never be done learning about Bitcoin. 5. Bitcoin is powered by chaos. 6. Bitcoin is the only game in the casino…&mdash; Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) <a href="https://twitter.com/saylor/status/1891492169409593715?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 17, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Of course, Strategy has raised billions of dollars across nine completed debt sales to help fund the bitcoin acquisition plan.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How it’s going&nbsp;</h2>



Right now, the firm has <a href="https://www.mstr-tracker.com/">$9.3 billion</a> in convertible debt against $41.8 billion in BTC, and is this year <a href="https://x.com/Strategy/status/1897353660696551901">responsible</a> for 30% of the US convertible market, all “powered by Bitcoin.”&nbsp;



Strategy has spent $33.2 billion on bitcoin in total, and the napkin math puts Strategy effectively ahead by $700 million at time of writing. Saylor’s personal net worth is <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/">estimated</a> at $6.6 billion, and in January, the firm openly promised to raise $42 billion over the next three years to buy a whole lot more.



Whether it’s conviction that Voice.com is really worth $1 billion, or that bitcoin is “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTPoRDrtc0s">going up forever</a>,” Saylor’s career has been marked by the same base instinct to corner the market on long-lasting digital assets, particularly ones that serve as foundational structures for internet economies.&nbsp;



Saylor simply expanded from one highly-illiquid digital asset class in domain names — a niche space where he’s also <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izpxH4XNmk8">considered a legend</a> — to one deeply liquid digital asset in bitcoin.&nbsp;



Amazingly, what followed the Voice.com deal doubles as a near-perfect allegory for crypto investing. Block.one sunk nine figures into a token project that pivoted to NFTs, only to go zero before it even started, defeated by a bear market.



Strategy has otherwise <a href="https://www.ledger.com/academy/glossary/stack-the-sats">stacked sats</a> throughout, driving its market value from under $4 billion to more than $80 billion. 



Saylor is thus living proof that there’s “bitcoin,” and then there’s “crypto.” 



He’s just planned accordingly.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/daily">Blockworks Daily</a>: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Empire</a>: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forwardguidance">Forward Guidance</a>: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.</li>



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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thedrop">The Drop</a>: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supplyshock">Supply Shock</a>: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.</li>
</ul>

Deep dive: How Michael Saylor came back from losing $6B in 1 day

This is a segment from the Supply Shock newsletter. To read full editions,&nbsp;<a href="https://bitcoinhistorynl.beehiiv.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subscribe</a>.&nbsp;



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



The arc of crypto is long, but it bends toward ₿itcoin.



Pete Rizzo, the Bitcoin Historian, has just launched a brand-new Bitcoin podcast with Blockworks, Supply Shock.



<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/introducing-supply-shock-new-bitcoin-brand?utm_source=bitcoinhistorynl.beehiiv.com&amp;utm_medium=newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=50-000-btc-sold">Read more about the Supply Shock vision</a>.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">WE ARE LIVE! Supply Shock, the best Bitcoin podcast in crypto, drops today. Hosted by The Bitcoin Historian <a href="https://twitter.com/pete_rizzo_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@pete_rizzo_</a>, Supply Shock is for everyone who wants to stay on top of the biggest cryptoasset in the world and understand the lore that got it there. <a href="https://t.co/R8vGq5orKd">pic.twitter.com/R8vGq5orKd</a>&mdash; Supply Shock (@SupplyShockBW) <a href="https://twitter.com/SupplyShockBW/status/1895116065861955651?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 27, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Now, time to run through the most memorable Bitcoin moments from the past week:



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Zero to 13</h2>



Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis has been plugging Bitcoin from as long as it was — or at least <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/07/senator-cynthia-lummis-discloses-a-bitcoin-purchase-worth-up-to-100000.html">since</a> 2013 when she bought her first bitcoin.



Now, Lummis’ passion for Bitcoin is coalescing. Last Tuesday, Lummis <a href="https://www.lummis.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/BITCOINAct.pdf">reintroduced</a> her monumental <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-reserve-proposal-live-again">BITCOIN Act</a> to the Senate, which if passed, would expand Trump’s strategic reserve by buying 1 million BTC ($83.6 billion) over five years — “mirroring the scale and strategic importance of US gold reserves.”



Lummis first <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/senator-lummis-bitcoin-reserve-bill-crypto-policy">introduced</a> the bill last July with no co-sponsors. This time around, there were five — all Republican — while Alaska representative Nick Begich <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feFSR93NLdg">told</a> the National Press Club that he would be introducing Lummis’ bill to the House of Representatives along with six co-sponsors, bringing the total number of sponsors across both bills to 13.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">The BITCOIN Act is back. <a href="https://t.co/WNeU6SWPj3">pic.twitter.com/WNeU6SWPj3</a>&mdash; Senator Cynthia Lummis (@SenLummis) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenLummis/status/1899449083628036177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



There’s still a long road ahead before the bills would pass with majority votes in both the House and Senate. Then again, nothing says Bitcoin like steady, incremental progress.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Honest work</h2>



Bitcoin mining is everything, everywhere, all at once: a multi-billion dollar industry covered by Wall Street; a techno-vocation to uncensorable peer-to-peer cash; a critical revenue stream for communities <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bhutan-btc-mining-operations">big</a> and <a href="https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/gridless-is-mining-bitcoin-while-fostering-human-flourishing-in-africa">small</a>.



