Fractal: Scale Bitcoin + Boost Miner Revenue.

Is Bitcoin’s most active scaling solution already here?

Fractal’s rapid hashrate growth and transaction growth suggest it might be.

A new report by Blockspace Media breaks down Fractal Bitcoin, the chain that’s quietly achieved:

🔸 ~80%+ of Bitcoin’s hashrate via merged mining

🔸 11 M+ daily transactions (comparable to Solana & Base)

Powered by Cadence Mining, a novel hybrid block production model, and seamless onboarding via UniSat, Fractal is emerging as Bitcoin’s most used innovation layer.

Read Full Report

Block’s Proto unveils Rig, its flagship ASIC bitcoin miner

Proto, the ASIC miner division of Jack Dorsey’s Block, released its first ASIC miner model at a launch event in Dalton, Georgia yesterday. The air-cooled model, dubbed Rig, packs 9 hashboards per unit and clocks in at ~800 TH/s with a nameplate efficiency of 14.1 J/TH. It can also be easily formatted for immersions set ups. — link

OUR TAKE: Promises made, promises kept. 

Assuming that Rig’s advertised efficiency and hashrate holds in operating conditions, Proto’s flagship has exceeded expectations.

At 14.1 J/TH, the model is less efficient than Bitmain’s S23 (11 J/TH), but it’s close enough that Rig’s specs are impressive for Proto’s first crack at ASIC miner design. 

But the real beauty of this model isn’t the model’s specifications – it’s the modular design. 

Miners can swap out Rig’s hashboards when upgrading, meaning that they don’t have to buy an entirely new, fully built miner when they want to improve their fleet – they only have to buy new hashboards. Proto estimates that this will reduce upgrading costs by 15-20% and elongate the hardware shell’s lifespan to 10 years (versus 3-5 years for legacy ASIC miner design).

This is a game changer. Now, miners can not only reduce the cost needed to upgrade, but they can also save time and effort when refreshing their fleets. Instead of deracking old models and reracking new ones, they just need to swap the hashboards. 

Professional miners have been exhorting Bitmain, MicroBT, and Canaan to introduce this functionality for years, but the leading ASIC manufacturers haven’t delivered because they can juice miners for more cash if they sell them fully-built units each time they need to upgrade. Leave it to a newcomer to disrupt “the way we do things here.”

The only way Proto could make this launch more successful is if the company announced that they are manufacturing these models in the U.S. This would reduce tariff-induced costs while also allowing U.S. miners (~1/3rd of the network) to source the beating heart of their operations domestically, reducing lead times to boot up fresh hashrate. 

Many would-be ASIC manufacturers have come and gone, over promised, under delivered. But Proto’s Rig launch proved that Block is swinging out the gate as a serious competitor by not only delivering a competitive flagship, but by internalizing miner feedback to provide them with a modular, more easily upgradeable model. 

Now, the only big question mark hanging over the launch is whether or not Proto can ramp up production to hang with the big boys. And if they can, will demand for the new model push competitors to copy the swappable hashboard design.

-CMH

Privacy coin Monero suffers 51% attack

Qubic, a project led by former IOTA co-founder Sergey Ivancheglo, claimed to have achieved 51% control of Monero's hashrate on August 12, 2025 through their pool. News of the attack triggered a 10% price drop and sparked fears about the network's security. The attacker chose not to exert their control except for a brief reorg, claiming the effort was “an experiment” — link

OUR TAKE: Proof-of-Work is a winner take all game and this event is just another epitaph to noble attempts to prove otherwise.

Qubic didn't need to rent hashrate nor deploy massive mining farms. They simply offered better rewards to existing Monero miners. "Any Proof of Work blockchain can be attacked and controlled by providing superior economic incentives to its miners," Qubic said (and demonstrated in practice). The incentive came in the form of an additional token that Qubic issued to miners who joined its pool (issued through a practice similar to merge-mining). This meant it was multiple times more profitable to mine with Qubic than just Monero.

The Monero community fought back with alleged DDoS attacks against Qubic's infrastructure, but eventually Qubic waged a selfish mining attack and tipped the scales.

“Everyone has network security assumptions until they get punched in the face.” – Muhammed Ali (probably).

Monero has made significant efforts to remain “ASIC-resistant” by hard forking the mining algorithm to one that theoretically can only accomodate CPUs. The motivation behind ASIC-resistance is largely rooted in a Bitcoin whitepaper quote from Satoshi Nakamoto: “Proof-of-work is essentially one-CPU-one-vote, but as many point out it is likely impossible to prevent specialized computers [ASICs] from dominating a proof of work system.”

Ironically, a solution to Monero’s woes might come from more competition from ASIC-powered miners.

“The only defense against this kind of raiding is to make sure ASICs are many orders of magnitude more efficient than any existing generic hardware, and (to the best of my knowledge) that can only be achieved by ASIC friendliness.” - DesheShai

What happens next? Well Monero still works, you can still transact normally. But does this harm long term confidence in Monero’s resilience? If the market is an indicator, -10% suggests that investors don't particularly mind.

-CBS

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KindlyMD Merges with Nakamoto with $540M to fund bitcoin treasury 

Nasdaq‑listed KindlyMD completed its merger with Bitcoin‑native Nakamoto Holdings, netting approximately $540 million in PIPE financing to kick‑start a bitcoin‑first corporate treasury strategy. The company wants to accumulate up to one million BTC under the Nakamoto brand, now a wholly owned subsidiary under CEO David Bailey. -link

Bo Hines steps down as White House crypto adviser, returns to private sector

Bo Hines, who has served since December 2024 as Executive Director of the White House Crypto Council, announced his resignation to rejoin the private sector. Bo says he will continue to support AI initiatives as a special government employee under David Sacks. His former deputy, Patrick Witt (formerly a senior Pentagon tech official) is expected to assume leadership. - link

Google Play changes policy to bar wallets lacking banking licenses, reneges policy after pushback

Google updated the policy for its Play store this week to block self-custody crypto wallets in the U.S. and EU that lacked money service licenses. Following backlash from the crypto community, the tech giant walked back the policy, clarifying that such wallets were exempt from the policy change. - link

Bessent rules out new Bitcoin buys for U.S. strategic reserve

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reiterate on Fox News that the government will not purchase additional bitcoin for its planned strategic reserve, adding that authorities will rely on existing, confiscated holdings without any intention to sell. - link