Greetings Bitcoiner,

Welcome to Issue #180 of your daily Bitcoin Breakdown newsletter, where we have some excellent Opinion & Analysis pieces and Tools & Projects for you today!

But first, today’s Top Stories:

• ⚡Lightning Leap: Bitcoin's Investment Power

• 🇨🇿 Czech Bank Head Champions Bitcoin's Unique Role

• 🐱 Mow Spotlights Bitcoin's Bizarre Price Puzzle

TOGETHER WITH GLOBAL CUSTODY PRO*

*You can find more newsletters to check out here.

Feb 20, 2025

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

⚡Lightning Leap: Bitcoin's Investment Power

A new report by Fidelity Digital Assets highlights how the Lightning Network protocol is emerging as a disruptive technology for Bitcoin, enhancing not only its practical utility but also its thesis as an investment asset. Lightning Network capacity surged by 384% since 2020, reaching approximately $509M (5,358.50 BTC). New protocols and the recent USDT integration have upgraded its utility, increased transaction volumes, and fuelled institutional adoption. These findings further solidify Bitcoin’s role in the global financial system, strengthening its long-term value proposition and making it an even more attractive investment. Atlas21

🇨🇿 Czech Bank Head Champions Bitcoin's Unique Role

Czech Central Bank Governor Aleš Michl has come out swinging for Bitcoin on 𝕏 by distinguishing it from other ‘digital assets’ and advocating a tailored approach that supports a test portfolio to explore its reserve asset potential. Michl compares today's Bitcoin and crypto market to a turbulent transition and stresses caution, urging that investors understand the inherent risks while recognizing Bitcoin's unique record-setting and unparalleled significance in the digital finance sector. Atlas21

🐱 Mow Spotlights Bitcoin's Bizarre Price Puzzle

Samson Mow, CEO of JAN3, argues Bitcoin’s tight price range of late is not natural but a sign of possible manipulation despite strong institutional inflows. With retail and institutional buyers still active, silent sellers seem to keep prices in check as Bitcoin consolidates. Optimists continue to predict significant gains ahead, asserting that the market is merely undergoing a strategic consolidation phase. Cointelegraph

POLL

OPINION & ANALYSIS

• Epoch, a Bitcoin VC firm, in a new report, analyzes key trends, adoption metrics, and infrastructure developments shaping Bitcoin’s future, covering investment flows, network security, institutional participation, and the evolving role of Bitcoin in global finance (Feb 19 | 60 min read).

• Aoyon Ashraf, writing for CoinDesk, analyzes whether Argentinian President Milei's recent crypto 'fiasco' might be a deathblow for the memecoin craze after the LIBRA token touted by him on 𝕏 resulted in approximately $4.5B in retail losses (Feb 19 | 7 min read).

• JP Cortez, executive director for the Sound Money Defense League, examines America's need for a thorough audit of its gold reserves to restore public trust and expose historic flaws in oversight through legislative efforts and renewed accountability measures (Feb 19 | 3 min read).

• Matt Corallo, an outspoken Lightning developer, critiques custodial solutions while advocating for trustless, noncustodial approaches and evolving Lightning technology that preserves Bitcoin's core values and fosters a more scalable future for the network (Feb 19 | 4 min read).

• MEVpool, a private mempool marketplace standard, enables miners to directly aggregate both Sealed and Unsealed bids, democratizes Bitcoin MEV opportunities, reduces mining centralization, and introduces innovative approaches to transparent transaction inclusion in block templates (Feb 19 | 9 min read).

• Frank Corva of Bitcoin Magazine offers a critical analysis of USDT integration via Taproot Assets, arguing that it poses a security risk and philosophically undermines Bitcoin’s origins as an alternative to US dollar dominance (Feb 19 | 4 min read).

• Blink, a custodial Lightning wallet, writes about its PicknPay integration that enables South Africans to spend bitcoin at PicknPay through MoneyBadger and the Lightning Network, enhancing convenience and proving bitcoin as a reliable medium of exchange (Feb 18 | 4 min read).

