Join Us for "Bitcoin & Brews - The Billionaire’s Tailgate" at the Bitcoin Conference!

Date: July 25th
Time: 6:30 PM - 11:30 PM
Location: 6th and Peabody (Next door to the conference center)
Presented by: Coinbits and partners.

Enjoy three hours of live singer-songwriter performances on the main stage, delicious bites from Nashville favorites, and tailgate-inspired recreational activities such as ping pong, arcade games, and corn hole.

Free tickets available – no conference ticket necessary. Don’t miss out on the most talked-about event to kick off the conference! Get tickets now.

BITCOIN BOX SCORE

Exchange Rate: $64,380
Market Capitalization: $1.27T
Hash Rate (90 days): 594.9 EH/s
Transactions (30 days): 17,955,926
Network Fees (economy): 4 sat/vB
Bitcoin Dominance: 55.93%

What do these numbers mean?

Had the German government held onto the bitcoin it sold two weeks ago, it would now have hundreds of millions of dollars more since bitcoin’s exchange rate rose. However, not all national leaders are making the mistake of eschewing hard money.

American leaders are descending on Nashville this week to attend the Bitcoin Conference. Seven current U.S. Senators are going, the former President (and leading candidate) is delivering the headline speech, and another candidate with a devoted base will also be speaking.

The energy in the United States is shifting in a pro-enterprise, pro-bitcoin, and pro-energy direction. The Wall Street Journal profiled the everyday Americans donating bitcoin to President Trump's campaign. In addition, bitcoin company Fold IPO'd, Proton launched a bitcoin wallet, Ferrari accepts bitcoin, and Coinbits launched Coinbits Plus, a subscription that gets you as much bitcoin you want for the lowest possible price and many other rich features.

Welcome to Bitcoin Week. Enjoy the ride!

NEWS

📋 Nakamoto Project releases 2024 American Bitcoin Survey Report

The Nakamoto Project, an academic nonprofit, released an extensive study using survey data to determine factors influencing bitcoin ownership and adoption in the United States. In partnership with Qualtrics, the survey included a nationally representative sample of 3,538 adults, gathered in two stages: an initial sample in November 2023 and a follow-up in March 2024.

According to the study, bitcoin is widely recognized, with 95% of Americans familiar with the term and 14% owning it. Contrary to common assumptions, bitcoin ownership is not strongly tied to political affiliation. Owners span the political spectrum and are primarily moderates. Demographically, bitcoin owners resemble the general U.S. population in terms of race, ethnicity, income, education, and financial literacy, though they tend to be younger and male.

Factor breakdown

The study identified four major factors influencing bitcoin ownership: knowledge about bitcoin, belief in its utility, trust in the bitcoin protocol, and perceived morality of bitcoin. These factors were highly interrelated and strongly correlated with ownership.

Interestingly, those who own bitcoin exhibit a blend of liberal and conservative moral foundations, with a slight emphasis on values like equality, proportionality, loyalty, cultural liberty, and purity.

⚡️Lightning Labs launches Taproot Assets on Lightning, enabling stablecoins on the Lightning Network

Lightning Labs released the Lightning-native Taproot Assets protocol, enabling users and developers to utilize the existing Lightning Network for transactions in various units of account. This protocol enhances interoperability, allowing seamless cross-asset transfers, including between USD stablecoins and BTC.

Opportunities abound

This development could unify fragmented payment experiences and boost liquidity and reliability for bitcoin transactions. The integration of stablecoins and other assets on the Lightning Network will drive further innovation and adoption, positioning bitcoin as a central hub in the global financial ecosystem.

💸 Fold to go public via SPAC merger

Bitcoin financial services platform Fold announced plans to go public through a SPAC merger with FTAC Emerald Acquisition Corp., with a pre-money equity valuation of $365 million. The combined company will be listed on Nasdaq under a new ticker, with Fold expecting to hold over 1,000 Bitcoin on its balance sheet post-merger.

MicroStrategy playbook?

