BITCOIN BOX SCORE

Exchange Rate: $114,360
Market Capitalization: $2.28T
Hash Rate (90 days): 921.5 EH/s
Transactions (30 days): 14,363,077
Network Fees (economy): 2 sat/vB
Bitcoin Dominance: 58.22%

What do these numbers mean?

With the brutal killings of Irina Zarutska and Charlie Kirk, the U.S. has been thrust into a national conversation about crime, culture, and coexistence. There have been many key decisions that have led here, but one of them that is perhaps under-appreciated is the decoupling of the dollar from gold in 1971.

It is now indisputable that many of the protests and political movements of the past two decades have been funded by a byzantine network of NGOs and non-profits. The money that makes its way to them comes from corporations and philanthropists who donate money to curry favor with institutionalized power. The balance of funds comes from intelligence agencies themselves.

With this money, organizers have professionalized the application of political pressure through agitprop and street tactics. These movements are not organic, yet the mainstream media runs cover by framing them as nothing more than grassroots energy boiling over. Of course, the media is also funded by many of the same power players for that very purpose.

Fiat money is the key technology that lets this system operate. The ability to print money and distribute it through crony networks makes it possible to fund organizations that would never survive in a free market, like absurd university departments and bloated bureaucracy. Surveillance of fiat bank accounts and money flows is pervasive, ensuring that funds are only allowed to move if they fortify the power of elites.

The Irina Zarutska murder would seem at first to be primarily about naive, soft-on-crime policies – until you dig one layer deeper and discover that the judge who let the killer free may have had a financial interest at odds with public safety. If it turns out there was corruption, it will be interesting to find out how much of the stolen money came from public funds, non-profits, and other shadowy fiat networks.

The tragic Charlie Kirk assassination is still so recent at the time of this writing that there is not yet a suspect in custody. We know nothing about whether and how fiat was used in support of the crime. However, we do have thousands of online testimonials expressing glee at the killing, and many of these people are now facing job loss and harassment. It is worth noting that a disproportionate number of them are professional educators. Before this week, it was widely accepted that fiat was partially to blame for the bankrupting of the middle class with student loans and the indoctrination of our children in alien ideologies. However, it now seems that we can go a step further: educational institutions now appear to be so distorted and corrupted by fiat that countless educators are unmoored from reality.

If our nation is to heal after the events of this week, fixing the money is one part of the solution. Bitcoin makes financial privacy easier for everyday people, while making it harder for powerful institutions to censor transactions or print and distribute money for corrupt ends. Let’s all do our part during this time of great challenge to encourage people to think about how broken money is a bigger part of the problem than we might first assume.

NEWS

Nepali protestors turn to Bitchat after social media blackout

After Nepal banned 26 major social media platforms on September 4, youth protestors in Kathmandu turned to Bitchat, an innovative censorship-resistant messaging app backed by Jack Dorsey. Downloads of the app, which uses a Bluetooth mesh and Nostr to work without internet, surged nearly 49,000 times in a single day as demonstrators ousted the prime minister and set parliament ablaze.

Freedom tech finds its use case

As developer Calle noted, the app will soon enable bitcoin-based e-cash transactions, which would allow people to make bitcoin payments free of any intermediaries, including internet infrastructure. The protests highlight a deeper truth: governments can ban platforms, but they cannot ban protocols. Tools like bitcoin, Nostr, and Bitchat are the building blocks of lasting freedom.

New York millionaires flee, taking $14 billion with them

New York City’s highest earners are leaving in droves, stripping the city of $14 billion in gross income over the past few years, according to the Citizens Budget Commission. Migration to Florida, Texas, and even nearby suburbs threatens the tax base that funds much of New York’s public services.

Capital moves at the speed of incentives

As economist Peter C. Earle observes, “when money and mobility align, no amount of political rhetoric can stop people from voting with their feet.” Bitcoin offers a similar lesson: money flows to where it’s treated best. Unlike fleeing to Florida, moving wealth into bitcoin doesn’t require relocating across state lines — just across the fiat divide.

Strategy snubbed by S&P 500 as Robinhood gets surprise inclusion

Despite meeting every technical criterion, Michael Saylor’s Strategy was denied entry into the S&P 500. Instead, the committee chose to add Robinhood, sending its stock up 7% while Strategy fell 3% after hours. JPMorgan noted the rejection reflects reluctance to recognize companies with bitcoin-heavy treasuries, even as Strategy has delivered one of its strongest quarters in history.

