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Happy Monday! We got a full newsletter, including asset prices, earnings calls (there’s a bunch the next 2 weeks, for both Bitcoin and tech in general), plus a short write up on the huge flow of funds ($3.4 billion!) into Bitcoin investment vehicles last week. Plus, headlines, chart of the week and podcasts you should listen to!

It’s about a 3 minute read total, unless you find a link you want to dig into :)

Earnings Calls This Week

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Last week we touched on gold, the safe haven asset with an unrelenting upward trudge. Over the past 3 years, it’s gained nearly 72%, and sailed through the $3.4K benchmark pretty cleanly this month.

This week we're interested in–as are many a bank analyst–Bitcoin’s surge to over $95K. What’s happening? 

First, there’s the backdrop of the stock market and tech stocks, which isn’t great.

Similar to the COVID-19 Pandemic, we’d expect Bitcoin to look more like Magnificent Seven than Gold. 

But then there’s the unrelenting stream of pro-Bitcoin headlines. Perhaps that’s wetted investor appetites to stick around and not dump their coins? 

Next we look to institutional flow of funds–as we do almost every Monday morning. Last week, CoinShares reported the third largest flow of positive funds into institutional Bitcoin investment vehicles ever at $3.4 billion. 

So what are the big banks thinking? Standard Charter is calling for $120K price targets and CoinShares claims investors see Bitcoin “as an emerging safe haven.” 

Quite a turn around from the last few weeks! Which leaves us in an odd position. Have we turned a corner with Bitcoin in 2025? And if so, why? Are investors viewing Bitcoin as a safe haven, like gold, or is the market repricing Bitcoin for other intangibles?

Stripe to launch stablecoin product after 10 year wait

CEO Patrick Collinson announced the initiative, which is in testing with users outside the US - link

Coinbase plans institutional Bitcoin yield product on ‘basis trade’ framework

The Coinbase Bitcoin Yield Fund will target a 4% annualized return for non-US institutional investors - link 

Nexo to re-enter US market after 2 year exit

The Swiss-firm offered ‘high yield’ investments for retail and left the US market following pressure for the SEC – link

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Bitcoin Core contributor receives backlash following ‘OP_RETURN’ suggestion

Antoine Poinsot of Chaincode Labs advocated for “dropping” the OP_RETURN default limits on Bitcoin Core due to the ineffectiveness of the standard, leading to harsh backlash on X - link

Saylor buys $1.42 billion of Bitcoin

Strategy bought 15,355 BTC at an average price of $92,737, but only has $127 million left in the current MSTR at the market offering (ATM) - link

Chart of the week

How big are stablecoin markets? Big, but also noisy. Visa breaks out the actual stablecoin volumes based on adjusted rankings, showing far less than the trillions in activity usually cited - link

Blockspace Podcasts

Welcome to The Mining Pod! In this episode, the team discusses recent Bitcoin mining trends, including an 8% drop in mining difficulty, fee revenue rising to 3.3% of block rewards, and significant loans from Coinbase and Matrixport to miners. They also cover the $2.7 million theft of Bitcoin miners at LAX, customs issues, and ASIC import tariffs. The main event is a debate on the top 5 moments in Bitcoin mining history, with some disagreement on including mining pools.

Welcome back to the Gwart Show! In Round II of the Crypto VC debate, Gwart and Haseeb discuss the value of tokens, the signal value of VCs, and benchmarks for success. They delve into Dragonfly's portfolio, the true value capture of tokens, and the potential of early-stage crypto investments. Moderated by Tarun, the debate highlights the tension between VC optimism and market skepticism.

Charlie and Colin reveal five lesser-known facts about Bitcoin: Satoshi's original client included a poker program, there's an off-by-one error in Bitcoin's difficulty adjustment, the 21 million cap isn't mentioned in the whitepaper, three major inflation bugs threatened Bitcoin, and "Bitcoin Pizza Guy" Laszlo Hanyecz was a pioneering contributor to its development and mining technology.

Enjoyed the read? Reply with something you liked (or didn’t like!). Tomorrow, Colin is cooking up something on Iran’s underground Bitcoin mining economy - you won’t want to miss it, trust me.

-Will