• The Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve made its first purchase via BlackRock’s IBIT ETF.
• The state plans to transition from ETF holdings to direct self-custody of bitcoin.
• Texas’ move positions it as the frontrunner in government-level bitcoin adoption, potentially influencing other states.

Texas has made U.S. history by becoming the first state government to buy bitcoin for its treasury. The state purchased $5 million worth of bitcoin on November 20 through BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, known as IBIT.

The announcement was made on X by Lee Bratcher, president of the Texas Blockchain Council. Bratcher confirmed the news and said officials had been “diligently monitoring the market” before proceeding with the purchase.

He initially stated that $10 million worth of bitcoin had been bought, but later clarified that while $10 million had been allocated, the actual purchase totaled $5 million.

This marks the beginning of Texas’s new Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, a project designed to hold bitcoin as a long-term state asset.

Many states have talked about holding bitcoin, but Texas is the first to actually buy any using state money. With this move, Texas is now the frontrunner in government-level bitcoin adoption, and experts believe other states may follow.

According to Bratcher, Texas bought its bitcoin at an average price of about $87,000 per coin. He also explained that the ETF is only a temporary solution, saying, “Texas will eventually self-custody bitcoin, but while that RFP process takes place, this initial allocation was made with BlackRock’s IBIT ETF.”

This means Texas plans to hold its own bitcoin directly in the future, instead of through a fund.

The plan for a bitcoin reserve began last year when lawmakers started exploring how the state could legally buy and hold bitcoin. In June, Governor Greg Abbott signed a new law officially creating the Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

The legislation had wide support. Advocates said bitcoin could help strengthen the state’s long-term financial position. The reserve is also kept separate from normal state spending, which protects it from routine budget changes.

Earlier ideas for the reserve included requiring long-term cold storage, yearly audits, and even allowing residents to donate bitcoin. The concept was similar to federal proposals supported by Donald Trump and Senator Cynthia Lummis.

Other states, like Arizona and New Hampshire, have explored similar Bitcoin plans. New Hampshire recently approved a bitcoin-backed bond, and Arizona has studied digital asset reserves. But Texas is the only state so far to actually buy bitcoin with government funds.

Texas made its purchase during a drop in bitcoin’s price. The price recently fell from above $120,000, and some public figures said this made the timing smart.

Even though bitcoin can be volatile, supporters say it remains a strong long-term investment. Texas seems to agree, noting that this reserve is meant for long-term value, not short-term trading.

The state is now working on choosing a custodian and building the systems needed to safely store bitcoin itself. Once that process is finished, the state plans to move from holding the ETF to directly owning bitcoin in self-custody.

Then came the moment of clarity. He restored a wallet from a seed phrase and realized he could carry real wealth across borders in his head, and nobody on earth could take it from him if he did it right.

“I realized you could take this across borders, you could store it in your head,” he says. “If you have the right procedures this is something that no one could take away from you.”

That feeling of pure, unbreakable ownership you can back up in twelve words, was the spark. That’s why Evan started building Zeus.

From Nerd Money to Lightning Obsession

Once Bitcoin clicked as a permissionless store of value you could take anywhere, Evan ran into the same wall many Bitcoiners hit next: payments. On-chain Bitcoin is great for settlement. It’s awful for buying a beer during a fee spike.

As blocks filled up and people bid for space, he thought there’s no way this works at a grocery store. Ten minutes to an hour for confirmation is fine for a wire transfer, but not for the fast food drive through.

So when Lightning went live, he jumped. Evan spun up a dedicated node box at home while working his first job in cybersecurity in New York. He opened channels, bought stickers from the Blockstream store, saw payments clear instantly, and started earning routing fees.

“I could open channels to so many different nodes, and I could even earn these routing fees,” he said. “But just checking in once a day wasn’t enough for me.” He wanted to manage his node on the train, in the office, on the go, but the tools for that did not exist yet.

Zeus Starts as a Remote Control

By day, Evan was building React dashboards for big banks and corporations. That experience planted the seed. “There’s this React Native thing, I could use that to build a mobile app.”

Zeus began as exactly that: a remote control for your Lightning node. No marketing team. No venture deck. Just an excuse for a developer to scratch his own itch and check his channels from his phone.

He started hacking on it around late 2018. By 2019, Zeus had shipped as a free, open source, mobile first Lightning wallet, letting users connect to LND, Core Lightning, and other backends.

Fast forward to today and that side project is a full business. Four full time team members are working on Zeus. A wallet that can still talk to your home node remotely, but can also run an embedded Lightning node directly on your phone.

A Lightning service provider, Olympus by Zeus, now helps users get channels and liquidity without reading BOLTs all weekend.

What started as a nerdy remote control has grown into a serious attempt at a wallet ordinary people can actually use. And yes, it’s banned in mainland China, which in this line of work counts as a compliment.

Lightning UX Is Hard, Zeus Isn’t Pretending Otherwise

Ask Evan what’s hard about Lightning and he doesn’t sugarcoat it.

You’re effectively running a server. Your node has to stay online, sync the graph, and build routes. On a phone, that’s brutal.

A lot of wallets dodge that by hiding the hard parts. Some keep everything on-chain and use swaps in the background. Others lean on sidechains or federated setups. Some even go fully custodial to abstract away the complexity.

Evan doesn’t hate the experimentation. He actually praises the variety: Muun’s swap model, Liquid based designs, Ark, Arcade swaps, Cashu, and more. He thinks we’re still in the “try a bunch of stuff” phase. But he’s blunt about the tradeoff.

“While I love the experimentation, one of the trends that I’ve been seeing is that a lot of these creators of these new wallets are not so honest with their users,” Evan said.

“They blend the lines for marketing purposes whether something is self custodial or not, what’s really happening under the hood, and that’s really unfortunate.”

His bet with Zeus is different: treat people like adults. Explain the tradeoffs. Be clear if something is custodial. Make it easy to move up the self custody ladder when people are ready. That’s where Zeus’ next big idea comes in.

The Graduated Wallet: Tap To Become A Cypherpunk

Zeus started as a power user tool. Evan is the first to admit it. “We’ve really made the premier app for the very technical user, like those cypherpunks who want to be able to connect to their node remotely, have full power, do routing, all this great stuff.”

But that audience is tiny. If Bitcoin is going to matter for billions, your Lightning wallet has to be something you can recommend to your grandma, the waiter you want to tip, the Twitch streamer you support, or your friend who just wants to zap memes on Nostr.

So Zeus is turning into what Evan calls a “graduated wallet.”

The idea is to start simple. New users open Zeus and get a smooth experience. A Lightning address. Fast payments. No channel charts. No liquidity lectures. Use training wheels where needed.

Early on, that might mean a custodial setup, an ecash mint, or something hybrid. The priority is to give people that instant Lightning moment of fast, cheap payments without drowning them in configuration.

And then, detect when stakes rise. As a balance grows, Zeus acts like a sherpa and asks: “Your balance is getting bigger. Do you want to upgrade?”, guiding people up the ladder.

Some users will go all the way: run their own node, manage channels, and route payments. Many won’t. But almost everyone can reach a point where they hold their own keys for meaningful amounts and understand why that matters.

“We can at least get everyone to a place where they understand what self custody is, the importance of it, the risks of not doing it, and guide them to a place where they could hold their own keys,” Evan said.

The wallet is becoming more than just a tool, but an education path for Bitcoiners.

