Bitcoin Magazine

Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF Nearly Notches $400M in Assets

Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley Bitcoin exchange-traded fund now has close to $400 million in assets under management — despite only launching in April. 

The NYSE Arca-listed fund, which is the first by a bank, got off to a roaring start when it debuted, bringing in over $33 million in fresh cash on its first day. 

Now, the fund has over $391 million in assets, demonstrating the popularity of the product. Many ETFs never reach $400 million in assets at all, let alone in one quarter.

Senior Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst Eric Balchunas revealed Friday that the product has been one of the most successful funds launched this year so far. 

This week alone, investors have thrown $15.7 million in new cash at the product, according to Farside Investors data. 

Morgan Stanley has been making big crypto moves for years now. Back in 2021, it started offering wealthy clients exposure to Bitcoin via funds such as those by Galaxy Digital.

And last year, the bank’s CEO and Chairman, Ted Pick, said that the bank was working with regulators to see how they could offer crypto safely.

Back in April, the bank’s head of digital assets, Amy Oldenburg said client education — not product design — is the central challenge facing Bitcoin adoption.

ETF action this week

After weeks of outflows and sloppy price action, American Bitcoin ETFs have taken in fresh cash over the past seven days. 

Farside Investors shows the products have received a total of $274 million in new investment so far this week. 

The funds had been on a winning streak, receiving nearly $1 billion over seven days until Thursday, when every ETF experienced outflows — except for Morgan Stanley’s product. 

Bitcoin’s price was recently trading for $64,096, down over 1% over the past 24 hours. The cryptocurrency is virtually unmoved over a seven-day period. 

European asset management firm CoinShares last week said that while investors are back at putting fresh cash in Bitcoin ETFs, other factors may hold digital asset markets from going higher. 

“We see no significant upside potential from here,” James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, wrote.

This post Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF Nearly Notches $400M in Assets first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

$7 Trillion Investment Giant Fidelity Backs New Crypto Clarity Act

Investment giant Fidelity is the latest big player to back the latest version of the long-awaited Clarity Act. 

The Boston-based firm’s “Public Policy” account on X said Friday that it was urging the Senate to pass the bill. 

BREAKING: $7.1 trillion Fidelity officially endorses the Senate to pass the Clarity Act. pic.twitter.com/X8xncZtPzA

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) July 24, 2026

Lawmakers have been hashing out the crypto market structure bill since last year. A new improved draft circulating the Senate this week bans officials and their families from issuing or promoting crypto — a sticking point for opposition politicians. 

“The time is now for clear rules of the road that are essential to strengthening investor confidence, providing certainty for market participants, and reinforcing U.S. leadership in global digital asset markets,” the company said. 

Fidelity — which manages around $7 trillion in assets — was joined Friday by crypto advocacy groups the Crypto Council for Innovation, Blockchain Association, and the Digital Chamber, as well as the National Fraternal Order of Police and other politicians in backing the bill. 

Top asset manager Fidelity is interested in the bill as the firm manages Bitcoin and other digital asset exchange-traded funds: products which give American investors exposure to crypto via shares that trade on stock exchanges. 

The SEC approved a number of spot BTC ETFs in 2024, which have since gone on to be some of the most successful ETF launches ever. 

Clarity stalls

Republicans passed the Clarity Act last year but the bill has been in deadlock — mainly because banking chiefs raised concerns over stablecoins and the yield they would potentially pay customers. 

Coinbase pulled support for the bill in January after clashing with banking bigwigs who said that earning yield on stablecoins should be banned. 

U.S. banks argue that they could lose customers if crypto exchanges like Coinbase offer more attractive products for their deposit base. 

Some lawmakers — like Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren — have argued that President Donald Trump’s family has unfairly benefited from crypto ventures. 

Warren this week argued that the Clarity Act could further be used for Trump to cash in on crypto but the latest draft bans officials and their families from issuing or promoting crypto. 

This post $7 Trillion Investment Giant Fidelity Backs New Crypto Clarity Act first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

State Department to Debut Freedom Tech Program with Bitcoin Policy Institute, Palantir as Founding Partners

The U.S. State Department is launching a program that includes Bitcoin as a way to advance digital freedom worldwide. 

Named the Freedom Tech Excellence Program, the initiative will see the State Department work with the Bitcoin Policy Institute, data-analytics firm Palantir Technologies, defense technology company Anduril Industries, and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation on issues including online surveillance, encryption, AI governance, and protecting free expression online.

According to the program’s stated goals, participants will focus on five priority areas: First Amendment and free expression protections in the digital age; countering unlawful digital surveillance and online scams; privacy-enhancing technologies such as strong encryption and VPNs; responsible governance of emerging technologies including AI; and safeguarding children and other users online.

The inclusion of the Bitcoin Policy Institute signals that the Department views Bitcoin and blockchain technology as tools relevant to circumventing censorship and financial surveillance in authoritarian states — a theme the organization has long championed in its advocacy work.

The FTEP will operate through limited-term assignments, placing private sector personnel inside the State Department on temporary embeds tasked with shaping diplomatic efforts around specific digital freedom issues. 

President Trump campaigned on a ticket to help the crypto space and since taking office, his government has taken a more pro-crypto approach to both regulating and including elements of the space in his administration. 

In March 2025, for example, President Trump signed an executive order establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a separate U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile, capitalized with roughly 200,000 Bitcoin already held by the government through criminal and civil forfeiture. 

The order framed Bitcoin alongside strategic reserves the U.S. maintains for materials like gold, petroleum, and pharmaceuticals, treating it as a scarce national asset rather than merely a speculative one.

