Happy Friday, In A Nutshell this week:

  • 🏀 Bitcoin’s All-Star Marketing Team?

  • 🇸🇻 Five Years On, Still Committed

  • ⚔️ AI’s Fight for Control

  • 🌿 Madeira’s Bitcoin-Powered Farm

  • 🇺🇸 The Plan to Make America’s Bitcoin Untouchable

  • …and much more

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🚀 Today’s news should be a ~5.13-minute read (791 words).

🧠 Quote Of The Week

“The concentration of power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.”

— Milton Friedman

🏀 Bitcoin’s All-Star Marketing Team?

A trailer has dropped for Bitcoin Season, a new documentary following Swan Bitcoin's push to bring Bitcoin-only partnerships into professional basketball.

The film frames Bitcoin not as a financial product but as a tool of player empowerment. Athletes are increasingly taking control of their careers, their brands, and their money, and Bitcoin's fundamentals align naturally with that shift.

The NBA is one of the most culturally influential leagues in the world. Could this be one of the next catalysts for mainstream Bitcoin adoption?

🇸🇻 Five Years On, Still Committed

The first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, El Salvador, is still buying five years on.

The government now holds 7,677 BTC worth approximately $480 million, accumulated through a strategy of buying one Bitcoin per day since November 2022.

Bitcoin was stripped of its mandatory legal tender status in January 2025 as a condition of a $1.4 billion IMF loan, but the government has not sold a single coin and continues to add to its stack.

⚔️ AI’s Fight for Control

Anthropic is positioning itself as the gatekeeper of AI, launching its most powerful model to date while simultaneously calling for government regulation that would give authorities the power to block competitors before they reach the public.

Tighter regulation raises the barrier to entry for smaller companies, and nobody benefits from that more than those already at the top.

It echoes the financial system, where the biggest players shape the rules to suit themselves, which is why Bitcoin exists. As AI becomes the most powerful tool in the world, who controls it has never mattered more.

🌿 Madeira’s Bitcoin-Powered Farm

Joe Nakamoto visited a family farm in Madeira that is growing herbs, succulents, and endemic species, with greenhouses heated by Bitcoin miners.

Fred and Daniela grow these species 400 metres up a mountainside using permaculture methods. Solar panels power the miners for free during the day, and at night, the Bitcoin earned roughly offsets the grid electricity.

The result is greenhouse heating that pays for itself. No banks, no energy company, no industrial food system. Just sun, soil, and sats.

🇺🇸 The Plan to Make America’s Bitcoin Untouchable

The complete text of the American Reserve Modernization Act has been published, revealing the details behind the bill that would permanently bring a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve into US federal law.

  • All Bitcoin held in the reserve would be subject to a mandatory 20-year lock-up and cannot be sold, swapped, or disposed of for any reason.

  • After that period, the Treasury may sell no more than 10% of holdings every two years, subject to Congressional review.

  • Quarterly proof-of-reserve audits are required, and the government cannot use new borrowing or taxes to acquire Bitcoin.

This is legislation designed to make the US Bitcoin reserve permanent, transparent, and untouchable for a generation.

🚫 Not Everyone Gets a Pardon

Sam Bankman-Fried has formally applied for a presidential pardon while serving a 25-year prison sentence for fraud and conspiracy following the collapse of FTX.

In recent months SBF has publicly praised Trump's foreign policy and credited him with fixing the SEC, a clear attempt to win favour. Trump has pardoned Ross Ulbricht, CZ, and the BitMEX founders, but has publicly stated he does not intend to do the same for SBF.

The line has been drawn. Whether Trump holds it remains to be seen.

🔥 What else have you missed?

1. FCA moves to allow funds to allocate 10% exposure to Bitcoin ETNs

2. Over 50% of the Bitcoin supply is now sitting underwater

3. Morgan Stanley now offers loans against spot Bitcoin ETF holdings at 50% LTV

4. SBI Shinsei Bank, a major Japanese bank, to pay up to 20% of deposit interest in Bitcoin

5. Michael Saylor releases The Four Ideologies of Bitcoin

6. Fold sold $45 million BTC to pay off debt and focus on growth

7. Coinbase says institutions aren't panicking about Bitcoin, 'love it even more' at lower prices

8. Jack Mallers asks Michael Saylor to define mNAV in Prague

9. Botanix to wind down Bitcoin Layer 2 network

10. Strategy buys another 1,550 BTC after the controversial 32 BTC sale

🍾 Friday Fun!

This week’s crossword is now live - Play here

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Until next week✌️,

Alex & The BC Team

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