It’s also a lottery system for hobbyists. And it’s paying out again. Early last week, yet another bitcoin miner running DIY equipment discovered a block to immediately earn 3.125 BTC ($262,000), plus an additional ‎0.025 BTC in fees ($1,950).



Data logs indicate the miner was using an open-source BitAxe capable of up to 480 GH/s of hash rate — which is a measly 0.000000894% of the hash rate wielded by industry giant Marathon.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">A miner of this size has only less than a 1 in a million chance of finding a block per day, or put alternatively, would take 3500 years to find a block on average.&mdash; Dr -ck (@ckpooldev) <a href="https://twitter.com/ckpooldev/status/1899211027943915691?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



The BitAxe was pointed to <a href="https://solo.ckpool.org/">Solo CKPool</a>, which despite its name is not a pool but more of a web proxy which facilitates bitcoin mining without running a full node. This was the <a href="https://mempool.space/mining/pool/solock">sixth</a> block mined by a SoloCK participant in the past six months.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Cold War II: Bitcoin Boogaloo</h2>



On the world stage, Bitcoin is no longer a theoretical construct. Case in point: Some Russian oil companies are now using BTC during trade with India and China, alongside ETH and USDT, according to a Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/russia-leans-cryptocurrencies-oil-trade-sources-say-2025-03-14/">report</a>.



It goes like this: A Chinese buyer of Russian oil pays yuan into the offshore account of a middleman, who converts the yuan into crypto before sending it onto a second and then finally a third account in Russia, where it’s converted into Russian rubles.&nbsp;



In one case, tens of millions of dollars in oil are reportedly traded in this way every month. Bolivia’s state energy provider YPFB meanwhile told <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/bolivia-turns-crypto-energy-imports-amid-dollar-fuel-shortages-2025-03-12/">reporters</a> that it will use crypto to pay for energy imports as dollar and fuel shortages persist.



<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ixKDLBKV0gM?si=NeM_Td-zkO1TaEqJ" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>







Separately, guests on this week’s Supply Shock roundup wondered whether BTC could be adopted by BRICS nations as both the pricing and settlement system for global oil trade separate from the US, “because then you&#8217;re not allowing any country to take over the oil market and America could live with that,” said Nolan Bauerle.



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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forwardguidance">Forward Guidance</a>: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">0xResearch</a>: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.</li>



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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supplyshock">Supply Shock</a>: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.</li>
</ul>

Support grows for Lummis’ plan to buy 1M BTC

This is a segment from the Supply Shock newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://bitcoinhistorynl.beehiiv.com/">subscribe</a>. 



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Today, we’re reliving the journey of Nayib Bukele, the laser-eyed president of El Salvador who made bitcoin legal tender in a world first.



It was one year ago today that El Salvador wisely moved its strategic bitcoin reserve into cold storage. Now, the country is sitting on over half a billion dollars in BTC.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Fix the money</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXctuANstQWf2wwuTlxB83nFqQzBSVbbPiVAZHXTZEsEM6H5LTc3S8esDSNewkazuMAZndBzCOuC-Mndh4g4DcmrbATZVij2rodAbRu3s2nk4kr3qdR0Nqq8SpLQ0QUvX6eAm5XdKA?key=VdO7BbQm1Q9LLJfuZ9b4-wUr" alt=""/></figure>



The old adage goes, “do you wanna be right, or do you wanna make money?”&nbsp;



El Salvador president Nayib Bukele has proven it’s possible to do both.



Bitcoin was first and foremost freedom money to Bukele, as it was for activists like <a href="https://protos.com/navalny-bitcoin-donations-surge-protests-cryptocurrencyrussia/">Alexei Navalny</a> and Canada’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/podcast-bitcoins-role-in-the-freedom-convoy-protests-alex-gladstein-greg-foss-jeff-booth">Freedom Convoy</a>, among others.



In late 2017, as Bukele was preparing to run for president, electoral authorities had <a href="https://bitcoinmagazine.com/markets/el-salvador-central-bank-bitcoin-summit">reportedly</a> threatened to freeze his campaign funds. His new party, Nuevas Ideas (New Ideas), was initially labeled a “movimiento ciudadano,” or “citizen movement,” which sought to disrupt the two-party political machine that had been in power since El Salvador’s civil war in the 1980s.



But the government had <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20171118165848/https://www.contrapunto.com.sv/politica/sociedadcivil/bukele-lanza-el-movimiento-nuevas-ideas-/5031">pushed</a> to ban donations to citizen movements for political purposes. Even after those efforts stalled, citizen movements were told to adhere to the same laws as political parties that required them to be formally approved before legally raising money.