This post State Department to Debut Freedom Tech Program with Bitcoin Policy Institute, Palantir as Founding Partners first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

National Fraternal Order of Police Gives Green Light to Clarity Act in Latest Support for Crypto Bill

The National Fraternal Order of Police became the latest organization to throw its support behind the long-awaited Clarity Act. 

In a statement Friday, specifically addressed to Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren and Timothy Eugene Scott, the fraternal organization wrote that it approved of the latest bill. The FOP works to improve the working conditions of law enforcement officers.

The newest draft bans officials and their families from issuing or promoting crypto, something opposition lawmakers previously had issue with. On Wednesday, Senator Warren, a long-time crypto critic, said that the latest bill would allow President Donald Trump to make money from crypto, as well as benefit criminals. 

JUST IN: The world's largest organization of sworn law enforcement officers now officially endorses the passage of the Clarity Act: pic.twitter.com/N10g5jIZ0M

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) July 24, 2026

“The latest version of the ‘Clarity Act’ includes several provisions that improve the ability of State and local law enforcement to protect consumers, investigate financial crimes, and coordinate with their Federal partners,” the letter read. 

“The revised bill establishes safeguards aimed at addressing fraud and victimization involving digital asset kiosks and related activity while also providing for anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance obligations across the digital asset ecosystem.”

U.S. lawmakers are currently mulling over the latest draft of the Clarity Act — a crypto market structure bill aims to set in stone digital asset regulation. 

More support for the bill 

Top crypto advocacy groups the Crypto Council for Innovation, Blockchain Association, and the Digital Chamber also threw their support behind the latest draft of the Clarity Act on Friday. 

The trade associations said that passing the bill is necessary to establish the “first comprehensive federal consumer protection framework for digital asset markets” as more Americans begin to use and invest in crypto. 

The Clarity Act, which Republicans passed last year, has been in a deadlock mainly because banking chiefs raised concerns over stablecoins and the yield they would potentially pay customers. 

America’s biggest crypto exchange, Coinbase, pulled support for the bill in January after clashing with banking chiefs who said that earning yield on stablecoins should be banned. 

U.S. banks have said they could lose customers if crypto exchanges offer more attractive products for their deposit base. 

A new bill has been circulating this week and it is expected it will head to floor vote. 

The latest draft bans officials and their families from issuing or promoting crypto — a sore point for Democratic politicians who have argued that President Donald Trump’s family has unfairly benefited from crypto ventures.

President Trump campaigned on a ticket to help the crypto space but his digital asset ventures have raised eyebrows among Washington lawmakers who think the Trump family has unfairly profited from crypto businesses. 

This post National Fraternal Order of Police Gives Green Light to Clarity Act in Latest Support for Crypto Bill first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Top Crypto Industry Groups Pen Letter to Senate Leaders Urging Them To Support the Clarity Act

Top crypto advocacy groups the Crypto Council for Innovation, Blockchain Association, and the Digital Chamber have said in a letter that they support the latest draft of the Clarity Act. 

In a letter Friday, the trade associations said that passing the bill is necessary to establish the “first comprehensive federal consumer protection framework for digital asset markets” as more Americans begin to use and invest in crypto. 

U.S. lawmakers are currently mulling over the latest draft of the Clarity Act — a crypto market structure bill aims to set in stone digital asset regulation. The latest draft bans officials and their families from issuing or promoting crypto. 

“Nearly 67 million Americans, about one in four, already own digital assets, and recent research demonstrates that this trend is only growing,” the letter said. 

“This is a crucial opportunity for the Senate to improve upon the status quo by establishing durable rules for digital assets that protect consumers, safeguard markets, and ensure that innovation can thrive in the United States,” it added. 

JUST IN: The Digital Chamber, CCI, and Blockchain Association send letter to Senate Leaders urging them to pass the Clarity Act:

"For the United States to maintain its position as the global leader of financial innovation, there is no substitute for the long-term certainty of… pic.twitter.com/2JFqqgKfip

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) July 24, 2026

Banking representatives, regulators and crypto industry leaders have been meeting at the White House to work on the Clarity Act since last year. 

The bill was passed by the House of Representatives but has been in deadlock after banking chiefs raised concerns over stablecoins and the yield they would potentially pay customers. 

America’s biggest crypto exchange, Coinbase, pulled support for the bill in January after clashing with banking chiefs who said that earning yield on stablecoins should be banned. 

U.S. banks have said they could lose customers if crypto exchanges offer more attractive products for their deposit base. 

Latest Clarity Bill 

A new bill has been circulating this week and it is expected it will head to floor vote. 

On Thursday, Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO David Solomon became one of the first big bankers to throw his support behind the bill. 

The latest draft bans officials and their families from issuing or promoting crypto — a sore point for Democratic politicians who have argued that President Donald Trump’s family has unfairly benefited from crypto ventures.

“These improvements reflect engagement with policymakers across both parties and demonstrate that a well-crafted market structure framework can promote innovation while also bolstering national security,” the letter by the trade associations added. 

This post Top Crypto Industry Groups Pen Letter to Senate Leaders Urging Them To Support the Clarity Act first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Elizabeth Warren Claims Clarity Act Would Help Trump — And ‘Criminals and Cartels’

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren has blasted the Clarity Act draft bill, claiming it would allow criminals and cartels to move money. 

Speaking in a video statement on X Wednesday, Warren hinted that the potential law would allow President Donald Trump to make money from crypto. 

Lawmakers are currently mulling over the latest draft of the Clarity Act, which aims to set in stone digital asset regulation. The latest draft bans officials and their families from issuing or promoting crypto. 

