Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Price Struggles at $88,000 as Thin Holiday Trading Stalls Year-End Rally

The bitcoin price hovered below $90,000 near $80,000 today as traders made another late push to recover year-end losses during thin holiday trading, but the market again lacked the conviction needed for a sustained breakout.

The bitcoin price stood at $88,063 at the time of writing, up about 1% over the past 24 hours, according to market data. Trading volume totaled roughly $40 billion, reflecting muted participation as December draws to a close. 

Bitcoin is now about 1% below its seven-day high of $89,201 and roughly 1% above its seven-day low of $86,855.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency has a circulating supply of 19,969,296 BTC, with a hard cap of 21 million coins. Bitcoin’s total market capitalization is approximately $1.76 trillion, up 1% from a day earlier.

Bitcoin pushed toward the $90,000 level yesterday for a second straight session before the rally stalled once again. Price action remains confined to a broad range between roughly $85,000 and $95,000, a structure that has defined the market since a sharp October sell-off. 

That drawdown followed Bitcoin’s all-time high in early October, when prices were up nearly 30% on the year.

Since then, sentiment has shifted. The bitcoin price is now down about 5% from last December, putting it on track for its first annual loss in three years.

“I’d continue to expect exaggerated moves on light flow through New Year’s,” Jasper De Maere, desk strategist at Wintermute, said in a note to Bloomberg.. He cautioned traders against relying too heavily on short-term signals until liquidity returns to normal levels.

The recent price stagnation contrasts with the broader recovery in traditional risk assets. Bitcoin began the year with a strong rally fueled by optimism around crypto-friendly policies under the second Trump administration. 

That enthusiasm faded as uncertainty surrounding President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda rattled global markets.

Bitcoin price battling with leveraged traders

While U.S. equities have largely rebounded from those shocks, Bitcoin has struggled to regain momentum. The October downturn was compounded by a wave of liquidations after leveraged positions reached record levels. On Oct. 10, a sharp sell-off flushed out long exposure and reset market positioning.

Demand for spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds has also weakened. According to data by Bloomberg, ETF outflows have reached roughly $6 billion in the fourth quarter, adding steady pressure as Bitcoin failed to reclaim the $90,000 threshold.

Holiday trading conditions have further distorted price action. Earlier this week, the bitcoin price swung sharply around $90,000 during low-liquidity sessions, posting fast gains and losses that lacked follow-through.

Prices briefly rose about 2.6% during thin trading and held above $86,000 over the week, but again failed to sustain levels above $90,000 during Asian hours.

QCP Capital said recent moves reflect a market short on participation. In a note, the firm pointed to a steep decline in derivatives activity following last Friday’s record options expiry. Open interest dropped by nearly 50%, signaling that many traders moved to the sidelines.

That options expiry also altered short-term market dynamics. According to QCP, dealers who were long gamma ahead of the event are now short gamma on the upside. In such conditions, rising prices can force hedging activity that amplifies short-term moves, particularly when liquidity is thin.

A similar setup emerged earlier this month when the bitcoin price briefly approached $90,000. Funding rates climbed quickly as traders crowded into bullish positions, creating short-lived upward pressure. 

Deribit’s perpetual funding rate surged above 30% following the latest expiry, up from near-flat levels beforehand. Elevated funding rates often indicate overheated positioning and raise the cost of maintaining long exposure.

From a technical perspective, Bitcoin Magazine analysts said the market continues to reject lower levels within a broadening wedge pattern, suggesting downside momentum is weakening. Key resistance sits at $91,400 and $94,000. A weekly close above $94,000 could open a path toward $101,000 and $108,000, though resistance remains heavy.

On the downside, $84,000 remains critical support. A break below that level could send the bitcoin price toward the $72,000 to $68,000 range.

This post Bitcoin Price Struggles at $88,000 as Thin Holiday Trading Stalls Year-End Rally first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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Bitcoin Magazine

David Beckham’s Prenetics Stops All Bitcoin Purchases, Pivots Money to Wellness Brand

Prenetics Global Limited said it has ended its bitcoin purchasing program and will redirect its capital and strategic focus entirely toward IM8, its fast-growing consumer health and longevity brand co-founded with David Beckham.

The Nasdaq-listed health sciences company said it ceased daily bitcoin purchases on Dec. 4, following approval from its board of directors, and will not pursue future acquisitions of the cryptocurrency. 

Prenetics will retain its existing holdings of 510 bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset but has committed not to allocate any new or existing capital toward expanding that position.

The move marks a clear shift away from a strategy the company adopted earlier this year, when several public firms began accumulating bitcoin as a treasury asset during a rising market. That trend has slowed in recent months as cryptocurrency prices weakened and investor focus returned to core operating businesses.

Prenetics said the decision reflects the rapid growth of IM8, which it described as the fastest-growing supplement brand in the industry’s history. 

The company said IM8 surpassed $100 million in annualized recurring revenue within 11 months of launch and is projected to generate between $180 million and $200 million in revenue in fiscal year 2026.

“The phenomenal success of IM8 has exceeded all expectations and scaled much faster than our original expectations,” said Danny Yeung, Prenetics’ chief executive officer and co-founder. He said management and the board agreed that concentrating resources on IM8 offered the clearest path to long-term shareholder value.

Prenetics said it remains in a strong financial position, with more than $70 million in cash and cash equivalents, zero debt, and its existing bitcoin holdings intact. The company said that balance sheet strength gives it flexibility to fund IM8’s next phase of growth without relying on external financing.

Under the revised capital allocation strategy, Prenetics said funds will be directed exclusively toward IM8’s operations and expansion. 

That includes product development, brand marketing, talent acquisition, working capital, and international growth initiatives. The company framed the shift as an effort to sharpen strategic clarity and reinforce disciplined governance.

IM8 markets an all-in-one nutritional supplement aimed at simplifying daily health routines. The brand has been promoted by Beckham and tennis world number one Aryna Sabalenka, and Prenetics has leaned heavily into celebrity-backed branding as it scales the business globally.

Prenetics’ decision comes as bitcoin struggles

The decision to halt bitcoin purchases comes as the digital asset market faces a period of weaker sentiment. 

Bitcoin has struggled to regain momentum after a sharp downturn earlier in the year, and several companies that adopted crypto-heavy treasury strategies have seen their share prices come under pressure. 

Against that backdrop, Prenetics’ move stands out as a reversion toward a more traditional operating focus.

When the company announced its bitcoin accumulation strategy in June, Yeung spoke about the potential overlap between healthcare innovation and blockchain technology. 

Six months later, the company’s tone has shifted, with management emphasizing execution, revenue growth, and consumer demand.

Prenetics said it believes the updated strategy aligns the company more closely with shareholder priorities as IM8 continues to scale. While bitcoin will remain on the balance sheet, the company made clear it will no longer play a central role in its capital deployment plans.

Shares of Prenetics were little changed following the announcement. At time of writing, shares were at $16.42 a share.

Bitcoin is currently trading at $88,626, up 1% over the past 24 hours on $39 billion in volume, with a market cap of about $1.77 trillion.

The price sits near the top of its weekly range, roughly 1% below the seven-day high and 2% above the seven-day low, with nearly 19.97 million BTC currently in circulation.

This post David Beckham’s Prenetics Stops All Bitcoin Purchases, Pivots Money to Wellness Brand first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Price Struggles to Break $90,000 as One-Month Battle Continues

The bitcoin price continued to swing around the $90,000 level during thin holiday trading, rising and falling in sharp moves that lacked any volume needed for a sustained breakout.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency rose about 2.6% during low-liquidity sessions and held above $86,000 over the week, but was unable to sustain its $90,000 level in Monday’s Asian trading hours, according to market data. 

At time of writing, the bitcoin price was trading at $87,465 on Tuesday, with a 24-hour volume of about $52 billion and little change over the past day. 

The cryptocurrency sits roughly 3% below its recent day high of $90,230, with a market capitalization of about $1.75 trillion based on a circulating supply of nearly 20 million BTC, according to Bitcoin Magazine Pro data.

QCP Capital said the move lacks the participation required to push prices decisively higher. In a note, the firm pointed to a sharp drop in open interest following last Friday’s record options expiry. Open interest fell by nearly 50%, signaling that many traders stepped to the sidelines.

Options are affecting market positioning

The record options expiry marked a turning point in market structure. Dealers who were long gamma ahead of the event are now short gamma to the upside, QCP said. In this setup, rising prices force dealers to hedge by buying spot bitcoin or short-dated call options.

That dynamic can amplify price moves and create a feedback loop during bitcoin price rallies.

QCP said a similar pattern emerged earlier this month when the bitcoin price briefly traded near $90,000. Funding rates rose quickly as dealers adjusted positions, contributing to short-term upward pressure.

Deribit’s perpetual funding rate climbed to more than 30% following the expiry, up from near flat levels earlier. Elevated funding rates increase the cost of maintaining long positions and often reflect crowded bullish trades.

Heavy activity was seen in the BTC-2JAN26-94K call option during the latest rally attempt. QCP said a move above $94,000 could extend the gamma-driven buying, but stressed that a breakout would require sustained spot demand.

The firm said that without any real volume, upside moves risk fading.

The macro backdrop is adding market volatility

Bitcoin’s recent push toward $90,000 earlier coincided with rising oil prices after renewed attacks on energy infrastructure in Russia and Ukraine dampened hopes for a near-term peace deal. Higher energy prices added to inflation concerns across global markets.

The bitcoin price traded higher in Asian hours as geopolitical uncertainty grew but gave back all gains in early U.S. hours. 

Longer term, supporters continue to frame bitcoin as a hedge against fiscal imbalances. U.S. national debt has climbed to about $37.65 trillion, according to official data.

Bitcoin price has critical support at $84,000

According to Bitcoin Magazine analysts, the broader bitcoin market continues to reject lower levels within a broadening wedge pattern, suggesting downside momentum is weakening. Bulls now need to build on this defense by breaking resistance at $91,400 and, more importantly, $94,000 to regain control. 

A weekly close above $94,000 could open the door to a move toward $101,000 and potentially $108,000, though heavy resistance is expected along the way. 

On the downside, $84,000 remains critical support. A breakdown there would likely send the bitcoin price toward the $72,000–$68,000 range, with deeper losses possible below $68,000. 

Short-term liquidity may remain thin during the current holiday period, but large options expiries near $100,000 could influence price action. 

Overall sentiment remains cautious, per the analysts, with bulls showing resilience but still needing confirmation.

At the time of writing, the bitcoin price is near $87,000. Over the Christmas holiday sessions, bitcoin bounced between $86,000 and $90,000.

This post Bitcoin Price Struggles to Break $90,000 as One-Month Battle Continues first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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Bitcoin Magazine

Strategy Reloads on Bitcoin, Buys 1,229 BTC for $109 Million

Strategy, the largest publicly traded holder of bitcoin, has resumed accumulating bitcoin, purchasing 1,229 coins for approximately $108.8 million during the week ended December 28.

The acquisition was made at an average price of $88,568 per bitcoin and lifts the company’s total holdings to 672,497 BTC, according to a regulatory filing released today. Strategy has now spent roughly $50.44 billion acquiring bitcoin at an average cost basis of $74,997 per coin.

The latest purchase was funded through the sale of 663,450 shares of Class A common stock under the company’s at-the-market (ATM) equity program, generating $108.8 million in net proceeds.

Strategy said it did not sell any preferred securities during the period and retains substantial capacity for future issuances.

Strategy had paused bitcoin purchases the prior week after bolstering its U.S. dollar reserves to roughly $2.2 billion, signaling continued flexibility in timing its market entries.

At press time, bitcoin was trading near $87,200, slightly below Strategy’s most recent purchase price, following a volatile session that saw BTC briefly push above $90,000 before reversing lower. Despite the pullback, Strategy’s bitcoin holdings are valued at nearly $59 billion, leaving the firm with more than $8 billion in unrealized gains.

Shares of Strategy (MSTR) slipped about 1% in premarket trading to around $156.51, mirroring bitcoin’s drop. The stock is now down roughly 45% year-to-date, reflecting both bitcoin’s volatility and investor sensitivity to Strategy’s leveraged exposure to BTC.

According to disclosed data, Strategy recorded a year-to-date bitcoin yield of 23.2% in 2025, reinforcing its long-term accumulation strategy. The company has not reported any bitcoin sales since adopting BTC as its primary treasury reserve asset.

Strategy’s near $2 billion in bitcoin buys

In the first two weeks of December, Strategy sharply ramped up its bitcoin accumulation, executing back-to-back purchases totaling nearly $2 billion as BTC prices pulled back toward the $90,000 level, at the time. 

Between Dec. 1 and Dec. 14, the company acquired 21,269 bitcoin across two consecutive weeks, first buying 10,624 BTC for about $963 million at an average price of $90,615, followed by 10,645 BTC for roughly $980 million at an average price of $92,098. 

These marked Strategy’s largest weekly purchases since mid-2025. 

At the time of writing, the bitcoin price is trading at $87,300 after being up over $90,000 in the last 24 hours.

