Author: John Smith

Trump Media-linked wallets transferred 2,628 Bitcoin, valued at about $165 million, to Crypto.com on Aug. 2, according to on-chain analysts Lookonchain. Summary 2,628 BTC moved to Crypto.com, but no company filing has confirmed an outright sale yet. Trump Media reported 9,542.16 BTC in March, including 4,260.73 BTC pledged as secured convertible-note collateral. Lookonchain estimates realized and unrealized Bitcoin losses at $555 million after seven months of transfers. The movement reportedly reduced the wallets’ remaining balance to about 4,261 BTC.Lookonchain described the movement as another sale and estimated that Trump Media had disposed of 7,281 BTC over seven months. However, neither…

Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 110 can no longer reach its 55% voluntary miner threshold during the current difficulty period, according to blockchain signaling data and an Aug. 1 analysis from Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor.  Summary 28 signaling blocks appeared among 1,108, leaving BIP-110 at 2.53% support as of Aug. 2. Saylor said all 24 initial signals came from DATUM miners sharing rewards through OCEAN’s system. Mandatory signaling starts at block 961,632, when enforcing nodes reject every non-signaling block as invalid. Strategy’s official website identifies Saylor as the company’s executive chairman. At block 960,561, Saylor counted 24 signaling blocks among 946,…

A crypto industry-aligned political action committee has pushed its spending above $2 million in Michigan’s 13th Congressional District, according to final-week Federal Election Commission disclosures.  Summary Protect Progress spending surpassed $2 million backing Thanedar and opposing McKinney before Tuesday’s primary vote. $884,240 in new advertisements supported Thanedar, while more than $150,000 targeted McKinney with opposition messaging. August 4 voters will decide the Democratic nominee after over one million Michiganders voted early. Protect Progress is supporting Democratic incumbent Shri Thanedar and opposing challenger Donavan McKinney before the Aug. 4 primary. Protect Progress is affiliated with the Fairshake network, which has received…

Russia will extend its regional crypto mining ban to Moscow, the Moscow Region and parts of Kursk Region from Aug. 15, 2026. Summary August 15 restrictions cover Moscow, Moscow Region and nine designated territories within Russia’s Kursk Region. Resolution 936 bars cryptocurrency mining and mining-pool participation through December 31, 2032, citing grid risks. Mining demand already totals one gigawatt in Moscow’s power system, according to regional energy officials. The prohibition will remain in force through Dec. 31, 2032, under Government Resolution No. 936. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed the measure on July 25. The government published it on the official…

Bitcoin mining difficulty has dropped 19.9% from its peak in the third deepest ASIC era decline on record, as miners sell bitcoin at record rates and redirect power capacity toward artificial intelligence data centers. Summary Bitcoin mining difficulty has fallen 19.9% from its November 2025 peak of approximately 156 trillion to 126.23 trillion, the third deepest decline since dedicated ASIC hardware replaced graphics processors. Network hashrate declined roughly 12% from its late 2025 peak above one zettahash per second to approximately 868 exahashes per second by late July 2026, with Bitcoin Magazine Pro tracking 287 consecutive days of downward trend.…

The United States has sanctioned Iranian exchanges, frozen nearly $1 billion in cryptocurrency, and traced $3.84 billion in Iran-linked flows through a single offshore exchange, exposing the scale of sanctions evasion through digital assets. Summary The US Treasury has sanctioned four Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges, including Nobitex, which handles approximately 50% of Iran’s crypto trading volume, as part of Operation Economic Fury launched in April 2026. Treasury has seized or frozen nearly $1 billion in cryptocurrency from Iranian exchanges and wallets since the US-Israeli strikes on Tehran in February, including a $344 million USDT freeze in April and a $131 million…

Bitcoin price hovered near $63,000 on Aug. 1 as US ETF outflows, weakening momentum and regulatory uncertainty kept buyers on the sidelines. Summary Bitcoin price is testing the $63,150 Fibonacci support after retreating from July’s $66,900 high. US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $265 million in net outflows on July 31. 4-hour money flow fell to −0.22, indicating sustained selling pressure. Liquidation clusters near $62,000 and $65,000 could shape Bitcoin’s next move. Bitcoin price struggles to hold $63,000 According to data from crypto.news, Bitcoin (BTC) price traded at approximately $63,082 at the time of writing after briefly falling below $63,000 during…

Proof of work is a consensus mechanism that forces computers to spend measurable energy solving a mathematical puzzle before they can add a new block of transactions to a blockchain. It is the reason bitcoin has value as a settlement network and the reason that network consumes more electricity than some countries. Summary Proof of work requires miners to find a hash output below a target threshold by repeatedly guessing a nonce value, consuming real computational energy in the process. Bitcoin adjusts its mining difficulty every 2,016 blocks, roughly every two weeks, to maintain an average block time of 10…

A zero-knowledge proof lets one party prove to another that a statement is true without revealing any information beyond the truth of the statement itself. It is the cryptographic technique behind blockchain privacy, scalable rollups, and a growing number of identity verification systems. Summary Zero-knowledge proofs allow a prover to convince a verifier that a computation was performed correctly without revealing the underlying data, enabling both privacy and scalability on blockchains. The two main families of zero-knowledge proofs used in blockchain are zk-SNARKs, which require an initial trusted setup ceremony, and zk-STARKs, which do not require trusted setup but produce…

A testnet is a separate blockchain network that mirrors a production chain’s rules and functionality but uses tokens with no monetary value. It is where developers break things, test upgrades, and discover bugs before those bugs can cost anyone real money. Summary A testnet is a blockchain network that runs the same software as a mainnet but uses valueless tokens, allowing developers to test smart contracts, protocol upgrades, and applications without financial risk. Ethereum has run multiple testnets over its history, with Sepolia and Holesky serving as the primary public testing environments as of 2026 after the deprecation of Goerli.…