“This latest draft bill would make it easier for criminals, oh, and cartels and terrorists to move money and finance their operations — and it fails to protect investors and our financial system,” Warren said in the video. 

The new draft of the Senate GOP crypto bill does nothing to stop President Trump from making his next $1.4 billion from crypto.

It’ll supercharge Trump’s crypto corruption.

This bill should be dead on arrival. pic.twitter.com/HuNY52n3ex

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) July 22, 2026

“It’s going to a vote on the floor. There’s a glaring omission: it does not stop Donald Trump from cashing in on his presidency.” 

“This isn’t regulation — this is a giveaway. This bill should be dead on arrival,” added Warren. 

But X users added clarification to Warren’s video, highlighting that the Senate GOP’s updated draft includes ethics provisions banning federal officials from issuing or sponsoring digital assets. 

Trump’s crypto ventures 

Warren has long been a crypto critic, initially arguing that billions of dollars go missing every year thanks to tax dodging crypto users. 

Most recently, Warren has called for a probe into the Trump family’s top crypto ventures. 

President Trump campaigned on a ticket to help the crypto space but some Washington lawmakers have criticized the way the Trump family has profited from digital asset ventures, such as the Republican’s meme coin, TRUMP, and World Liberty Financial project. 

Trump and the White House have always denied any conflicts of interest. 

Latest Clarity Bill 

Senate Republicans began circulating new text of the bill this week, ahead of a possible floor vote. 

US banking representatives, regulators and crypto bigwigs have been meeting at the White House to work on the Clarity Act since last year. 

The bill was passed by the House of Representatives but banking chiefs raised concerns over stablecoins and the yield they will potentially pay customers. 

Banking representatives have warned they could lose their deposit base and, in turn, their ability to lend to U.S. businesses if companies are allowed to pay rewards on stablecoins.

On Thursday, Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO David Solomon became one of the first big bankers to throw his support behind the bill. 

This post Elizabeth Warren Claims Clarity Act Would Help Trump — And ‘Criminals and Cartels’ first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Slumps But These Mining Stocks Are Up Thanks to AI Deals

Bitcoin may be slumping — along with the Nasdaq in general — but one technology investment seems to be doing well: publicly-traded mining companies. 

Top U.S. Bitcoin mining companies — Hut 8, CleanSpark, and MARA — all experienced gains between 3-7% on Thursday, despite a sell-off across other assets. 

The Bitcoin price was down about 2% Thursday, trading for $64,760. Major stock indices also took a hit — including the tech heavy Nasdaq — but a handful of miners continued to rally on new deals related to high-powered computing and artificial intelligence. 

Hut 8 announced Monday that it had signed a second 15-year lease for 352 megawatts of IT capacity at its Beacon Point campus in Nueces County, Texas — doubling the site’s tenant to 704 MW of contracted capacity and fully commercializing the campus against its 1,000 MW of utility capacity.

And on Tuesday, IREN Limited signed $2.8 billion in new AI cloud contracts. Formerly a Bitcoin miner, IREN is now transitioning to mostly providing high-powered computing to power AI demand. 

Both experienced price jumps Thursday morning in New York, with Hut 8 sustaining its rally. 

AI deals 

A number of Bitcoin miners are focusing on the industry as minting the biggest cryptocurrency becomes harder and demand for AI compute surges. 

As the price Bitcoin has dipped, it has become harder for Bitcoin miners to make ends meet. 

Instead of dropping mining operations completely, a number of Bitcoin miners have instead marketed themselves as “compute” or “digital infrastructure” companies while switching between minting digital coins and providing compute for AI — depending on which is more profitable.

Top miners Terawulf, IREN, and Cipher Mining all last year signed multi-year HPC contracts with Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Microsoft.

Both the crypto mining and HPC industries require huge amounts of energy and data centers. However, running AI data centres require more expertise than Bitcoin mining.

This post Bitcoin Slumps But These Mining Stocks Are Up Thanks to AI Deals first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

BlackRock Says Crypto Can Outrun the Quantum Threat — If It Moves Fast Enough

BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, has chimed in on the crypto-quantum debate — and is surprisingly optimistic.

The firm, which manages over $15 trillion in assets, said in its new report, Quantum Computing and Blockchains, that upgrading existing cryptography to quantum-resistant standards is a far easier task than actually building a functional quantum computer capable of breaking that cryptography. 

“In our view, PQ migration for cryptocurrencies is eminently addressable from a technical

standpoint, and the key challenge is one of timely coordination and implementation,” the report read. 

The crypto community has sounded the alarm about hypothetical advancements in quantum computers that could in the future be able to break Bitcoin’s cryptography. Some in the space — including Bitcoin developers — have started preparing for a post-quantum future by testing quantum-resistant signatures on live sidechains. 

Quantum computers do exist but make mistakes and a machine that can break Bitcoin’s cryptography currently does not exist. Bitcoin currently is the biggest computer network in existence. 

BlackRock has skin in the game after having debuted in 2024 spot Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds. BlackRock’s Bitcoin fund had the most successful launch in the history of the ETF industry. 

BlackRock boss Larry Fink has also talked of Bitcoin being “digital gold” and an “international asset” and has spoken about how crypto networks can help tokenize everything. 

JUST IN: Michael Saylor announces Strategy, BlackRock, Fidelity and Coinbase are pledging $15 million to support open source Bitcoin development "for the decades ahead." pic.twitter.com/W5q60ph9n3

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) July 23, 2026

BlackRock’s views on Bitcoin 

The report said that while solutions exist for protecting Bitcoin against quantum computers — it is technically simple to upgrade — coordination is hard given the cryptocurrency’s decentralized, consensus-driven development.