Why Evan Is Betting on Cashu and Privacy First

A lot of Bitcoin projects talk about user experience and quietly sacrifice privacy in the background. Evan thinks that’s a trap. “We’re in an adversarial environment,” he said.

Nation states lean on banks and big platforms to keep their grip on money. Wallet developers and Lightning providers are obvious pressure points.

If your architecture logs Xpubs, balances, and full transaction history on some central server, you’ve built a surveillance honeypot. And if a regulator shows up with a warrant, or worse, a gun, the pressure on the people running that server will be extreme.

So Zeus is pushing hard in the opposite direction. A key piece of that is Cashu ecash, a Chaumian style token system that hides individual balances behind blind signatures.

With Cashu, an adversarial mint could censor or rug users in bulk, but it can’t say this exact stack belongs to that person over there. Evan likes that property a lot.

“You can never target one individual user and say, ‘Hey, you’re out, buddy.'”

Is it perfect? No. You can still run fractional reserve. You can still block withdrawals. But if you care about privacy per user, it’s one of the best options on the table right now, and Zeus is leaning into it as the first stop in that graduated journey.

Importantly, they’re pairing that with a focus on Neutrino and client side validation when users run nodes on their phones, so they don’t have to leak their whole transaction graph to some server just to get a balance update.

Lightning as Language, Not Religion

If you spend enough time around hardcore Bitcoiners, you’ll meet people who treat every alternative approach as heresy. Evan doesn’t have patience for that. He thinks Lightning is becoming the lingua franca for Bitcoin payments.

Under the hood, different wallets will handle channels, swaps, and liquidity in different ways. Some people will ride fully custodial setups and periodically sweep into cold storage.

Others will live fully self custodial at every layer. If your reaction to that is to yell at people for using Bitcoin wrong, you’re going to be miserable.

“There’s going to be some people who are just on a Cashu wallet. They might not even touch self custodial Lightning,” he said.

“They might just build up balances and when it’s big enough they swap out and they go to cold storage on their cold card or something like that. Everyone’s situation’s different.”

For Zeus, the goal is clear: make a Lightning wallet that works for everyone while staying honest about tradeoffs.

Open Source, or It Dies in a VC Graveyard

Evan contrasted open source with his earlier career in proprietary software. He spent years shipping code inside closed systems for specific clients. The company that owned that code is gone now.

The work exists only as some dead repo in a VC portfolio. “Essentially that code is dead now. It couldn’t even be reused or repurposed. It’s just the property of these VCs that made this failed investment.”

Zeus is the opposite. The wallet is free and open source. The LSP protocols they’re building, like Olympus, are meant to be used by other wallets. That comes with pain.

Users can run Zeus with their own node, pay nothing, and never send feedback. Other wallets can copy ideas and code without sending a dime back. Much of the work is thankless.

But if Zeus disappeared tomorrow, the code would still exist. Other teams could fork it, study it, and carry the torch. That matters to Evan.

“If Zeus goes bust or, God forbid, I disappear off the face of the planet, my work can be repurposed, reused, put into a new wallet. People can learn from its lessons and continue things where we left off.”

Yes, Zeus Uses AI, But Actually Reads the Output

You can’t do a modern founder interview without asking about AI. Evan’s take is refreshingly grounded. He was skeptical at first. Now Zeus uses AI heavily, but as a power tool, not a crutch.

Newer developers ramp up faster by leaning on AI for explanations and scaffolding. The team can iterate on features and refactors much quicker. AI helps with code review and even release artwork for new versions. The catch: review has to be more serious, not less.

“You don’t want to just have AI spit something out and be like, ‘Okay, sure, this is in the project,’ and not understand how it works,” Evan said. “It’s an art in itself to be able to prompt AI and know what’s garbage and what approaches work.”

He’s been committing at least one change to the Zeus repo every day for more than a year. AI didn’t replace him. It let him move faster. “It should be your assistant. It shouldn’t be replacing your job.” That’s the same philosophy Zeus takes with users and their money: use tools, keep agency.

Satoshi, Anonymity, and Knowing When to Step Back

When asked what he would ask Satoshi if given the chance, he’d want to know what Satoshi thinks of Bitcoin now. Did it match his expectations? Were some tradeoffs mistakes? But he’s wary of hero worship.

“If he were to come back today, we wouldn’t want to treat him like a God,” Evan said. “Any new ideas he came to us with in 2025, I think he’d want us to scrutinize them as if they were proposed by any other anon.”

That respect for anonymity and decentralization lines up neatly with Zeus’s design: many nodes, many LSPs, many wallets, and no single entity that can be pressured into steering the ship.

Bitcoin doesn’t need a king. It needs many stubborn, freedom obsessed people pushing in similar directions.

Why Zeus Matters

In a sea of shiny fintech wrappers around Bitcoin, Zeus is taking a harder path. Self custody first, but with on ramps for normal humans, and Lightning that can actually live on your device, not just on someone else’s server.

We need a clear label on every trust assumption instead of marketing fog, like privacy as a design constraint, not an afterthought or open protocols that invite competition instead of locking users in.

Evan Kaloudis is blunt about Bitcoin’s future. If we leave Bitcoin locked in ETFs and brokerage accounts, heavily surveilled and routed through a handful of custodians, we lose the point.

Zeus is his answer to that problem: a wallet that can start as simple as a tip jar on your phone, then lead you step by step into full control without lying along the way.

The tech is catching up. The hardware is catching up. The question now is whether enough users care about freedom to climb that ladder.

If they do, there will already be a Lightning wallet waiting for them, built by a guy who learned that twelve words can mean freedom, and spent the next decade making that freedom harder to stop.

Interested in getting started with your own Zeus Wallet? Check out: https://zeusln.com/

• JPMorgan shut Mallers’ accounts without a clear explanation.
• Bitcoin supporters view it as part of broader industry pressure.
• The move sparks doubts about the bank’s compliance with Trump’s order.

Criticism of JPMorgan Chase is growing after the bank closed the personal accounts of Jack Mallers, CEO of the Bitcoin payments company Strike.

The closure happened without warning, and many people in the Bitcoin industry believe it is another example of U.S. banks quietly refusing to work with Bitcoin companies and their leaders.

Mallers said the bank closed his accounts in September and did not give a real explanation. He said that every time he asked for details, JPMorgan only responded by saying, “We aren’t allowed to tell you.”

A letter he received from the bank mentioned “concerning activity” and referred to the Bank Secrecy Act, but offered no specifics. The letter also said that JPMorgan “may not be able to open new accounts for you in the future.”

Mallers shared a photo of the letter, which he had framed, saying, “A proud moment,” showing he sees the letter as a trophy in his fight against central banking.

To make the situation even more surprising, Mallers said his father’s account was also closed at the same time. His father had been a private JPMorgan client for over 30 years.

This has led many people to believe the decision was not about a specific issue, but about the Mallers’ family’s involvement in Bitcoin.

Mallers had previously criticized Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, harshly, calling him “Jeffrey Epstein’s banker.”

Many people in the Bitcoin industry say this looks like “Operation Chokepoint 2.0.”

The sentiment was also echoed by Senator Cynthia Lummis in one of her posts on X, in which she said, “Operation Chokepoint 2.0 regrettably lives on.”

This is a phrase used to describe what Bitcoin supporters see as government pressure on banks to avoid doing business with digital asset companies.

