Replay Risk: the danger is in claiming the free coins
The BIP-110 fork failed. That was never in doubt at 2.5% miner support.
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The sharpest crypto signals — what moved, and why it matters.
Sun, Aug 9
Coldcard: the same tool, only one winner
Weeks before the theft, Coinkite ran an AI review over its firmware — the open-source code anyone can read. It found nothing. Then, it believes, an attacker pointed AI at older versions of that same code and found the flaw that drained…
Read more →CLARITY Vote Slips to September
CLARITY Act Senate fight
The CLARITY Act is moving through an increasingly narrow Senate window toward a floor vote as ethics disputes, opposition coalitions, and shifting passage odds keep the bill's fate uncertain.
Latest: The Senate leaves for recess without a CLARITY Act vote — Thune declined to file the cloture motion needed for a floor vote, pushing the first vote to September 15 at earliest as the ethics standoff over Trump's crypto holdings remains unresolved; Polymarket 2026-enactment odds ~15%
Mastercard + BVNK: buying the taps
A stablecoin was supposed to be a dollar that moves without asking anyone's permission. Mastercard just paid up to $1.8 billion for one of the busiest doors that dollar walks through. BVNK builds the plumbing that connects stablecoins to…
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BlackRock: the reserve manager of choice
The line to catch isn't the two new funds. It's what BlackRock's own finance chief said on the earnings call: they already manage $60 billion of reserves for Circle, the company behind the USDC dollar coin — about a quarter of the entire…
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Bhutan vs El Salvador: two ways to hold
Bhutan mined its Bitcoin cheaply with hydropower, then, on-chain trackers say, sold it in careful chunks to fund a new city (though Bhutan denies selling). Roughly 13,000 coins down to 3,000-4,000. No fresh mining coming in to refill the…
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Visa Direct: settlement, not access
"18 billion endpoints" sounds like the whole world just got a stablecoin wallet. Read what actually changed. Businesses — not you — can now prefund and pay out in stablecoins through Visa Direct, Visa's cross-border payout network, with a…
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BIP-110: the fallback is a bigger deal than the fork
BIP-110 lost the vote. Its supporters' answer is a bigger weapon.
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Bitcoin Red Team: the defenders got the same superpower
Two days ago I argued the Coldcard theft showed AI cutting the attacker's costs — the same code-reading tool in both hands, and this time only the thief profited. Here's the other half of that story, and it arrived within the week. Sixteen…
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Circle's Arc: the same fifteen names, again
If you've read Cut Through Crypto for a fortnight, the Arc validator list will feel like déjà vu. BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard, DTCC, ICE, Standard Chartered — the same names that this week alone launched reserve funds, bought payment…
Read more →Strategy Sells Below Cost, Reserve Hits $4B
Strategy Bitcoin policy unravels
Strategy is abandoning its 'never sell' Bitcoin posture, selling BTC to fund dividends and rebuild cash reserves while its preferred stock, share price, and accumulation model face mounting stress.
Latest: Strategy sells 1,638 BTC (~$105M) at roughly $64,000 a coin — below its ~$75,400 average cost — repurchasing $81.2M of STRC near $89 and lifting its dollar reserve to $4B as the buying pause extends
A Third of Zcash's Crowd Has Crossed
Over 800,000 ZEC migrates to Ironwood pool in one week, representing roughly a third of the sealed supply
Consortium Targets Circle's Reserve Income
Open USD threatens Circle
A growing 167-plus partner Open USD consortium is threatening Circle's reserve income dominance as the stablecoin launches with major backers.
Latest: A day after Circle renews its Coinbase distribution deal, CoinShares flags the 140-partner Open USD consortium as a structural threat to the reserve income — $667.7M last quarter, 95% of Circle's revenue — that the deal rests on; Mizuho has cut Circle to underperform, though Open USD isn't yet live.
The other kind of control: who runs the validators
BNY plans to let clients earn staking yield through Galaxy. Galaxy also runs validators for BlackRock's staked-Ethereum fund. Both routing the machinery of the network through one operator.
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