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Greetings Bitcoiner,
Welcome to Issue #560 of the Bitcoin Breakdown daily newsletter, where we’re rounding up the most talked-about developments in the Bitcoin-only space from the past weekend with our Quick Bits and Quick Media sections.
But first, today’s Top Stories:
🇺🇸 CFTC Greenlights First US Bitcoin Perpetual Futures
🇮🇷 US Treasury Seizes $1 Billion In Iranian Crypto
🤠 Texas Moves Its Bitcoin Reserve To Direct Custody
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🇺🇸 CFTC Greenlights First US Bitcoin Perpetual Futures
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved Kalshi's BTCPERP contract, the first true Bitcoin perpetual futures product on a US-regulated exchange, and granted Coinbase no-action relief to reach global derivatives venues. Perpetual futures are leveraged contracts with no expiration date, long pushed offshore to Binance and Bybit.
Why it matters: Coinbase says US traders were locked out of roughly 80% of global crypto markets, and onshoring reverses years of fleeing liquidity. CFTC Chair Michael Selig called it a major step toward making America the crypto capital of the world. Read more->
From new US markets to seized enemy wallets...
🇮🇷 US Treasury Seizes $1 Billion In Iranian Crypto
The US Treasury says it has now seized roughly $1 billion in Iran-linked cryptocurrency, the running total of a campaign called Operation Economic Fury and one of the largest crypto enforcement actions in US history. The action follows Tether freezing $344 million in USDT tied to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Why it matters: The seizure strikes at Iran's $7.8 billion crypto shadow economy, a key channel for dodging sanctions as inflation tops 200%. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US "grabbed the wallets," warning holders may not yet realize their funds are gone. Read more->
From Washington's enforcement muscle to a state stacking sats...
🤠 Texas Moves Its Bitcoin Reserve To Direct Custody
Texas plans to shift its $10 million Strategic Bitcoin Reserve out of BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and into directly custodied Bitcoin within 60 days of signing a custodian. A five-person committee chaired by Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock will oversee the move.
Why it matters: Holding spot Bitcoin instead of an ETF means real ownership of keys rather than paper exposure to a Wall Street fund. The state's request for proposals also leaves the door open to "any other qualifying cryptocurrency," a caveat Bitcoiners will watch closely. Read more->
Strategy sells 32 BTC for $2.5M to fund preferred stock dividends, its first liquidity-driven sale since 2022.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon publicly opposes the Clarity Act while calling Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong 'full of sh*t' over his lobbying push.
Idaho retired couple sues Bitcoin Depot, a now-bankrupt ATM operator, after scammers posing as FBI agents drained their $76,000 life savings via Bitcoin ATMs in 2025.
Michael Carbonara, a Florida Republican congressional candidate and entrepreneur, sells 10 BTC for $800K to self-fund his campaign bid.
Bitcoin's first CME gap-free Monday arrives as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange moves to around-the-clock futures trading, ending a nine-year weekend closure that shaped short-term BTC price forecasts.
Dormant Bitcoin wallet from 2010, Bitcoin's earliest mining era, moves 20 BTC worth $1.47M after 15.8 years.
Ethereum developer argues that ETH's 65% drop against BTC since the 2022 Merge stems from the Ethereum Foundation's execution failures, not market cycles.
Trace Mayer, creator of the Mayer Multiple bitcoin valuation tool, argues that bitcoin's volatility drop from 120 to 35 signals growing institutional maturity, not weakness.
NYDIG research head Greg Cipolaro says a whale's $1.26B block sale of BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust below market price signals a forced exit of a large directional BTC position.
Anon permanently embeds the full US Constitution onto the Bitcoin blockchain in a transaction that cost 113,454 sats, exploiting Bitcoin Core v30's newly expanded OP_RETURN data storage limit.
Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten says retail sentiment still drives Bitcoin demand, while cutting his 2026 all-time high odds.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs log a record 10-day outflow streak totaling nearly $3B, with analysts calling the 'peak fear' signal a potential contrarian indicator of a market bottom.
GOP lawmakers are shifting portfolios toward Trump-backed assets, with Intel and Bitcoin ETF holdings surging.
Isabella Santos of BTC Isla argues that CPI manipulation and fractional reserve banking systematically erode personal wealth, making 'working hard' and 'saving money' ineffective strategies, while positioning bitcoin as a sovereign hard asset that protects purchasing power outside the rigged fiat system (May 29 | 8:46 min watch).
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, in an appearance on Fox Business, publicly attacks the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, calls Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong 'full of sh*t,' and warns that unregulated stablecoins will 'blow up,' vowing that banks will fight rather than bow to crypto industry demands (May 30 | 1:28 min watch).
Doomberg and James Lavish, appearing on BTC Sessions' podcast, warn that America's K-shaped economy is driving an unprecedented divide between asset-owning capital classes and struggling wage earners facing record credit card delinquencies, soaring insurance costs, and inflation far beyond official CPI figures (May 31 | 15:59 min watch).
Nik Bhatia and Joe Consorti, in an appearance on BTC Sessions' podcast, discuss how Scott Bessent operates as a 'secretary of volatility,' managing Treasury market stress limits while Trump pursues geopolitical objectives, challenging the 'TACO' framing as an oversimplification of a more calculated, mathematically-driven global monetary strategy (May 30 | 13:23 min watch)
Bitcoin Mechanic argues that his Reddit ban for posting about BIP 110 version bit signaling exposes coordinated censorship of legitimate Bitcoin governance discourse, while highlighting how Taproot-driven UTXO bloat has made running a node prohibitively expensive (May 31 | 16:50 min watch).
Matthew Kratter warns that MSTR common stock can reach zero if BTC drops to ~$26K, as Strategy's $6.7B in convertible debt and $10.5B in preferred shares like STRC consume all Bitcoin reserves before common shareholders receive anything (May 30 | 25:15 min watch).