BlackRock noted that about 35% of circulating Bitcoin’s supply is potentially vulnerable to certain attack types due to exposed public keys, and 11-19% may be permanently lost regardless of migration.

Along with crypto bigwigs like Coinbase, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Block, BlackRock on Thursday announced a new Bitcoin Security Consortium aimed at donating funds to engineers to help their open-source work supporting proposals like BIP-360.

The asset manager added in the report that while BIP-360 is a credible, well-designed piece of a larger puzzle, it stopped short of calling it the solution. Still, it added that Bitcoin and other crypto networks had the advantage. 

“That said, it is a much less daunting task to upgrade current cryptographic systems (including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others) to a quantum-secure standard than it is to build a CRQC from where quantum computing progress stands today,” the report noted. 

“Thus, advantage remains decidedly with the defense, at the current juncture.”

This post BlackRock Says Crypto Can Outrun the Quantum Threat — If It Moves Fast Enough first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Coinbase Builds Post-Quantum Custody System, Funds Bitcoin’s Crypto Upgrade

Coinbase is preparing for future scenarios where quantum computers may be able to crack Bitcoin’s current cryptography.

America’s biggest crypto exchange said Thursday that while the threat isn’t imminent, hard problems — such as migrating millions of users and coordinating protocol upgrades across decentralized systems — need to be solved. 

Quantum computers are still experimental and make mistakes but some in the crypto community have sounded the alarm about hypothetical advancements in the machines that could in the future be able to break Bitcoin’s cryptography. 

“There’s a lot of noise about quantum computing right now,” Coinbase said. “Some of it is hype. Some of it is fear. And some of it is real.”

The publicly-listed company added that a large-scale quantum computer capable of breaking current cryptography will eventually be built, and so the work to prepare needs to start now, “not when it’s urgent.”

The gameplan

The exchange added that its Independent Advisory Board on Quantum Computing and Blockchain, formed earlier this year, plans to deliver a post-quantum signing pipeline using secure enclaves and threshold cryptography.

Coinbase said that currently, its key management system protects approximately 99.9% of the assets the company custodies. But within the next year, the company will deliver an automated signing pipeline that will allow quantum-safe custody as soon as blockchains begin adopting post-quantum schemes.

It added that it was bringing together Bitcoin core developers, cryptographers and researchers to discuss post-quantum migration strategy, with plans to continue these regularly.

“Preparing Bitcoin for a post-quantum world is one of the most consequential and complex challenges the protocol has ever faced,” the exchange said. 

Coinbase is also a founding member of the new Bitcoin Security Consortium — alongside BlackRock, Fidelity Digital Assets, Block, and others — which donates funds and dedicates engineers to open-source work supporting proposals like BIP-360.

The quantum “threat”

Crypto companies and protocols have been planning for a hypothetical future where quantum computers can break top cryptography ever since Google researchers last year said that improvements in the computers may allow them to be able to break the cryptography protecting major cryptocurrencies in just nine minutes.

Some in the community have called the warnings overblown, but others have already started preparing for a post-quantum future by testing quantum-resistant signatures on live sidechains. 

This post Coinbase Builds Post-Quantum Custody System, Funds Bitcoin’s Crypto Upgrade first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Crypto Derivatives Exchange BitMEX To Shut Down in September

Crypto exchange BitMEX will close down in September, according to a Thursday announcement on the company’s website. 

The exchange said that after “a strategic review of the business and the broader crypto industry, the board of HDR Global Trading Limited, owner and operator of BitMEX, has decided to close the exchange.” 

BitMEX did not give further information on why the exchange was closing but told users to withdraw their funds “as soon as practical.” 

“The BitMEX platform has always remained grounded to the true ethos of Bitcoin — neutrality, transparency, and decentralisation, which is evident through our peer-to-peer operations and a top priority focus on user fund safety,” the statement read. 

“While this news is a difficult one to share, we are proud of everything that has been built at the company since its launch as a pioneer of crypto derivatives.”

BitMEX added that users will be able to access services as normal until September 23. After that date, the exchange will only hold client assets until they are withdrawn. 

It continued that it had unstaked all staked BMEX Tokens on the platform, and they are now available in users’ accounts.

Run-ins with the law

Run by eccentric crypto entrepreneur Arthur Hayes, BitMEX has had its fair share of run-ins with the law. 

Regulators first stated that BitMEX had allowed U.S. clients to use its exchange without verifying their identities.

The company in 2021 paid $100 million in civil penalties after the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network alleged that the exchange’s senior leadership “altered U.S. customer information to hide the customer’s true location.”

BitMEX founders Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed pled guilty in 2022 to violations of the Bank Secrecy Act for failing to operate an anti-money laundering program at the cryptocurrency exchange. Each founder then agreed to pay a $10 million fine to settle the charges. 

Then, last year, BitMEX was hit with a further $100 million fine for its guilty plea for breach of the United States Bank Secrecy Act. 

But following the election of crypto-friendly President Donald Trump, all three founders were pardoned in 2025.

This post Crypto Derivatives Exchange BitMEX To Shut Down in September first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Crypto’s US Workforce Is Tiny, But Industry Punches Above Its Weight: Report

The crypto industry may be relatively small in terms of employers — but the economic contribution is big. 

That’s according to a new report published by the National Cryptocurrency Association and the Pragmatic Policy Group, which reveals that while only 34,000 people are employed by crypto companies, the industry will contribute $55 billion in 2026 to the U.S. economy. 

