20 September  2024 · Block Height 862101 · Bitcoin Price $63K

Welcome back to the Blockspace Newsletter!

Today, we have an interview with PubKey owner Thomas Pacchia about Trump’s historic bitcoin burger purchase, as well as news items that range from the wacky (a 4,000 BTC social engineering attack) to the mundane (what the Federal Reserve is up to — as if you didn’t already know…).

The Blockspace Newsletter is presented by Fold, the best place to buy Bitcoin.

What caught our eye this week

A President, bitcoin mining CEO, and pub owner walk into a bar…

Most folks probably didn’t have Donald Trump’s supporting Bitcoin on their 2024 election-cycle bingo card, let alone a keynote speech at Bitcoin 2024. So they definitely didn’t have the Presidential hopeful purchasing burgers with bitcoin at a New York City dive bar, but so it goes.

Trump made a pitstop to the Bitcoin bar PubKey yesterday while en route to a rally in Long Island. In the dive packed wall-to-wall with Bitcoiners and journalists, Trump made history as the first President to purchase a round of burgers – or anything for that matter – with bitcoin.

“Who wants a burger?” Trump asked a giddy audience. “These suckers are good too,” he continued. 

The drop-in seemed spontaneous, and it sort of was, Pub Key owner Thomas Pacchia told Blockspace. Pacchia had been going back and forth with the Trump campaign for 5 months, but he didn’t know that Trump was definitely stopping by until six days prior to the event.

“On September 12 they said that they were in and we had six days to prepare,” Pacchia said, adding that the Secret Service spent “at least four hours a day for six days” preparing the venue for the event.

Pacchia recalled a packed house of around 65 individuals, a patchwork of press, Bitcoiners, Secret Service members, and Trump staffers. The atmosphere was electric, teeming with energy.

“Vibes were high. It was incredible. PubKey is not a huge bar…we were effectively at capacity, and people were f****** amped,” he said.

As a parting gift, Pacchia and team gifted Trump a copy of the famous Buy Bitcoin sign and an American flag flown at the behest of Elizabeth Warren to honor Satoshi Nakamoto. 

When asked about whether or not this event signals a significant shift in the Overton Window for Bitcoin, Pacchia said he’s hopeful. But he stressed that he doesn’t want the event to be politically coded. In addition to Trump, Pacchia extended invites to President Biden, Vice President Harris, Chuck Schumer, Vivek Ramaswamy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and JD Vance.

Bitcoin is a big tent — and the more folks that are in it, the better, Pacchia concluded.

“We want everybody here… it's important that this is apolitical and that everybody is welcome. We have invited both campaigns. We have hosted Democrats, we have hosted Republicans. This is not a Trump bar. This is not a Democrat bar. We are apolitical in the same way that the Bitcoin protocol is apolitical.”

Hashprice is stuck at record lows of 0.00069 BTC/PH/Day or about $40 USD/PH/Day. On the other side, NiceHash pay rates are record breaking and practically back at pre-halving values! The NiceHash pay rate (hashprice) averaged at about 0.00140 BTC/PH/day, or about 80 USD/PH/Day! Connecting to NiceHash is as straightforward as connecting to any other pool. Check the guide here or click the banner to learn more!

News Roundup

How a Twitter anon helped track down a $243m BTC theft

• Crypto Twitter’s favorite anonymous wassie sleuth is at it again in case that feels straight out of the Looney Tunes exuberance of a Thomas Pynchon novel. ZachXBT, along with Cryptoforensic Investigators and zeroShadow, helped law enforcement track down a trio of thieves who filched 4,064 BTC worth $243 million from a Gemini account via a sophisticated social engineering attack. The group used the boosted funds to purchase Lambos, designer bags for TikTok/Instagram influencers, and other high-end goodies. Miami police arrested two of the perps on September 18. 

Fed lowers fund rate and bitcoin is JUICING

• Money printer go brrrrrr? Not quite yet, at least, but the US Federal Reserve lowered its fund rate by 0.5% to 4.75-5% this Wednesday, the first decrease since the Fed began a precipitous hiking cycle in March 2022. Bitcoin has reacted positively to the news; at the time of writing, it’s up 5% in 24 hours and 9% week-over-week to $63,000. 

SEC vs. Coinbase case could be pushed to March 2025

• The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has requested a four month extension to its discovery deadline in a suit levied against Coinbase. This extension would allow the SEC to review additional documents to build its case accusing Coinbase as acting as an unregistered securities broker, which it brought forth in June 2023. If granted, the pre-trial conference for the case will be rescheduled for March 6, 2025.

Chart of the Week

As we covered in this week’s Mining Pod Newsletter (which you can subscribe to here), Riot Platforms has spent a whopping $204 million on over 90 million Bitfarms shares since March. The driving force of this spending spree is Riot’s daring attempt to acquire Bitfarms after its rival rejected an unsolicited $950 million offer to purchase the business in April. 

If you liked this newsletter, please reply with “Bitcoin burger" — it will help us improve our deliverability.