The name comes from “Operation Choke Point,” an Obama-era government program that pushed banks to stay away from certain “high-risk” industries.

Between 2020 and 2022, many digital asset companies reported sudden account closures, frozen funds, and unusual compliance reviews. For them, the Mallers case is proof that the problem still exists today.

The bank’s decision is especially important because President Donald Trump signed an executive order in August banning banks from closing accounts just because someone works in the digital assets industry.

The order also said banks should not deny financial services because of political reasons or business category.

Trump has said he has experienced this kind of treatment himself. He said, “I can tell you, because I’ve been a victim myself because of my politics, that big banks were very nasty to us”.

Trump’s son, Eric Trump, also said that several major banks shut down accounts belonging to the Trump family near the end of Trump’s first term, which helped push the family toward Bitcoin.

With Mallers’ experience now widely reported, many people are asking whether banks are actually following Trump’s order.

Bo Hines, a former member of Trump’s digital asset advisory council, reacted to the news by posting online: “Hey Chase… you guys know Operation Choke Point is over, right? Just checking.”

• MSCI may drop Strategy from major indexes, potentially triggering large forced sell-offs.
• Bitcoin advocates accuse big banks of undermining BTC while building their own systems.
• Saylor defends Strategy’s broader business model as the boycott movement against JPMorgan grows.

A major dispute has grown between the Bitcoin community and traditional banking after JPMorgan warned that Strategy could be removed from major stock indexes.

This warning upset many Bitcoin supporters, who see it as another attempt by big financial institutions to limit the growth of the scarce digital asset.

In a recent research, JPMorgan said that MSCI, a company that manages major market indexes, may remove Strategy and other companies that hold large amounts of bitcoin.

If that happens, many investment funds that follow these indexes may be forced to sell the stock. This could cause billions of dollars in automatic selling and hurt Strategy’s share price even more.

Many Bitcoin supporters reacted quickly and angrily. Fred Krueger, co-author of “The Big Bitcoin Book” and a staunch Bitcoin advocate, highlighted the event, adding, “The enemy has a name: it’s the Banking system.”

Real-estate investor and Bitcoin advocate Grant Cardone said he “pulled $20 million from Chase” and is suing the bank.

Another well-known BTC supporter, Max Keiser, encouraged people to “Crash JP Morgan and buy Strategy and BTC.” Online, calls to boycott JP Morgan began spreading fast.

Many Bitcoin supporters have long believed that big banks criticize Bitcoin in public while quietly building their own blockchain systems in the background. This has created distrust that helped fuel the latest backlash.

They also believe that banks are using the idea of blockchain to create their own centralized version of digital assets, which defeats the entire purpose of Bitcoin: its decentralization and resistance to manipulation and censorship.

Strategy’s executive chairman Michael Saylor has made several public statements defending the company. He said that Strategy should not be seen as just a company that owns bitcoin. He explained:

“Strategy is not a fund, not a trust, and not a holding company. We’re a publicly traded operating company with a $500 million software business and a unique treasury strategy that uses Bitcoin as productive capital.”

Saylor stressed that Strategy raises capital, builds financial products, and is actively creating new Bitcoin-backed financial tools, something he says traditional funds do not do. Saylor highlighted that no passive fund or holding company can match what Strategy has achieved.

Even though Saylor is confident in the company’s future, Strategy has been facing strong market pressure. The stock price has dropped more sharply than bitcoin, and this has made investors nervous.

Strategy’s business model works best when its stock trades at a higher value than the bitcoin it owns, because that allows the company to raise money more easily without hurting existing shareholders.

This metric, comparing the value of the company’s shares to its bitcoin holdings, is called mNAV.

As the stock price falls closer to the value of its bitcoin holdings and mNAV approaches 1, that becomes more difficult.

Despite the recent market drop, Strategy’s massive bitcoin investment is still profitable. The company holds more than 649,000 BTC at an average cost of about $74,000 per coin. Even with the price pullback, the position remains in profit.

However, analysts warn that if MSCI removes Strategy from major indexes, it could force large funds to sell the stock. This could trigger even more selling and push BTC and Strategy’s stock prices lower as well.

While some investors are worried, many in the Bitcoin community are using the situation to reinforce their long-term belief in bitcoin.

The movement, driven by #BoycottJPM and #BoycottJPMorgan hashtags on X, has continued to grow, as many users encourage people to move money away from traditional banks.

In the meantime, Michael Saylor also made his position clear, posting:

“I Won’t ₿ack Down.”

The push came from a donor during Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. According to Antonia Roupell, Innovation and Tech Partnerships Lead, the organization “found a way to accept it,” and a door opened.

Today, that door is more than a donation page.

Under Antonia Roupell’s leadership, Save the Children is attempting to use Bitcoin, not just accept it. The goal is simple and practical: get money to families faster, with fewer bottlenecks, and give people the dignity to decide what they need most.

“In some circumstances we’ve found providing families with money, rather than other forms of assistance, enables them to prioritize their family’s needs,” Antonia said. Last year, Save the Children distributed around $140 million in cash assistance, and that number is growing.

From Convert to Fiat to Operate in Bitcoin

Most big charities that accept digital assets instantly sell them. Save the Children can do that too. But the Bitcoin effort Antonia leads is different. The team wants to hold bitcoin and, more importantly, operate with it where it makes sense.

“It was clear from bitcoin donors that we needed to find a way to accept and hold bitcoin donations. But to really unlock its potential, we are taking our Bitcoin Fund a step further–operationalizing the bitcoin,” she said.

With permission from donors, Save the Children is pledging to hold donations for up to four years and, during that time, aim to use that Bitcoin to supercharge their humanitarian and development programs.

Why does that matter? Because speed and access matter. Antonia described flying to an earthquake zone in Sulawesi, Indonesia in 2018. It took her two days and three flights.

Meanwhile, international funds still hadn’t reached the Jakarta office. Weekends, cross-border correspondent banks, and legacy rails all add friction, faced by the humanitarian sector at large. In emergencies, friction like this can be a matter of life and death.

“Even sending funds domestically, within the U.S. can take days to clear,” she said. Bitcoin and stablecoins can help Save the Children get ahead of that timeframe.

Cash Assistance First

Cash assistance, i.e. providing families with money, is the obvious starting point. In many countries, a bank account is a luxury, not a given. A phone, internet connection and a wallet app, however, might be within reach.

“We’ve tested in places like Bhutan,” Antonia said. They can send funds to a wallet someone downloads in minutes, no bank account needed. The off-ramps converting bitcoin to cash still have a way to go, but that first step is significant.

This isn’t a starry-eyed ideation. It’s operations. Save the Children works in more than 100 countries and must coordinate with governments and partners to reach millions of kids safely every year.

As Antonia put it, they’re practical: “Our priority is reaching kids facing the greatest challenges. We’re agnostic on technology.”

That pragmatism also means stablecoins will play a role in some contexts. But the center of gravity for this fund is clear: Bitcoin as a settlement rail and, where possible, as a medium of exchange.

A Push for Transparency and Independence

Antonia also connected Bitcoin to a broader funding challenge facing the entire sector. “Foreign aid cuts have hit the humanitarian sector hard. It has been a real reckoning,” she said.

“We realized we need to ultimately decentralize our dependence on governments and institutions and pioneer new ways of working so that we can continue to deliver our life-changing work around the world.”