The report, “Crypto at Work”, which claims to be the first to comprehensively analyze the crypto industry’s footprint in the U.S. labor market, said that jobs in the space also average $133,000 a year — more than double the $64,000 national median wage, and ahead of average pay in tech of and manufacturing.

“Crypto creates many jobs outside the tech industry and directly supports more jobs than key manufacturing industries,” the report said. 

Using a standard input-output economic model, PPG calculated that every direct crypto job supports roughly six additional jobs elsewhere in the economy — at suppliers, and at businesses where crypto workers spend their paychecks. 

Stacking those indirect and induced jobs on top of the direct total produces a figure of 232,000 jobs in total that the industry supports. 

By raw headcount, though, crypto remains a small employer. The report itself benchmarks its 34,000 direct jobs against coffee and tea manufacturing (28,400 jobs) and tobacco manufacturing (10,600 jobs) — hardly the scale of a major American industry.

The industry’s footprint is also geographically lopsided: California, New York, and Texas account for 60% of all crypto jobs, with 57,600, 53,800, and 26,500 respectively. 

Heartland states—Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas among them — together support just over 17,000 jobs. The report singles out Colorado and North Dakota as rising hubs, pointing to Colorado’s crypto-friendly tax policy and firms like Riot Platforms and Crusoe Energy, and North Dakota’s flare-gas mining operations and a pilot stablecoin from the state-owned Bank of North Dakota.

PPG describes the study as the first comprehensive, economy-wide look at crypto’s labor market impact, built on 2024 Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics data. 

The firm also flagged a limitation in its own approach: because “a dedicated crypto workforce profile does not yet exist,” it modeled crypto’s financial activities using the occupational mix of broader technology industries rather than traditional finance.

NCA, which funded the research, said it hopes the findings give policymakers “an evidence-based understanding of the sector’s economic contribution.” The nonprofit launched in 2025 to promote what it describes as safe, informed cryptocurrency adoption in the U.S.

This post Crypto’s US Workforce Is Tiny, But Industry Punches Above Its Weight: Report first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Benchmark Raises Hut 8 Price Target After Bitcoin Miner Signs $9.8 Billion AI Data Center Deal

Investment bank Benchmark has raised its price target on Bitcoin miner Hut 8 following news that the company had signed a second 15-year lease ​worth $9.8 billion for its AI data center.

Equity research analyst Mark Palmer reiterated his “buy” rating on the Toronto- and Nasdaq-listed miner in a note Wednesday, raising its price target to $195, up from $165 — an 80% upside from Hut 8’s current share price of nearly $110 a pop. 

Palmer argued that the deal validates Hut 8’s “power-first” approach to building out AI infrastructure. 

Hut 8 announced Monday that it had signed a second 15-year lease for 352 megawatts of IT capacity at its Beacon Point campus in Nueces County, Texas — doubling the site’s tenant to 704 MW of contracted capacity and fully commercializing the campus against its 1,000 MW of utility capacity. Hut 8 shares climbed over 10% on the news, closing near $101 after peaking above $106.

Palmer estimates the new Beacon Point lease alone could contribute roughly $655 million a year in net operating income once stabilized, pushing the campus’s total contract value as high as $50.2 billion if renewal options are exercised.

Hut 8 is among a growing list of publicly traded Bitcoin miners pivoting toward AI and high-performance computing as mining margins get squeezed by a falling Bitcoin price and rising difficulty. 

The company struck a Google-backed deal in December with Anthropic and Fluidstack to build out as much as 2.3 gigawatts of AI data center capacity in the U.S.

Hut 8’s mining ventures

Rivals including Terawulf, IREN, and Cipher Mining have signed similar multi-year HPC contracts with Google and Microsoft, while Bitfarms said last year it would wind down its mining operations entirely to focus on high-performance computing. 

Hut 8, by contrast, has kept its mining business running through its majority stake in American Bitcoin, the mining venture backed by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.

Hut 8 is scheduled to report second-quarter earnings on August 4.

This post Benchmark Raises Hut 8 Price Target After Bitcoin Miner Signs $9.8 Billion AI Data Center Deal first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Winklevoss Twins Donated $10 Million From Bitcoin Sale to Trump Super PAC

Crypto entrepreneurs Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss donated over $10 million after liquidating Bitcoin to American super PAC MAGA Inc., which supports President Donald Trump. 

A Tuesday filing shows each twin — the founders of the public crypto exchange, Gemini — donated over $5 million each. 

The donation comes about one month after the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission asked a judge to vacate the agency’s $5 million penalty against Gemini.

The twins back in 2024 announced that they had donated 30.94 Bitcoin, valued at over $2 million at the time, to President Trump’s campaign, claiming it would “put an end to the Biden Administration’s war on crypto.” 

During the Biden Administration, regulators cracked down hard on crypto exchanges — including Gemini — but since President Trump took office, a number of lawsuits have been scrapped. 

MAGA Inc. has raised over $400 million in fresh cash ahead of November’s midterm elections. 

The Winklevoss twins are Bitcoin OGs

The Winklevoss Twins — who claimed they played a part in the creation of Facebook — founded crypto exchange Gemini in 2014 after being early Bitcoin backers.

Crypto industry observers have long speculated that the twins are two of the biggest Bitcoin holders in the space. 

The twins have long praised President Trump’s pro-Bitcoin and pro-business stance, claiming it’s crucial for the future of the crypto industry in the country. 

Tyler in particular emphasized the need for a political shift to prevent further harm to the industry and to restore an environment conducive to innovation and economic growth.

“President Donald J. Trump is the pro-Bitcoin, pro-crypto, and pro-business choice,” he said back in 2024. “This is not even remotely open for debate. Anyone who tells you otherwise is severely misinformed, delusional, or not telling the truth.”

