Another absolutely brutal week for Bitcoin self-custody.

On Monday, Trezor notified more than 13,000 customers that some of their most sensitive personal information, including full names, email addresses, and shipping addresses, had been exposed in a data breach involving its shipping partner.

The breach affected people who had received Trezor orders within the previous 90 days. Many were likely customers who had recently moved funds in the wake of the COLDCARD hack, believing that a reputable company like Trezor would offer safer pastures.

From AI-empowered attacks to hacks and data breaches, the Bitcoin ecosystem is learning a difficult lesson. In this new technological era, you can never be too cautious when it comes to OpSec.

We cover all of these headlines below, but for this week’s article, we wanted to take a slightly different angle and revisit one of the biggest reasons many people get into Bitcoin in the first place.

The US national debt is approaching $40 trillion. What does that actually mean for you?

Other headlines this week include

At Bitcoin News, we’re dedicated to bringing you the most important stories, ideas and voices in Bitcoin, all in one place.

In 2026, we’ve put a renewed focus on our YouTube channel, publishing new interviews every Monday and Friday, along with a live show every Wednesday.

From Max Keiser to Ben Cowen, some of the biggest names in Bitcoin and financial markets have joined us to share their perspectives.

This week, we want to highlight our latest interview with Bob Burnett, CEO of Barefoot Mining and an OCEAN Mining board member.

Bob had a front-row seat to the rise of the BIP-110 movement. He initially signaled support for it before the movement ultimately divided OCEAN’s leadership and culminated in a split of the Bitcoin blockchain itself.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Bob gives us an inside look at what happened within OCEAN, what the chain split revealed about miners and Bitcoin consensus, and what it all means for the network going forward.

If you want to understand the current state of Bitcoin’s network, community and governance, this is an important conversation.

If you prefer listening, find our podcast on Spotify, Apple or Fountain.

Hope to see you over there!

There was one number this week that really caught my attention.

The U.S. Treasury has already paid around $931 billion in net interest on roughly $39.9 trillion of debt this fiscal year. And we’re not even through the third quarter yet.

That is an insane amount of money.

To put it in perspective, interest is now one of the U.S. government’s three largest expenses, with net interest equivalent to roughly 21% of all federal revenue collected so far this fiscal year.

Ten years ago, the U.S. government collected around $3.3 trillion in revenue and spent roughly $240 billion servicing its debt. Last year, revenue reached $5.2 trillion, while interest costs had exploded to around $970 billion.

In other words, federal revenue increased by roughly 60%, while the cost of servicing the debt increased by more than 300%.

And that money is not building roads, funding new programs or providing new services. It is simply the cost of servicing debt accumulated in the past.

And the picture is only getting worse. The federal government ran a staggering $432 billion deficit in July alone. Annualized, that pace would amount to more than $5.1 trillion in new deficits.

The problem is simple. Debt creates interest, interest makes deficits larger, and larger deficits require even more debt. Eventually, the consequences fall back on everyone else.

As individuals, we have to work harder, earn more, and invest better just to maintain the same quality of life as an expanding supply of currency pushes prices higher.

Governments have easier options. They can raise taxes, borrow more, or gradually reduce the purchasing power of the currency.

Taxes create immediate resistance from voters. Inflation is much easier to disguise.

There is no bill telling you that some of your purchasing power has disappeared. Groceries simply get more expensive, housing moves further out of reach, and your savings buy a little less each year.

This is where much of the frustration among younger generations starts to make sense. Many blame capitalism. But as Daniel Lacalle puts it, perhaps what they are experiencing is closer to statism, with massive deficits, monetary debasement, restrictive regulation and subsidized debt.

This is why Bitcoin continues to make more sense to me over time. Bitcoin does not solve government debt, housing or taxes. But it gives people an alternative, an asset whose supply cannot be increased whenever governments need more money.

There will only ever be 21 million bitcoin. No election, central bank meeting or trillion-dollar deficit can change that.

Perhaps Bitcoin’s strongest advertisement is much simpler than the next ETF, regulatory change or institutional announcement.

When the U.S. government is approaching $1 trillion a year just to service its debt, the existing financial system is already doing a pretty good job of making the case for Bitcoin.

Keep stacking.
- Bam