Since announcing the Bitcoin humanitarian fund at the Plan B Forum in Lugano, Save the Children has heard from other major NGOs asking how it works. Leadership matters, and so does road testing. Someone has to go first so others can follow, preferably with lessons learned.

Bringing Bitcoin Home to U.S. Disasters

Don’t assume this is only for far-flung places. If the Bitcoin Fund grows, Save the Children wants to use it in the next U.S. emergency, whether in response to hurricanes or wildfires, so families can receive support faster.

“Save the Children is known for being one of the first responders in emergencies and, if our Bitcoin Fund is successful, we plan to integrate Bitcoin into the cash assistance that gets distributed to families in the aftermath of the next domestic emergency,” Antonia said.

The timing feels right. Point of sale acceptance has improved with Square rolling out Bitcoin payments for all their merchants, which could let families spend directly without off-ramping, and the payment rails don’t close on weekends.

Conflict, Kids, and Hard Truths

Bitcoin won’t stop a hurricane. It also won’t end conflict. But it can make aid more responsive, and it can give families a way to receive value when banks are shut, out of reach, or unsafe.

Antonia didn’t sugarcoat the reality. Globally, one in six children today live in a conflict-impacted area. One in five kids in the U.S. is food insecure. Save the Children’s mission is to protect children’s access to health, education, and safety, wherever these basic rights are threatened. 

On the long arc, she sees something else Bitcoin can do: protect private property and reduce the payoff for seizure. If you can’t easily pillage someone’s savings, the incentive to wage war for loot weakens. That’s a bigger conversation, but it’s on her mind.

“At Save the Children we see Bitcoin as a monetary technology that can be used as a force for good and a force for financial inclusion.

Our role is not advocating for global Bitcoin adoption but rather supporting the education and uses of peer-to-peer technologies, like Bitcoin, to deliver maximum value and financial solutions to those who need them most.”

The Playbook So Far

Accept Bitcoin (and other digital assets): Yes. If it comes in through the standard channels, it’s usually converted to fiat immediately for programs.

Cash assistance pilots: Early tests show people can receive funds quickly via wallet apps without a bank account. Off-ramps vary by country.

Bitcoin Humanitarian Fund: A dedicated track to hold and use bitcoin, with a pledge to hold up to four years and operationalize during that time with donor permission.

U.S. emergency plan: Use Bitcoin for domestic disaster cash assistance if the fund reaches sufficient size.

Growing interest from peers: Other large NGOs are asking how to replicate the model.

Donate: There’s a number of ways which you can support. 

• It’s giving season and you can help reduce your U.S. capital gains by donating bitcoin to Save the Children here.
• To get involved in Save the Children’s Bitcoin Fund, start a conversation, email bitcoin@savethechildren.org.

Learn More: You can find out more about Save the Children’s Bitcoin journey on their website.

To inquire about funding the Bitcoin Humanitarian Fund or partnering on pilots, you can reach out to: bitcoin@savethechildren.org.

There’s one practical note for would-be donors: right now the fund is geared toward larger gifts and pooled contributions while the program scales. Grassroots projects, gaming communities, or companies are already exploring pooling to reach the current minimum for the fund.

What About Nostr and Lightning Zaps?

Antonia has experimented with Nostr and is curious about spinning up a relay to make real-time micro-support easier. Think field updates, direct zaps, and transparent flows.

It’s early days, and Save the Children has to be careful with safety, privacy, and compliance, but the appetite to test is there. If you run a wallet company, a relay, or a payments platform, this is your opportunity.

AI in the Mix

Yes, they’re looking at AI, carefully. The organization handles sensitive data, so privacy and bias matter.

Antonia’s interest leans toward private, local, or privacy-preserving tools that help teams work faster while above all protecting vulnerable people. If you’re building those, knock on the same door: bitcoin@savethechildren.org.

Why This Story Matters to Bitcoiners

Plenty of institutions “accept bitcoin.” Far fewer try to use it in the field. Antonia Roupell’s focus is practical: reach more kids, faster, with fewer gatekeepers and clearer accountability.

“If we can lead the way, then others will integrate, and we can also learn from them,” she said. “It’s only going to make lasting change when we all integrate these kinds of technologies.”

That’s the challenge and the invitation. If you’re a donor, builder, or operator who wants Bitcoin to help real families in hard places, Save the Children is giving you a concrete way in. If you care about proof of work outside the price and hash rate charts, this is it.

• Kiyosaki sold 25 BTC to reinvest profits into cash-flowing businesses.
• New purchases are set to generate $27.5K in monthly tax-free income.
• Despite the sale, he remains bullish on Bitcoin and plans to buy more with future cash flow.

Robert Kiyosaki, the famous author, has sold $2.25 million worth of his bitcoin stash. However, he did not sell because he stopped believing in Bitcoin. Instead, he wanted to use the profits to buy businesses that would give him a steady monthly income.

Kiyosaki explained that he sold around 25 BTC for about $90,000 each. He originally bought them “years ago” for about $6,000 per coin. This means he made a very large profit from his investment.

With the money he earned from the sale, Kiyosaki is buying two surgery centers and investing in a billboard business. He says he expects these new investments to earn about $27,500 in tax-free income every month starting next year.

Kiyosaki said this decision matches the financial lessons he has been teaching for decades. Ever since he was young, he learned that investing should be about creating regular income, not just holding onto assets and hoping they increase in value.

He said, “This has been my ‘get rich plan’ since I began playing Monopoly with my Rich Dad for over 65 years.” His goal is always to use profits to buy businesses that pay him every month.

He also shared that his real estate investments already bring in a large monthly income. These new purchases will increase his total cash flow into “hundreds of thousands per month.”

This shows that his main focus is building income streams that keep earning, regardless of market conditions. As he put it, “I use valuable assets to fund businesses that generate cash flow.”

Even though he sold millions in bitcoin, Kiyosaki says he still believes in the digital asset’s long-term value. In fact, he plans to buy more BTC in the future using the extra money he earns from his new businesses.

“I remain very bullish and optimistic about Bitcoin and will begin acquiring more with my positive cash flow,” he said. He has predicted that the scarce digital asset could reach $250,000 by 2026 and even $1 million by 2030.

Kiyosaki believes bitcoin, gold, and silver are “people’s money,” while government currency is “fake money” because governments can print unlimited amounts.

Kiyosaki also refuses to invest in bitcoin ETFs, which he calls “fake Bitcoin,” because he prefers owning assets directly rather than through banks or Wall Street.

Kiyosaki’s sale happened during a sharp drop in the market. At the time of the announcement, bitcoin fell into the mid $80,000 range after dropping more than 30% from its recent high of over $126,000.

Many investors were panicking, and the Fear & Greed Index showed “extreme fear” in the market.

However, analysts explained that Kiyosaki’s sale was not large enough to impact the price of bitcoin. The move had nothing to do with fear of a crash—it was simply part of his investment strategy.

Some analysts believe bitcoin could recover and grow much higher. Some predict bitcoin could reach $200,000 by 2029, while others support Kiyosaki’s long-term outlook of strong future growth.

Recently, Kiyosaki started investing in Ethereum too, classifying it as “people’s money” alongside bitcoin. Bitcoin advocates warn about mixing the two in the same pot, saying they are very different.

He said, “Ethereum $60. I got this from Tom Lee. Ethereum is block chain for Stable coins. This means Ethereum follows METCALFS law…. The law of NET WORKS.”

