Happy Friday, In A Nutshell this week:

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🚀⏰ Today’s news should be a ~4.46-minute read (715 words).

🧠 Quote Of The Week

“Trusted third parties are security holes.”

— Nick Szabo

Paraguay’s central bank has frozen the accounts of around 3 million people, roughly 60% of the adult population, after seizing Ueno, the country’s biggest digital bank.

Regulators stepped in after Ueno’s capital fell below half the legal minimum. About $800 million of public money is caught up, including savings from the state pension and health fund.

The fallout reached the top on Thursday. President Santiago Peña, a former investor in a company linked to Ueno, announced his resignation as protests filled the capital and Congress debated impeaching him. The central bank’s president has also gone.

The Democratic sweep of Congress has effectively shelved the CLARITY Act for two years, according to TD Cowen’s Jaret Seiberg.

The bill would have set clear US rules for crypto markets. It passed the House in July 2025 but stalled in the Senate, and it dies on 3 January unless Congress revives it before then.

In plain terms, it’s unlikely we will see a new US crypto rulebook from Congress for at least two years, with Elizabeth Warren likely to chair the Senate Banking Committee. The SEC and CFTC will make the rules instead, and Seiberg expects them to stay friendly to the industry.

Blockstream’s Liquid sidechain has closed its 602 Bitcoin gap and is fully backed one for one again.

The hole opened in September, when an exploit let attackers withdraw nearly 4,000 Bitcoin before returning 3,400. Federation members topped up the reserve with four deposits, the last two landing on 2 November.

Direct withdrawals remain restricted until a security audit wraps up, but the promise made in September is now being kept in November.

Strategy’s STRC preferred shares have climbed back to their $100 par value for the first time since May, after dipping below $80 in June.

The recovery follows about $2.25 billion in buybacks and a 12% annual dividend, now paid daily. At $100, Strategy can sell new STRC shares again to fund Bitcoin purchases.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino says the company holds around 150,000 Bitcoin, worth roughly $11.5 billion.

That is about 50,000 more than its latest reserve report shows. Speaking at the Plan ₿ Forum in Lugano, he didn’t say where the extra coins sit, though Tether keeps profit-funded investments separate from its stablecoin reserves. It earned about $1.5 billion last quarter.

The world’s biggest digital dollar keeps saving in Bitcoin.

This week we’re trying a different style of podcast. In our new unscripted episode, Jordan, Jez and Alex each bring one story that caught their eye and talk it through.

They cover Bitcoin adoption in El Salvador, why signing up 15 merchants in Tooting Market was maybe a mistake, how Tether turns Treasury bill interest into Bitcoin, and why AI could leave legacy banks exposed.

The episode is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify

1. Pumphreys Coffee: Why a 275-year-old UK coffee business is now accepting Bitcoin

2. American Bitcoin adds 425 BTC and swings to a $126 million quarterly profit

3. France scraps mandatory reporting of self-custodied crypto over €100,000

4. UK Tax: Why earning just over £100,000 can leave you worse off

5. The FBI names North Korea’s TraderTraitor behind the Binance hack

6. Block sets aside $764 million for a DOJ settlement

7. Moscow Exchange will list Bitcoin for trading from 1 December

8. BTCPay Server tells operators on older versions to shut down after hot wallets were drained

9. Anthropic launches a beta in the US for Personal Finance tools in Claude

10. Brazil’s Mercado Bitcoin freezes deposits and withdrawals after $40m hack

This week’s crossword is now live - Play here