Bukele had supposedly suggested that Nuevas Ideas would accept bitcoin instead. And when the central bank shared a notice on Twitter reiterating that bitcoin is not legal tender in El Salvador, and that unauthorized individuals or companies cannot legally collect funds from the public in cryptocurrency, Bukele <a href="https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/927663239013511168?s=20&amp;t=YQmbipn26thl3RS_DL6lkA">replied</a>:



“When they cannot stop a movement and they use all the state machinery to achieve it.”&nbsp;



One day later, Bukele <a href="https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/927755938244759552?lang=en">tweeted</a>, “well yes, it&#8217;s official, we will use Bitcoin,” and tagged the Salvadoran central bank’s official account.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeFeySEmuf_WoBu9U9VHxsHUQr_zATG7EH3vIFkd1Cb3hcC3YNgqqE79DFTwJNStDuyfNQQqrm3MgP23A_gI-_lGdFjiHymJDmVy5jIinnXp0PIC4PlAkoWb13gx70o_trtCye6YA?key=VdO7BbQm1Q9LLJfuZ9b4-wUr" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Under Bukele, El Salvador has bought bitcoin through both bear and bull markets. The orange line is the price of bitcoin and the orange shaded area is El Salvador’s BTC balance.</figcaption></figure>



Nuevas Ideas was successfully registered about six months before the election. It <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190209123845/https://elmundo.sv/tse-aprueba-176076-firmas-a-nuevas-ideas/">collected</a> 200,000 supporting signatures in just three days, well above the required 50,000.



In February 2019, Bukele <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190204141044/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/03/world/americas/salvador-bukele-election.html">won</a> with 54% of the vote and was inaugurated by June, becoming the youngest president in the nation’s nearly 200-year history.



Meanwhile, bitcoin was at the very bottom of a grueling bear market, having retreated from almost $20,000 to under $3,200 in 14 months.



It was around this time that the second domino was set up for Bukele.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Bitcoin for good</h2>



As California surfer and local volunteer Michael Peterson <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tatianakoffman/2020/07/14/this-el-salvador-village-adopts-bitcoin-as-money/">tells</a> it, he was approached by an anonymous donor in early 2019 who was eager to spawn a Bitcoin-based circular economy in the Salvadoran beach town of El Zonte, where the overwhelming majority of citizens and small businesses were unbanked.



Over time, bitcoin was increasingly accepted as payment around town and El Zonte would become known as “<a href="https://x.com/Bitcoinbeach/status/1171604827803140096">Bitcoin Beach</a>.”&nbsp;



Peterson helped distribute funds to support youth work programs which paid BTC to local youngsters for picking up trash, fixing damaged water systems and repairing roads.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Satoshi is alive and well in El Zonte &#8211; He is living a quiet life selling pupusas and continuing to stack sats <a href="https://t.co/se22lqjWee">pic.twitter.com/se22lqjWee</a>&mdash; Bitcoin Beach (@Bitcoinbeach) <a href="https://twitter.com/Bitcoinbeach/status/1859352231784677830?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 20, 2024</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Bitcoin Beach also funded educational grants, bus rides and snacks for commuting high school students and even universal basic income for 600 families during the pandemic, which had closed borders and forced unemployment to record highs.&nbsp;



In June of the following year, at Bitcoin Miami 2021, Bukele <a href="https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/1401327906178191366">announced</a> his radical plan for El Salvador to adopt bitcoin as legal tender alongside the US dollar, having been directly inspired by Bitcoin Beach.&nbsp;



The next day, Bukele <a href="https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/1401391067350581248">donned</a> laser eyes in his Twitter profile pic, capping off his evolution into full Bitcoiner. El Salvador’s legislative assembly approved the Bitcoin bill in that same week.&nbsp;



Three months later, the Bitcoin Law came into effect, making El Salvador the first country in the world to adopt BTC.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfbRNrsh5ETbW_f7IPorJQKJGOvbtX-9p8o8_TbAX2qVsuplDKj6n2pZraXiovB6dtXfMyXrqeNAjQNXCLlU_-GFN3nV-C7dEgyoaZzIbmt95K_X6NIY8xeS6Je78nuQSlzYdZv?key=VdO7BbQm1Q9LLJfuZ9b4-wUr" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">El Salvador mined bitcoin with volcano energy shortly after bitcoin became legal tender</figcaption></figure>



Despite a rocky rollout amid <a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-elections-bitcoin-nayib-bukele-el-salvador-b4ca6f06417074dbd254a205a452b426">protests</a>, more than 1.1 million users had still <a href="https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/1439062924534943753">downloaded</a> the official Chivo wallet in its first 11 days. Each one was eligible for $30 worth of bitcoin for free, Bukele’s way of helping onboard the nation.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Main character energy</h2>



All great protagonists need antagonists. For Bukele, on the world stage that’s the International Monetary Fund (IMF).



Less than five months after the Bitcoin Law passed, the IMF was urging El Salvador to drop bitcoin as legal tender — halting loan talks and warning that it would be difficult to secure financing in the future.



Those moves led to worries that El Salvador would default on its loans. Fitch even downgraded El Salvador’s debt following the one year anniversary of the Bitcoin Law.



Undeterred, Bukele soon announced El Salvador would start buying 1 BTC every day, indefinitely. El Salvador now holds 6,114 BTC worth $507 million and is ahead by 78%, according to <a href="https://nayibtracker.com/">NayibTracker</a>.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeyHaZPOLxGykX9jco4jdngMhwwglrTd7W5WHUhUFoXj_1OKGPJ0NJtiTZJqgWcZ0FcfbuJNx0j4Z0VXQAvjy_lJ6WJS48DzD7n_DpJl0TLJdw1IjbPsMc6e-LLs_qG0391rAtX?key=VdO7BbQm1Q9LLJfuZ9b4-wUr" alt=""/></figure>



El Salvador eventually <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/el-salvador-says-it-has-repaid-800-million-bond-maturing-january-2023-01-24/">repaid</a> an $800 million bond as a sign of its financial strength.&nbsp;



Fitch bumped up El Salvador’s debt by three notches in response, stating that default “no longer appears likely,” and Bukele was re-elected in a landslide victory nine months later in February 2024.&nbsp;



Late last year, El Salvador bonds largely outperformed other emerging market debt as bitcoin rallied past $100,000. Bukele <a href="https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/1864765287305822604">remarked it was</a> the “first time in history that Bitcoin has driven sovereign bonds up in traditional markets.”