Bitcoiners warn that Ethereum should not be treated the same as Bitcoin, because the governance model and fundamentals vastly differ.

• DHS is probing Bitmain rigs for hidden remote-access risks linked to China.
• Large deployments near sensitive U.S. sites triggered the investigation.
• Potential import violations and restrictions could hit U.S. Bitcoin miners hard.

The United States is investigating Bitmain, a Chinese company that makes most of the world’s Bitcoin mining machines. According to a report by Bloomberg, the government wants to know if these machines could be used for spying or sabotaging important systems in the U.S.

The probe, called “Operation Red Sunset,” is being led by the Department of Homeland Security. Officials are checking whether Bitmain machines have hidden features that might allow someone in China to control them from afar.

This could lead to data theft, surveillance, or damage to U.S. infrastructure.

To find out more, federal agents have taken some of Bitmain’s machines at U.S. ports and taken them apart to inspect the chips and software for “malicious capabilities.”

According to Bloomberg, U.S. authorities became alarmed after discovering that large groups of Bitmain machines were running close to important and sensitive locations.

These include power stations, military bases, and even a U.S. Air Force nuclear missile site in Wyoming. A government review called this situation a “significant national security risk.” Officials worry that the machines could be remotely controlled from China.

A Senate Intelligence Committee report said the machines could be manipulated from China and had “several disturbing vulnerabilities.” The report also warned that having so many of these devices next to key U.S. facilities was “an unacceptable risk.”

While investigators were checking the machines, the White House National Security Council was also holding policy meetings about the issue. These discussions began during Biden’s administration and continued after the change in leadership.

Some reports say these meetings briefly stopped after Trump took office, but the government publicly denies that policy work was halted.

DHS has not commented publicly on the status of the investigation, with a spokesperson only saying that the department “does not comment on open and active investigations,” as Bloomberg reports.

In addition to national security concerns, investigators are also looking into whether Bitmain violated import or tariff laws. This means authorities are examining whether the machines were brought into the country legally and whether all required duties were paid.

Bitmain and another Chinese company, MicroBT, control almost the entire global market for Bitcoin mining hardware. If the U.S. decides to restrict or ban these machines, American Bitcoin miners would struggle to find alternatives.

Other manufacturers exist, but they are often more expensive, less powerful, or difficult to obtain in large numbers.

The report says Bitmain denied the allegations, saying the claims against it are “unequivocally false.” The company insists it “strictly complies with U.S. and applicable laws and regulations, and has never engaged in activities that pose risks to U.S. national security.”

Bitmain insists that it follows all U.S. laws, and that it cannot remotely control its machines. It also highlighted that it has no connection to the Chinese government, and had never heard of “Operation Red Sunset”.

Bitmain says that when its devices were held at U.S. ports, it was due to normal inspections from the Federal Communications Commission, and nothing suspicious was found.

The issue is drawing even more attention because Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have business ties to Bitmain. Their company, American Bitcoin Corp., recently bought 16,000 Bitmain machines for about $314 million. Instead of cash transfers, they agreed to pay with bitcoin over time.

For now, no one knows the current status of Operation Red Sunset. National security investigations can take years and might never lead to public charges or court cases.

• Bitcoin hashprice drops to its lowest in a decade, squeezing miner revenue.
• Mining difficulty and network hashrate reach record highs.
• Transaction fees remain minimal, putting even more pressure on miners.

Bitcoin miners are currently facing one of the hardest economic periods in the industry’s history.

Recent data shows Bitcoin hashprice, which measures how much money miners earn for their computing power, has fallen to the lowest level ever recorded.

Hashprice is a metric first coined by Luxor in 2019. It basically measures how much money miners make in U.S. dollars if they control 1 petahashes per second of mining power in a day.

Luxor introduced the hashprice metric in 2019, but backfilled the chart using historical network data going back to 2016. On November 21, 2025, Bitcoin hashprice dropped to $34.49, its lowest point in the entire chart.

Even though bitcoin’s price is still high compared to past years, it is not enough to cover the increasing competition caused by the historic rise in bitcoin mining’s difficulty.

The network hashrate recently surpassed 1 zettahashes per second, pushing the difficulty to a record high of 155T, and as a result, miners are facing extreme conditions and falling revenue today.

Bitcoin Hashprice tells miners how much money they can expect to make per day for the amount of computing power they use. It depends on things like:

• Bitcoin’s price
• The hashrate the miner controls
• How difficult it is to mine
• Current block rewards
• Transaction fees paid by users

When the Bitcoin hashprice goes down, miners make less money even though they are doing the same amount of work. Right now, all the main factors that support mining revenue are moving in the wrong direction.

Reports show that the hashprice is now lower than it has ever been. Even though bitcoin’s price went up in previous months, hashprice continued to drop, because mining difficulty continued to surge.

And now, hashprice has fallen to below $35 per petahash per day, which is extremely low for the industry and makes it difficult for many miners to stay profitable.

At the same time, mining is harder than ever before because a record amount of computing power is competing to mine bitcoin. The total network hash rate is near 1.1 zettahash per second, which keeps mining difficulty high. This means miners should do more work to solve the blocks.

To make things even worse, transaction fees are very low. Only about 0.73% of mining income comes from fees, while most of the money comes from block rewards.

Fees were expected to become more important after repeated halving events, but that has not happened. As a result, miners are earning less with few fallback options.

The mining crisis is happening while the rest of the bitcoin market is also under pressure. Bitcoin’s price has dropped sharply from recent highs, and major Bitcoin ETFs have seen large withdrawals.

This has caused some of the miners to switch to AI to keep making money, and some analysts argue that investors are fleeing to gold.

Miners won’t be able to keep going like this without facing consequences. For now, the Bitcoin network remains secure because mining competition is still strong.

However, if profitability does not improve, the mining industry could see many shutdowns, mergers, and major changes in the months ahead.

• ADIC tripled its IBIT stake, showing its long-term conviction to bitcoin.
• ADIC and Mubadala together hold over 16 million IBIT shares.
• Abu Dhabi says it sees bitcoin as a gold-like diversification asset.

Abu Dhabi’s Investment Council (ADIC) has made a major move into Bitcoin. The fund tripled its investment in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) in the third quarter of 2025.

Even though the market fell shortly afterward, this step shows that Abu Dhabi is thinking long-term about Bitcoin.

ADIC increased its Bitcoin ETF holdings from 2.4 million shares to about 8 million shares by September 30. This new position was worth around $518 million.

It is one of the biggest known government-linked investments in a bitcoin financial product. ADIC appears focused on long-term growth rather than short-term price changes.

According to Bloomberg, a spokesperson said that the fund sees bitcoin much like traditional safe assets. They explained, “We view Bitcoin as a store of value similar to gold, and as the world continues to move toward a more digital future, we see Bitcoin playing an increasingly important role alongside gold.”

This means the fund believes bitcoin can help protect and strengthen its investments over time.

This investment is part of a broader direction across Abu Dhabi. ADIC is part of Mubadala Investment Co., a much larger sovereign wealth fund. Mubadala itself also reported owning 8.7 million IBIT shares, worth over half a billion dollars. Together, the two funds now hold more than 16 million ETF shares.

The IBIT fund, managed by BlackRock, is the largest Bitcoin ETF in the world, with more than $70 billion in assets.