This post Strategy Reloads on Bitcoin, Buys 1,229 BTC for $109 Million first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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Bitcoin Magazine

Stablecoins: Evolution, not a Revolution

Technologies tend to have a natural ceiling built into their utility and popularity. Once they’ve solved all the problems they can solve, their growth is effectively capped. As soon as all potato fans own a potato peeler, the peeler market’s growth potential is largely tapped out. Indeed, the big question around AI at the moment is how many problems it will be able to solve. The market could already be overblown, or it could be practically limitless.

What about stablecoins? They’ve grown from practically nothing at the turn of the decade to a market cap in the mid-12 digits and monthly transaction volumes in excess of $1 trillion. Citigroup expects the aggregate stablecoin market cap to hit around $2 trillion by the end of the decade. 

If we’re talking trillions, it sounds much more like AI than potato peelers.

But do stablecoins have a natural limit? Is their utility restricted to a certain range of problems? If so, where is it? How far can stablecoins grow, and what might stop them?

In order to find answers to these questions, let’s recall why stablecoins have come so far already, what will limit their future growth, and what that means for their overall utility, i.e. the range of problems they can solve.

Why Stablecoins Gained Market Traction

Three reasons for stablecoins’ current popularity stand out.

Stable Prices, Low Volatility

The first reason is price stability. Many cryptocurrencies are volatile, which makes them valuable for speculation but awkward to use as everyday currencies. The value of stablecoins is, well, stable. By definition. Price stability is their fundamental value proposition.

Price stability is also arguably an advantage relative to other cryptocurrencies whose value is perpetually expected to rise. If your coins’ value will double in five years, you might be reluctant to spend them now. But if your coins will be worth the same or even a little less in five years, you better spend them before they burn a hole in your pocket.

Greater Portability 

The second is portability. Exchanging fiat for crypto can be arduous, but exchanging one crypto for another is usually much easier. So many users find it more efficient to convert fiat into stablecoins in bulk, then easily shift value between various cryptocurrencies as needed. USDT is the most traded coin overall because it works so well on the other side of any crypto trade.

In many markets, these first two factors reinforce each other. Many countries’ national currencies depreciate more rapidly than stablecoins’ pegged currencies, so stablecoins give people in those countries a way to protect their wealth from depreciation. And those same countries often use currency controls to prevent capital flight, but their citizens can often access stablecoins to circumvent those artificial barriers.

Tax Optimization

The third reason is simply taxes. Many jurisdictions — including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia — classify cryptocurrencies as commodities rather than currencies. As a result, capital gains taxes apply to cryptocurrency price appreciation, so each transaction can be a taxable event. But many users and businesses might want to use crypto for its portability, like payment rails, so stablecoins’ price stability helps them avoid taxable events during routine payments.

You Can’t Copy State Money without State Rules

Fiat currency is the modern state’s crown jewel. Beyond a national currency’s symbolic value, controlling the source of everyone’s money is a very advantageous position. For an impression of what a big deal this can be, rewatch Ridley Scott’s Black Rain (it’s a great rewatch for any reason, not least of which is Michael Douglas rockin’ a killer mullet). 

If stablecoins are minting hundreds of billions of fiat equivalents and moving trillions in value each month, the state is going to take a very close interest in what they’re doing and how. You can’t open your own private mint moving that kind of liquidity and hope to stay under the regulatory radar.

Besides, history shows that states will regulate whatever they can. They have to. Any activity they cannot regulate implicitly threatens their claim to authority, and they don’t actually produce anything (besides perhaps regulation), so they need to acquire resources. In order to take their cut from an activity, states have to first quantify and control (i.e. regulate) that activity. This is the kind of argument that led Charles Tilly, one of the last century’s most respected historical sociologists, to call states “protection rackets” and “organized crime.”

Centralized activity is also why states preferred tariffs over taxes until pretty recently. Back when bureaucracies were small and populations were spread out, states found it very hard to tax income. They didn’t have the data to quantify it nor the technology to control it. So they preferred tariffs because there are far fewer ports and bridges than there are households and shops. 

In other words, the more centralized an activity is, the easier it is to quantify and control (and skim of course). More concisely: centralization attracts regulation. And the more central an activity is to state power, the more incentive the state has to regulate it, and printing money is about as central as it gets.

Stablecoins are no exception. They are centralized both in terms of the source of their value and in their actual operations, which is why regulators have been busy churning out rules lately. While that regulation might even be necessary and wise, it does and will limit stablecoins’ utility.

Rules, Their Effects, and Extrapolating the Future

The supply of regulation has increased a lot recently, but maybe it’s just meeting demand. In fact, Tether and Circle, the two biggest stablecoin issuers, are getting involved in the regulatory process with different strategies. They’re aware of their position as private USD mints and companies that take large amounts of private deposits and reinvest them (i.e. banks). Mature stablecoin issuers seem to want regulation.

The regulators themselves argue that stablecoin regulation is a good thing because it protects users and gives issuers “more predictable regulatory environments.” Not surprisingly, this is the view of the SEC. 

And this reasoning is not without merit. Companies managing hundreds of billions in liabilities should be able to meet those liabilities, and maybe someone should check. But the existing regulations have added some massive obstacles to where and how people can use stablecoins.

Let’s start with Europe, because regulatory legalese is the EU’s official language. The Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) is the key stablecoin regulatory measure in Europe. It became law in 2023, but the consequences only really struck in Q1 2025. Since MiCA requires stablecoin issuers to obtain an e-money license in at least one European state, major exchanges like Binance and Coinbase delisted nine leading stablecoins, including USDT, the biggest stablecoin of all. (Of course, a consortium of nine too-big-to-fail European banks is trying to launch their own euro-pegged stablecoin.) 

MiCA was a regulatory nuke, practically banning leading stablecoins and seeking to replace them with astroturfed European alternatives.

Somewhat more friendly to experimentation and innovation, the USA has implemented the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act. GENIUS is a little more permissive in that the Treasury Department can determine that foreign stablecoin issuers are subject to sufficient regulation at home, sparing them the need for a local US presence. It also prescribes a few particulars like reserve requirements and public disclosure. 

While the GENIUS Act formally restricts issuers and protects users, it also makes issuers subject to the Bank Secrecy Act to prevent money laundering. As anyone knows who’s ever bought crypto on an exchange, AML and KYC are significant friction, and they effectively restrict how holders can use stablecoins. Eliminating exactly that friction was one of the features that made stablecoins attractive in the first place. Greater consumer protection might increase stablecoins’ utility in the long-term aggregate, but a user who wants to buy and trade USDT right now might disagree.

And while the EU and the USA are arguably the most important markets for stablecoins, many other markets either have regulations in place (e.g. Japan, Canada, Chile) or in the pipeline (e.g. the UK, China, Australia, Brazil, Turkey). 

Imagine a giant Venn diagram of all these regulatory regimes, and stablecoins’ utility is in the space where they all overlap and the activity remains economical. How big is that space? And given that stablecoins are pegged to national currencies, which national administrations guard jealously, are these already diverse regulatory regimes likely to converge or diverge in the future?

The denser the jungle of regulations, the smaller and more isolated the clearings where stablecoins can flourish. They will still have a niche, but some niches are more niche than others. It’s unlikely that any stablecoin, based on a national or even regional fiat currency, will satisfy all the regulators in all the markets necessary to become a global currency. That’s probably why real-world stablecoin usage ends up being far more geographically constrained than the “global digital dollars” many hoped for. Even USDT, the most widely used stablecoin, operates at scale in only a few permissive jurisdictions. With roughly 40% of USDT’s market cap and an effectively identical product, USDC faces the same structural limits.

Good as Far as They Go, but Bitcoin Can Go Farther

So stablecoins are centralized fiat tokens. Being centralized and tethered to state fiat means that regulators are grasping them tightly, resulting in cost and friction for everyone involved. This process is already well underway and will continue. Does this mean that stablecoins are doomed?

Probably not. As tokenized fiat, stablecoins are likely to thrive wherever fiat is good enough. In practice, that means conventional payments. I recently defined payments as instructions to clear a debt. Wherever an intermediated quid pro quo describes the interaction, stablecoins will probably work as the quid. Indeed, the potential to capture some of the payment business from other fintech solutions (or to defend their own) is probably why established fintech players like Klarna, PayPal, and Stripe have launched their own stablecoins or stablecoin accounts. Stablecoins are turning into normal payment fintech, but maybe just normal payment fintech.

Normal means subject to state regulations and the functional and geographic limits they impose. It means juicy fees going to intermediaries. It means friction for users. 

But there is a whole universe of value that eludes the payment model either because it requires direct, disintermediated transfers, it disregards political geography, there is no debt involved, or all of the above. The potential for value transfer is sometimes hard to see because the balkanized, intermediated payment paradigm is so dominant. We’ve simply lacked the technology to do much else until recently.

Still, whenever you toss some coins to a busker or tip a content creator, you’re pushing value, not clearing debt. Whenever cash moves from hand to hand, the transfer is disintermediated. Now imagine the busker is on the other side of the globe, and you discovered them through an app. The key to perceiving the rest of that value-transfer universe is to bring that directness and borderlessness into our digital world.

Value transfer needs less friction than fiat in both a technical and regulatory sense. But to achieve that, you’d need a currency that is detached from national currencies and decentralized. That’s where bitcoin comes in. Bitcoin is an open, decentralized, neutral monetary network that works for anyone, anywhere, anytime. If stablecoins have to get by in the clearings of the regulatory jungle, bitcoin floats breezily and limitlessly in the sky above.

Bitcoin was built on and for the internet, so it is natively programmable in ways that stablecoins can only vaguely approximate. And far from needing third-party custodians, bitcoin transfers are direct and disintermediated between the millions of users everywhere. The future stablecoins promise without much credibility is already the present for bitcoin.

It’s Easier to Win the Race without Hurdles

Utility is one of the central concepts in economics because it’s the mystic substance of decision making. People choose what they find most useful, and you know what’s most useful because it’s what people have chosen.

People are using stablecoins, which proves their utility. That usefulness isn’t going to go away, but regulation limits it. Stablecoins’ growth will stop where their utility is roughly matched by the friction that regulation induces. And the current state and probable future of regulation suggest that we’re getting pretty close to this equilibrium.

But since Bitcoin is not centralized and does not feed off state-based fiat currency, it is inherently harder to regulate and consequently attracts much less regulation. It’s also digitally native, which makes it a natural fit for a world of global commerce and value that flows frictionlessly across borders from one app anywhere to another. If regulation is what limits stablecoins’ utility and bitcoin is subject to much less regulation, it’s pretty clear who’s going to win the utility race. 

This is a guest post by Roy Sheinfeld from Breez. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

This post Stablecoins: Evolution, not a Revolution first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Roy Sheinfeld.

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Russia Opens the Door to Bitcoin and Crypto for Retail Investors

The Bank of Russia has set out a new framework to regulate cryptocurrencies, proposing tiered access that would allow everyday investors to buy digital assets alongside professional market participants, while maintaining tight controls on risk and usage.

In a concept paper released Tuesday and submitted to the government for review, the central bank said both qualified and non-qualified investors would be permitted to acquire crypto assets, but under different rules, limits and testing requirements. 

The move marks another step in Russia’s gradual shift toward accommodating digital assets as sanctions reshape financial flows and market infrastructure.

Earlier this year, the Bank of Russia moved to allow domestic banks to conduct limited crypto operations under strict oversight. First Deputy Chairman Vladimir Chistyukhin said the central bank, while maintaining a conservative stance on assets like bitcoin, no longer sees a justification for fully excluding banks from such activity. 

It was also reported that Russia was using bitcoin to settle some oil trades with China and India, routing payments through intermediaries to bypass Western sanctions. 

So with that said, the current proposal maintains the central bank’s long-standing caution toward cryptocurrencies, which it continues to classify as high-risk instruments. 

The Bank of Russia warned that crypto assets are not issued or guaranteed by any jurisdiction, are subject to sharp price swings, and carry elevated sanctions and operational risks. Investors, it said, must fully accept the possibility of losing their funds.

A $3,800 cap for Russia’s retail investors

Under the framework, non-qualified, or retail, investors would be allowed to purchase only the most liquid cryptocurrencies, based on criteria to be defined in legislation. 

Access would be conditional on passing a knowledge test, and purchases would be capped at 300,000 rubles (around $3,800) per year through a single intermediary.

Qualified investors would face fewer constraints. They would be permitted to buy any cryptocurrency without transaction limits, provided they pass a test confirming their understanding of the risks. However, anonymous cryptocurrencies—defined as tokens whose smart contracts conceal information about transaction recipients—would remain off-limits.

Digital currencies and stablecoins would be formally recognized as monetary assets under the proposal, meaning they could be bought and sold. 

Their use as a means of domestic payment within Russia would remain forbidden, reinforcing the central bank’s position that crypto should not function as an alternative to the ruble in everyday transactions.

Cryptocurrency trading would take place through existing licensed infrastructure. Exchanges, brokers and trustees would be able to offer crypto services under their current authorizations, while additional requirements would apply to specialized crypto depositories and exchangers.