Bukele’s Bitcoin tale, as it stands, is then bittersweet. The IMF had been negotiating the terms of a $1.4 billion loan to El Salvador ever since it adopted bitcoin, with the deal finally coming to a head in February.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">🇸🇻BLOOMBERG: EL SALVADOR BONDS RALLY AS BITCOIN JUMPS PAST $100,000 MARK Bloomberg credits the bitcoin rally for driving El Salvador bonds even higher, making them among the top gainers in emerging-market debt. President Bukele put El Salvador on the path to prosperity. 🤑🚀 <a href="https://t.co/inNV1fO9pF">https://t.co/inNV1fO9pF</a>&mdash; Stacy Herbert 🇸🇻🚀 (@stacyherbert) <a href="https://twitter.com/stacyherbert/status/1864744400560988496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 5, 2024</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



The IMF required El Salvador to drop bitcoin as legal tender, reverting it to an optional payment method for the private sector and forcing taxes to be once again paid only in US dollars. Arguably history’s biggest Bitcoin experiment to date had ended far too soon.



Bukele and El Salvador continue to buy bitcoin, on most days at least. The IMF <a href="https://archive.fo/4QG0G">apparently</a> knows about it and doesn’t mind, which implies that it’s not being purchased with public funds, but we don’t know for sure.



All things considered, Bukele is actually not the main character of this story, something with which even he would surely agree.&nbsp;



Bitcoin is the real antagonist. Bukele simply understood that earlier than any other world leader.



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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supplyshock">Supply Shock</a>: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.</li>
</ul>

How Bukele went from mayor to most powerful Bitcoin maxi on Earth

This is a segment from the Supply Shock newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://bitcoinhistorynl.beehiiv.com/">subscribe</a>.&nbsp;



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Serial entrepreneur Dan Held, whose past exits include <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2013/12/24/blockchaininfo-acquires-bitcoin-price-app-zeroblock">Zeroblock</a> and <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2019/07/31/kraken-boosts-institutional-offerings-with-acquisition-of-dan-helds-interchange">Interchange</a>, sees Bitcoin DeFi as the largest untapped opportunity of his decade-long crypto career.



Speaking on the Supply Shock podcast Tuesday, Held told host Pete Rizzo that he sees decentralized finance (DeFi) as the key to unlocking bitcoin’s potential as a $300 trillion global asset. He pointed to the ability to earn yield for lending bitcoin — one of the many financial functions DeFi replicates without centralized intermediaries — as a major opportunity.



Held&#8217;s journey into Bitcoin DeFi began with his exploration of yield-generating opportunities, including providing liquidity for Lightning channels and Coinjoins. Initially skeptical of DeFi due to its association with scams, Held became convinced of its potential after witnessing new use cases on alternative crypto platforms like Ethereum and Solana. He noted that DeFi could <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-powerful-defi-potential">introduce new users to bitcoin</a>, much like early adopters were drawn in through activities like Silk Road and speculation. &#8220;If DeFi could be unlocked on Bitcoin, it would be by far the biggest opportunity ever to happen in crypto,&#8221; Held said. Elsewhere, Held told Rizzo he does not see Bitcoin DeFi as a zero-sum game where Bitcoin replaces other blockchains entirely. “I think what will happen is that this just absorbs market share from the other ones significantly, but not totally, and that this increases Bitcoin&#8217;s dominance,&#8221; Held explained.&nbsp;



<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cLbw2OZiIP8?si=IkR0bKigE-Nqzdnb" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>







“I think <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-web3-defi-adoption">Bitcoin dominance</a> goes up if DeFi and Bitcoin gets unlocked…because in doing so, it locks up a lot of bitcoin. It also drives more demand to buy bitcoin. And so I think all of that&#8217;s good for Bitcoin,” he continued.&nbsp;



Held recently co-founded <a href="https://asymmetric.financial/">Asymmetric</a> with Joe McCann. The venture capital firm&#8217;s portfolio includes Bitcoin DeFi startups such as Liquidium, Fractal and BitLayer. The addition of DeFi opportunities to Bitcoin is not without its challenges. Held noted Bitcoin&#8217;s user experience must compete with Solana, which offers low-cost transactions. However, Held believes that Bitcoin&#8217;s L2 solutions will play a crucial role in enhancing user experience, offering performance similar to Ethereum and Solana. 



&#8220;I think there&#8217;s going to be this renaissance in the Bitcoin DeFi world [in 2025],&#8221; Held said.



Updated March 11, 2025 at 1:59 pm ET: Added mention of Asymmetric co-founder.