Many institutions such as pension funds, universities, and national investment funds are now choosing bitcoin ETFs because they offer simple and regulated exposure to bitcoin without having to hold it directly.

Analysts say Abu Dhabi’s move shows that bitcoin is increasingly entering traditional financial portfolios. Other well-known investors, including Harvard University, also increased their IBIT holdings in the same period.

Bitcoin hit a record high in early October before dropping sharply below $92,000. The fall happened as many traders who used leverage were forced to close their positions.

This caused large withdrawals from bitcoin ETFs, including a record $523 million of one-day outflows from IBIT.

In total, U.S. bitcoin ETFs saw around $3.1 billion in withdrawals during November. However, even with this downturn, ADIC seems unfazed.

The council has been clear that it views bitcoin as a “long-term diversification strategy, much like gold. That means they expect price swings but plan to hold their position through the cycles.

Abu Dhabi’s investment in IBIT is only one part of its growing involvement in the digital asset sector. The UAE’s sovereign wealth funds manage more than $1.7 trillion, and many have already invested in digital assets.

Earlier in 2025, MGX, an investment firm backed by Mubadala, bought a $2 billion stake in Binance, one of the world’s largest exchanges. The purchase was made using USD1, a stablecoin linked to the family of U.S. President Donald Trump.

• El Salvador made a record BTC purchase despite a sharp market drop and IMF loan restrictions.
• The government may be using technical workarounds to keep buying without using fiscal-sector funds.
• Supporters praise the long-term strategy, while critics warn of financial risk and mixed transparency.

El Salvador has made its biggest bitcoin purchase ever. The country bought about 1,090 BTC in one day, worth around $100 million. The purchase happened as bitcoin prices dropped to their lowest level in months.

This brings El Salvador’s total bitcoin holdings to about 7,475 BTC. At current prices, that is worth more than $670 million. President Nayib Bukele celebrated the news by posting a screenshot on social media and writing, “Hooah!”

Bitcoin has recently fallen sharply. It even dropped below $90,000 as global markets became nervous. Many short-term investors sold their coins at a loss, and billions of dollars of leveraged positions were liquidated.

However, El Salvador decided to buy instead of sell. This continues Bukele’s strategy of purchasing one bitcoin every day. He began this policy in November 2022 and has continued through both good and bad market conditions.

Some analysts commended El Salvador’s commitment to buying bitcoin during market weakness. Supporters believe the country will benefit in the future when bitcoin prices recover. But no one knows for sure whether this long-term strategy will succeed.

The purchase has caused new questions, especially regarding the country’s deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). El Salvador has a $1.4 billion loan agreement with the IMF. As part of that deal, the government is supposed to stop making new bitcoin purchases using public funds.

Related: El Salvador Continues Buying Bitcoin Despite IMF Deal

Because of this, there are mixed messages about what is really happening. President Bukele said back in March that the country would keep buying bitcoin. But some believe that no new BTC purchases have been made since February.

The IMF has also suggested that increases in holdings might simply come from moving bitcoin between government wallets, not from buying more on the open market.

However, Stacy Herbert from El Salvador’s Bitcoin Office strongly disagrees. She has said that “Some ‘bitcoiners’ trust the words of the IMF over the stacking actions of El Salvador recorded for eternity onto the Bitcoin blockchain.”

The IMF may review this situation again later, but it is unclear whether anything will happen as a result. Some analysts believe El Salvador is being creative.

The country might be using legal and financial technicalities to keep accumulating bitcoin without formally violating its agreement with the IMF. While critics say the government is undermining the spirit of the deal, supporters argue it is simply following the rules creatively.

The IMF’s restrictions apply to the government’s core budget—money from taxes, sovereign debt, or international loans—so El Salvador is structuring its bitcoin purchases in ways that avoid using these “fiscal sector” funds.

El Salvador became the first country in the world to make bitcoin legal tender in 2021. The government launched a national Bitcoin wallet, provided incentives for users, and even proposed ideas like bitcoin bonds and a “Bitcoin City.”

Later, after its agreement with the IMF, the Latin American country dialed down its Bitcoin initiatives. Those include reducing involvement in the Chivo wallet, and making bitcoin acceptance by merchants optional.

Critics warn that this strategy is risky because bitcoin prices often change quickly. With the recent price drop, El Salvador’s bitcoin holdings have lost nearly $200 million in value from their previous highs.

However, the government continues to say that this is a long-term plan. President Bukele believes the goal is not only financial, but more like a reformation.

What began as a homemade GPU rig eventually became Canaan Inc., the company that shipped the world’s first Bitcoin ASICs and pushed mining from hobbyist tinkering to industrial-scale engineering.

Today, Canaan mines at an operating hashrate of 8.25 EH/s, holds more than 1,600 BTC in its treasury, and continues shipping ASIC chips worldwide. But the story starts long before NASDAQ listings or 300 TH/s machines.

The First Spark

Zhang remembers the exact moment he fell down the rabbit hole. Back in university while studying computer architecture, he discovered Bitcoin’s white paper through a tech news website.

“I was amazed. I think a system that runs purely on computation and consensus without any central authority, for an engineer it’s a very genius design.”

He built a GPU miner in a week. Then he moved to FPGAs (Field-Programmable Gate Arrays, chips that can be reprogrammed for specific tasks, making them more efficient than GPUs but still flexible enough to test designs).

Then, very quickly, he realized even that wasn’t efficient enough. That spark became the Avalon Project, and on January 31, 2013, Canaan shipped the first commercial ASIC miner to Jeff Garzik, a Bitcoin core developer at the time.

“The day changed the entire industry,” Zhang said. “We grew from a small team to a public company.”

From 110nm to 2nm: Why Mining Was the Preview for AI

When asked about the link between mining and AI hardware, Zhang had been waiting years for people to finally ask this question.

“The past decade of mining was a preview of the next decade of AI computing.”

He pointed out how Bitcoin mining pushed chip design down the process curve long before today’s AI hype cycle, from 110 nanometers (nm) all the way to 2nm in just about 10 years.

That experience gave mining engineers a decade head start on what AI hardware designers are now trying to catch up to.

And the parallels don’t stop there. Bitcoin gave people freedom of value. AI, he argues, will give people freedom of creation, especially for those who don’t know how to code.

Without AI making coding accessible to everyone, he believes it’s hard for people to achieve true internet freedom. But with AI, that becomes possible: a third wave of freedom for the entire community.

Canaan recently launched the Avalon A16XP, a 300 TH/s machine running at 12.8 J/TH. But Zhang wanted one message to be clear. “It isn’t built to achieve some scores in the lab. It’s built to run stable and profitable in real farms over time.”

After 16 generations of miners, Zhang still leads product development. He explained the improvements in simple, practical terms: a full redesign of the cooling structure, better airflow, larger heat sinks without making the machine taller, and a stronger 24-watt control system that reduces power loss.

“It runs steadily, hashes hard and needs almost no downtime. I know miners today are under heavy pressure so efficiency and uptime is everything.” The air-cooled model is shipping. Liquid and immersion versions are next.

The Next Frontier: Home Mining and a More Decentralized Grid

One of the more pleasantly surprising parts of the conversation was learning about Canaan’s lofty goals. Zhang wants 20% of global hashrate to come from homes.

“It’s very ambitious, it’s very hard, but when households can mine quietly and cleanly, Bitcoin’s decentralization becomes truly complete.”