The framework also allows Russian residents to buy cryptocurrencies abroad using foreign accounts and to transfer previously acquired crypto overseas through Russian intermediaries. Such transactions would require notification to the tax authorities.

Beyond cryptocurrencies, the proposal extends to digital financial assets (DFAs) and other Russian digital rights, including utilitarian and hybrid instruments. Their circulation on open networks would be permitted, a move intended to help issuers attract foreign investment and give investors access to DFAs on terms comparable to crypto assets.

The Bank of Russia aims to complete the legislative framework by July 1, 2026. From July 1, 2027, it plans to introduce liability for illegal activity by crypto intermediaries, aligned with penalties for illegal banking operations.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $87,555, with a 24-hour trading volume of $47 billion, down 3% over the past day.

The price stood about 3% below its seven-day high of $90,069 and roughly 1% above its seven-day low of $87,096. Bitcoin’s circulating supply was 19,965,971 coins out of a maximum supply of 21 million, giving the network a global market capitalization of about $1.75 trillion, down 3% from 24 hours earlier.

This post Russia Opens the Door to Bitcoin and Crypto for Retail Investors first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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Bitcoin Price Outlook: Bulls Target $94,000 Break for Momentum Into New Year

Last week, bulls needed to hold closes above $85,000 to stave off the bears, and they managed to do just that. Bitcoin price dropped to support once again last week, and the bulls defended it well, pushing the price back up to close the week out at $88,656. The price on the weekly chart has been rejecting from the lower trend line of the broadening wedge pattern for several weeks now, but the trend line is so low now that the price should push above it this week. If it fails to do so this week, look for the price to take the next leg down into the low $70,000 range.

Key Support and Resistance Levels Now

Bulls will want to continue the push this week, level by level if need be. Initial resistance sits at $91,400, with the next level at $94,000. Above here, we should see very strong resistance at $98,000. Then we should see a fairly strong resistance zone from $101,000 all the way up to $108,000. Closing above $108,000 would start to place severe doubts on the long-term top being in place here.

The $84,000 support level below is proving to be resilient, holding up again this past week. If it is lost, the expected support levels below have not changed. The $72,000 to $68,000 zone should be expected to support the price on a first test at the least. Closing below $68,000 likely leads to a slow grind down to the 0.618 Fibonacci retracement support at $57,000.

Outlook For This Week

The bears may be getting a little flustered with their recent failure to break support. This week, look for the bulls to push back a bit harder as they gain some confidence after holding support once again. Market liquidity should be low for Christmas week, so price movement may be lacking. There are some very large long-dated bitcoin options expiring on December 26th, however, with a max pain price of $100,000, so look for the price to try to push closer to the $100,000 level this week.

Market mood: Bearish – Bulls are pushing back a little here, but they still need to prove it to the bears with some positive price action.

The next few weeks
Bulls held back the bears from breaking down major support last week. If the bulls can finally manage to take out resistance at $94,000 over the next couple of weeks, they may be able to sustain some upward momentum into the new year as well. So if we see a weekly close above $94,000, look for the price to move towards $101,000. This momentum could continue to $108,000 with a close above $100,000. Resistance becomes extremely thick near this level, though, so a strong rejection near this level should be expected if we can make it there over the coming weeks.

Terminology Guide:

Bulls/Bullish: Buyers or investors expecting the price to go higher.

Bears/Bearish: Sellers or investors expecting the price to go lower.

Support or support level: A level at which the price should hold for the asset, at least initially. The more touches on support, the weaker it gets and the more likely it is to fail to hold the price.

Resistance or resistance level: Opposite of support.  The level that is likely to reject the price, at least initially. The more touches at resistance, the weaker it gets and the more likely it is to fail to hold back the price.

Broadening Wedge: A chart pattern consisting of an upper trend line acting as resistance and a lower trend line acting as support. These trend lines must diverge away from each other in order to validate the pattern. This pattern is a result of expanding price volatility, typically resulting in higher highs and lower lows.

Fibonacci Retracements and Extensions: Ratios based on what is known as the golden ratio, a universal ratio pertaining to growth and decay cycles in nature. The golden ratio is based on the constants Phi (1.618) and phi (0.618).

This post Bitcoin Price Outlook: Bulls Target $94,000 Break for Momentum Into New Year first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Ethan Greene – Feral Analysis and Juan Galt.

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Bitcoin Price Will Jump to $143,000 Next Year, Says Citi Bank

The bitcoin price could climb to $143,000 next year as continued adoption through exchange-traded funds and a more accommodating U.S. regulatory backdrop draw new capital into the market, according to a new forecast from Citi.

Analysts at the Wall Street bank set $143,000 as their base-case target for the bitcoin price over the next 12 months. They outlined a bullish scenario that places the price above $189,000, while their bearish case sees the bitcoin price falling to around $78,500 if macroeconomic conditions deteriorate, according to MarketWatch reporting.

The bitcoin price was trading near $88,000 on Friday, down roughly 30% from its late-October peak. The pullback followed a sharp wave of selling after the rally earlier this year, though Citi noted that outflows from spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds have moderated in recent weeks.

“Our forecasts, in particular for bitcoin, rest on an assumption that investor adoption continues with flows into ETFs of $15 billion boosting token prices,” the analysts wrote. The note was led by Alex Saunders, Citi’s head of global quantitative macro strategy.

Citi also pointed to potential regulatory clarity in the United States as a key driver of future demand. The U.S. Senate is negotiating its own version of the House-passed Clarity Act, legislation that would place bitcoin under the oversight of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The analysts said clearer rules could encourage broader institutional participation.

The bank’s bearish scenario assumes recessionary pressures and weaker appetite for risk assets. The bitcoin price fell to multi-month lows in November as concerns over high technology valuations and broader macro risks weighed on markets. 

The cryptocurrency shed more than $18,000 that month, marking its largest dollar decline since May 2021 amid heavy investor withdrawals.

Banks are embracing bicoin

Two weeks ago, the Bank of America told its wealth management clients to allocate 1% to 4% of their portfolios to digital assets, signaling a major shift in its approach to Bitcoin exposure. 

The move allowed over 15,000 advisers across Merrill, Bank of America Private Bank, and Merrill Edge to proactively recommend crypto to clients.

Last week, PNC Bank launched direct spot bitcoin trading for eligible Private Bank clients, allowing them to buy, hold, and sell bitcoin natively through its own digital banking platform without using an external exchange. The move was powered by Coinbase’s Crypto-as-a-Service infrastructure.

Bitcoin price analysis

Bitcoin’s latest sell-off underscores a market stuck in consolidation, where positive macro catalysts fail to translate into sustained upside. 

After briefly testing $89,000 on cooler-than-expected U.S. inflation data, bitcoin slid back toward the $84,000 range, extending a correction now entering its second month. The pattern has become familiar: sharp, data-driven rallies followed by quick retracements as sellers defend resistance below $90,000.

Macro signals offer mixed support. November CPI eased to 2.7% year over year, with core inflation at 2.6%, strengthening the case for eventual Federal Reserve rate cuts in 2026. That backdrop helped spark the intraday rally. Yet rising U.S. unemployment and uneven job growth complicate the outlook, reinforcing expectations that the Fed will move cautiously. Markets appear reluctant to price in aggressive easing.

A key drag remains U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs, which have shifted from consistent inflows to net redemptions. The outflows remove a stabilizing bid that previously absorbed sell pressure, making breakouts harder to sustain even on positive news.

Technically, the bitcoin price is range-bound. Resistance sits just below $90,000, while support near $84,000 is weakening. A decisive break lower could open a move toward the $72,000–$68,000 zone, where analysts expect stronger demand.

Extreme fear readings suggest potential undervaluation, but near-term momentum still favors sellers.

At the time of writing, the bitcoin price is dancing around the $88,000 level.

This post Bitcoin Price Will Jump to $143,000 Next Year, Says Citi Bank first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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Bitcoin Price Crashes to $84,000 – Is $70,000 Next?

The bitcoin price dropped sharply today after a brief pump near $90,000, sliding to $84,544 as the price sell-off continued into its second month. 

Bitcoin lost 2% over the past 24 hours. It remains 5% below its seven-day high of $89,220 and hovers near the week’s low of $84,596. Trading volume reached $56 billion. Bitcoin’s market capitalization stands at $1.69 trillion. The circulating supply is roughly 19.96 million BTC out of a total 21 million, according to Bitcoin Magazine Pro data. 

The drop follows a brief rally that earlier saw the Bitcoin price test $89,000. The surge came after the U.S. released new Consumer Price Index data. Inflation rose 2.7% year over year in November, lower than expected. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, fell to 2.6%, the lowest since early 2021.

Bitcoin jumped from intraday lows near $86,000 to challenge $89,000. Traders viewed the cooler inflation report as a potential signal for looser Federal Reserve policy in 2026. CME FedWatch data suggested slightly higher odds of a rate cut by March, though January moves remain unlikely.

The rally did not last. The bitcoin price failed to break $90,000 and slid to $84,4000. This pattern is familiar: sharp spikes followed by quick retracements.

What’s dragging down the bitcoin price?

A persistent challenge is U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs. These funds, once a major source of demand, have seen net redemptions. The outflows remove institutional support that previously helped stabilize the price. Without consistent ETF inflows, breakouts above $89,000 are harder to sustain.

Other economic indicators add uncertainty. Recent labor market data showed U.S. unemployment rising to 4.6%, its highest since 2021. Job growth remains uneven. The mixed signals complicate Federal Reserve policy, suggesting a cautious approach despite easing inflation.

Political factors add to market complexity. President Donald Trump has publicly urged lower interest rates and suggested nominating a Fed chair favoring aggressive easing. Markets have largely treated the comments as noise, but the statements add a variable to the macro picture.

Technically, the bitcoin price is consolidating rather than trending. Resistance forms just below $90,000. Supply above this level remains strong, held by investors who bought during prior rallies. 

Analysts at Bitwise recently suggested Bitcoin could break its historical four-year cycle. The firm noted BTC might reach new all-time highs in 2026 with lower volatility and reduced correlation to equities.

The Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index currently sits at 17/100, signaling extreme fear. Historically, readings in this range have coincided with undervaluation. Contrarian investors see potential buying opportunities, though sentiment remains cautious.

Is $70,000 next? 

Technical analysts from Bitcoin Magazine wrote earlier this week that the $84,000 support level is under pressure. If the bitcoin price falls below this point, it could test the $72,000 to $68,000 zone. Initial bounces are expected, but a break below $84,000 could trigger faster declines toward $70,000.

Bitcoin’s price may drop to the $72,000–$68,000 support zone after breaking the $84,000 level, with bears currently in control. A strong bounce is likely from that lower zone, potentially retesting $84,000, though the 4-Year Cycle suggests further downside could occur later in 2026.

Resistance extends from $94,000 to $118,000. Bulls will need substantial buying volume to break above these levels, per Bitcoin Magazine analysts. 

Short-term momentum favors sellers. Last week, the Bitcoin price closed the weekly candle in red, failing to sustain gains near $94,000. Bears are well-positioned to push prices lower this week. 

At the time of writing, the bitcoin price is $84,812. Trading volume reached $56 billion. Bitcoin’s market capitalization stands at $1.69 trillion. The circulating supply is roughly 19.96 million BTC out of a total 21 million, according to Bitcoin Magazine Pro data. 

This post Bitcoin Price Crashes to $84,000 – Is $70,000 Next? first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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BitGo Enables Lightning Network Payments Directly from Custody

BitGo, a digital asset infrastructure company, announced it now offers Bitcoin Lightning Network access directly from its qualified custody platform. The move makes it one of the first companies to provide Lightning payments for institutional custody.

The service aims to give clients faster and cheaper Bitcoin transactions while keeping institutional security standards intact. It builds on BitGo’s earlier self-custody Lightning solution.

The new offering is powered through a partnership with Voltage, a Lightning Network infrastructure provider. Clients can now use Lightning without running their own nodes or managing keys. BitGo and Voltage handle infrastructure, channels, liquidity, and key management.

Through simple APIs, clients can create wallets, send payments, generate invoices, and track transactions. The platform integrates fully with BitGo’s existing wallet infrastructure, policies, and permissions.

Enterprises adopting Lightning usually face challenges like maintaining nodes, channels, liquidity, and keys. BitGo removes these hurdles. Institutions can now access Lightning with minimal setup and zero operational overhead.

BitGo, along with Ripple, Circle, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Paxos, received conditional approval from the OCC to become federally chartered national trust banks.

This shift from state to federal oversight allows them to offer nationwide fiduciary and digital asset custody services, enhancing regulatory clarity, institutional confidence, and the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies.

Lightning Network hits an all-time high

This move comes as Bitcoin’s Lightning Network hits a new all-time high of 5,637 BTC in capacity, driven largely by institutional inflows even as broader user adoption and node growth lag. 

Data from AMBOSS shows the surge, concentrated in November and December, surpasses the previous peak from March 2023, signaling renewed confidence among major exchanges like Binance and OKX, which have added significant BTC to Lightning channels.

