| Together with | | | | | | Greetings Bitcoiner, | Welcome to Issue #419 of Bitcoin Breakdown, where we’ve extended our 80% off all Premium Supporter tiers Black Friday/Cyber Monday special by popular demand! | Grab it here or subscribe via Bitcoin and Nostr Wallet Connect here. | By upgrading, you level up your Bitcoin journey and fund independent, Bitcoin-only reporting. Thanks for helping push adoption forward - one block at a time. | Now for today’s Top Stories: | 🚨 House Republicans bust Biden's 'Operation Choke Point 2.0' on Bitcoin 🛡️ Strategy Fortifies Bitcoin Position with $1.44B Cash Reserve 🚢 Vanguard U-Turns on Bitcoin After Massive Demand
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| | | | | | TODAY’S TOP STORIES | 🚨 House Republicans bust Biden's 'Operation Choke Point 2.0' on Bitcoin | House Republicans just dropped a 50-page bombshell, confirming 'Operation Choke Point 2.0' is real and targeting Bitcoin and crypto firms. Regulators have been pressuring banks to shun Bitcoin and digital assets, while publicly denying any shenanigans. The operation uses informal guidance and supervisory pressure to debank legitimate Bitcoin and crypto businesses, pushing them offshore. However, the Trump Administration is reversing course, ending the unfair initiatives and aiming to revive digital asset innovation. Bitcoin Magazine | 🛡️ Strategy Fortifies Bitcoin Position with $1.44B Cash Reserve | Strategy, holding 3.1% of Bitcoin's total supply, just created a $1.44B US dollar reserve to fund stockholder dividends for up to 24 months, ensuring it doesn’t have to sell bitcoin in case it dips too far. The reserve aims to smooth dividend payments during Bitcoin volatility, though prediction markets show only 6% odds of a sale before year-end. Strategy supporters are welcoming the move as dividends paid in fiat would invariably debase over time while 1 BTC = 1 BTC. Strategy | 🚢 Vanguard U-Turns on Bitcoin After Massive Demand | Vanguard, the $11 trillion guardian of conservative investing, just abandoned its anti-Bitcoin stance by allowing its 50 million clients to trade Bitcoin ETFs starting today, December 2. This huge policy reversal, led by new CEO Salim Ramji from BlackRock, comes as demand for regulated Bitcoin exposure has exploded, showing even traditional finance can't ignore the future. The firm cited overwhelming retail and institutional demand for the pivot, as Bitcoin integrates further into mainstream investment portfolios. Atlas21 |
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| | | | | | POLL #419 | What do you make of Strategy's $1.44B cash reserve to avoid selling BTC? | |  | | PREVIOUS POLL RESULTS | |
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| | | | | | OPINION & ANALYSIS | Shanaka Anslem Perera, author of 'The Ascent Begins', argues that Vanguard's decision to allow Bitcoin and crypto ETF trading on its $11T platform marks the death of Bogleism (founder John Bogle’s thesis that an investment must possess ‘intrinsic productive capacity’ like cash flow or rental income) and suggest Vanguard’s timing of the move during a market correction reflects conviction rather than performance chasing (Dec 2 | 12 min read). Jeff Walton, Chief Risk Officer at Strive, argues that Strategy's new cash reserve strategy transforms its risk profile and credit rating potential, positioning the company as a pioneering digital credit fortress that provides institutional investors low-volatility bitcoin exposure through capital management (Dec 2 | 2 min read). Francisco Rodrigues of CoinDesk details how Brazilian fintech Méliuz adopted a Metaplanet-inspired Bitcoin treasury strategy after discovering its market value was zero despite profitability, escaping negative real returns from government bonds amid 22% borrowing costs (Dec 1 | 3 min read). Kirubai of Lightning News explains that the Lightning Network offers pseudonymous rather than anonymous transactions by default, but users can achieve high privacy through self-custody nodes, strategic channel management, and avoiding centralized hubs (Dec 1 | 4 min read). Max Hillebrand, a Bitcoin privacy advocate, introduces three interactive bash scripts that simplify Wasabi Wallet's payincoinjoin feature, enabling users to embed payments directly into coinjoin transactions for enhanced privacy and lower costs through an automated workflow that queues, monitors, and completes payments invisibly within the crowd (Dec 1 | 10 min read). Dgy, Programmer, Bitcoiner & Cypherpunk, in a post on Stacker News, outlines a step-by-step guide to setting up a private home relay for nostr notes using nostr-rs-relay, emphasizing secure configurations, Tor integration for privacy, and ensuring a spam free personal backup system (Dec 1 | 4 min read). Daniel Batten, a Bitcoiner who debunks environmental FUD, argues that Bitcoin mining reduces residential electricity bills by monetizing wasted renewables and replacing gas peaker plants, citing data showing how the network saved Texas $18B in grid management costs (Nov 29 | 2 min read). Orange Dad, a small business owner and Bitcoin advocate, writing on Nostr, models how breweries, liquor stores, and coffee shops can accumulate 0.08 to 0.21 BTC over five years using Square's 1% Bitcoin payment processing while saving thousands in credit card fees through a 50/50 conversion strategy (Nov 29 | 14 min read). Shanaka Anslem Perera also analyzes how MSCI's January 2026 decision to exclude companies holding over 50% digital assets from its $15T indexes represents a coordinated Wall Street effort to eliminate corporate Bitcoin treasury models while redirecting capital flows to bank-issued ETFs and structured products (Nov 29 | 12 min read). Anita Posch of Bitcoin For Fairness counters The Guardian's latest editorial by arguing that unlike speculative 'crypto' schemes, the Bitcoin network offers vital financial sovereignty for citizens in Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Zambia facing currency collapse (Nov 28 | 2 min read).
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| | | | | | TOOLS & PROJECTS | New on Geyser: SatsMobi, a Telegram Lightning wallet, integrates Breez SDK to transition from custodial LNbits to non-custodial bitcoin payments with BIP39 backup support. New on Geyser: Aljaz Ceru integrates Breez's Spark SDK as a Lightning backend for Nutshell Cashu mint, enabling lightweight, low-cost deployment of python-based ecash mints with minimal infrastructure requirements. Oscar Merry of Fountain announces integration of Nostr Wallet Connect for the podcasting app as well. Spar, a Swiss supermarket giant, starts accepting Bitcoin and crypto payments in their new Swiss app. Bitcoin Policy Institute New Zealand launches in Wellington, proposing de minimis tax exemption for BTC payments under NZD $1000 to enable everyday Bitcoin use, reduce $1B card fees, boost tourism, and position New Zealand as a Bitcoin innovation hub. Australian Bitcoin Industry Body announces the Sydney Bitcoin Hub, a Bitcoin-only coworking and event space, opening January 12, 2026, in Milsons Point, Sydney, for collaboration and Bitcoin advocacy. JAN3 announces the suspension of Aqua wallet's Dolphin Cards due to an abrupt partner provider notice of cancellation, with beta users set to receive refunds via JAN3 Account email, as the team seeks a replacement provider. Electrum wallet's next release will introduce Submarine Payments, enabling users to pay on-chain addresses using lightning funds. Pavlenex announces a full-stack StratumV2 web deployer for developers to spin up Pool and miner-side applications locally. Evan Kaloudis, developer of Zeus wallet, announces integration of Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC) for Zeus.
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