Greetings Bitcoiner,

Welcome to Issue #202 of Bitcoin Breakdown, where it’s OPSEC Wednesday special, followed by the latest Quick Bits snippets.

But first, today’s Top Stories:

• 🇺🇸 Trump Aide Declares US Govt Wants 'As Much Bitcoin As We Can Get'

• ⛏️ Demand Launches First Stratum V2 Bitcoin Mining Pool

• 🏦 Xapo Bank Announces $BTC.X ( ▼ 0.42% )-Backed Loans Up To $1M

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Mar 19, 2025

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

🇺🇸 Trump Aide Declares US Govt Wants 'As Much Bitcoin As We Can Get'

Bo Hines, Trump's Executive Director on Digital Assets, declared the US government's intent to accumulate 'as much Bitcoin as possible' in 'budget-neutral ways,' while speaking at the Digital Assets Summit in New York yesterday. Following Trump's executive order establishing the US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, the administration views Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset, repurposing forfeited BTC. Legislative efforts support the initiative, with proposals including accumulating 1M BTC over five years. Bitcoin Magazine

⛏️ Demand Launches First Stratum V2 Bitcoin Mining Pool

DEMAND launched the first Stratum V2 Bitcoin mining pool, addressing the issue of mining pool centralization and aiming to empower individual miners by giving control of block creation back to them and maximizing miner profits. The project, backed by Trammell Venture Partners, invites miners until March 28 to join as 'founding miners,' offering 0% fees and block-building independence. Forbes

🏦 Xapo Bank Announces BTC-Backed Loans Up To $1M

Xapo Bank, a wealth manager for long-term bitcoiners, now offers BTC-backed loans up to $1M. Unlike exchanges that encourage leverage, Xapo focuses on wealth management, not trading, and safeguards customers' BTC with a conservative 20%-40% loan-to-value ratio. This means Bitcoin would have to crash below $40,000 for borrowers to face liquidation. Customers can borrow to buy property or cars with flexible repayment schedules and no early repayment penalties. CoinDesk

POLL

OPSEC FEATURE ARTICLE

9 Privacy-Focused F-Droid Apps to Keep Your Data Safe

Unlike the Google Play Store, F-Droid is a community-driven app store and doesn’t track you.

Every app on it is free of ads and open-source, meaning the code is vetted by the community.

This week we introduce 9 outstanding privacy-focused apps available on F-Droid to enable a safer experience on your phones.

From secure messaging and web browsing to password management and tracker-blocking, these apps will help fortify your digital life.

Get instant access to this special feature by becoming a premium supporter here.

QUICK BITS

• Declassified JFK Files reveal former US President Kennedy’s war on central banks and the connections between monetary policy and power structures, mirroring today’s Bitcoin vs CBDCs battle.

• Bitcoin outperforms other major global assets post-Trump election, including stock market equities, US treasuries, and precious metals, despite market correction.

• Whale profits $3.9M from a highly leveraged Bitcoin short position despite a coordinated attempt to push the price higher to spite them.

• Analysts find that Bitcoin price action no longer follows the halving cycle, with macroeconomic factors now playing a larger role.

• Marla Maples, Donald Trump's ex-wife, calls for the dismissal of charges against 'Bitcoin Jesus' Roger Ver for alleged tax evasion.

• Acting SEC Chair Mark Uyeda directs staff to reexamine the proposed custody rule that mandates registered investment advisers to keep Bitcoin and crypto with a qualified custodian.

• North Carolina introduces a new bill giving the State Treasurer the authority to invest 10% of public funds into bitcoin.

• Coinbase study finds that 83% of institutional investors plan to increase their Bitcoin or crypto allocations in 2025.

• Senator Jeremy Miller of Minnesota, once a skeptic, is now championing Bitcoin, introducing the 'Minnesota Bitcoin Act.'

• North Dakota's Senate passes a bill regulating Bitcoin ATMs, limiting daily transactions to $2,000 per user to ‘combat rising ATM fraud.’

• Publicly traded companies holding Bitcoin surged to 80 in 2025, driven by its use as an inflation hedge and strategic reserve asset.

• Apple's new Passwords app had a major security flaw, leaving users vulnerable to phishing attacks for nearly three months before being patched.

• Bitfarms completes the acquisition of Stronghold Digital in a stock-for-stock merger and expands its footprint in the US.

• Metaplanet buys an additional 150 BTC, boosting its total holdings to 3,200 BTC, and raises $13.3M through bond issuance to buy more bitcoin.

• Strategy plans to offer 5M shares of Series A Perpetual Strife Preferred Stock to raise capital for general corporate purposes, such as buying more bitcoin.

• Tether increases its stake in Bitdeer, a bitcoin mining company, to over 20% of outstanding shares.

• Microsoft Incident Response Team warns of a new remote access trojan, StilachiRAT, that targets 20 cryptocurrency wallet extensions in Google Chrome to steal data.

• Fintech and crypto companies, aiming to expand business and reduce borrowing costs, are seeking bank charters under the Trump administration.

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