Back in May, Gemini shares jumped over 20% in after-hours trading after the Winklevoss twins announced a $100 million Bitcoin-funded investment in the company alongside Q1 earnings showing 42% year-over-year revenue growth. 

The quarter’s results included a narrowed net loss of $109 million and a sharp rise in services and credit card revenue, though trading volumes had fallen from a year earlier following Bitcoin’s crash from its October peak. 

The rally followed months of turmoil for Gemini, including layoffs, executive departures, shareholder lawsuits, and a stock price that had dropped more than 89% from its IPO high, partly offset by a CFTC derivatives license granted in April.

This post Winklevoss Twins Donated $10 Million From Bitcoin Sale to Trump Super PAC first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin ETFs Take in Nearly $1B in New Money — But What Will the Price Do?

American investors have thrown fresh cash at Bitcoin exchange-traded funds over the past six days, helping the price of the top cryptocurrency to rise again. 

Data from Farside Investors shows that close to $1 billion has been pumped into the funds since Tuesday last week. 

The price of Bitcoin was recently trading at nearly $65,860, down slightly over the past 24 hours but up 1% over a seven-day period. The leading cryptocurrency touched a weekly high yesterday of $66,891. 

Funds managed by BlackRock, Morgan Stanley, and Grayscale have taken in over $930 million in the six-day streak after weeks of lacklustre flows and sloppy price action. 

Bitcoin is currently nearly 50% below its October record of $126,080 after a massive liquidation event, war in the Middle Eastern and inflation all weighed the cryptocurrency down. 

Bitcoin upside potential?

Analysts remain wary of digital assets’ future price path as markets reckon with a re-escalation of the Trump administration’s war with Iran and inflation. 

European asset management firm CoinShares last week said that while investors are back at putting fresh cash in Bitcoin via the exchange-traded products, other factors may hold digital asset markets from going higher. 

“We have said for some time that Bitcoin has probably reached, or is close to, its floor,” James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, wrote. “But we see no significant upside potential from here.”

Current macroeconomic headwinds, such as the US bombing Iran and rising oil prices, could see inflation go up again. The price of Bitcoin has typically done well on news that inflation is coming down because investors expect interest rates to come down.

And another report by NYDIG last week claimed that the asset’s current slump is down to supply mechanics rather than risk sentiment. 

The report revealed that Bitcoin’s year-to-date performance makes it the worst-performing asset — losing out against US treasuries, silver, and currencies like the Swiss Franc. 

It added that if Bitcoin’s price action were to match other drawdowns — like the bear market of 2022 — a “potential cycle low near $38k-$39k” was possible.

This post Bitcoin ETFs Take in Nearly $1B in New Money — But What Will the Price Do? first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Maxi Jack Dorsey Unveils New Open Source Group Chat App

Tech entrepreneur Jack Dorsey has announced a new group chat platform aimed at reducing teams’ reliance on platforms like Slack, in the Bitcoin maxi’s latest push for decentralization. 

The Block co-founder wrote Tuesday on X that the new app, named Buzz, was “for teams of people and agents of all sizes” and “model-agnostic, decentralized, self-sovereign, and open source.”

Described as “A new native workspace for human and agent teams” on its website, Buzz users can “chat with teammates and specialized agents in one shared space, then move straight into planning, project management, coding, and PRs.”

A statement from parent company Block said that the new app was built on decentralized social networking Nostr protocol.

“The interface will feel familiar to anyone who’s used a modern team communication tool,” Block added. 

“Every company is going to need a place where humans and agents work together,” Bradley Axen, head of AI capabilities at Block, said. 

“The question is whether that place is proprietary or open. We built Buzz because we believe it should be open.”

Decentralize everything 

Dorsey, whose firm Block owns companies Square and Cash App, has long been pushing for decentralized solutions: primarily with Bitcoin. 

The billionaire founder of Twitter left the social media company to focus his efforts on payments and Bitcoin adoption in 2021, saying he wants the cryptocurrency to be the global currency and “everyday money.” 

He has also described Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin white paper as “poetry.”

Cash App allows users to send and receive and buy and sell Bitcoin and point-of-sale terminals Square accept the orange coin via the Lightning Network. 

Block also last year debuted a Bitcoin mining rig with swappable parts, with the idea that miners could cut costs on repairing and replacing the devices. 

This post Bitcoin Maxi Jack Dorsey Unveils New Open Source Group Chat App first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

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Coinbase Wants To Be Canada’s ‘Everything Exchange’ — With Crypto, Stocks, and Prediction Markets

Crypto giant Coinbase is making its “everything exchange” push in Canada. 

Eric Richmond, country director and CEO of Coinbase Canada, told BNN Bloomberg in a Tuesday interview that the move would allow Canadians to not only buy crypto but also trade tokenized stocks and put money on prediction markets. 

“Coinbase believes we have a new technology here that can really help with that, and that’s blockchain and the technology that underpins crypto today,” Richmond said in the interview. “How do we create that one place for Canadians to have their entire financial experience in one app that’s underpinned by this technology that makes things frictionless, seamless, and 24/7?”

He added: “I think people are starting to realize the fact that banks close at 4 p.m., or the markets close at 4 p.m., or that wires can take days to settle, or that access for high-net-worth individuals to certain products are gated for just those high-net-worth individuals.”

Coinbase in the U.S. allows Americans to place bets and trade stocks. The company started as a place allowing people to buy and sell Bitcoin but has since offered hundreds of digital coins. 

Richmond added that the company was working with Canadian regulators to make the launch. 