Fold CEO Will Reeves indicated that the firm would be joining a growing number of companies implementing the "MicroStrategy playbook," using public markets to acquire bitcoin.

⛏️ Bitcoin miners take advantage of AI boom

Bitcoin miner Iris Energy (IREN) is up almost 50% year to date. Financial services firm Canaccord raised its Iris price target to $15, highlighting its robust power capacity and infrastructure for bitcoin mining, cloud computing, and AI colocation.

Other miners, like Core Scientific, are also capitalizing on AI opportunities, boosting their equity prices through deals with AI firms like CoreWeave. AI and high-performance computing are becoming profitable alternative revenue streams for bitcoin miners.

A strong trend is shaping up

The combination of bitcoin mining, renewables, and nuclear power could lead to a new energy renaissance. This integration would enhance the efficiency and sustainability of power usage, fostering economic innovation.

BITCOIN ADOPTION CONTINUES

Coinbits launched Coinbits Plus, with Spending Insights, Connected Wallets, Peer-to-Peer Payments, and much more.

Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis plans to announce legislation for a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville.

SunnySide Digital and Cryptech Solutions launched Synteq Digital, a new company that serves the bitcoin mining and high-performance computing (HPC) industries.

Proton launches Proton Wallet, a self-custodial bitcoin wallet integrated with ProtonMail.

Alby announces the waitlist for Alby Hub, a one-click install Lightning node with seamless self-custodial wallet integration and external app connectivity.

Metaplanet Inc. joins forces with Hoseki to release a bitcoin proof of reserves system.

HOW BITCOIN WORKS

Learn one key idea about bitcoin each week. This week:

Gresham's Law, bitcoin, and the dollar.

Gresham's Law states that "bad money drives out good." In a dual or multi-currency economy, people spend devaluing currency (bad money) and hoard stable currency (good money). This means that bad money will have an advantage in terms of circulation.

Hayek's Perspective

Friedrich Hayek noted that Gresham's Law only applies when fixed exchange rates are enforced by law:

What Jevons, as so many others, seems to have overlooked, or regarded as irrelevant, is that Gresham’s law will apply only to different kinds of money between which a fixed rate of exchange is enforced by law. If the law makes two kinds of money perfect substitutes for the payment of debts and forces creditors to accept a coin of a smaller content of gold in the place of one with a larger content, debtors will, of course, pay only in the former and find a more profitable use for the substance of the latter.

With variable exchange rates, however, the inferior quality money would be valued at a lower rate and, particularly if it threatened to fall further in value, people would try to get rid of it as quickly as possible. The selection process would go on towards whatever they regarded as the best sort of money among those issued by the various agencies, and it would rapidly drive out money found inconvenient or worthless. Indeed, whenever inflation got really rapid, all sorts of objects of a more stable value, from potatoes to cigarettes and bottles of brandy to eggs and foreign currencies like dollar bills, have come to be increasingly used as money, so that at the end of the great German inflation it was contended that Gresham’s law was false and the opposition and the opposite true. It is not false, but it applies only if a fixed rate of exchange between the different forms of money is enforced.

In a free market with variable rates, inferior money would be quickly discarded in favor of more stable forms of money.

Bitcoin versus the Dollar

In the coming years, bitcoin and the dollar will compete in a dynamic environment. According to Hayek's interpretation of Gresham's Law, absent fixed exchange rates, bitcoin would become the preferred money over time while the dollar will remain in everyday use until it is eventually discarded.

The Bitcoin Adviser simplifies the process of moving your coins off exchanges safely and securely. Get one month free when you sign up with this link!

COIN CHECK

Which U.S. state became the first to accept Bitcoin for tax payments in 2018?

1. California

2. New York

3. Hawaii

4. Ohio

Check your answer at the end of the page.

FROM THE MEME POOL

Follow us on Twitter for more fresh content

ANSWER

4. Ohio partnered with BitPay to launch OhioCrypto.com, which allowed residents to pay their taxes with bitcoin, but suspended the service a year later.

Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.