 Despite rising capacity, the network’s number of nodes and channels remains below historical highs, highlighting a gap between capitalization and widespread use. 

The increase coincides with ecosystem developments, including Tether’s $8 million investment in Lightning-focused startup Speed and Lightning Labs’ release of Taproot Assets v0.7, enabling reusable addresses, auditable asset supplies, and larger, more reliable transactions. 

These upgrades position the Lightning Network as more than a micropayment system, offering potential for higher-value transfers that leverage Bitcoin’s security, speed, and low fees while expanding real-world financial applications on the network.

“By offering institutional access to Lightning directly from custody, we are allowing our clients to focus on innovation instead of infrastructure,” said Mike Belshe, BitGo CEO and co-founder. “We are combining the speed and lower transaction costs of Lightning with the trusted security of BitGo to make bitcoin practical for everyday payments.”

This post BitGo Enables Lightning Network Payments Directly from Custody first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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Bhutan Pledges Up to 10,000 Bitcoin to Build New Mega-City

Bhutan has committed up to 10,000 bitcoin to support the long-term development of Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC), marking one of the most ambitious sovereign uses of bitcoin for national infrastructure and economic development to date.

The Himalayan kingdom unveiled the Bitcoin Development Pledge this week, allocating a portion of its sovereign bitcoin holdings — valued at roughly $860 million to $1 billion at current prices — to back the new special administrative region in southern Bhutan. 

Officials emphasized that the allocation is intended to preserve capital over the long term rather than fund near-term spending through asset sales.

Instead, Bhutan is exploring mechanisms such as collateralized lending, treasury and yield strategies, and intentional long-term holding to finance infrastructure and development while maintaining exposure to bitcoin’s potential appreciation. 

Final decisions on how the assets will be deployed are expected in the coming months, according to the government.

Gelephu Mindfulness City is central to Bhutan’s broader effort to diversify its economy beyond hydropower and tourism, while remaining aligned with the country’s development philosophy centered on sustainability and social well-being. 

The project, launched in 2024, is designed as a future economic hub focused on finance, technology, green energy, healthcare, agriculture, and high-value tourism.

The city spans roughly 1,544 square miles — about 10% of Bhutan’s territory — near the Indian border.

Bitcoin as a commitment to Bhutan’s youth

King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck announced the bitcoin commitment during his National Day Address, framing it as a generational investment aimed at creating quality jobs and opportunities for Bhutan’s youth.

“As your King, I must ensure that every Bhutanese is a custodian, stakeholder, and beneficiary of GMC,” he said. “This commitment is for our people, our youth, and our nation.”

A new land policy associated with the project will treat landowners as shareholders in the city’s development, ensuring citizens across all regions share in the economic upside. Since much of the land involved is state-owned, the government says the benefits will be broadly distributed nationwide.

Bhutan’s bitcoin holdings stem from years of state-backed mining operations powered by surplus hydroelectric energy. Beginning around 2019–2020, the country quietly converted excess renewable power into digital assets, positioning itself as one of the earliest sovereign bitcoin miners. Officials say the strategy allows Bhutan to monetize unused energy capacity without increasing environmental impact.

Estimates of Bhutan’s total bitcoin reserves vary by analytics provider, ranging from roughly 6,000 to more than 11,000 BTC, placing the kingdom among the world’s largest sovereign bitcoin holders. 

The bitcoin pledge builds on a broader national blockchain strategy already underway. Bhutan has rolled out crypto-enabled payments across its tourism sector through partnerships with DK Bank and Binance Pay, allowing visitors to pay with more than 100 digital assets at hotels, airlines, and local merchants. More than 100 tourism-related businesses now accept crypto payments.

The country has also introduced TER, a sovereign-backed digital token reportedly supported by physical gold reserves, and recently anchored its national digital identity system on Ethereum, enabling nearly 800,000 citizens to access public services through blockchain-based verification.

GMC itself has designated bitcoin and two other crypto as strategic reserve assets, making it one of the earliest jurisdictions to formally hold multiple cryptocurrencies at the municipal or regional level. 

Green Digital Ltd., the infrastructure firm leading GMC’s development, is focused on green energy-powered data centers and blockchain infrastructure as part of the city’s long-term vision.

Earlier this month, Bhutan also entered a multi-year partnership with Cumberland DRW to support bitcoin reserve management, sustainable mining expansion, and broader digital asset infrastructure, including potential stablecoin initiatives.

At current bitcoin prices, 10,000 BTC would be worth $877,500,000.

CoinDesk reporting helped with the background of this article.  

This post Bhutan Pledges Up to 10,000 Bitcoin to Build New Mega-City first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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Celebrating One Year of Hashrate Redirect™: How Abundant Mines Redefined Uptime and Protected Millions in Client Bitcoin Rewards

Hood River County, Oregon – December 16th, 2025 – This month last year, Abundant Mines quietly began to launch a feature that would go on to change how the bitcoin mining industry defines performance. Today, the company is celebrating the one-year anniversary of Hashrate Redirect, a pioneering system that ensures clients continue earning bitcoin even when their machines are offline.

For too long, mining providers have misled customers with uptime metrics that measure whether a facility has power, not whether a machine is actually hashing. A rig could be powered off, broken, or awaiting repairs and still count toward a provider’s claimed “98% uptime.” The result is lost bitcoin, lost revenue, and lost trust.

Abundant Mines set out to correct this.

“When we introduced Hashrate Redirect a year ago, we didn’t make a big announcement. We simply built the solution we wished had existed when we were clients,” said Beau Turner, Co-Founder and CEO of Abundant Mines. “Twelve months later, the results speak for themselves: our clients continue earning even when their machines are offline, and the industry standard for uptime is shifting toward truth and transparency.”

A Year of Real Results: Uptime That Actually Means Performance

Instead of measuring uptime by whether a building has power or not, Abundant Mines measures rig uptime – the percentage of time an individual machine is hashing and producing bitcoin. When a rig goes offline for repairs, RMA, or maintenance, Hashrate Redirect replaces the lost hashrate with hash from Abundant Mines’ operational fleet.

The loss of hash is tracked immediately, and the redirection happens within days, not at the end of the month or year. The result is a continuous bitcoin revenue stream for clients, even during downtime.

Over the past year, Hashrate Redirect has:

• Protected clients from hours of lost earnings
• Redirected hashrate for machines without interruption
• Preserved significant bitcoin rewards that would otherwise have been missed.

“Hashrate Redirect is simple but powerful,” said Turner. “We give you hash, not cash. Because you’re not mining for credits or refunds, you’re here to earn bitcoin and help secure the network.”

Why Timing Matters: Capturing Bitcoin’s Full Value

Bitcoin’s value is time-sensitive. Block rewards are issued every 10 minutes, and once they’re gone, they’re gone forever. If a rig is offline during a price surge or halving cycle, the lost opportunity can compound into significant missed revenue.

By replacing hashrate continuously, not with delayed end- of -year credit, or even end-of-month credit, Abundant Mines ensures that clients capture the full earning potential of every block, especially during high-value market windows.

“With bitcoin’s price climbing and the network becoming more competitive, uptime precision isn’t just a technical detail. It is the difference between winning and falling behind,” said Turner. “Hashrate Redirect makes sure our clients stay ahead.”

Why Weekly Hashrate Matters More Than One-Time Credits

Most mining providers only offer compensation for downtime once or twice a year, often in the form of a one-time hashrate allocation or bill credit. On paper, this may seem like a fair solution. In reality, it is too little and far too late.

Bitcoin rewards are not static. They are distributed every 10 minutes, and their value changes constantly based on market price and network difficulty. If your machine is offline for weeks or months, those missed rewards cannot be recreated later – even if a provider offers you a lump sum or short burst of extra hashrate at the end of the year.

Abundant Mines takes a different approach. With Hashrate Redirect, we replace any downtime with hashrate from our personal fleet. This means you continue earning bitcoin on a rolling basis, staying aligned with market conditions and capturing opportunities in real time.

This approach matters because:

• Missed blocks are missed forever. Once they’re mined, they cannot be recreated later.
• Network difficulty volatility impacts rewards. Weekly redirection ensures you maximize bitcoin earnings, so that you are not punished for hashing later when difficulty has risen significantly.Compounding matters. Bitcoin earned earlier can be held, deployed, or compounded, creating significantly greater long-term value.

“Timing is everything in bitcoin mining,” said Turner. “By replacing hashrate weekly instead of issuing delayed payouts, we ensure our clients never miss the most valuable moments to earn.”

Setting a Higher Standard

One year after launch, Hashrate Redirect has become more than a feature. It is a new benchmark for performance and a reflection of Abundant Mines’ commitment to transparency, accuracy, and client protection.

“Mining should mean performance, not just power,” Turner said. “Hashrate Redirect has proven that principle for a full year, and we are only getting started.”

About Abundant Mines

Abundant Mines is a premium bitcoin mining and energy infrastructure company based in Oregon. Committed to transparency, reliability, and impact, Abundant Mines designs, builds, and operates advanced mining facilities that align energy abundance with digital value creation. Its mission is to make bitcoin mining more accessible, more dependable, and more profitable for individuals and institutions worldwide.

Media Contact:

[email protected]

www.abundantmines.com 

This post Celebrating One Year of Hashrate Redirect™: How Abundant Mines Redefined Uptime and Protected Millions in Client Bitcoin Rewards first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Bitcoin Magazine.

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Bitcoin Treasury Companies Are Undervalued

Bitcoin treasury companies have been hit hard by Bitcoin’s disappointing price action throughout 2025. Publicly traded firms holding significant BTC reserves are suffering the most, with leaders like (Micro)Strategy pushing aggressive accumulation amid headwinds—yet most now trade below net asset value, creating a rare opportunity for risk-tolerant strategic investors.

The Bitcoin Treasury Companies Landscape

Not all Bitcoin treasury companies are created equally. Strategy stands apart as the industry standard-bearer, the “Bitcoin among treasury companies,” as it were. The company has maintained its accumulation discipline even as its stock has suffered, recently announcing a $1.44 billion USD reserve specifically designed to pay dividends and debt obligations without forcing Bitcoin sales.

This capital buffer theoretically eliminates the need for excessive dilutive share issuance or forced BTC liquidation, a critical distinction from weaker competitors. Many will likely face shareholder pressure and potential forced selling as their stock prices decline, creating a cascade of supply pressure that could paradoxically benefit the strongest players like MSTR.

Valuation Dynamics of Bitcoin Treasury Companies

The most compelling aspect of current treasury company valuations is that they now trade below net asset value on a per-share basis. In practical terms, you can currently purchase one dollar’s worth of Bitcoin for less than one dollar through treasury company stock. This represents an arbitrage opportunity for investors, though one accompanied by elevated volatility and company-specific risks.

Strategy currently sits at a net asset value premium of less than 1, meaning the company’s market capitalization is below the value of its Bitcoin holdings alone. The upside scenario is striking. If Bitcoin reclaims its previous all-time high around $126,000, Strategy continues accumulating toward 700,000 BTC, and the market assigns even a modest 1.5x to 1.75x net asset value premium, Strategy could approach the $500 region per share.

From Weak to Strong: The Future of Bitcoin Treasury Companies

Examining Strategy’s performance during the previous Bitcoin bear market and overlaying it onto the current cycle reveals eerie alignment. The bar patterns suggest current price levels represent reasonable support, with only a catastrophic final flush justified by Bitcoin weakness providing reason to expect substantially lower levels.

As weaker treasury companies face forced selling, a consolidation thesis emerges, that Strategy and similar strong-positioned players will potentially accumulate cheap Bitcoin from distressed sellers, further concentrating holdings in the most disciplined accumulators. This dynamic mirrors Bitcoin’s own consolidation process, weaker hands sell, stronger hands accumulate, and the asset becomes more concentrated among conviction holders.

Conclusion: Opportunity in Bitcoin Treasury Companies

Bitcoin treasury companies have for the most part delivered disappointing returns in 2025, but this performance has created a window of exceptional opportunity for disciplined investors. At current valuations, Strategy is essentially selling one dollar of Bitcoin for approximately 90 cents, a discount that becomes even more attractive if Bitcoin experiences one final capitulation flush. The probability of this scenario combined with Strategy’s positioned upside creates asymmetric risk-reward worthy of small, carefully-sized positions within aggressive portfolios.

For deeper data, charts, and professional insights into bitcoin price trends, visit BitcoinMagazinePro.com. Subscribe to Bitcoin Magazine Pro on YouTube for more expert market insights and analysis!

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions.

This post Bitcoin Treasury Companies Are Undervalued first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Matt Crosby.

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Bitcoin Price Bleeds Below $89,000 After Grim Weekend 

Bitcoin price endured another grim weekend, bleeding from the low-$92,000 range on Thursday to weekend lows near $87,000 as thin liquidity and sell pressure weighed on risk appetite.

The move below $90,000 came during typically illiquid Sunday trading, amplifying downside volatility as traders positioned cautiously ahead of a dense slate of U.S. economic data and central bank events this week.

