Bitcoin Mechanic says the rejection of BIP110 on Saturday "shattered a long-standing belief that Bitcoin's anti-fragility and hard-monetary properties would continue thanks to its decentralized network of nodes." He argues that mining pools acted as "a small cartel of centralized pool operators clearly acting on behalf of industry players who operated behind closed doors" to kill BIP110, while supporters "operated in public" using "neutral metrics that everyone had access to." His core concern is that "Proof of Work is completely pointless if the criteria for what constitutes validity is decided by the ones doing the work." He says he's now running a stalled Knots node at block 931,633 and is open to a hard fork with a new proof-of-work algorithm, stating "the only defense the network would have would be to hard-fork to a new Proof-of-Work algorithm." He closes by saying he has "no desire to attempt to call this new chain Bitcoin" and that captured Bitcoin "becomes a tool for the sickest of purposes."

CFTC Chairman Selig says the agency will move forward with digital asset rulemakings whether the Clarity Act passes or not.

Twenty One Capital ($XXI) CEO Rapha Zagury just published a shareholder letter outlining how he plans to lead the company forward. First, finishing the corporate foundation with governance, controls, key hires, and reporting. Second, building and acquiring operating businesses using the Berkshire model, "a strong balance sheet at the center, independent operating companies around it." Third, developing capital-markets capabilities with instruments "backed by the recurring revenues of operating businesses, at a lower cost of capital." Fourth, M&A. "Our industry is in a deep reset. Assets, teams, and infrastructure are repricing." Fifth, building a lending and credit business around bitcoin as collateral. On the stock trading below NAV, "That gap could be viewed as a misallocation of capital; we share that view." On communication, "Transparency and constant posting are not the same thing."

AI keeps finding bitcoin vulnerabilities, and the tools meant to help triage them keep getting in the way. @Rob Hamilton says (PortlandHODL) got downgraded off Anthropic's model mid-triage through AnchorWatch's Cyber Verification Program.

46% of all bitcoin is held in self-custody. No other asset class comes close to this level of self-sovereignty.

America's cybersecurity model is a subsidy for attackers. The Bitcoin Policy Institute is calling on frontier AI labs to give open-source defenders trusted access to the same models criminals already use without permission. The problem they've identified is real. The solution is too timid. Guardrails bind the law-abiding. They do not bind criminals. During the Bitcoin Red Team campaign, Rob Hamilton completed OpenAI's Trusted Access onboarding, explained the defensive work, accepted the compliance process. OpenAI still blocked him. He moved the work to Chinese open-weight models. An American defender identified himself and followed the rules. The American lab stopped him. The unrestricted model became the practical alternative. Nobody is safer for it. The cost showed up yesterday. LNp2pBot, a privacy-focused Lightning service, shut down after months of absorbing attacks from what its operators described as an army of script kiddies armed with AI. The government didn't kill it. Attack economics did. Frontier models can audit codebases, hunt vulnerabilities, model attacks, accelerate patches, and help small teams absorb pressure that would otherwise overwhelm them. The answer isn't a better permission slip. It's capability parity. Give the good guys the tools.

White House Executive Director Patrick Witt: "The administration remains fully committed to getting the Clarity Act across the finish line in September." "Durable rules, the kind only legislation can provide, are needed now more than ever."

SEC to hold open meeting Friday at 10 a.m. ET to consider proposing new rules for a tailored offering regime for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets.

Trump Media & Technology discloses 14,139 BTC treasury worth ~$890 million in SEC filing as of July 31, 2026.

Luke Dashjr is stepping away from OCEAN as Chairman and CTO to focus on Bitcoin core development and open-source projects.

"I started crying. I looked over at my partner and I said, 'They made it.'" Jessica Rose on reading the paper showing HIV-like sequences in the spike protein. Days later, it was pulled from the preprint server without explanation.

Senator Rand Paul confirms after Fort Knox visit: "Yes, the gold is there all (approximately) 147 million ounces. It is impressive."

"Every time the CIA's involved in something, things get very confused. Their role is to conflate and confuse and cause chaos." Jessica Rose on Ian Lipkin, the CIA-linked author the other Proximal Origin writers never wanted on the paper.

The Bitcoin Policy Institute just published an open letter asking AI labs to give open-source bitcoin and digital asset defenders access to their strongest cybersecurity models. The problem: "Open-source defenders today occupy the least privileged position in the AI security landscape." Bitcoin secures over a trillion dollars in value, but the developers maintaining wallets, cryptographic libraries, and node software are getting blocked by guardrails when they try to use frontier AI for legitimate security work. The letter warns that "nation-state adversaries, criminal syndicates, and sophisticated hackers will not wait for permission to deploy AI against critical open-source infrastructure." Defenders are stuck using weaker open-weight alternatives while attackers face no such constraints. BPI is asking for early access to the best cyber models, compute budgets for real security reviews, and secure environments for sensitive code analysis. The coalition is massive: Coinbase, Block, Strategy, MARA, Blockstream, Chaincode, Brink, Ten31, Unchained, Trezor, Casa, Strike, River, OpenSats, and dozens more. "Frontier AI could become one of the most powerful defensive technologies ever developed, but only if defenders get fair access."

Defenders Need the Frontier

An open letter to frontier AI labs: the defenders of open-source financial infrastructure need the frontier too, before attackers do.

"I hope you feel like my foot is on your neck right now to get this done." Fauci to a Moderna trial researcher. Jessica Rose breaks down the email and the new mRNA flu vaccine the FDA just approved with no real placebo group.

OpenAI is hiring a "Power Trading Lead" to run hedging strategies for power and gas across their data centers. They're not just buying electricity anymore, they're trading it. The AI buildout is turning these companies into energy companies whether they like it or not.

Chinese researchers just built "Light Society," a simulation that runs 1 billion AI characters at once, each one modeled after a real person's demographic profile pulled from a massive global survey. These AI agents negotiate, form opinions, argue, trust or distrust each other, and make irrational decisions just like real people do. They'll turn down a good deal out of spite. They get persuaded by popular voices in their network. They change their minds slowly, then all at once when enough of their peers flip. The real story isn't the "are they conscious?" speculation floating around. It's that this is a sandbox for testing how to move public opinion at a planetary scale. You can dial up certain influencers, change how the message is framed, and watch a billion simulated people react. Built by a state-funded research institute in Beijing using real global demographic data. Draw your own conclusions. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2506.12078

Saudi crude exports dropped 460K barrels/day in July to 4.19M bpd. Houthi threats are now targeting Yanbu, the backup port Saudi built specifically to bypass Strait of Hormuz chokepoint risk. Tankers are going dark on transponders. Global energy supply chains remain incredibly fragile.

Strategy now holds 840,447 bitcoin and just bumped its USD reserve to $4.65B while buying back $109M of $STRC.

Strategy now holds 842,138 bitcoin worth $54.66 billion at an average cost of $75,653. Down 14% on their position.