Canaan has already built a home-series miner designed to be quiet, efficient, and able to reuse heat for home heating. Something he calls “bridges from traditional life, fintech, HPC, energy tech, everything combined together.”

On the industrial side, Canaan is embedding miners directly into the energy system. Not beside the grid but inside it.

“These projects are part of the grid, not a burden to it. We work directly with utilities and grid operators focusing on load balancing and renewable integration, always compliance and never competing with residential power.”

That includes work with CleanSpark, Soluna, a 20MW wind power site in Texas, grid-balancing pilots in Japan, and gas-to-computing projects in Canada.

Mining, in Zhang’s words, is now a financial battery.

“Bitcoin mining is a flexible and interruptible load. It can take the power when it’s cheap and release it when it is needed. I think about this as a financial battery. Bitcoin mining farms store value instead of energy.”

The implications go beyond just mining profitability. When energy producers can monetize previously wasted power through mining, they can justify building more capacity. More energy infrastructure means lower costs and more abundant power for everyone.

The numbers back this up. Global transmission losses sit at 5 to 8%, and renewable curtailment (energy generated but not used) often exceeds 10%. Some models project curtailment could hit 20% by 2050.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin mining uses around 0.5% to less than 1% of global power. Zhang’s point is clear: the mining industry consumes less energy than what simply vanishes in transmission lines.

What Excites Zhang Most About the Future

Zhang has answered the “future of mining” question for more than a decade, through multiple halving cycles, and he knows people are still missing how big the opportunity is.

AI is exploding. Energy demand is exploding even faster.

“Sustainability for the industry is very important. Energy demand is growing very fast and the rise of AI data centers is further pushing the grid to their limits. So meeting this demand sustainably is the ultimate energy challenge.”

He sees renewable sites bringing lower and more stable costs while new cooling systems cut maintenance needs. Together, the ROI compounds very fast.

Bitcoin mining, AI compute, and renewable energy are on a collision course, and Canaan wants to shape that future.

If He Could Ask Satoshi One Question?

Zhang laughed and admitted he’s heard this one for years. His answer was simple and sincere. “I want to know the real story behind Bitcoin. I want to know the original motivation.”

No private key jokes. No flashy answers. Just curiosity about the person whose idea kicked off everything he’s spent the last 14 years building.

Final Thoughts

Canaan is no longer just a hardware company, as Nangeng Zhang put it. It now sits inside the global energy stack, pushing the hashrate closer to clean power, driving chip design forward, and quietly working to bring Bitcoin mining back into ordinary homes. 

For someone who started in a dorm room with a homemade GPU rig, he hasn’t moved far from his first conviction: “Bitcoin already changed how I understand freedom. Efficiency is freedom, computing is freedom, and I still believe that.” 

If you want to dig deeper into Canaan’s work, or help them inch closer to that goal of 20% of Bitcoin’s hashrate coming from homes, you can visit their site at: https://www.canaan.io/

• Strategy used preferred shares to fund a major 8,178-BTC purchase, its largest buy since July.
• New euro-denominated shares supplied most of the capital.
• Analysts see the firm as resilient despite vocal critics.

Strategy, the software company led by Michael Saylor, has made another huge bitcoin purchase. The company bought 8,178 BTC last week for $835.6 million.

This is Strategy’s largest purchase since July and shows that the company is still committed to buying bitcoin, even during a period of price drops and stock pressure.

It bought this bitcoin between November 10 and 16 at an average price of $102,171 per coin. With this purchase, the company now owns 649,870 BTC, which it obtained for a total of $48.37 billion.

On average, the firm paid $74,433 per bitcoin over the past several years. Today, those holdings are worth over $60 billion.

Because the stock price has fallen by around 56% in the past four months, the company avoided issuing new common shares, which would hurt current shareholders. Instead, Strategy funded the purchase by selling different types of preferred stock, such as STRC, STRK, STRF, and STRE.

Related: Strategy Posts $3.9 Billion Bitcoin Gain in Q3 2025

The newest offering, STRE, is a euro-denominated preferred share and raised about $715 million from European investors. The company also raised another $131 million by selling its other preferred shares.

Together, these offerings are part of the company’s large $84 billion capital-raising plan, which will continue through 2027, and is meant to support ongoing bitcoin buying.

Before the filing became public, rumors spread online claiming Saylor’s company had sold 47,000 BTC. Michael Saylor quickly denied this.

He said on X, “There is no truth to this rumor,” confirming the points he made earlier during an interview with CBNC, where he stated, “We are buying. We’re buying quite a lot, actually.”

He also told CNBC that investors would soon be “pleasantly surprised” by the company’s new purchases — and it’s possible he was referring to this big 8,178 BTC buy.

Analysts at Bernstein also pushed back against the fears. They said the firm’s financial structure is strong and even designed to survive a 90% drop in bitcoin’s price for several years. They reminded investors that Strategy has only $8 billion in debt compared to more than $60 billion in bitcoin.

Not everyone agrees with Saylor. Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff again argued that Strategy’s business model is “fraudulent.” Schiff believes that if bitcoin drops a lot, Strategy will struggle to pay dividends and interest to shareholders, causing what he described as a “death spiral.”

Other experts, including Jeff Dorman from Arca, dismissed concerns about forced bitcoin sales, calling them “stupid and inaccurate.” According to Dorman, Strategy has no obligation to sell its bitcoin under current conditions.

The timing of the purchase came during a difficult week for the bitcoin market. The scarce digital asset fell below $93,000 on Monday, following 3 consecutive red days. Some analysts believe that bitcoin might find support in the $88,000–$90,000 range if selling slows down.

At the same time, Strategy’s stock price continues to fall. MSTR dropped to around $195 on Monday before rebounding the next day to around $211. Some analysts say the stock might fall even further if buyers don’t return soon.

Despite the uncertainty, Michael Saylor remains committed to Strategy’s plan of buying and holding bitcoin. He tells investors to “zoom out” and look at the long-term picture instead of short-term price swings.

• Steak ’n Shake’s bitcoin adoption boosted U.S. sales by up to 15%.
• The chain is opening its first Latin American location in Bitcoin-friendly El Salvador.
• The company plans to store the BTC it receives as part of its bitcoin treasury, strengthening its Bitcoin-friendly brand.

Steak ’n Shake, the American fast-food chain famous for its burgers and shakes, and recently its bitcoin adoption, is expanding into El Salvador. This decision comes after the company embraced bitcoin payments and saw a boost in sales across the United States.

The company announced its expansion after taking part in the Bitcoin Histórico event in San Salvador. This event brings together well-known Bitcoin supporters and businesses.

The company’s leaders said the visit helped confirm that El Salvador was the right place for their first Latin American location.

Dan Edwards, the company’s Chief Operations Officer, explained the decision clearly. He said:

“El Salvador is a country that is innovating and leading the way, and we greatly respect what President Bukele is doing here. This is Bitcoin Country, and we want our first restaurant in Latin America to be in El Salvador.”

Steak ’n Shake started accepting bitcoin at all U.S. restaurants on May 16, 2025. The company even introduced special items, like the “Bitcoin Steakburger,” to promote the launch. This helped create excitement around the new payment option.

Since adding bitcoin payments, the company has seen strong sales growth.

Reports show an 11% increase in same-store sales in the second quarter and a 15% increase in the third quarter. These increases were higher than those of major fast-food competitors like McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Starbucks.