At the lows, the bitcoin price was down roughly 7% on the month, continuing a choppy consolidation that has defined price action since October’s all-time high, per Bitcoin Magazine Pro data.

Broader crypto markets showed little sign of strength. 

Major altcoins including Solana, XRP, Dogecoin and Cardano continued to slide, extending double-digit monthly losses and reinforcing bitcoin’s dominance near 57% of total crypto market capitalization. Volumes remained muted, reflecting a lack of conviction rather than outright capitulation.

Macro overhangs remain front and center. In the U.S., traders are bracing for employment data, inflation prints, PMI readings and Fed commentary that could reshape rate expectations. 

Globally, attention is turning to Japan, where the Bank of Japan is widely expected to raise rates later this week — an event that could pressure yen-funded carry trades that have helped support risk assets, including bitcoin, over the past year.

Technically, analysts are watching the mid-$80,000s closely. A sustained break below that zone could invite a deeper correction, while holding it would reinforce the idea that the bitcoin price remains range-bound rather than entering a new bear phase.

How low will the Bitcoin price go? 

Despite the uneasy backdrop, some of the loudest bearish calls are running far ahead of the data. Bloomberg Intelligence strategist Mike McGlone warned this week that the bitcoin price could collapse as much as 90% from its peak, potentially revisiting $10,000 in a future deflationary downturn. 

The forecast echoes prior bearish calls and comes as leveraged long positions continue to unwind, with roughly $230 million in bitcoin longs liquidated over the past 24 hours.

On-chain data, however, tells a far more nuanced story.

Bitcoin Magazine Pro’s Price Forecast Tools — built on network fundamentals rather than sentiment — suggest the market is trading below fair value, not on the brink of structural collapse. 

Aggregated indicators such as CVDD, Balanced Price and the Bitcoin Cycle Master currently point to a fair market value near $106,000, with long-term downside risk clustering closer to the $80,000 range rather than anywhere near five figures.

Historically, these metrics have aligned closely with cycle tops and bottoms, offering a framework that cuts through short-term noise. 

While macro conditions will continue to dictate volatility, on-chain signals suggest the current drawdown looks more like late-cycle consolidation than the start of a generational unwind.

At the time of writing, the bitcoin price is $89,317.

This post Bitcoin Price Bleeds Below $89,000 After Grim Weekend  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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Coinbase is About to Launch Prediction Markets and Tokenized Stocks: Report

Coinbase is reportedly preparing to launch its own prediction markets, powered by U.S.-based operator Kalshi, in a move that could expand the types of assets available on the exchange amid cooling investor interest in cryptocurrencies, according to reporting from Bloomberg and CNBC.

The announcement is expected to come next week, coinciding with Coinbase’s “Coinbase System Update” showcase on Dec. 17. While the exchange declined to confirm specifics, it encouraged users to tune into the livestream for updates.

Rumors of the new prediction markets have been circulating for nearly a month. In mid-November, tech researcher Jane Manchun Wong shared a screenshot of what appeared to be Coinbase’s prediction markets dashboard. 

The Information first reported the planned launch on Nov. 19, and Bloomberg later cited a source saying the event would also feature the rollout of tokenized stocks.

Coinbase as an ‘everything’ exchange

Coinbase’s moves align with CEO Brian Armstrong’s long-stated vision of building an “everything exchange” — a single platform offering access to crypto tokens, tokenized equities, and event-based contracts. 

Armstrong told investors in May that Coinbase aims to become a leading financial services app within the next decade.

The exchange is accelerating these initiatives amid rising competition from firms such as Robinhood, Gemini, and Kraken

Over the past year, these platforms have expanded tokenized stock offerings outside the U.S. and explored prediction markets, reflecting growing demand for alternative trading instruments.

The timing also comes as investor sentiment toward digital assets has cooled. A wave of liquidations in highly leveraged positions in mid-October triggered a crypto market pullback, prompting some investors to shift capital into safer assets. 

For Kalshi, the partnership marks another step in its strategy to integrate event contracts into mainstream trading platforms. 

Earlier this year, the company embedded its prediction markets into Robinhood, and it is reportedly in discussions with other brokers, including those in crypto, to expand its reach.

Prediction markets let users speculate on outcomes ranging from elections to sports games, and they have grown increasingly popular over the past year. Traditional exchanges and crypto platforms alike are now exploring them as a new way to engage traders. 

Gemini recently received approval to roll out its own prediction markets, while Crypto.com has partnered with the Trump Media & Technology Group on similar initiatives.

Coinbase’s planned in-house tokenized stock offerings would put it on par with competitors like Robinhood and Kraken, which currently offer similar products outside the U.S.

This post Coinbase is About to Launch Prediction Markets and Tokenized Stocks: Report first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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Five Crypto Firms Win Conditional Approvals as National Trust Banks, Including Fidelity and BitGo

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has granted conditional approvals for five digital asset firms — Ripple, Circle, Fidelity Digital Assets, BitGo, and Paxos — to become federally chartered national trust banks, marking a major milestone in the integration of cryptocurrency into traditional finance.

The approvals, announced Friday, allow the firms to convert from state-level trust charters to federal status, subject to meeting the OCC’s conditions. 

Once finalized, these institutions will join roughly 60 other national trust banks regulated by the OCC, gaining the ability to offer fiduciary and custody services nationwide. 

Unlike larger national banks, trust banks cannot accept cash deposits or make loans, but they can hold and manage customers’ digital assets.

‘Huge news’ for crypto

Circle, issuer of the $78 billion USDC stablecoin, said the charter would enhance the safety and regulatory oversight of its reserves while enabling fiduciary digital asset custody for institutional clients.

CEO Jeremy Allaire emphasized that the federal charter would provide “greater clarity and confidence” to institutions building on Circle’s platform as stablecoins gain mainstream adoption.

Paxos, known for PYUSD and the consortium-backed Global Dollar (USDG), said federal oversight would allow businesses to issue, custody, trade, and settle digital assets with clarity and confidence. 

The firm, which has operated under a New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) charter since 2015, first applied for a federal charter in 2020.

BitGo, a South Dakota–based crypto custodian, said the federal charter would allow it to expand services nationwide, including trading, staking, stablecoin, and treasury offerings for institutions. BitGo has also filed to go public, reporting $4.19 billion in revenue for the first half of 2025, up from $1.12 billion during the same period in 2024.

The approvals reflect a broader trend toward federal oversight of digital assets, coming after Anchorage Digital became the first federally chartered crypto bank in the U.S. Other firms, including Coinbase, Bridge (owned by Stripe), and Crypto.com, have also applied for federal charters.

OCC Comptroller Jonathan V. Gould emphasized that new entrants into the federal banking sector benefit consumers, foster competition, and promote innovation.

 “The OCC will continue to provide a path for both traditional and innovative approaches to financial services to ensure the federal banking system keeps pace with the evolution of finance and supports a modern economy,” Gould said.

This post Five Crypto Firms Win Conditional Approvals as National Trust Banks, Including Fidelity and BitGo first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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9 Ways MSCI’s Proposed Digital Asset Rule Could Undermine Index Neutrality

A major rule change is being considered by MSCI, one of the most influential index providers in global markets. If adopted, it would materially alter how public companies that hold digital assets—particularly Bitcoin—are classified and included in major equity indexes.

For companies, investors, asset managers, and anyone who depends on index-based benchmarks, this proposal raises fundamental questions about how markets define operating businesses and what role balance sheets should play in index eligibility.

Join the call for MSCI to withdraw its digital asset exclusion rule.

Here’s what’s at stake—and why it matters.

1. MSCI Is Proposing a New 50% Balance-Sheet Threshold

At the center of the proposal is a simple rule:

If digital assets make up 50% or more of a company’s total assets, that company would be excluded from MSCI’s Global Investable Market Indexes.

MSCI’s rationale is that crossing this threshold allegedly changes the company’s “primary business,” making it more fund-like rather than operational.

This single ratio would override all other indicators of what the company actually does.

2. The Proposal Misclassifies Operating Companies as Investment Funds

The core objection is straightforward:
holding Bitcoin on a balance sheet does not transform an operating company into an investment fund.

• Operating companies generate revenue from products and services
• They employ people, invest in R&D, and serve customers
• Treasury assets exist to support long-term capital strategy

By contrast, investment funds exist solely to manage portfolios for return.

Treating these two structures as equivalent—based on a balance-sheet ratio alone—collapses a distinction that has long been foundational to corporate and securities law.

If your organization relies on clear, fundamentals-based definitions of operating companies, this misclassification matters. Bitcoin For Corporations is asking MSCI to withdraw the proposal and engage on a more principled framework. You can add your name to the open letter here.

3. Treasury Strategy Does Not Redefine Core Business Activity

A company can change how it stores excess capital without changing what it does.

• A manufacturer that holds cash remains a manufacturer
• A software firm holding foreign currency remains a software firm
• A company holding Bitcoin as treasury reserve remains an operating company

Treasury allocation is a capital management decision, not a change in business model.

4. This Would Be a Radical Departure From Decades of Index Practice

Historically, index classification has been driven by operational reality, not asset composition alone.

Primary business determination has relied on:

• Revenue sources
• Earnings contribution
• Ongoing commercial activity

This proposal replaces that holistic approach with a single market-price-driven metric on the asset side of the balance sheet—something never applied consistently across asset classes before.

5. Digital Assets Are Being Singled Out—Uniquely

Under the proposal:

• A company with 51% of assets in Bitcoin → excluded
• A company with 51% in real estate → included
• A company with 51% in equities or commodities → included

No equivalent rule exists for other treasury assets.

This lack of neutrality directly conflicts with the principles that global indexes are supposed to uphold.

6. The Proposal Conflicts With Core Index Principles

MSCI’s benchmarks are built on three foundational ideas:

• Neutrality – no asset-class favoritism
• Representativeness – reflecting real economic activity
• Stability – avoiding unnecessary churn

A rule that reclassifies companies based on volatile market prices undermines all three.

7. The Rule Would Introduce Structural Instability Into Indexes

Consider a company with:

• 45% of assets in digital form → eligible
• No operational change
• Normal market appreciation pushes it to 51%

Under the proposal, that company would suddenly be excluded—despite:

• No change in revenue
• No change in operations
• No change in business strategy

This creates a scenario where companies could flip in and out of indexes purely due to price movement, forcing unnecessary rebalancing, costs, and tracking error for index-linked funds.

This kind of mechanical instability would impose real costs on index-tracking funds, issuers, and long-term investors—without improving market clarity. That’s why companies and market participants are urging MSCI to withdraw the proposal and revisit it with industry input. Join the call for MSCI to withdraw this rule proposal, and add your signature to the open letter here.

8. A More Robust Alternative Already Exists

The issue is not classification—it’s how classification is done.

A principles-based, multi-factor framework would evaluate:

• Revenue and earnings mix
• Legal and regulatory status
• Core corporate activities (employees, R&D, capex)
• Public disclosures and stated strategy

This approach reflects the entire business, not a single fluctuating ratio.

9. The Coalition’s Ask Is Clear and Constructive

Market participants are calling for a two-step solution:

1. Withdraw the current proposal due to its structural flaws
2. Engage with the market to develop a neutral, principles-based framework that preserves index integrity

The goal is not special treatment—but consistent treatment aligned with long-standing market norms.

Why This Matters

Indexes are not academic exercises. They:

• Guide trillions of dollars in capital allocation
• Shape passive investment flows
• Influence cost of capital for public companies

If index rules become arbitrary, unstable, or asset-specific, they stop reflecting the real economy—and start distorting it.

Final Thought

If your organization depends on fundamentals-based equity benchmarks, this proposal affects you—whether or not you hold digital assets today.

Indexes only work when they remain neutral, stable, and grounded in operating reality. Market participants are asking MSCI to withdraw the proposed digital asset rule and work toward a principles-based alternative.If you or your organization depend on fair and consistent equity benchmarks, adding your signature to the open letter helps ensure those standards are preserved.

Index integrity relies on clear principles, not price-driven thresholds.

Engagement now helps ensure global benchmarks remain neutral, stable, and representative for everyone who relies on them.

Disclaimer: This content was prepared on behalf of Bitcoin For Corporations for informational purposes only. It reflects the author’s own analysis and opinion and should not be relied upon as investment advice. Nothing in this article constitutes an offer, invitation, or solicitation to purchase, sell, or subscribe for any security or financial product.

This post 9 Ways MSCI’s Proposed Digital Asset Rule Could Undermine Index Neutrality first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Nick Ward.

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Klarna Partners With Privy to Explore Use of Crypto Wallets

Just weeks after announcing a stablecoin, Swedish fintech giant Klarna is taking another step into crypto. The company has teamed up with Privy, a wallet infrastructure platform owned by Stripe, to explore digital asset solutions for its users.

The partnership will focus on research and development of crypto wallet features, the company said. The two aim to make it easier for everyday users to store, use, and send digital assets. The move builds on the company’s recent launch of KlarnaUSD, a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin issued on the Tempo blockchain.