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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supplyshock">Supply Shock</a>: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.</li>
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Bitcoin DeFi key to unlocking $300T potential: Asymmetric Founder

This is a segment from the Supply Shock newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://bitcoinhistorynl.beehiiv.com/">subscribe</a>.&nbsp;



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Bitcoin is writing history as we speak.&nbsp;



Blockworks’ newest podcast <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/supplyshock">Supply Shock</a> now actively <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/introducing-supply-shock-new-bitcoin-brand">connects the dots</a> between the current state of Bitcoin and its tumultuous timeline — all anchored by the unique perspective of its host Pete Rizzo, the Bitcoin Historian.



So, let’s get you up to speed with the three most memorable moments in Bitcoin from the past week:



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Uncle Diamond Hands</h2>



It’s happening: The US government officially holds bitcoin as a reserve asset.



Could last Thursday’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/03/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-establishes-the-strategic-bitcoin-reserve-and-u-s-digital-asset-stockpile/">executive order</a> have been more bullish? Maybe. The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve will, in the beginning, only hold bitcoin seized in criminal and civil cases — a list that presumably includes Silk Road, which Arkham <a href="https://intel.arkm.com/explorer/entity/usg">puts</a> at 198,109 BTC ($16.64 billion) in total, <a href="https://www.ainvest.com/news/government-allocate-88-000-btc-strategic-reserve-bitfinex-return-2503/">though it’s likely much less</a>.



That’s more than 40 times larger than the separate Digital Asset Stockpile to be composed of seized coins other than BTC, which today amount to about $419 million.



Still, the order authorized the Secretary and Commerce Secretaries to develop “budget-neutral strategies” to actively buy bitcoin in the future, as long as taxpayers don’t foot the bill. Key officials have already said they are actively exploring the idea through at least two government agencies.&nbsp;


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1194" height="1224" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-10-at-11.55.23.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-98483" style="width:522px;height:auto" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-10-at-11.55.23.png?w=1194 1194w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-10-at-11.55.23.png?w=293 293w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-10-at-11.55.23.png?w=999 999w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-10-at-11.55.23.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-10-at-11.55.23.png?w=251 251w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-10-at-11.55.23.png?w=255 255w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-10-at-11.55.23.png?w=214 214w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-10-at-11.55.23.png?w=78 78w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1194px) 100vw, 1194px" /></figure></div>


The same can’t be said for other cryptocurrencies — with the executive order stating the government will not acquire more assets for the Digital Asset Stockpile outside of forfeiture proceedings.&nbsp;



No. Second. Best.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">11th hour in Utah</h2>



The Utah Senate <a href="https://le.utah.gov/DynaBill/svotes.jsp?sessionid=2025GS&amp;voteid=2141&amp;house=S">passed</a> the Bitcoin-focused bill known as HB230 by a 19-7-3 vote on Friday — which should’ve allowed the state to create its own strategic bitcoin reserve.



Lawmakers pulled the key provision effectively at the last minute. Had they not, Utah might’ve become the first US state to actively buy bitcoin.



Initially, the bill had made room for the state treasury to invest up to 5% of certain funds into digital assets, including accounts related to state disaster recovery and income tax fund budgets, among others.



The catch: the treasury could’ve only bought coins with a market cap above $500 billion, averaged over the last year. Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency that fits that definition right now, so the bill was largely considered a move towards a de facto strategic bitcoin reserve.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="942" height="1246" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-10-at-16.56.03.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-98517" style="width:639px;height:auto" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-10-at-16.56.03.png?w=942 942w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-10-at-16.56.03.png?w=227 227w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-10-at-16.56.03.png?w=774 774w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-10-at-16.56.03.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-10-at-16.56.03.png?w=194 194w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-10-at-16.56.03.png?w=197 197w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-10-at-16.56.03.png?w=166 166w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-10-at-16.56.03.png?w=60 60w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 942px) 100vw, 942px" /></figure>



There’s good news. The bill enshrined certain rights for Bitcoiners into law, including the right to mine, self-custody and run nodes. Other provisions allow for staking, including for coins other than bitcoin, while devs will be able build software on blockchain rails without shirking money transmitter laws.



All well and good. But at least the state bitcoin reserve dream is still alive in more than a dozen <a href="https://bitcoinlaws.io/reserve-race">states</a> including Arizona, Texas, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Florida and Georgia.&nbsp;



Five states have so far rejected related bills.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Hydro-powered by Bitcoin</h2>



The Kingdom of Bhutan is a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bhutan-btc-mining-operations">Buddhist Bitcoin whale</a> that’s been mining since as early as February 2021.



Last week, we were blessed with the first known interview with Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay about the kingdom’s mining operations, which aim to offset declining tourism revenue. “There are hundreds of people who have made billions of dollars on the back of Bitcoin. Why aren’t governments doing more?” Tobgay told Al Jazeera.&nbsp;



“We have used bitcoin for health — to provide free healthcare, for [the] environment. But these are minor. The main use of Bitcoin has been to finance the salaries of public servants.”



<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wN6hMRqR43w?si=uqXN2ZFSuhQ4jvw_" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>







A <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bhutan-btc-mining-operations">Blockworks analysis</a> last September found Bhutan was raking in up to $4.9 million BTC per day and in total had generated 27,727 BTC up until that point, valued at nearly $2.3 billion at current prices. At the time, the government may have netted around $578.5 million from selling its mined coins over time. Its wallets currently contain 10,635 BTC ($876 million), per <a href="https://intel.arkm.com/explorer/entity/druk-holding-investments">Arkham</a>.