Tokenized stocks are versions of equities that trade on the technology underpinning Bitcoin: the blockchain. Proponents like Coinbase argue that by tokenizing everything, traders will be able to make transactions around the clock, 24-7. 

A number of crypto exchanges are also making the push to branch out from crypto: Kraken, for example, has also started allowing users to trade stocks and has announced plans for a prediction market platform. 

Coinbase’s big moves 

Coinbase has made some bigger moves in recent years, other than just working as a crypto exchange. 

America’s biggest bank, JPMorgan Chase, last year signed a deal with the company to allow customers to directly link their bank accounts to the platform. 

Coinbase also provides custody services — including to Wall Street giants like BlackRock — and has a contract with the US government to hold onto seized crypto.

The company also in April received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in the U.S. for a national trust banking charter, essentially paving the way for it to serve as a crypto custodian on a federal basis, managing assets for larger entities.

The company has clashed with banking executives recently over stablecoin rewards: the exchange wants its yield-bearing stablecoin products to continue, which in turn could prove to be a bigger boon in the long-run for the business.

This post Coinbase Wants To Be Canada’s ‘Everything Exchange’ — With Crypto, Stocks, and Prediction Markets first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

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Hyperscale Data Buys More Bitcoin, Bridging Holdings to Over $72 million

Hyperscale Data, Inc. has announced that it’s upped its Bitcoin holdings to over 1,000 digital coins. 

The New York Stock Exchange-listed company said Tuesday that it had over 1,087.4527 BTC as of Sunday — or $72.4 million based on today’s prices.

The holdings are split across the company’s wholly owned subsidiaries, Sentinum, Inc. and Ault Capital Group, Inc. (ACG). During the week ended July 19, ACG added roughly 51.5 bitcoin through open-market purchases.

The latest disclosure marks a significant acceleration in Hyperscale Data’s accumulation strategy. The AI data center company held just 627.9 BTC in late March 2026 — meaning it has nearly doubled its position, adding about 460 BTC in under four months.

The buildout is part of the company’s goal of establishing a $100 million digital asset treasury and reaching full parity between its Bitcoin holdings and market capitalization. With a market cap of roughly $63 million, that threshold has now been crossed — the company’s bitcoin alone is worth more than the company itself, before counting cash or its operating businesses.

Executive Chairman Milton “Todd” Ault III leaned into that disconnect, stating, “We now hold more than $70 million in Bitcoin.” He argued the market is assigning zero value to the company’s cash, its Michigan data center, and its portfolio of operating businesses, and said Hyperscale will keep executing while highlighting the widening gap between its market capitalization and underlying value.

At the time of writing, GPUS is trading near $0.13 a share.

Hyperscale is following the Bitcoin treasury strategy playbook

Strategy Inc. (MSTR) has become the flagship case study in the evolution of Bitcoin treasury strategies in the corporate world.

Under the leadership of Michael Saylor, Strategy shifted from a traditional software business to buying Bitcoin and allowing investors to get exposure to the asset via its shares which trade on the Nasdaq. 

This model has inspired other corporations like Hyperscale Data to add the leading cryptocurrency to their treasuries — though Hyperscale’s case is unusual in that its holdings now exceed its entire market cap, a situation more commonly seen in deeply discounted treasury plays.

This post Hyperscale Data Buys More Bitcoin, Bridging Holdings to Over $72 million first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

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Bitcoin Price Closes in on $67,000, Lifting Strategy and Other Crypto Stocks

Bitcoin’s price jumped Tuesday to its highest in over one month, bringing crypto stocks like Bitcoin treasury’s Strategy with it. 

The Bitcoin price was recently priced at $66,886, up nearly 3% in 24 hours. Over the past seven days, the leading cryptocurrency has risen by close to 6%. 

Its rise comes as stocks also trade higher — despite tensions in the Middle East flaring up again. 

Nasdaq-listed Strategy (MSTR), formerly MicroStrategy, also jumped above $100 per share on Tuesday. 

The price jump comes even as the Bitcoin juggernaut on Monday revealed it did not make its usual crypto buy, instead reporting the sale of a $225 million in MSTR shares, which it used for its dollar reserve. 

Strategy stock plunged with the price of Bitcoin last year, and is currently well below its November 2024 peak of $473.83. 

The software company, which started buying Bitcoin in 2020 as an inflation hedge, holds at 843,775 BTC, a position worth around $56.2 billion at current prices. 

Other Nasdaq-listed crypto stocks, including America’s biggest crypto exchange, Coinbase (COIN) and Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital (MARA), also surged on Tuesday. COIN at the time of writing was up 11% and MARA was trading over 6% higher. 

Middle East flare up 

Bitcoin’s price has taken a hit so far in 2026, and is currently down nearly 24% year-to-date. Since the leading crypto notched a new record of $126,080 in October, it has shed close to 50% of its value. 

The asset first got hit hard in October when the biggest crash in the history of the industry liquidated more than $19 billion in crypto bets. 

Then, crypto markets got hit harder after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February, driving oil prices higher and deepening uncertainty around global inflation. 

Investors are now not expecting the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates anytime soon. More inflation comes less chance of interest rate cuts, which restricts the liquidity that Bitcoin needs to surge.

Iran and the U.S. continue to fight, ending a truce, but Bitcoin seems immune to the latest flare up. 

As of July 20–21, the U.S. carried out its 10th straight night of strikes on Iranian military targets, with Trump vowing retaliation for three American service members killed and the Pentagon reporting nearly 100 U.S. troops injured over two weeks. 

