News Block: CLARITY Act Faces Critical Test, Saylor Shares 110 Reasons Why BIP-110 Is a Bad Idea, Lyn Alden & Jeff Booth Launch $40M Bitcoin Company

Welcome to the Coin Stories news block powered exclusively by Ledin. I'm Natalie Brunel and in about 10 minutes or less, I'll provide you with insightful updates on Bitcoin, financial markets and the global economy. Everything you need to know in one block. Let's go. Bitcoin held up surprisingly well this past week, despite another escalation in the conflict between the United States and Iran. The US conducted a ninth consecutive night of strikes over the weekend and confirmed a third American service member killed. But Monday morning, Iran's foreign ministry signaled that negotiations could resume, sending oil lower and giving markets some relief. Bitcoin has been hovering around $65,000. And while geopolitical uncertainty continues to dominate the headlines, another major catalyst for the digital asset industry at large is approaching in Washington. NYDIG recently called the Clarity Act the most important forward catalyst for the entire industry. The bill would establish a comprehensive federal framework for digital assets markets, determining which assets fall under the SEC, which fall under the CFTC, and what rules apply across the board. You might recall us reporting that the House passed its version last year, and the Senate Banking Committee advanced it 15 to 9 in May, but getting it to the Senate floor is the hard part. One of the biggest obstacles is an ethics provision that would restrict government officials and their families from profiting off of crypto. an issue that became even more contentious after President Trump's disclosure showed $1.4 billion in crypto income last year. Two key Democratic votes, Senators Galeo and also Brooks, have said they won't support the final passage without meaningful ethics restrictions. And as of this weekend, there's really no bipartisan agreement. Prediction markets like Calci now put the odds of passage this year at just 32 percent. Senate Majority Leader Thune wants action before the August 7th recess making the next few weeks critical If lawmakers miss that window what NYDIG called the industry most important catalyst could become another missed opportunity in Washington this year Ledin just introduced their lowest rates ever. The larger the loan, the lower the rate. These new rates apply to all new loans, refinances, and renewals with Ledin's gold standard protection. Your Bitcoin stays custodied, never lent out. You can activate auto top-ups and alerts so you're never caught off guard and you can repay any time with zero penalties. Don't choose between a great rate and the safety of your Bitcoin. Get both at Ledin and a quarter percentage point off your first loan at ledin.io slash Natalie. Turning now to the fight happening inside Bitcoin. The debate over BIP 110 has become Bitcoin's most divisive internal battle since the block size wars of 2017. Here's what it's about in plain English. Over the past couple of years, people have started using Bitcoin's blockchain to store things beyond payments. Images, tokens, collectibles, and that sparked a debate. Is this legitimate use of the network or is it spam clogging up the system? Late last year, the main Bitcoin software, which is called Bitcoin Core, actually removed a limit on how much of this non-payment data could be embedded in transactions. That decision really angered some people who believe it opened the floodgates. They switched to an alternative software called Bitcoin Nots, which keeps the restrictions, and it now runs on roughly 15 to 20 percent of the network's nodes. But BIP110 is yet another step. Instead of just choosing different software, they want to make these restrictions part of Bitcoin's core rules, meaning the entire network would reject blocks that contain certain types of data. And that's where the real controversy starts. Supporters argue this extra data is bloating the network, making it more expensive to run, and pulling Bitcoin away from its core purpose as money. But on the other side, critics say that changing Bitcoin's rules to block certain types of valid fee transactions even temporarily sets a dangerous precedent that could be used to restrict other things in the future Michael Saylor and Lynn Alden both came out against it this week but for different reasons Saylor published a 110-point article titled, 110 Reasons BIP-110 is a Bad Idea. He called it the Bitcoin Iatrogenic Proposal, which is a medical term for when a treatment causes more harm than the disease. His main argument is simple, that Bitcoin can't tell the difference between an image, a financial contract, a proof of ownership, or something that hasn't been invented yet. It just sees data. And once you start changing Bitcoin's rules to block certain kinds of data, you've opened a door that's very hard to close. Who decides what's allowed next time? Saylor believes unwanted activity should be dealt with through fees. If you want to store data on Bitcoin, you pay for the space and miners decide whether to include it. That keeps the rules neutral. Changing the rules themselves is a much bigger deal. As he put it, Bitcoin does not need guardians of purity. It needs guardians of neutrality. Lynn came at it from a different angle. Her argument is that BIP-110 wouldn't actually solve the problem. The data would just get rerouted into other parts of transactions, possibly in messier ways. She also pushed back on the idea that this is an emergency, that it's existential. Bitcoin already has built-in limits on how much data can fit in each block and a fee market that prices access. Her broader concern is that this fight is distracting the community from bigger threats, especially growing financial surveillance. She compared it to arguing about paper cuts while someone is swinging a machete. As she put it, if Bitcoin could change easily, I'd sell it. For anyone who wants to hear Lynn unpack her position in more detail, check out my recent interview with her. We don't talk about it for that long, but she does spell out why she doesn't think that this is an existential threat to Bitcoin. Now, a key deadline is coming up in early August. BIP-110 needs a lot of miners to support it in order to activate and right now support is below 1 of miners But the debate matters regardless of whether it passes because at its core this is a question about what Bitcoin is a network with fixed neutral rules that no one can change on a whim or one where the rules can be adjusted when people decide they don't like how someone else is using the network. That's a question worth taking seriously and for now, Bitcoin's answer has been the same one it's given for 17 years. Changes should be slow, extremely rare and require overwhelming consensus. That's not a bug. That's the whole point. All right, before we go, a quick rapid fire round. Lynn Alden and Jeff Booth have launched a new company. It's called Orange Juice, and it raised $40 million with Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas as the anchor investor. The plan is to acquire cash-flowing American businesses and reinvest profits into a Bitcoin treasury, a very different model from the treasury companies we've been covering. Congrats to the entire team. I look forward to interviewing Nico Lechuga all about orange juice coming up. You'll see that interview on Coin Stories in the coming weeks. And Citadel Securities invested $400 million in Crypto.com, valuing the exchange at $20 billion, which is another sign that major financial institutions keep building despite the bear market. And finally, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned four wallets tied to Iran's central bank, and Tether froze roughly $131 million in USDT in those wallets. Important distinction. These were stable coins, not Bitcoin. Tether can blacklist an address, but Bitcoin has no issuer with a freeze button. And that difference matters. That's it for the News Block, your weekly Bitcoin and economic news update powered exclusively by Ledin. I'm Natalie Brunel. Make sure you're subscribed to CoinStory so you never miss an episode. This show is for educational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice. Until next time, keep stacking.