The Iran war has shaken Dubai’s reputation as a safe haven for global wealth, as private jet demand surges and expatriate millionaires rush to leave the region.
Even gold is trading at a steep discount as flights halt and bullion becomes difficult to move.
Bitcoin, however, remains liquid 24/7 on global exchanges. And unlike gold or real estate, it can cross any border with you, secured by nothing more than 12 words stored in your memory.
Other top stories from the week include:
New York opens their doors for Jack Mallers & Strike
Bitcoin Policy Institute finds that AI prefers Bitcoin.
MIning Bitcoin in space is coming sooner than you might think.
Latest News
Adoption
Bitwise donates $233,000 to support Bitcoin open source developers through Brink, OpenSats, and the HRF Bitcoin Development Fund, fulfilling its pledge to contribute 10% of gross profits from its BITB ETF.
Bitcoin Policy Institute study of 36 frontier AI models across 9,000+ conversations found 48% preferred Bitcoin for economic activity, with Anthropic models highest at 68% and OpenAI lowest at 25.9%.
Square launches automated bounties paying users up to $250 in bitcoin for making first-time BTC payments to eligible Square sellers through Cash App.
Regulation
John Daghita, son of a US gov. contractor accused of stealing $46M in seized cryptocurrency from the US Marshals Service, has been arrested in Saint Martin in a joint FBI–French Gendarmerie operation.
Strike receives a BitLicense from the NY Dept. of Financial Services, allowing Jack Mallers’ Bitcoin payments platform to become one of the few BTC companies permitted to offer services to New York residents.
Trump lambasts US banks for rejecting a White House compromise on stablecoin provisions and stalling the CLARITY Act, warning he will not allow banks to “undermine our powerful crypto agenda.”
Markets
Kraken becomes the first crypto bank to receive a Federal Reserve master account, enabling direct Fedwire settlement and integrating regulated fiat liquidity into digital asset markets.
Morgan Stanley files for the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust, a spot Bitcoin ETF tracking the CoinDesk Bitcoin Benchmark Rate, holding bitcoin directly with custody by BNY Mellon and Coinbase Custody.
77% of Bitcoin treasury companies are currently underwater on their BTC purchases, marking the highest level since May 2022.
Treasury
Strategy has sold enough STRC this week to purchase roughly 4,277 BTC estimated across five trading days, a 455% increase versus the four-week average after February's drought.
Metaplanet has become the top-performing stock among more than 4,000 publicly listed companies in Japan since adopting a Bitcoin treasury strategy in April 2024.
Wyoming has taken a stake in Strive Asset Management, becoming the first US state to invest public funds in a Bitcoin treasury company, holding 151,595 Class A shares worth about $111K.
Mining
Starcloud, a US startup, says it plans to launch a Bitcoin mining ASIC into orbit later this year, potentially becoming the first company to mine Bitcoin in space using solar-powered orbital data centers.
Core Scientific sold 1,900 BTC in January for $175M at an average price of $92K and secured $500M from Morgan Stanley as it plans to liquidate its remaining Bitcoin holdings in 2026 to fund an AI pivot.
NiceHash EasyMining user spent about $70 renting hashrate and mined Bitcoin block 939,527, earning 3.0989 BTC worth about $220K, the fourth block found using rented hashrate since December.
Politics
Vancouver staff recommend closing a “Bitcoin friendly” council motion after determining the city cannot hold BTC as a municipal reserve asset under current rules.
White House Cyberstrategy report supports securing crypto and blockchain as strategic technologies, alongside AI and post quantum security, while calling for reduced regulations to boost innovation.
Tennessee advances a Bitcoin reserve bill as HB 1695 passes committee and moves to Finance, with a provision allowing up to 10% of eligible funds to be allocated to Bitcoin.
Bitcoin 2026 | Las Vegas
Every Serious Bitcoiner Will Be in Las Vegas This April.
Bitcoin 2026 is the world’s largest gathering of the builders, founders, and believers shaping the next era of money.
Bitcoiners from around the world are descending on Las Vegas April 27–29, with speakers including Michael Saylor, Jeff Booth, and Senator Cynthia Lummis.
If you care about the future of Bitcoin, this is where you need to be.
Bam’s 2 Sats
Transportability Is Sovereignty
Beyond the Noise
It has now been more than 17 years since Bitcoin came into existence. Depending on who you ask, some still claim Bitcoin has no value, even as adoption continues to spread among major institutions.
These voices often grow louder when Bitcoin’s price fails to meet expectations. But focusing only on price can distract from what Bitcoin actually is and the broader benefits it may bring to society.
If you’ve been reading this newsletter for some time, you’ve likely seen me describe Bitcoin through its monetary properties. Today, however, I want to focus on one in particular: transportability.
“As a thought experiment, imagine there was a base metal as scarce as gold but… can be transported over a communications channel.” — Satoshi Nakamoto, August 2010
One of Bitcoin’s greatest strengths is its digital nature. It can move through communication channels, and when combined with its permissionless design, anyone can send value anywhere in the world. In today’s age, that is true sovereignty.
from yahoo finance
When Wealth Cannot Move Freely
As geopolitical tensions escalate in the Middle East, with retaliatory missile and drone attacks, people have been trying to flee places like Dubai and the UAE. And when people flee, they naturally try to take their wealth with them.
But as we all know, it is not easy to board an international flight carrying more than $10,000 in cash or gold. As a result, people often end up selling their physical possessions at a discount just to escape.
And the control does not stop there. As markets grow increasingly fragile and investors try to manage their portfolios, some have found themselves unable to access their own money, even if invested in giants like BlackRock and Blackstone, as certain funds limit withdrawals.
from wsj
If you hold precious metals, your ability to move them is constrained by the physical world. If you hold financial instruments, you quickly realize they are built on layers of permission, where even access to your own money can be deliberately restricted.
True sovereignty belongs to those who can decide the exception. In a world of controlled financial rails, the exception is the person who does not need permission to move or use their wealth. Today, that exception is Bitcoin.
- Bam
