Sentiment may be down on Bitcoin Twitter, but US regulators and institutions are clearing the path for full TradFi Bitcoin adoption in 2026.
Newsworthy events this week include:
Times Square gets painted orange in massive Bitcoin ad blitz.
Whales selling covered calls may explain BTC's mechanically muted rallies.
Buy Bitcoin straight from your bank account.
Latest News
Adoption
Blockstream app enables Liquid to Lightning swaps, allowing users to pay Lightning invoices from LBTC instantly, self-custodially, and privately, with no channels or inbound liquidity required.
Save the Children launches its first Bitcoin Fund, allowing the charity to hold bitcoin donations long term and use Bitcoin-powered tools to deliver aid faster, more transparently, and at reduced expense.
Bitwise launches a massive Bitcoin advertising campaign in Times Square, featuring words from Satoshi Nakamoto, Saifedean Ammous, Lyn Alden, and Michael Saylor.
Regulation
OCC confirms national institutions can engage in riskless principal crypto transactions, allowing them to serve as intermediaries by purchasing and instantly reselling crypto assets without holding inventory risk.
The SEC issued an investor bulletin outlining crypto custody basics, explaining hot versus cold wallets, self-custody versus third-party custody, and warning investors to protect their private keys.
France introduces a law that would force Bitcoiners to report exactly how much crypto they hold in self-custody, even if they haven't sold, effectively creating a list that could be targeted by kidnappers.
Markets
PNC will launch spot Bitcoin trading through Coinbase, becoming the first major US institution to provide spot BTC trading directly within standard brokerage accounts, starting with Private clients.
Jeff Park of Bitwise says Bitcoin has traded sideways as OG whales sell covered calls, suppressing volatility and mechanically capping recent rallies.
The CFTC launches a digital assets pilot allowing bitcoin to be used as tokenized collateral in derivatives markets, marking a major step toward integrating bitcoin into regulated infrastructure.
Treasury
Jack Mallers rings the opening bell and donates a Satoshi statue to the NYSE to mark the listing of his Bitcoin treasury company, XXI.
Corporate bitcoin holdings have risen from roughly 197,000 BTC to 1.08M BTC since January 2023, a 5.5x increase as balance sheet adoption accelerates, according to Glassnode.
MSTR remains in the Nasdaq 100 after the index's annual rebalancing, easing delisting fears sparked by a potential MSCI rule change that could classify treasury companies as funds.
Mining
Texas regulators warn AI data centers exceed bitcoin miners in power demand, prompting utilities to screen large load requests to protect the grid from phantom demand.
Tajikistan's parliament passed a Criminal Code article imposing fines and prison sentences of up to eight years for illegally mining bitcoin with electricity taken from the national grid.
Bitcoin miners, who collectively hold over 127,000 BTC and produce bitcoin at below-market rates, may increasingly drive corporate adoption as treasury company purchases slow.
Politics
Lt. Colonel Kevin Kelly urges President Trump to pardon the Samourai developers, arguing the US cannot claim to be the Bitcoin capital of the world while imprisoning software developers.
Czech central authority's one million dollar bitcoin pilot, launched for research not gain, could spread to other EU countries using the same regulatory loophole, according to Coinbase's John D'Agostino.
Canada's tax authority says up to 40 percent of digital asset users may be non-compliant, after uncovering more than 100M CAD in unpaid taxes across 230 cases over three years.
Bitcoin Trivia
Bam’s 2 Sats
The Liquidity Spigot Just Got Turned On
This week the Fed cut by 25 basis points in a widely expected "hawkish cut," as policymakers balance lingering inflation concerns against a weakening labor market, leaving the next move uncertain.
Alongside the cut, the Fed announced 40 billion dollars in Treasury bill purchases over the next 30 days, injecting short-term liquidity into markets as conditions tighten.
According to James Lavish, the scale of this liquidity injection mirrors conditions in 2020 just before pandemic-era easing, which was followed by aggressive liquidity expansion and broad asset inflation across markets, not just Bitcoin.
Source: James Lavish
Suppressed Value, Silent Accumulation
What makes me pause is the timing of this fresh liquidity.
A meaningful wave of liquidity is preparing to enter the system just as a fresh class of participants is formally allowed through the door.
This week the OCC confirmed U.S. national institutions can engage in riskless principal crypto transactions, allowing them to intermediate bitcoin and crypto trades without inventory risk and further integrate crypto into core market structure.
And this is happening during a period where Bitcoin's appreciation has felt unusually muted ever since institutions arrived in force. Coincidence? Maybe. But the pattern is hard to ignore.
As Jeff Park explains, heavy covered options selling by OG bitcoin holders is structurally suppressing volatility, capping upside and making explosive moves harder. Rob breaks this down in a short video linked above.
At the exact same time, a chart made the rounds on X showing that since the launch of spot ETFs, most of Bitcoin's gains have occurred outside regular trading hours.
"Enter at the close, sell at the open" strategies have sharply outperformed, while intraday returns have been negative. Institutions keep arriving, yet retail doesn't feel like it's participating.
Who’s Really Coming Out Ahead?
Corporate bitcoin holdings have risen from roughly 197,000 BTC to 1.08M BTC since January 2023, a staggering 5.5X increase, according to Glassnode. Balance-sheet adoption is accelerating rapidly.
So this substantial accumulation must be a good thing… right?
Yes, adoption is good and institutional ownership is inevitable. But the prevailing narrative on X feels increasingly doomish. And narratives matter because they influence our behavior (often at exactly the wrong time).
What worries me is that individuals are being nudged into letting go of their bitcoin just as institutions quietly absorb supply. There's nothing inherently wrong with institutions holding large amounts of BTC. But Bitcoin's vision was not just about balance sheets and allocation models.
It was about sovereignty. About giving individuals the ability to hold value that can't be censored, frozen, or debased.
This phase reminds me that there's still work to do. Education matters. Context matters. Everyone will find Bitcoin sooner or later, however the earlier people understand why it matters, the more likely they are to actually benefit from it.
I hope we can contribute, even in a small way, to that journey - so that more people can experience what true sovereignty actually means.
-Bam
P.S. What’s your take on the current doomish sentiment? Think sentiment is too bearish or justified at current levels? Reply to this address and let me know - I read every response.
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