And when asked whether the Bhutanese will one day make bitcoin offerings to Buddha, the outlet said that Tobgay thinks the world is “heading inevitably towards using and exchanging bitcoin just like any other currency.”



I couldn&#8217;t have said it better myself.



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Bitcoin has formally entered its sovereign state era

This is a segment from the Supply Shock newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://bitcoinhistorynl.beehiiv.com/">subscribe</a>.&nbsp;



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Bitcoin doesn’t have an official mascot.&nbsp;



Still, for at least a few years, Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto was the closest thing Bitcoin had to a spirit animal — an unassuming everyman who became symbolic of Bitcoin’s power to change the world from humble beginnings.



Newsweek started it on March 6, 2014 with “<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/2014/03/14/face-behind-bitcoin-247957.html">The Face Behind Bitcoin</a>,” in which journalist Leah McGrath Goodman detailed a months-long investigation into potential candidates. But the article hinged on a misunderstanding.



Earlier attempts considered the Nakamoto name a pseudonym. Goodman instead searched for Satoshis hiding in plain sight.



Goodman found a number of people named Satoshi Nakamoto, dead and alive: “A Ralph Lauren menswear designer in New York and another who died in Honolulu in 2008, according to the Social Security Index&#8217;s Death Master File,” Goodman wrote.&nbsp;



Amazingly, tweets like these are still online.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">We found Satoshi Nakamoto. The mysterious creator of Bitcoin, unmasked: <a href="http://t.co/C9frgU1Iod">http://t.co/C9frgU1Iod</a> <a href="http://t.co/RPG8GaP4XB">pic.twitter.com/RPG8GaP4XB</a>&mdash; Newsweek (@Newsweek) <a href="https://twitter.com/Newsweek/status/441533270665097216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 6, 2014</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Goodman eventually stumbled across a Satoshi in a database for naturalized US citizens. Dorian’s profile matched the background of someone who might’ve created Bitcoin: a brilliant, “obsessively private” physicist and engineer who boasted a keen interest in politics alongside a deep distrust of banks and government constructs.



Dorian, a Japan-born descendent of Samurai on his mother’s side and the son of a priest on his father’s side, hadn’t used his Satoshi birth name for 40 years, having legally changed it at the age of 23. He’d signed his name “Dorian S. Nakamoto” ever since.



When Goodman approached Dorian outside his home in southern California — after emails between the two had gone dark — he soon called the police. That Temple City home, by coincidence, was situated <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2014/03/25/satoshi-nakamotos-neighbor-the-bitcoin-ghostwriter-who-wasnt/">a few blocks away</a> from <a href="https://x.com/pete_rizzo_/status/1827692409859277163">Hal Finney</a>’s.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A perfect storm</h2>



Dorian spent much of his career working on classified projects for major corporations and the US military, and per Newsweek&#8217;s report, Dorian believed he would get into trouble if he spoke with Goodman.&nbsp;



Before Goodman was shooed away, Dorian responded to a question about Bitcoin: &#8220;I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it. It&#8217;s been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection.&#8221;



Satoshi’s last known communication, an email to developer Mike Hearn, had occurred almost three years earlier.



Confusingly, all that tracks with what the real Satoshi might say — resulting in Newsweek running the piece as a cover story erroneously outing Dorian as Bitcoin’s inventor. Dorian later <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3nzqqh/comment/cvt06j5/?context=3">said</a> that he thought Goodman was asking about his previous work with Citibank.



The story sparked a media frenzy. Silk Road had just been shut down by the FBI in the months prior, and bitcoin was retracing from a monster all-time high of $1,242 after rallying 10,000% in one year.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Satoshi Nakamoto chased by reporters, denies founding Bitcoin <a href="http://t.co/Ns8EeBQAIj">http://t.co/Ns8EeBQAIj</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/alschaben?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AlSchaben</a> gets the photo <a href="http://t.co/FD1q63Nfqc">pic.twitter.com/FD1q63Nfqc</a>&mdash; L.A. Times Photos (@latimesphotos) <a href="https://twitter.com/latimesphotos/status/441698256792199168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 6, 2014</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Newsweek had effectively published the exact location of Dorian’s house, leading to uncomfortable scenes</figcaption></figure>



The media <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juNwcMAPbzQ">mobbed</a> Dorian for days, leaving us with iconic <a href="https://x.com/latimesphotos/status/441698256792199168">photos</a> of reporters <a href="https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=b4a9ab6bfcbd968f&amp;q=dorian+nakamoto+cameras&amp;udm=2&amp;fbs=ABzOT_CWdhQLP1FcmU5B0fn3xuWpA-dk4wpBWOGsoR7DG5zJBteutRhCIwSdaS7of3GY5DSBTK2sWFDm60bkTR4-igG_y2Alth1LHDKvT2rGaaYp4aDBB_sBSbD8l4dbLdP9JNZLoA4KWad-pUqxf6DY0sJyKggpx4OoG9DmiEMO1zL0cOYz99a3yLGPgvPc-98ypubgCNST&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiRpO2j-u-LAxXbgP0HHSSqLagQtKgLegQIDxAB&amp;biw=1920&amp;bih=912&amp;dpr=1.5#vhid=Rv01KdbB_pZagM&amp;vssid=mosaic">chasing</a> him around his neighbourhood and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/business/man-called-bitcoins-father-denies-ties-leads-la-car-chase-idUSBREA252D8/">across</a> LA.&nbsp;



Amid the chaos, Dorian lined up a sit-down conference with the Associated Press at their offices over a free sushi lunch with <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3nzqqh/comment/cvtgic5/?context=3">“lots of expensive varieties</a>,” in which he explained the confusion and formally denied anything to do with Bitcoin.