Committees, insiders, and arbitrary power

The S&P’s opaque index committee operates much like the Federal Reserve: a handful of anonymous insiders making discretionary calls that shape trillions in capital allocation. Bitcoin removes that discretion. Where the Fed manipulates money supply and the S&P committee manipulates benchmarks, bitcoin enforces rules without rulers. Every time these gatekeepers reveal their biases, it only serves to demonstrate why the world needs a neutral, incorruptible monetary system.

Hollywood takes on bitcoin with ‘Killing Satoshi’

Director Doug Liman is set to helm Killing Satoshi, a conspiracy thriller exploring the mysterious origins of bitcoin and why Nakamoto’s identity threatens global power structures. Casey Affleck and Pete Davidson will star, with filming beginning in London this October and a 2026 release planned.

Bitcoin enters the cultural mainstream

As Liman put it, “this film is about what bitcoin really is.” The fact that Hollywood is now telling stories about bitcoin’s origins shows how deeply the idea has entered public consciousness. Whether the movie treats Satoshi as hero or threat, the truth remains that no script can rewrite bitcoin’s monetary policy, and no government or cabal can kill what is already immortalized in code and consensus.

BITCOIN ADOPTION CONTINUES

CIMG raised $55M to buy 500 bitcoins, joining Strategy and Metaplanet in expanding corporate bitcoin treasuries.

Onramp launched Onramp Institutional, offering audit-ready bitcoin exposure with multi-custodian vaults, governance controls, and on-chain verifiability.

Chipper Cash now routes over 50% of its bitcoin transactions through Lightning, showcasing Africa’s leap over fiat rails and into the future of money.

Metaplanet completed one of Asia’s largest bitcoin-focused raises, securing $1.4 billion to expand its treasury and income business.

EasyJet founder Sir Stelios launched easyBitcoin with Uphold, aiming to simplify retail bitcoin investing as corporate holdings surpass 1 million coins.

Analyst Merlijn The Trader says bitcoin’s “supercycle ignition” could drive prices toward $360,000 as spot ETF inflows hit their highest since July.

Early bitcoiner Charlie Shrem is auctioning prison-era memorabilia and Bitcoin Magazine Issue #1 on Scarce City, marking 10 years since his early release.

Cantor Fitzgerald launched a five-year “Gold Protected Bitcoin Fund,” giving investors 45% of bitcoin’s upside with gold as a safety net.

HOW BITCOIN WORKS

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

Bitcoin vs. Web3: One is money, the other is marketing

With new “Web3” and blockchain companies hitting public markets at lofty valuations, it’s worth reminding ourselves (we wrote about this three years ago): these ventures are not bitcoin. At best, they’re speculative tech startups; at worst, they’re elaborate grifts wrapped in jargon.

Web3 was pitched as a new era of the internet — “read-write-own.” In practice, it became “read-write-issue-a-token.” Every problem, from podcast monetization to social media posts, has been met with the same solution: spin up a new token and let speculators gamble on it. As Marty Bent notes, this turns ordinary internet activity into a “Rube Goldberg machine” of tokenization that forces users into degenerate speculation with high time preference behavior.

Bitcoin is categorically different. It was not designed to be a platform, or an app layer, or a marketing gimmick. It was designed for one thing: money. With a fixed supply, decentralized consensus, and over a decade of proven security, bitcoin provides a foundation of sound money that no Web3 token can replicate. As I wrote back in 2022, holding a Web3 token is like holding a tech stock — a bet on a specific project’s success. Bitcoin, by contrast, is a bet on the universal demand for reliable money.

That’s why bitcoin adoption keeps accelerating even as past fads like ICOs, NFTs, and now much of Web3, fade away. “Blockchain, not bitcoin” was the first grift. “Web3 tokens” are simply the latest one. The real innovation is not speculative tokenization but the alignment of incentives in a peer-to-peer system built on bitcoin and open protocols like Lightning and Nostr.

Bitcoin doesn’t care about Web3, because they’re not in competition. One is digital hard money. The other is marketing buzz. Only one of them is built to last.

COIN CHECK

Which of these qualities makes bitcoin superior to Web3 “utility tokens” as money?

A. Bitcoin is backed by physical commodities
B. Bitcoin can be printed at will by developers
C. Bitcoin’s monetary policy is fixed and cannot be changed
D. Bitcoin is run by a central company with fiduciary responsibility

Check your answer at the end of the page.

FROM THE MEME POOL

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ANSWER

C. Bitcoin’s monetary policy is fixed and cannot be changed

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