“Millions already trust Klarna to manage everyday spending, saving, and shopping,” said Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO and co-founder. “That puts us in a unique position to bring crypto into the financial lives of normal people, not just early adopters. With Privy, we plan to build products that feel as intuitive as any other Klarna feature.”

KlarnaUSD was launched with Tempo and Bridge, a Stripe-backed stablecoin infrastructure provider. 

The token is live on Tempo’s testnet and expected to launch on mainnet in 2026. The fintech giant said the stablecoin could reduce global cross-border payment costs, currently estimated at $120 billion annually.

100 million accounts coming to crypto via Klarna

Privy powers over 100 million accounts for more than 1,500 developers. The platform supports crypto-native applications like OpenSea and Hyperliquid. 

Henri Stern, CEO and co-founder of Privy, said the partnership will allow users to hold a wide variety of digital assets, trade safely, and transact with friends anywhere in the world.

“We’re proud to partner with world-class fintechs like Klarna, providing the secure, enterprise-ready infrastructure they need,” Stern said. “Privy aims to be the backbone for any business that wants to harness the exciting capabilities crypto and stablecoins offer.”

The initiative reflects a growing trend. Traditional fintechs are now testing ways to integrate crypto tools into everyday consumer finance. The company said any future wallet or crypto product would require the necessary regulatory approvals before launch.

Venture capital firm a16z estimates that 716 million people globally hold cryptocurrencies. Between 40 million and 70 million transact with crypto each month. That figure grows by roughly 10 million users a year.

Klarna’s push into crypto marks a sharp turn for the company. CEO Siemiatkowski was once a vocal skeptic of digital currencies. 

He said the market’s maturity and Klarna’s global reach now justify this entry. Klarna serves 114 million customers and processes $112 billion in annual gross merchandise volume.

The company plans to explore further crypto initiatives. A blog post on Thursday hinted at a new announcement “in a week or so,” suggesting more developments are coming soon.

This post Klarna Partners With Privy to Explore Use of Crypto Wallets first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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65% of Corporate Bitcoin Treasuries Are Underwater: Report

Corporate Bitcoin treasuries faced mark-to-market losses in November, according to an exclusive Corporate Adoption Report from Bitcoin Treasuries. 

The report, covering more than 100 companies, offers a systematic look at how last month’s price drop affected public company holdings.

Bitcoin briefly fell below $90,000 in late November. The decline pushed many 2025 buyers into the red. Of the 100 companies for which cost basis is measurable, about two-thirds now sit on unrealized losses at current prices, per the report.

Despite the volatility, large balance sheets continued to dominate net Bitcoin buying. Strategy, Strive, and a small cohort of high-conviction buyers accounted for most net additions. 

Strategy alone represented roughly 75% of net new buying after sales.

Public Bitcoin treasury equities remain weak versus BTC and broad indices. Still, a minority of companies delivered at least 10% gains over the past 6–12 months. 

Early signs of corporate Bitcoin selling also emerged. At least five companies reduced BTC exposure in November. Sequans led the group, selling roughly one-third of its holdings. While small in aggregate, these moves suggest some management teams are willing to crystallize losses or de-risk when volatility spikes.

Quarterly Bitcoin accumulation is slowing, but not collapsing. Q4 2025 is on track for roughly 40,000 BTC in net additions to public company balance sheets. This is below the last four quarters but broadly in line with Q3 2024, as companies normalize to a slower, more selective accumulation pace.

In November, public and private treasuries purchased, added, or disclosed over 12,644 BTC in November and the total BTC held across all tracked entities surpassed 4 million by month’s end. 

Bitcoin purchases

Big treasuries know for their bitcoin buying continue to dominate purchases. Strategy added 9,062 BTC across three transactions in November, per the report.

Its largest buy, 8,178 BTC, came on Nov. 17. Strategy ended the month with 649,870 BTC, worth about $59 billion. Currently, the company has 660,624 after some December purchases. 

Strive added 1,567 BTC at an average price of $103,315 per BTC in November. The purchase brought its month-end holdings to 7,525 BTC, or $684 million. The company funds its Bitcoin strategy primarily through perpetual preferred equity.

Mining companies remain significant players. Cango and Riot added 508 BTC and 37 BTC, respectively, from mining operations. American Bitcoin added 139 BTC through combined purchase and mining strategies. 

Per the report, mining companies now account for 12% of public company BTC holdings.

Bitcoin selling and rebalancing

Sales were limited but notable. As mentioned earlier, Sequans sold nearly one-third of its holdings, to reduce convertible debt. Hut 8 reduced holdings by 389 BTC. KindlyMD and Genius Group also trimmed exposure.

Some companies added small amounts even amid the downturn. DDC Enterprise Limited picked up 100 BTC during the pullback. 

Metaplanet continued “additional purchase” filings on the Tokyo exchange. ETF flows returned to net inflows after a month of redemptions.

The data suggests a barbell pattern: small distressed sellers versus programmatic buyers and disciplined treasuries. Investors see BTC increasingly used as collateral or for cash flow, rather than just as a speculative asset.

Global trends and future outlook

Corporate Bitcoin holdings are increasingly global. U.S. companies dominate the top 20, but Japan, China, Europe, and other regions are growing. 

Non-U.S. public company holdings rose 3,180 BTC from two months prior, now representing about 9% of all public company BTC. Analysts say this geographic diversification reduces regulatory risk.

Despite November’s volatility, corporate adoption of Bitcoin continues. Large treasuries are still buying aggressively. The quarterly pace of accumulation is slower than earlier in 2025, the report noted, but steady growth persists. 

Those interested in reading the full report can do so below:

This post 65% of Corporate Bitcoin Treasuries Are Underwater: Report first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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Pardoning the Samourai Developers Would Restore Legal Clarity and Protect Non-Custodial Code

The Samourai Wallet matter raises a fundamental question about how the United States treats non-custodial software and the developers who create it. Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill did not operate a financial service or handle customer assets. They wrote and maintained software that allowed users to construct collaborative Bitcoin transactions in a privacy-preserving way. Throughout the tool’s entire lifecycle, users controlled their own keys, initiated their own transactions, and never relied on Samourai or its developers to transmit or safeguard value. The distinction between a custodial service and a non-custodial tool is not a technicality; it is the core boundary that the Bank Secrecy Act, FinCEN guidance, and decades of regulatory practice use to distinguish software authors from regulated financial intermediaries.

This point was reinforced by FinCEN itself. In an internal analysis, the agency concluded that Samourai’s architecture did not constitute money transmission because no third party took possession or control of user funds. That conclusion was never disclosed to the defense while the prosecution advanced a theory that required the opposite: that building software which users employ for privacy is functionally equivalent to operating a financial institution. When that analysis finally surfaced, it confirmed what has long been understood across the industry and within the regulatory community—that non-custodial tools fall outside the BSA’s money-transmitter framework because there is no transfer of value by a third party. The case ultimately treated the developers as if they were responsible for the independent actions of users, even though they had no role in executing, intermediating, or approving any transaction. Some individuals did misuse the tool, as happens with any privacy or security technology, but the law has never equated misuse with liability for the creators. We do not treat the authors of encryption libraries, VPN protocols, or email clients as participants in unlawful activity simply because bad actors rely on those tools. Collapsing the distinction between developing a tool and operating a service would introduce an untenable level of risk for anyone building privacy-enhancing or security-critical software.

There is also an important speech component. Courts have consistently recognized that code is expressive, and publishing open-source software is an act of communication. When publication is treated as evidence of “operation,” the legal boundary between authorship and conduct becomes blurred in a way that threatens a wide range of legitimate technologies. Any precedent suggesting that developers are responsible for unforeseeable downstream use would have immediate consequences for cryptography, cybersecurity research, and open-source work more broadly.

Rodriguez and Hill ultimately accepted plea agreements in the face of substantial sentencing exposure, even though government records undermined the central regulatory theory of the case. Their convictions now rest on a framework that is at odds with established guidance and with the direction in which federal policy has since moved. A pardon would bring the legal outcome back into alignment with the underlying facts: this was software development, not money transmission, and the individuals involved should not bear criminal liability for writing code that users executed independently.

This case has already had a measurable chilling effect on developers working on privacy and security tools in the United States. Leaving the convictions in place would discourage responsible innovation and push critical work to jurisdictions that do not share our commitment to open research and transparent development. A pardon would correct a clear misapplication of federal law, protect the integrity of long-standing distinctions in financial regulation, and reaffirm that publishing non-custodial software is not—and should not become—a criminal act.

Disclaimer – This is a guest contribution by Zack Shapiro, originally published by the Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI). The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

This post Pardoning the Samourai Developers Would Restore Legal Clarity and Protect Non-Custodial Code first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Zack Shapiro.

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Bitcoin Is a Relief, Not a Theory: Pakistan’s Case for Crypto Adoption

At the Bitcoin MENA conference, Bilal Bin Saqib, CEO of the government-backed Pakistan Crypto Council and chief advisor to Pakistan’s finance minister, delivered a message that framed bitcoin not as a speculative asset, but as a practical solution to structural economic problems facing millions of people in Pakistan.

One of Bin Saqib’s most striking takeaways was how grounded his argument in lived reality. In Pakistan, bitcoin is less about ideology and more about necessity. 

Bitcoin as a financial relief

As Bin Saqib put it, for many Pakistanis “bitcoin is not theory, it’s a relief,” a response to problems traditional financial systems have failed to solve for decades.

He pointed first to savings. Pakistan’s currency has lost more than half its value over the past five years, eroding purchasing power for ordinary citizens. In that environment, Bin Saqib argued, people are not looking for explanations of monetary theory. They are looking for protection.

Bitcoin, he said, provides a way to store value outside inflation driven by political decisions, money printing and currency mismanagement. “You don’t need a lecture,” he noted. “You need a hedge.”

Access was the second pillar of his case. Despite Pakistan being home to roughly 240 million people, more than 100 million remain unbanked. 

For this population, traditional finance has simply never arrived. Bitcoin, according to Bin Saqib, offers a financial identity without the need for permission, paperwork or intermediaries that may never open the door. 

That permissionless access, he argued, is especially powerful for young people encountering true financial ownership for the first time.

The third pillar was cross-border earnings. Pakistan has one of the largest freelance workforces in the world, yet freelancers often struggle to receive international payments quickly, cheaply and transparently. 

Bitcoin and blockchain-based payment rails enable Pakistani workers to get paid globally without friction, delays or excessive fees. For many, this has meant a direct connection to the global economy for the first time.

Bin Saqib tied these grassroots use cases to a broader national strategy. Pakistan, he said, is not trying to “chase the future” but to build a new one. With roughly 70% of the population under the age of 30, the country cannot rely on outdated economic models. 

Digital assets, and bitcoin in particular, are being viewed as infrastructure rather than speculation—new financial rails for the Global South.

He outlined his mandate since being appointed seven months ago: to transform one of the world’s largest unregulated crypto markets into a compliant, investment-friendly ecosystem. 

Pakistan has already moved to establish a virtual asset regulatory framework, issue provisional licenses for exchanges, and develop regulatory sandboxes for mining, tokenization and fintech.

The goal, Bin Saqib said, is to bring activity onshore rather than push it underground, protecting users without suffocating builders.

Bin Saqib’s discussion of energy 

Energy played a central role in the discussion. Pakistan paradoxically suffers from both power shortages and massive excess capacity, paying for electricity that goes unused. 

Bin Saqib described bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence as tools to convert that “wasted economic oxygen” into productive output. 

Every unused megawatt, he argued, could be turned into bitcoin mining or AI compute, effectively transforming stranded energy into digital exports.

In that framework, bitcoin mining becomes less about consumption and more about industrial renewal. 

Rather than exporting only commodities or labor, Pakistan could export compute—what Bin Saqib called one of the most valuable resources of the 21st century. He framed this not as a narrow energy policy, but as part of a broader industrial rebirth.

Looking ahead, Bin Saqib predicted that the next wave of bitcoin adoption will not be led by Wall Street, but by emerging markets where economic pain is real and the upside is massive. 

This post Bitcoin Is a Relief, Not a Theory: Pakistan’s Case for Crypto Adoption first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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CFTC Launches Pilot Program Allowing Bitcoin To Be Used as Collateral In Derivatives Markets

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced the launch of a U.S. digital assets pilot program that will allow bitcoin, ethereum and the stablecoin USDC to be used as collateral in regulated derivatives markets, marking another major policy shift in how U.S. regulators approach tokenized assets.

The move includes new guidance for tokenized collateral, a limited no-action framework for futures commission merchants (FCMs), and the withdrawal of legacy restrictions that the agency said are no longer relevant following passage of the GENIUS Act.

Acting CFTC Chair Caroline Pham said the program is designed to expand the use of digital assets in regulated markets while maintaining oversight and customer protections.

“Americans deserve safe U.S. markets as an alternative to offshore platforms,” Pham said in a statement. “Today, I am launching a U.S. digital assets pilot program for tokenized collateral that establishes clear guardrails to protect customer assets and provides enhanced CFTC monitoring and reporting.”