In a written statement, Dorian expressed difficulty in finding steady work as an engineer or programmer, and that prospects for gainful employment had been harmed due to Newsweek’s article.&nbsp;



He’d even recently cut off his internet service “due to severe financial distress,” having been recovering from prostate surgery and a stroke at the time.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Friends we make</h2>



The Bitcoin community rallied fast around Dorian, who initially pledged to sue the outlet over the ordeal.



Within the same week, advocate Andreas Antonopoulos <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1ztjmg/andreas_im_fundraising_for_dorian_nakamoto/">announced</a> a BTC fundraiser on Reddit as a “sorry for what happened to you.” Antonopoulus, in an update, said he’d successfully made contact with Dorian and would deliver control of the funds in person.



More than 49 BTC flowed into the donation wallet — a vanity <a href="https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/address/1Dorian4RoXcnBv9hnQ4Y2C1an6NJ4UrjX">address</a> that started with “1Dorian” — over the next two months, worth around $30,000 at the time. The chain shows almost a third of it was then directed to an in-between address before being forwarded to Coinbase starting in June 2014.&nbsp;



Another 17.5 BTC was sent to 1Dorian in December 2015 and the remaining bitcoin made its way to Coinbase in a similar manner in mid-2017.&nbsp;



A separate auction for <a href="https://cryptograffiti.com/products/nakamoto-2014">artwork</a> using Dorian’s likeness, a cryptograffiti piece made entirely of repurposed credit cards, later raised another 17.3 BTC ($5,500 at the time) for Dorian.&nbsp;



Combined with the Antonopoulos fundraiser, the BTC donations would be valued at about $7.5 million today, but it’s unclear how long Dorian has held.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdEN9Cb9xQyUeOjpqzq0SCrtjFKS_hvpZ8JG4kyMqmip117ERw3frwYYkyIBDJfj94ML-juPzxQBH1fFyEIpR9RGojiX61XeUlHuREu1UBVd6z5Xi13Po-6HRmB6qBwbAatBc-wbw?key=AWx_vgN63mZ2L2ghYEz38HSZ" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">In September 2014, the real Satoshi’s email and forum accounts were hacked — leading to a mysterious post on the P2P Foundation forum which referenced the Dorian fiasco (Source: <a href="https://blog.bitmex.com/satoshis-2014-email-hack/">BitMEX</a>)</figcaption></figure>



Antonopoulos initially said the bitcoin would be sold for US dollars to be given to Dorian, while Dorian in a Reddit AMA in late 2015 said that he “<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3nzqqh/comment/cvt3k06/?context=3">didn’t sell</a>” and that he planned to use the funds “<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3nzqqh/comment/cvud7b8/?context=3">as required</a>.”



Dorian ironically became the de facto face for Satoshi over the next five years or so, spawning <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1zpzr2/satoshi_nakamoto_according_to_newsweek/">memes</a>, t-shirts and other art.&nbsp;



Perhaps, it had something to do with Dorian’s embracing of the Bitcoin community after the media had caused so much trouble, even attending <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBs9TKSJjls">conferences</a> here and there.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc-BjzoVyF1jdrKQT349o50eoa_OV5QR7gvLZcaHddXrkIJxBxIEe_unkHwslKi-p00LazJNWWdk4CsYJ7ta-QL5Ub5tmuS-Z2p_ShSE4_VEyQkz6qs_dCkJSqN9yMdT8hpmBbGpg?key=AWx_vgN63mZ2L2ghYEz38HSZ" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Dorian kept up his friendship with artist cryptograffiti for years, <a href="https://x.com/cryptograffiti/status/1555575972153266176">signing</a> prints as recently as August 2022. Cryptograffiti told me via DM: “Dorian is doing well. He&#8217;s trying to stay out of the public eye due to his unwanted celebrity.”</figcaption></figure>



Or, maybe it was his insightful <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3nzqqh/comment/cvtfmjc/?context=3">comments</a> about the state of modern society and the economy he’d made on Reddit — as well as <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3nzqqh/comment/cwmjtjt/?context=3">thoughtful</a> <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3nzqqh/comment/cvt7ess/?context=3">reflections</a> on the state of Bitcoin development — some which were so poignant that they might have well come from the creator of Bitcoin himself.