• Mark and Daniel of Unravel Markets examine how an expanding M2 money supply and liquidity shifts could influence Bitcoin's price trends and investor behavior, revealing predictive correlations that underscore the asset's rising desirability under dovish central bank policies (Feb 18 | 3 min read).

• Frank Corva of Bitcoin Magazine presents Amboss CEO Jesse Shrader’s optimistic analysis of how USDT on Lightning and innovative Amboss tools transform Bitcoin payment infrastructure by reducing costly traditional fees while enhancing network liquidity and performance (Feb 18 | 7 min read).

• Will Jager, writing for The Rage, outlines how UK, EU and US government proposals, including Chat Control and the EARN IT Act, challenge encryption backdoors while critics argue these measures endanger user privacy and global digital security (Feb 18 | 3 min read).

• Bubblemaps, a blockchain data analytics firm, tracks how the same team behind MELANIA used cross-chain sniping tactics to launch tokens like LIBRA, generating over $100M profits through coordinated insider trades and elaborate pump and dumps on USDC protocols (Feb 17 | 2 min read).

• Expatriotic, a Bitcoin writer, presents a comprehensive guide for de-Googled Pixel phones that systematically removes corporate surveillance hooks and legacy vulnerabilities through proactive hardening, Rust integration and advanced support superiority (Feb 13 | 3 min read).

• Kyle Torpey, a Bitcoin journalist, analyzes crypto's evolution from Bitcoin's decentralization ethos to a centralized finance paradigm as platforms like Coinbase's Base and USDC-dominated ecosystems merge fintech and crypto ecosystem dynamics (Feb 12 | 7 min read).

• ICYMI: Allen Farrington, a Bitcoin Venture Capitalist, presents a sharp analysis in his talk ‘Fiat Is Retarded’, exposing how fiat impedes economic growth and social capital while advocating hyperbitcoinization as a countermeasure against the detrimental effects of inflation and political correctness (Bitlyrics Transcript) (Jun 21 2024 | 12 min read).

TOOLS & PROJECTS

• The Orange Pill App launches their Bitcoin Lightning wallet, enabling instant, low-cost transactions to usernames, LNURLs, or addresses.

• Start9 Labs introduces the 2025 Server Pure, featuring a 45% faster CPU, upgraded NVMe SSD, and enhanced performance for self-hosting solutions.

• Tokyo Bitcoin Base offers a dedicated co-working and co-living space for Bitcoin enthusiasts, fostering community engagement through regular meetups and events.

• A critical vulnerability in Lightning Network nodes forces operators to upgrade outdated LND (pre-0.18.5) and LITD (pre-0.14.1) versions to prevent complete node drainage.

• Alby releases its six-month Lightning channel stats, revealing 4,000 channels, 53 BTC in liquidity.

• DarthCoin presents a detailed pricing analysis on inbound Lightning Service Provider channel fees for 1M sats, providing essential cost insights for private Lightning Network node users as of February 19.

• Braiins invites all Braiins OS users to participate in an open challenge, aiming to achieve top efficiency on their ASIC miners and win a $210 gift card.

• OpenSats receives $250,000 from the Human Rights Foundation's Bitcoin Development Fund to bolster operational capabilities and support open-source Bitcoin projects.

• Breez SDK's Nodeless 0.7.1 update enhances Bitcoin payments with support for Liquid assets like USDT, faster transactions, and improved sync.

• GitPlaza is a GitHub alternative built on Nostr written in Rust with Iced GUI.

• Unleashed.chat implements Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC) support.

• eNuts mobile Cashu wallet has been discontinued, with users being advised to switch to Macadamia on iOS or Minibits on Android for continued support.

• Raspberry Pi's CanSat competition challenges students to build can-sized satellites using the Compute Module 4 and Sense HAT.

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