Bitcoin and other crypto as a pilot

Under the pilot, FCMs will be temporarily allowed to accept a narrow set of digital assets like Bitcoin as customer margin, according to a CFTC announcement. 

During the first three months of participation, firms will be required to submit weekly reports to the CFTC detailing the total amount of digital assets held in customer accounts, broken out by asset and account class. 

Companies must also notify regulators of any material incident involving the use of digital collateral.

The agency said the reporting requirement is intended to give staff real-time insight into operational risks while allowing firms controlled access to tokenized collateral.

Last week, the CFTC allowed federally regulated spot crypto trading in the U.S. for the first time, with Bitnomial set to launch its exchange next week under CFTC oversight. 

Pham said CFTC-registered venues will list spot crypto products, enabling retail and institutional traders to access spot, futures, options, and perpetuals on a single regulated platform.

Alongside the pilot program, the CFTC’s Market Participants Division, Division of Market Oversight and Division of Clearing and Risk issued formal guidance on how tokenized assets should be evaluated within existing regulatory frameworks.

The guidance emphasizes that CFTC rules are “technology neutral” and that tokenized assets should be assessed individually under existing policies rather than treated as a separate asset class.

The framework applies to tokenized real-world assets such as U.S. Treasuries and money market funds. It outlines standards for legal enforceability and things like custody and control.

The agency also issued a no-action position for FCMs that accept non-securities digital assets as margin, including payment stablecoins. 

The relief allows firms to incorporate qualifying digital assets into customer accounts while clarifying how capital and segregation rules apply under the new regime.

Crypto industry applause

The CFTC formally withdrew Staff Advisory No. 20-34, which previously restricted how virtual currencies could be held in customer accounts. The advisory had been in place since 2020 and had limited the operational use of digital assets as collateral.

The agency said developments in digital markets and the enactment of the GENIUS Act made the advisory obsolete.

Crypto and fintech firms quickly welcomed the decision, saying the changes offer long-awaited regulatory certainty.

Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal said the move confirms the industry’s belief that stablecoins and digital assets can reduce risk and improve efficiency in financial markets, according to a CFTC announcement. 

Circle President Heath Tarbert also chimed in and said the changes would reduce settlement risk and friction in derivatives trading by enabling near real-time margin settlement.

Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek said the announcement would allow tokenized collateral to be used in U.S. markets for the first time at scale, adding that it would support 24/7 trading in regulated derivatives products.

This post CFTC Launches Pilot Program Allowing Bitcoin To Be Used as Collateral In Derivatives Markets first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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Strategy ($MSTR) Buys Nearly $1 Billion Worth of Bitcoin

Strategy, the largest publicly traded holder of bitcoin, said it acquired 10,624 BTC last week for about $962.7 million, returning to a scale of purchases not seen since mid-year as market volatility steadied.

The company paid an average price of $90,615 per bitcoin during the Dec. 1–7 period, according to a regulatory filing and a statement from Executive Chairman Michael Saylor. The purchase lifts Strategy’s total bitcoin holdings to 660,624 coins, accumulated for roughly $49.35 billion at an average cost of $74,696 per bitcoin.

At current prices near $94,000, Strategy’s bitcoin stash is valued at about $60.5 billion, leaving the firm with an estimated $11 billion in unrealized gains.

Shares of Strategy (MSTR) were modestly higher in premarket trading Monday, rising about 2% alongside a small advance in bitcoin. The stock rebounded from a low near $155 on Dec. 1, reached during a sharp selloff across crypto-linked equities, but remains down more than 50% over the past six months.

Strategy’s largest purchase in 6 months

The acquisition marks Strategy’s largest weekly bitcoin purchase since July. In recent months, the company continued to add bitcoin almost every week, though in smaller amounts, as falling equity prices limited its ability to raise capital. 

Last week’s transaction suggests improved access to funding, even as investor sentiment toward crypto-related stocks remains mixed.

Strategy said the purchase was funded primarily through its at-the-market equity sales program. The company raised $928.1 million from the sale of 5.13 million shares of MSTR common stock and an additional $34.9 million from selling 442,536 shares of its STRD preferred stock. Net proceeds totaled about $963 million.

The firm retains significant remaining issuance capacity across multiple securities. Strategy reported unused at-the-market capacity of about $13.45 billion in common stock and more than $26 billion across several preferred and structured offerings, including STRK, STRF, STRC, and STRD.

Saylor also highlighted the company’s “BTC Yield” metric, which he said reached 24.7% year-to-date in 2025. The measure is intended to reflect the growth in bitcoin held per diluted share, rather than changes in dollar value, and has become a core part of Strategy’s investor messaging as it positions itself as a bitcoin-focused treasury and structured finance business.

The latest purchase comes as Saylor attends the BTC Conference in Abu Dhabi. In public comments, he said he has spent the past week meeting with sovereign wealth funds, banks, family offices, and hedge funds across the Middle East to discuss bitcoin and capital markets. Strategy did not disclose whether those meetings resulted in any financing commitments.

You can listen to Mr. Saylor’s interview and other BTC Conference content on Bitcoin Magazine’s social media and YouTube.

Bitcoin rose about 3% over the past 24 hours and roughly 1.5% on Monday morning, recovering from recent weakness that pushed prices into the low $80,000s. Some analysts attribute the bounce to expectations that the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates this week, which could support risk assets after the recent pullback.

The backdrop remains unsettled for Strategy. Investors continue to debate whether the company’s aggressive use of equity issuance to buy bitcoin amplifies both upside and downside for shareholders. The firm raised nearly $2 billion two weeks ago, largely to build a cash buffer to cover preferred dividend obligations, before tapping markets again last week to fund bitcoin purchases.

Strategy’s MSCI concerns

At the same time, Strategy faces uncertainty around index inclusion. MSCI is reviewing whether companies with large digital-asset holdings should remain in traditional equity benchmarks. JPMorgan analysts have warned that exclusion could trigger billions of dollars in passive outflows from Strategy if index funds are forced to sell.

Saylor has pushed back on those concerns, arguing that Strategy is an operating company with a sizable software business and a growing Bitcoin-backed credit operation, not a fund or trust. He has said index classification debates do not alter the firm’s long-term approach.

For now, the company is pressing ahead with that strategy. With more than 660,000 bitcoin on its balance sheet and continued access to capital markets, Strategy remains the most visible corporate proxy for bitcoin exposure in public equities, even as volatility in both crypto prices and its own shares shows little sign of fading.

The current bitcoin price is near $91,500. 

This post Strategy ($MSTR) Buys Nearly $1 Billion Worth of Bitcoin first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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Bitcoin Price Craters to $88,000, But JPMorgan Maintains $170,000 Target

Bitcoin price plunged to $88,000s on Friday, down over 4% in the past 24 hours. The cryptocurrency is trading near its seven-day low of $88,091, and about 4% below its seven-day high of $92,805. 

The global market capitalization for Bitcoin now stands at $1.77 trillion, with a 24-hour trading volume of $48 billion.

Despite the recent drop, Wall Street bank JPMorgan remains bullish on the Bitcoin price over the long term. The bank continues to maintain its gold-linked volatility-adjusted BTC target of $170,000 over the next six to twelve months. 

Analysts say the model accounts for fluctuations in price and mining costs.

One key factor in the market is Strategy (MSTR), the largest corporate Bitcoin holder. The company owns 650,000 BTC. Its enterprise-value-to-Bitcoin-holdings ratio, known as mNAV, currently stands at 1.13. 

JPMorgan analysts describe this as “encouraging.” A ratio above 1.0 indicates Strategy is unlikely to face forced sales of its Bitcoin.

Strategy has also built a $1.44 billion U.S. dollar reserve. The reserve is designed to cover dividend payments and interest obligations for at least 12 months. The company aims to extend coverage to 24 months. 

Bitcoin mining pressure

Mining pressures continue to weigh on Bitcoin. The network’s hashrate and mining difficulty have fallen. High-cost miners outside China are retreating due to rising electricity costs and declining prices. Some miners have sold Bitcoin to remain solvent. 

JPMorgan now estimates Bitcoin’s production cost at $90,000, down from $94,000 last month. Falling hashrates can push production costs lower, but the short-term effect is sustained selling pressure from miners.

Institutional investors also show caution. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, or IBIT, has recorded six consecutive weeks of net outflows. Investors pulled more than $2.8 billion from the ETF over this period, according to Bloomberg.

The withdrawals highlight subdued appetite among traditional investors, even as Bitcoin prices stabilize. Analysts note that the trend marks a reversal from the persistent inflows seen earlier in the year.

The broader market is still recovering from the October 10 liquidation event. That crash wiped out over $1 trillion in crypto market value and pushed Bitcoin into a bear market.

Although the Bitcoin price has recovered some ground this week, momentum remains fragile.

JPMorgan analysts now say Bitcoin’s next major move depends less on miner behavior. Instead, it depends on Strategy’s ability to hold its Bitcoin without selling. The mNAV ratio and reserve fund provide confidence that the company can weather market volatility.

Other potential catalysts remain. The MSCI index decision on January 15 could impact Strategy’s stock and, indirectly, Bitcoin. Analysts say a positive outcome could trigger a strong rally.

Last week, Strategy’s Michael Saylor disputed MSCI index disputes and clarified that Strategy is a publicly traded operating company with a $500 million software business and a treasury strategy using Bitcoin, not a fund, trust, or holding company. 

He emphasized the firm’s recent activity, including five digital credit security offerings totaling over $7.7 billion in notional value.

Bitcoin price analysis

Bitcoin Magazine analysts believe that the bitcoin price correlation with Gold has recently strengthened mainly during market downturns, offering a clearer view of its purchasing power when analyzed against Gold instead of USD.

Breaking below the 350-day moving average (~$100,000) and the $100K psychological level signaled Bitcoin’s entry into a bear market, dropping roughly 20% immediately. 

While USD charts show a 2025 peak, Bitcoin measured in Gold peaked in December 2024 and has fallen over 50%, suggesting a longer bear phase. 

Historical Gold-based bear cycles indicate potential support zones approaching, with current declines at 51% over 350 days reflecting institutional adoption and constrained supply rather than cycle shifts.

For now, bitcoin price hovers near $88,000. 

This post Bitcoin Price Craters to $88,000, But JPMorgan Maintains $170,000 Target first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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Why The Bitcoin Bear Market Is Almost Finished

Bitcoin has struggled to maintain a sustained correlation with Gold, recently only moving in unison during market downturns. However, examining Bitcoin’s price action through the lens of Gold rather than USD reveals a more complete picture of the current market cycle. By measuring Bitcoin’s true purchasing power against comparable assets, we can identify potential support levels and gauge where the bear market cycle may be approaching its conclusion.

Bitcoin Bear Market Officially Begins Below Key Support

Breaking beneath the 350-day moving average at about $100,000 and the significant psychological 6-figure barrier marked the functional entry into bear market territory, with Bitcoin declining approximately 20% immediately thereafter. From a technical perspective, trading beneath The Golden Ratio Multiplier moving average has historically indicated Bitcoin entering a bear cycle, though the narrative becomes more interesting when measured against Gold rather than USD.

The Bitcoin versus Gold chart tells a notably different story than the USD chart. Bitcoin topped out in December 2024 and has since declined over 50% from that level, whereas the USD valuation peaked in October 2025, significantly beneath the highs set the prior year. This divergence suggests that Bitcoin may have been in a bear market for considerably longer than most observers realize. Looking at historical Bitcoin bear cycles when measured in Gold, we can see patterns that suggest the current pullback may already be approaching critical support zones.

The 2015 bear cycle bottomed at an 86% retracement lasting 406 days. The 2017 cycle saw 364 days and an 84% decline. The previous bear cycle produced a 76% drawdown over 399 days. Currently, at the time of this analysis, Bitcoin is down 51% in 350 days when measured against Gold. While percentage drawdowns have been diminishing as Bitcoin’s market cap grows and more capital flows into the market, this trend reflects the rising tide of institutional adoption and lost Bitcoin supply rather than a fundamental change in cycle dynamics.

Multi-Cycle Confluence Signals Bitcoin Bear Market Bottom Approaching

Rather than relying solely on percentage drawdowns and time elapsed, Fibonacci retracement levels mapped across multiple cycles provide greater precision. Using a Fibonacci retracement tool from bottom to top across historical cycles reveals striking levels of confluence.

In the 2015-2018 cycle, the bear market bottom occurred at the 0.618 Fibonacci level, which corresponded to approximately 2.56 ounces of Gold per Bitcoin. The resulting price action marked the bottom with remarkable clarity, far cleaner than the equivalent USD chart. Moving forward to the 2018-2022 cycle, the bear market bottom aligned almost perfectly with the 0.5 level at approximately 9.74 ounces of Gold per Bitcoin. This level later acted as meaningful resistance-turned-support once Bitcoin reclaimed it during the subsequent bull market.