The company believes accepting bitcoin helped attract more customers, especially those in the Bitcoin community. It stated that its embrace of BTC “likely helped drive the uptick.” While analysts say it’s hard to prove this directly, the timing suggests that bitcoin payments played an important role.

Although Steak ’n Shake strongly supports Bitcoin, it briefly considered accepting Ether (ETH) as well. In October, the company ran a poll on X asking if ether should also be accepted.

This decision sparked strong backlash from many Bitcoin supporters. One user, Ron Sovereignty Swanson, wrote, “ETH is centralized garbage. Bitcoin is freedom. Doing this would lose you all your Bitcoiner business, including mine.”

Because of this reaction, the company canceled the poll on the same day it started. Steak ’n Shake posted, “Poll suspended. Our allegiance is with Bitcoiners.” This showed how much the company values support from Bitcoin users.

Steak ’n Shake is working to make Bitcoin an important part of its identity. The company has even launched a bitcoin reserve, choosing to store all the BTC received from customers instead of converting it.

It also partnered with Fold, a bitcoin rewards app, to give customers $5 in bitcoin when they buy select “Bitcoin Meal” items.

These actions have strengthened the company’s image within the Bitcoin community. Many people now see Steak ’n Shake as one of the most Bitcoin-friendly fast-food chains in the United States.

The expansion into El Salvador is more than just opening a new restaurant. It represents the company’s goal of growing its presence in Latin America, and Bitcoin-friendly El Salvador seems like the best place to start.

Edwards said, “We are here to grow together, We want to enter Latin America, but we want our first flag to be planted in El Salvador.”

• Harvard sharply boosts bitcoin ETF holdings, making it its largest U.S. investment.
• The move is rare for a top university endowment and shows strong institutional backing.
• Harvard also increases gold ETF exposure, signaling a defensive strategy amid market volatility.

Harvard University has made a surprising and bold change in its investment strategy, sharply increasing its investment in bitcoin by buying a large amount of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT). This is unusual because Harvard is known for being very cautious with its investments.

Harvard’s newest filing with U.S. regulators shows that the university now owns 6.8 million shares of IBIT. These shares were worth around $443 million at the end of September.

Just a few months earlier, Harvard had only 1.9 million shares. This means the university increased its holdings by 257%, a huge jump in a short period of time.

This purchase makes IBIT Harvard’s largest publicly traded U.S. investment. It is now bigger than the school’s holdings in companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, or even its long-held gold ETF position.

Even though the IBIT stake is less than 1% of Harvard’s entire $55+ billion endowment, it makes up more than 20% of its publicly listed U.S. stocks.

Experts say Harvard’s decision is extremely rare for a top university endowment. Big schools like Harvard usually invest in private equity, venture capital, or real estate—not ETFs.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said Harvard’s move is “as good a validation as an ETF can get.” He also explained that getting a major endowment to buy any ETF is difficult, let alone one tied to bitcoin.

Because of this large purchase, Harvard is now one of the top 20 biggest holders of the IBIT bitcoin fund.

Harvard made this investment during a rocky time for bitcoin. In recent weeks, bitcoin fell more than 5% and dropped below $100,000. Spot bitcoin ETFs also saw huge outflows, with almost $900 million leaving the funds in a single day.

Despite this, Harvard increased both its bitcoin and gold positions. The school nearly doubled its holdings in the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD) to 661,391 shares, worth $235 million. This suggests Harvard is trying to protect its portfolio with assets that may help during times of economic uncertainty.

Harvard’s decision stands out because some of its own past experts were very skeptical of Bitcoin. In 2018, Harvard professor and former IMF chief economist Kenneth Rogoff said bitcoin was more likely to drop to $100 than rise to $100,000.

“I think bitcoin will be worth a tiny fraction of what it is now if we’re headed out 10 years from now,” he said at the time. He also predicted governments would regulate it so heavily that it wouldn’t be useful.

Recently, Rogoff admitted he misjudged how Bitcoin would evolve. He said he was “far too optimistic about the U.S. coming to its senses about sensible cryptocurrency regulation” and underestimated the political incentives around digital assets.

• First online master’s focuses solely on Bitcoin, will be taught entirely in English.
• Curriculum spans tech, economics, philosophy, energy, and practical applications.
• Enrollment opens January 2026, with scholarships and industry experts involved.

Hesperides University, a private online university based in Spain’s Canary Islands, has launched a new and groundbreaking program: the world’s first Master’s in Bitcoin.

This is a fully online graduate degree focused only on Bitcoin — its technology, its economics, its impact on society, and even philosophy. While other universities usually mix Bitcoin into larger “crypto” or blockchain courses, Hesperides has created a program dedicated to Bitcoin alone.

The university says this program is an important step toward recognizing Bitcoin as a serious subject worthy of academic study. Program director Kristýna Mazánková explained why this matters, saying:

“Bitcoin deserves its academic space. For years, universities have treated Bitcoin as a side topic, lumped together with speculation and short-lived trends. This program stands apart — it’s a declaration that Bitcoin deserves serious academic attention, as both a revolutionary technology and a tool for human freedom.”

This Master’s in Bitcoin is the first English-language graduate program in the world focused entirely on Bitcoin. Hesperides University wants to offer a structured, high-quality way for people to study Bitcoin deeply — not just as a digital asset, but as a technology that could transform finance and society.

The program is designed for professionals, entrepreneurs, and researchers who want a strong, organized understanding of the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The program focuses on Bitcoin’s core subjects: monetary theory, cryptography, energy use, economics, philosophy, journalism, and real-world applications.

Students will learn through a mix of academic lessons and practical training. They will work on real cases, research projects, and hands-on exercises. Courses are reportedly taught by experts and professionals who are actively involved in the global Bitcoin community.

Related: University of Wyoming Bitcoin Research Institute | A Word with the Director

Hesperides University says that this master’s degree reflects its mission to support independent thinking and intellectual freedom.

The university’s rector, Gabriel Calzada Álvarez, said, “The Master in Bitcoin embodies our vision of independent education rooted in intellectual freedom. We want to create a space where open minds can research, question, and collaborate on Bitcoin without ideological bias.”

The curriculum shows this goal clearly. Students will take courses on:

• The history and theory of money
• Bitcoin’s economic principles
• Bitcoin vs. other cryptocurrencies
• Legal and tax topics
• Mining and energy
• Cryptography and security
• Journalism, communication, and public policy
• Business development and Bitcoin-focused companies

The master’s degree also includes a final thesis and represents 60 ECTS credits. Scholarships and corporate sponsorships are available, including full and partial tuition assistance.

The new program is 100% online, making it accessible to students everywhere. Enrollment opens in January 2026, and those interested can sign up early on the university’s website. The program is built with flexible scheduling so that working professionals can manage both their jobs and their studies.

Hesperides University is also inviting Bitcoin specialists, educators, and industry leaders to join the program as mentors, lecturers, and guest speakers. Anyone with experience in fields such as economics, finance, journalism, mining, cryptography, or security can apply.

Program director Kristýna Mazánková brings strong experience from the Bitcoin industry. She previously worked in technology and corporate communications, led communications at SatoshiLabs, and served as Head of PR at BTC Inc.

She said, “We are building a degree that focuses on Bitcoin and the paradigm shift in nowadays finances, and a degree that gives you technological and financial literacy for the 21st century.”