It’s often said that we’re all Satoshi. Dorian showed us how true that statement really is, only that clearly, some are more Satoshi than others.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The People’s Satoshi&nbsp;</h2>



They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. In the case of Satoshi Nakamoto, it might be more.&nbsp;



Ever since the enigmatic founder of Bitcoin left in 2011 both fans and onlookers haven’t had so much a clue as to his appearance. Artists were left to fill in the gaps.&nbsp;



A simple Google search reveals that images of Satoshi have hardly been consistent. In fact, they’ve evolved substantially over the years, with Satoshi’s story. As far back as 2013, there wasn’t really much of a mystery about Satoshi. He had only been gone a few years, and was commonly pictured as a <a href="https://www.oroyfinanzas.com/2013/10/satoshi-nakamoto-bitcoin/">younger Asian man</a>. As Wikileaks’ Julian Assange and Edward Snowden began associating with the movement, the iconic <a href="https://store.bitcoinmagazine.com/products/bitcoin-magazine-issue-1-may-2012?srsltid=AfmBOopsTjvx5YgVDA7y6S34mgz1Cyeallj8SD0jFAfaWRsQ9Z01NIhr">Guy Fawkes mask proved a fitting substitute</a>, one that spoke to the technology’s (alleged) advantages.&nbsp;



From 2014 on, it was Dorian’s visage that took the top spot, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/07/satoshi-nakamoto-denies-inventing-bitcoin">flustered middle-aged computer scientist</a> who shooed reporters while covering his face. It, too, came and went. In the years to come, there was arguably an effort to make Satoshi more of an everyman. In Budapest, <a href="https://www.euronews.com/next/2021/09/17/hungary-s-bitcoin-fans-unveil-faceless-statue-of-mysterious-crypto-founder-satoshi-nakamot">Hungary</a> and <a href="https://bitcoinist.com/satoshi-nakamoto-statue-vanishes-when-viewed/">Lugano</a>, Switzerland, there are statues depicting a hooded figure in homage to Satoshi. Some aren’t fans, believing it lends itself to the “shadowy coder” trope. Yet, today, it’s perhaps Dorian’s picture that is most enduring —&nbsp;the revival due in no small part to Bitcoin’s sprawling meme-o-sphere, where Dorian’s lasting scowl has been embraced, recast as a kind of talisman for the disdain Bitcoin users still feel for the media and non-believers.&nbsp;



So, despite calls for Dorian to retain his privacy (after all, as David notes, he may own a now not insignificant sum of bitcoin) he can be seen on the internet daily, <a href="https://x.com/gaborgurbacs/status/1450955728517206020">refusing to raise prices</a>, or as a public facing brand for <a href="https://x.com/BTC_Archive">popular social media accounts</a>.



In this way, Dorian might be the most fitting Satoshi, in that his version is one that has been reclaimed, an image that, once wielded as a weapon, has been recast by advocates into a lasting reminder of their outsider status. We wouldn’t want it any other way.



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Celebrating Dorian Nakamoto, the Satoshi who wasn’t

In a surprising turn of events, Democrats in Washington DC are increasingly embracing Bitcoin, according to Dennis Porter, president and co-founder of Satoshi Action Fund. Porter, a key figure behind efforts to establish strategic bitcoin reserves in <a href="https://bitcoinlaws.io/">over 30 US states</a>, believes that the decentralized nature of Bitcoin aligns well with core Democratic values. &#8220;I have for a long time [&#8230;], despite being told by many Bitcoiners that I was wrong, said that I believe Democrats will be more likely to be more pro-Bitcoin than Republicans,&#8221; Porter stated in an interview on Blockworks’ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@SupplyShockPod">Supply Shock</a> Tuesday episode. Porter told host Pete Rizzo that Bitcoin&#8217;s decentralized structure makes it particularly appealing to Democrats. &#8220;The reason why you&#8217;ll have a lot of Democrats that are really <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/newest-crypto-faces-on-capitol-hill">interested in this technology</a> is because it&#8217;s a bottom-up technology that is completely decentralized. There&#8217;s no VC hedge fund or executive board profiteering off of the people beneath them. It&#8217;s 100% bottom up. The people control it,&#8221; Porter explained. 



<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WW_cKV0hdU4?si=1LYtjCekz-TV0HbZ" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>







Elsewhere, Porter highlighted bitcoin&#8217;s potential to address global financial inequality, a cause often championed by progressive Democrats. &#8220;Bitcoin is a tool to be able to <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/central-banks-unbanked-looking-at-blockchain">bank the unbanked</a> and provide financial services for people all over the world who have been left behind,&#8221; Porter said. He emphasized that billions of people currently lack access to banking services or stable currencies, limiting their potential for economic growth and innovation.



The comments are notable given the Democratic Party’s continued efforts to oppose <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/donald-trump-day-one-actions">Trump’s initiatives</a> since his re-election. Trump has been a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tracking-trumps-crypto-footprint">strong supporter</a> of bitcoin and other crypto assets, most recently hinting at establishing a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/trump-absurd-crypto-reserve">strategic crypto reserve</a> <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/us-crypto-reserve-clarification">this weekend</a>. Yet, Porter believes the Democratic Party&#8217;s current restructuring phase presents a unique opportunity for lawmakers to define their stance on bitcoin and digital assets. &#8220;Bitcoin is the most tightly regulated monetary asset in the entire world,&#8221; Porter argued. &#8220;The Bitcoin maxis, the most extreme Bitcoin maxis, were actually in favor of the most extreme form of regulation because it protected decentralization.&#8221; As the political landscape around cryptocurrencies <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/congress-crypto-regulation-updates">continues to evolve</a>, Porter&#8217;s insights suggest that the traditional partisan lines <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-bipartisan-usa-polarization">may be blurring</a> when it comes to bitcoin adoption. 



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