The national debt has nearly doubled since Trump first took office in 2017. Now, the “No New Wars” president is on the verge of escalating tensions in the Middle East to levels not seen since Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Last year, Trump called for a 50% increase in the defense budget to $1.5T. Now, the Pentagon is requesting an additional $200B for operations in Iran.
As US debt accelerates and gold falters, one asset stands uniquely positioned to absorb the excess liquidity.
Other top stories from the week include:
Bitcoin takes a major step toward quantum resistance.
North Carolina advances its Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
A new site tracks billions in frozen stablecoins worldwide.
Latest News
Adoption
Square updates its terms to auto-enable Bitcoin payments for eligible sellers, using Lightning for settlement, with merchants able to disable auto-conversion and keep BTC.
Boltz launches USDT swaps, enabling users to send Lightning sats and receive USDT, or vice versa, allowing instant, non-custodial movement between Bitcoin and dollar-denominated value in seconds
BTQ deploys first BIP 360 implementation on Bitcoin Quantum testnet, enabling quantum-resistant transactions via P2MR with 50+ miners live, highlighting gap between them and Bitcoin Core implementation.
Regulation
North Carolina advances a bill to create a state Bitcoin reserve, allowing up to 10% allocation to BTC with multisig custody, audits, public reporting, and restricted emergency use.
BPI warns an amendment to Kentucky HB 380 could effectively ban self-custody by requiring hardware wallets to reset seed phrases, breaking Bitcoin security and pushing users to custodians
Bitrefill reports a March 1 cyberattack, likely linked to DPRK’s Lazarus group, resulting in hot wallet theft and limited access to 18,500 records; operations are now largely restored.
Markets
Morgan Stanley files second amended S-1 for proposed spot Bitcoin ETF; with $8T AUM, even a 2% allocation implies $160B, roughly 3x BlackRock’s IBIT size.
Stables.rip is a new site that tracks stablecoin censorship, logging every USDC and USDT freeze across Ethereum and TRON, highlighting over $2.1B frozen by issuers with on-chain blacklist control.
BlockFills files for Chapter 11 with $50–100M in assets vs. $100–500M liabilities, after halting withdrawals, losing ~$75M, and facing lawsuits over alleged misuse of customer funds
Treasury
Strategy lifts total holdings to 761,068 BTC, bringing the company just 23,000 BTC short of surpassing BlackRock’s IBIT.
Metaplanet raises ~$255M from institutional investors via share placement and warrants, with potential total capital of ~$531M, boosting its strategy to accumulate up to 210,000 BTC.
Strive reports 4Q25 results, holding 13,628 BTC as of March 17, with 22.2% BTC yield in 4Q25, adding 1,305 BTC and $114.3M gains, plus continued Q1 growth.
Mining
Bitcoin difficulty just dropped 7.76% to 133.79T at block 941472, marking the largest downward adjustment since late 2025 and offering miners a welcome profitability boost.
MicroBT launches the Whatsminer M6DS+ and M6DS++, both relying on hydro-cooling systems rather than traditional air cooling.
BitFuFu reports 2025 revenue is up 2.7% to $475.8 million, as a 29.4% jump in cloud mining, now 74% of the business, offsets a sharp decline in bitcoin mining.
Politics
US national debt surpasses $39 trillion. Since Trump returned to office on January 20, 2025, it’s up about 7% in roughly 14 months.
UAE approves an AED 1 trillion emergency-style liquidity backstop for banks, saying it’s precautionary for now but that it's ready if global stress worsens.
Fed proposal leaves Bitcoin’s Basel risk weighting as toxic for now, but opens door to future reform; Bitcoin Policy Institute to submit comments pushing for revised treatment in U.S. capital markets.
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Bam’s 2 Sats
The Acceleration Of Bitcoin Accumulation
$STRC takes over the narrative
Last week, Strategy’s latest preferred stock, $STRC, dominated attention as everyone refreshed strc.live and bitcoinquant.co to estimate the size of MSTR’s next Bitcoin purchase announcement.
The speculation focused on how much of the purchase would come from preferred stock issuance versus common stock dilution through the ATM. Historically, Strategy has leaned toward common stock, so most expected that to continue.
Then on Monday, just after our newsletter went out, Saylor announced Strategy had purchased 22,337 BTC for roughly $1.57B.
What stood out wasn’t just the size, but the funding mix: ~75% from $STRC and only ~25% from common stock, a clear shift from past behavior.
It was also a record-sized purchase for this phase of the market, with Bitcoin still well below its all-time high.
Strategy has often been known for “buying the tops,” which makes this moment feel notably different.
$STRC’s pace of capital raising is accelerating
What’s especially impressive is how quickly $STRC has scaled, even amid broad market anxiety around AI job displacement, geopolitical shifts, and war.
In just one week, it raised ~$1.1B, roughly matching the capital it accumulated over its prior six months combined.
That said, rapid capital formation doesn’t mean Strategy can sustain this pace indefinitely. In fact, this week has seen little to no issuance from the preferred.
Still, after its latest purchase, Strategy is now roughly 11,000 BTC away from reaching 100,000 BTC accumulated in Q1 alone.
For Bitcoin to be in a downtrend and this to still be happening is nothing short of remarkable.
At the same time, Bitcoin ETFs are beginning to show positive flows again, raising the question: are we seeing a true trend reversal, or just a pause within a broader bear market?
Many analysts still argue Bitcoin has yet to find its bottom based on the four-year cycle.
The truth is that no one knows.
But something tells me we may be starting to see a change in trend for the better.
- Bam