Translating Bitcoin Bear Market Gold Ratios Back to USD Price Targets

From the previous bear market low through the current bull cycle high, the 0.618 Fibonacci level sits at approximately 22.81 ounces of Gold per Bitcoin, while the 0.5 level rests at 19.07 ounces. Current price action is trading near the midpoint of these two levels, presenting what may be an attractive accumulation zone from a purchasing power perspective.

Multiple Fibonacci levels from different cycles create additional confluence. The 0.786 level from the current cycle translates to approximately 21.05 ounces of Gold, corresponding to a Bitcoin price around $89,160. The 0.618 level from the previous cycle aligns near $80,000 again. These convergence zones suggest that if Bitcoin were to decline further, the next meaningful technical target would be around $67,000, derived from the 0.382 Fibonacci retracement level at approximately 15.95 ounces of Gold per Bitcoin.

Conclusion: The Bitcoin Bear Market May Be 90% Complete Already

Bitcoin has likely been in a bear market for substantially longer than USD-only analysis suggests, with purchasing power already declining significantly since December 2024, when measured against Gold and other comparable assets. Historical Fibonacci retracement levels, when properly calibrated across multiple cycles and converted back into USD terms, point toward potential support confluence in the $67,000 to $80,000 range. While this analysis is inherently theoretical and unlikely to play out with perfect precision, the convergence of multiple data points across time horizons and valuation frameworks suggests the bear market may be approaching its conclusion sooner than many anticipate.

For a more in-depth look into this topic, watch our most recent YouTube video here: Proof This Bitcoin Bear Market May Be OVER Already

For deeper data, charts, and professional insights into bitcoin price trends, visit BitcoinMagazinePro.com. Subscribe to Bitcoin Magazine Pro on YouTube for more expert market insights and analysis!

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions.

This post Why The Bitcoin Bear Market Is Almost Finished first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Matt Crosby.

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Italy Launches Review of Crypto Safeguards Due to Rising Risks

Italy’s Economy Ministry has ordered a detailed review of current protections against crypto risks, officials said on Thursday. 

The review will focus on safeguards for both direct and indirect investments in crypto-assets by retail investors, regulators added.

The decision came during a meeting of the Committee for Macroprudential Policies. The committee includes the heads of the Bank of Italy, market watchdog Consob, insurance and pension regulators, and the Treasury’s director general, according to Reuters reporting. 

Committee members warned that risks from crypto-assets could rise. Growing connections between crypto and the wider financial system, along with inconsistent international regulations, could heighten vulnerabilities, they said.

The committee said Italy’s economic and financial conditions remain generally stable. At the same time, global uncertainty continues to pose challenges for financial stability.

The review will examine how existing rules protect investors and the financial system. Officials said they aim to identify gaps and recommend measures to strengthen safeguards, per Reuters. 

Italy has increasingly monitored digital assets in recent years. Authorities have raised concerns over investor protection, market integrity, and potential spillovers into the broader financial system. The new review signals a more cautious approach to crypto adoption in the country.

Italy’s cold-shoulder to crypto

Last year, Italy proposed a steep tax hike on crypto trades, aiming to raise the rate on digital asset gains from 26% to 42% as part of its October budget plan.

The measure was designed to boost public finances but quickly drew criticism from the crypto industry, which warned that such an aggressive increase would damage the country’s competitiveness — especially with the EU preparing to roll out its Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework later this year.

The government backed down from its proposal after sharp criticism from Italy’s crypto industry. Under the revised budget plan, the capital-gains tax on digital asset trades is now expected to rise to 33% starting in the 2026 financial year, per reports. 

Last week, Bitizenship launched BTC Italia and The Bitcoin Dolce Visa, a Bitcoin-aligned pathway for obtaining Italy’s Investor Visa through a €250,000 startup investment.

The Milan-based venture operates as an “Innovative Startup” focused on Bitcoin Layer-2 yield generation and treasury management, giving applicants exposure to a Bitcoin-native business while staying within Italy’s regulatory framework.

The initiative comes as Italy posts strong economic performance, including record exports, a €46 billion trade surplus, stabilizing public debt, and a stock market that has doubled since 2020. With capital-market reforms on the horizon and competitive tax incentives, the country has become an increasingly attractive destination for foreign investors.

Under the program, applicants receive visa approval before committing funds. BTC Italia maintains its treasury in Bitcoin, uses non-custodial Layer-2 staking for operations, and offers redemption windows every 24 months.

This post Italy Launches Review of Crypto Safeguards Due to Rising Risks first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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BlackRock CEO Larry Fink Says He Was Wrong About Bitcoin, Reveals a ‘Big Shift’ in His View

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has shifted his perspective on Bitcoin — and he openly acknowledged the change.

Speaking at the NYT DealBook Summit on Wednesday, Fink stated that he now sees potential in Bitcoin. Fink was once a vocal critic who famously labeled Bitcoin “an index for money laundering,” 

Today, Fink described Bitcoin as “an asset of fear,” elaborating that investors frequently purchase it in response to concerns about financial security, geopolitical instability, or the ongoing debasement of traditional assets caused by growing deficits.

“If you bought it for a trade, it’s a very volatile asset, you’re going to have to be really good at market timing, which most people aren’t,” Fink said. “If you’re buying it as a hedge against all your hope, then it has a meaningful impact on a portfolio… the other big problem of Bitcoin is it is still heavily influenced by leveraged players.”

Fink, speaking alongside Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, noted that market movements — like a recent 20–25% drawdown in Bitcoin — often reflect broader events, such as trade agreements with China or potential settlements in Ukraine. 

Despite all this, Fink still suggested it can serve as meaningful portfolio insurance for those holding it as a hedge rather than for short-term trading.

Fink emphasized that his perspective has evolved through years of client interactions and discussions with policymakers, calling his change of heart a “very glaring public example” of the need to reassess strong opinions. 

Meanwhile, BlackRock, the $13.5 trillion asset manager Fink helped build, now offers several crypto products, including a major Bitcoin ETF, marking a stark contrast to his earlier skepticism.

“There is no chance” that Bitcoin goes to zero, said Mr. Armstrong, who sat beside Fink. Fink also shared an optimistic view for the asset: “I see a big, large use case for Bitcoin,” he said.

BlackRock’s bold embrace of bitcoin and crypto

Back in October, BlackRock said they were developing technology to tokenize a wide range of assets, including real estate, equities, and bonds.

Fink said at the time that global digital wallets held over $4.5 trillion across crypto, stablecoins, and tokenized assets. He noted much of this capital was outside the U.S., presenting opportunities to reach new investors. 

Fink said tokenization could allow crypto entrants to access traditional long-term products, like retirement funds. He described Bitcoin and crypto as serving a similar purpose to gold. 

This post BlackRock CEO Larry Fink Says He Was Wrong About Bitcoin, Reveals a ‘Big Shift’ in His View first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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UK Passes Bill Formally Recognizing Crypto as a New Category of Property

The United Kingdom has officially written crypto into its legal framework as a distinct form of property.

On Tuesday, the Property (Digital Assets etc.) Act 2025 received Royal Assent from King Charles III, completing its passage through Parliament and creating a third, legally recognized category of property specifically for digital assets. The act passed both houses without amendment.

The new classification places assets such as bitcoin, stablecoins and NFTs into a bucket separate from traditional “things in possession,” like physical objects, or “things in action,” like contractual rights. Policymakers say the reform was needed to modernize property law for the digital era.

“A third category of property now exists, and it finally gives legal protection to the sats you hold,” said Susie Ward, CEO of Bitcoin Policy UK. Her group’s Chief Policy Officer, Freddie New, called the act potentially “the biggest change in English property law since the Middle Ages.”

The reform stems from a 2023 recommendation by the Law Commission, which argued that digital assets did not fit neatly into existing legal categories. The bill was introduced in the House of Lords in September 2024 before moving swiftly through Parliament.

While U.K. courts had already been treating crypto as property in rulings over the past several years, the approach relied on case-by-case judgments. 

Crypto’s ‘clearer legal’ footing

Trade association CryptoUK said codifying the principle in statute offers much clearer legal pathways in matters involving theft, fraud, insolvency and estate planning.

“This gives digital assets a much clearer legal footing — especially for things like proving ownership, recovering stolen assets, and handling them in insolvency or estate cases,” CryptoUK said in a statement on X.

Lawmakers also framed the legislation as a boost to consumer and investor protection.

“By recognizing digital assets in law, the U.K. is giving consumers clear ownership rights, stronger protections, and the ability to recover assets lost through theft or fraud,” Gurinder Singh Josan, co-chair of the Crypto and Digital Assets All Party Parliamentary Group, told CoinDesk. 

The Royal Assent was formally announced in the House of Lords around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, marking the moment the bill became law.

UK’s bitcoin ETN ban lift 

Earlier this year, the U.K. lifted its four-year ban on retail access to bitcoin and crypto ETNs, allowing firms to offer the products on FCA-approved exchanges. 

After the ban, BlackRock then launched its fully backed iShares Bitcoin ETP (IB1T) on the London Stock Exchange.

Meanwhile, the UK government is reportedly weighing a ban on crypto donations to political parties as it drafts its upcoming Elections Bill, according to people familiar with internal discussions and POLITICO reporting. 

The move would directly affect Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which became the first British party to accept digital asset donations and has already received several. 

This post UK Passes Bill Formally Recognizing Crypto as a New Category of Property first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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Bitcoin Equities Jump as Strategy ($MSTR) Leads Sector Rebound

Bitcoin-linked stocks surged on Tuesday as the broader crypto market staged a sharp recovery and Bitcoin reclaimed the $91,000 level. 

Strategy was the standout mover, rising faster than both Bitcoin itself and most major tech names at times. MSTR shares climbed 8.66% at times to $186.26, lifted by heavy trading volume that exceeded 4.4 million shares.

MSTR is currently trading at $182.74.

The move slightly outpaced Bitcoin’s rebound to $91,000 and signaled renewed appetite for high-beta exposure to the digital asset through equities. 

Other crypto-adjacent stocks also advanced, including the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF, which gained more than 7%, and smaller firms such as Smarter Web Company and Metaplanet Inc., which posted mid–single-digit gains. 

Capital B saw the largest percentage move of the group, trading more than 10% higher at times today.

The surge in Bitcoin equities came as institutional demand accelerated across the market. Trading desks reported strong flows into Bitcoin ETFs, a trend that has intensified as major Wall Street firms open the door to regulated crypto products.

Strategy won’t sell its Bitcoin 

Strategy’s rally also followed new comments from CEO Phong Le, who spoke with Bloomberg about the company’s balance sheet strategy and long-term commitment to Bitcoin.

Le reiterated that Strategy has no plans to sell Bitcoin except as a last resort and said the company remains firmly committed to paying dividends on its preferred shares. 

He argued that maintaining the dividend helps prevent uncertainty from spreading through the company’s capital structure, adding that the goal is to pay it “in perpetuity,” even though the board retains the ability to pause payments.

Le addressed concerns about leverage, pushing back on the idea that the company is overextended. He said Strategy’s leverage ratio stands at roughly 12%, or 27% when preferred shares are included — far below levels seen in typical U.S. corporations. 

The company recently raised $1.44 billion in equity in just over a week, enough to cover nearly two years of dividend obligations. 

Le said Strategy also now holds multiple years of dividend capacity in its Bitcoin reserves, reducing the risk that it would need to liquidate holdings during market stress.

The company is building a cash reserve designed to cover two to three years of dividend payments, a buffer Le expects to maintain for at least the next five to ten years. 

He again rejected the view that Strategy should be treated like a closed-end fund or ETF, arguing that the firm is a fully operational Bitcoin-focused company with employees, products and revenue, not a passive investment vehicle. 

He said the company has begun educating MSCI and other index providers on the distinction as they review whether digital-asset treasury companies should remain in major indices.

Strategy might start lending Bitcoin

Le also said MicroStrategy is evaluating opportunities to participate in Bitcoin lending once large U.S. banks fully enter the space. 

Discussions are already taking place with institutions preparing to offer custody and lending services. He emphasized that traditional banks bring the kind of scale and balance-sheet strength MicroStrategy wants in potential partners.

Bitcoin’s own rebound was decisive. The asset traded near $91,100 late Tuesday, rising 8% in 24 hours as volume approached $78 billion, one of the strongest sessions in weeks. 

The move lifted Bitcoin above its seven-day high and kept it comfortably above last week’s low near $84,000. 

The bounce came just as several major financial institutions made their most aggressive moves yet into Bitcoin investment products.

Bank of America announced that its 15,000 wealth advisers will be permitted to recommend crypto exposure for the first time. Beginning January 5, the bank will support allocations of 1% to 4% through a select group of Bitcoin ETFs, ending years of internal restrictions. 

In a separate reversal, Vanguard opened its platform to Bitcoin ETFs and crypto-linked mutual funds for the first time. 

The decision gives more than 50 million brokerage clients access to regulated Bitcoin exposure, marking a major shift for a firm that previously dismissed Bitcoin as too speculative for long-term investors.

This post Bitcoin Equities Jump as Strategy ($MSTR) Leads Sector Rebound first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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