This post Bitcoin Price Closes in on $67,000, Lifting Strategy and Other Crypto Stocks first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Jack Mallers Steps Down as CEO of Bitcoin Treasury Twenty One Capital 

Bitcoin treasury Twenty One Capital has named Raphael Zagury as its chief executive officer, a leadership change that arrives seven months after the firm listed on the New York Stock Exchange. 

Zagury succeeds founder Jack Mallers, who is stepping down to focus on his Bitcoin payments company, Strike. 

Speaking on the transition, Mallers said, “I’m grateful to everyone at XXI and everyone who believed in what we built,” said Jack Mallers. “Serving Bitcoiners has always been the mission, and that doesn’t change. Strike is where I carry it forward.”

Austin, Texas-based Twenty One, which trades under the ticker “XXI” on the NYSE, said it would focus on becoming an institutional-grade operating company that’s judged on cash flow generation and capital allocation discipline, not just its Bitcoin holdings.

It added that it would build and acquire high-quality operating businesses that “leverage Twenty One’s balance sheet while maintaining disciplined capital allocation at the parent company and create a long-term ownership model inspired by Berkshire Hathaway.”

“My job is to build the operating company around [Twenty One], with the discipline, governance, and executional rigor of an institution,” Zagury said in a statement.  “I believe our business will perform best when we also focus on the cash flow we generate and the rigor with which we allocate capital, not only by the Bitcoin we hold.”

Mallers leaves XXI

The firm, the product of a joint effort by Tether, Bitfinex, Cantor Fitzgerald, and SoftBank, is the second biggest public Bitcoin treasury, according to Bitcointreasuries.net, with a total of 43,514 coins — or $2.8 billion in Bitcoin at today’s prices. 

It debuted last year through a SPAC merger with Cantor Equity Partners, a blank check company affiliated with financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald.

“XXI was built by Bitcoiners, for Bitcoiners. During my role as CEO, we defined a vision for a Bitcoin-native financial enterprise. As I focus my efforts fully at Strike, I look forward to watching the next phase of growth at XXI,” Mallers said.

The companies behind it are a mix of traditional finance giants and crypto companies: Tether is the biggest issuer of stablecoins and Bitfinex is a crypto exchange. SoftBank is a Japanese multinational investment holding company and Cantor Fitzgerald is a Wall Street firm previously headed up by U.S. President Donald Trump ally and Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick. 

Zagury founded and leads the team behind Elektron Energy, a large-scale Bitcoin mining and infrastructure business. 

Before that, he held roles as a managing director at Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch, and as a vice president at Goldman Sachs. He also co-founded OpenCo, at one point among Brazil’s largest fintech lenders. 

The change at the top comes with a shift in deal strategy. In April, Twenty One had floated a plan to consolidate the firm, Strike, and Elektron Energy into a single Bitcoin-native platform spanning financial services, mining infrastructure, capital markets, and treasury. According to Bloomberg reporting, that deal has been scrapped. Twenty One confirmed that Strike will now remain a standalone business and is out of the running for a merger.

This post Jack Mallers Steps Down as CEO of Bitcoin Treasury Twenty One Capital  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo and Micah Zimmerman.

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Bitcoin Miner Hut 8 Shares Jump on $9.8 Billion AI Data Center Deal

Bitcoin miner Hut 8’s shares rose Monday after the Toronto Stock Exchange- and Nasdaq-listed firm said it had signed a second 15-year lease ​worth $9.8 billion for its AI data center. 

Hut 8 shares peaked as high as $106 a pop before dropping to around $101. They closed Monday up over 10%. 

The deal will see the Toronto-based firm’s Beacon Point campus in Texas data center cover 352 ​megawatts of IT capacity. The tenant using the data center’s will have its capacity doubled to 704 MW.

Hut 8 added that the campus has a base-term contract value of $19.6 billion over 15 years, rising to as much as $50.2 billion if renewal options are exercised.

Asher Genoot, CEO of Hut 8, said: “The real test of our power-first approach is what our partners are willing to commit against it. Our tenant at Beacon Point chose to double its footprint at the site, the strongest validation an asset can receive.”

Hut 8 last year signed a deal with American Data Centers Inc., a company backed by President Donald Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Jr., to contribute its Bitcoin mining equipment and help debut their American Bitcoin mining firm. 

AI pivot

Hut 8 is one of a number of top publicly listed miners that have started directing resources to providing the infrastructure for high-powered computing.

The company in December secured a Google-backed partnership with Anthropic and Fluidstack to build up to 2.3 gigawatts of AI data center capacity in the U.S.

JUST IN: #Bitcoin mining company Hut 8 just announced it partnered with Google for financial backing on a 15-year lease.

Bullish pic.twitter.com/NQN9JmW0ob

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) December 17, 2025

A number of Bitcoin miners have already gone all-in on the industry as minting the biggest digital coin by market cap becomes harder and demand for AI compute surges. 

As the price Bitcoin has dipped, it has become harder for Bitcoin miners to make ends meet. 

Nasdaq-listed Bitfarms last year announced that it would wind down mining operations to focus on high-performance computing.

Instead of dropping mining operations completely, a number of Bitcoin miners have instead marketed themselves as “compute” or “digital infrastructure” companies while switching between minting digital coins and providing compute for AI — depending on which is more profitable.

Top miners Terawulf, IREN, and Cipher Mining all last year signed multi-year HPC contracts with Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Microsoft.

Both the crypto mining and HPC industries require huge amounts of energy and data centers — but the move isn’t always easy: AI data centres require more expertise than Bitcoin mining.

This post Bitcoin Miner Hut 8 Shares Jump on $9.8 Billion AI Data Center Deal first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.