Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Assailed by Investor Over Discount

> An activist family office that owns shares in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust is demanding a tender offer to boost prices that have fallen about 8% below the value of the digital assets it holds.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-06/grayscale-bitcoin-trust-assailed-by-investor-as-discount-grows
archive: https://archive.ph/ZH5b1

Fidelity, Square, Coinbase Launch Bitcoin Trade Group

> The Crypto Council for Innovation will lobby policy makers, take up research projects and serve as the burgeoning industry’s voice in championing the economic benefits of digital currencies and related technologies.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/fidelity-square-coinbase-launch-bitcoin-trade-group-11617710402
archive: https://archive.ph/ROG4a

Coinbase estimates Q1 revenue jumped nine-fold to about $1.8 billion ahead of public market debut

- Verified Users of 56 million
- Monthly Transacting Users (MTUs) of 6.1 million
- Assets on Platform of $223 billion, representing 11.3% crypto asset market share
- Includes $122 billion of Assets on Platform from Institutions
- Trading Volume of $335 billion
- Total Revenue of approximately $1.8 billion
- Net Income of approximately $730 million to $800 million
- Adjusted EBITDA of approximately $1.1 billion

https://investor.coinbase.com/news/news-details/2021/Coinbase-Announces-First-Quarter-2021-Estimated-Results-and-Full-Year-2021-Outlook/default.aspx
archive: https://archive.ph/jr6zg

Former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes Surrenders to Face U.S. Charges

> He appeared before a federal judge in Honolulu and, pursuant to an earlier agreement, was released on $10 million bond pending future court proceedings in New York.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-06/former-bitmex-ceo-arthur-hayes-surrenders-to-face-u-s-charges
archive: https://archive.ph/a420C

Hexa Wallet v1.5.0 released

- New users can now automatically backup their wallet on iCloud/Google Drive.
- Wallet backup scheme overhauled. 3 levels of security introduced.
- Level 1: Cloud Backup
- Level 2: Double Backup – Two Recovery Keys are backed up separately. In the background a 2 of 3 Shamir Secret Sharing (SSS) algorithm is used on the mnemonic and one Recovery Key is stored on the cloud.
- Level 3: Multi-Key Backup - Two more Recovery Keys are backed up at this level.

https://github.com/bithyve/hexa/releases/tag/v1.5.0

Ukrainian civil servants own about 46351 bitcoin according to disclosures

- Vyacheslav Mishalov, a Dnipro city council member, 18000 bitcoin
- Petro Lensky, first secretary of Ukraine’s embassy in Vietnam, 6528 bitcoin
- Alexander Urbansky, deputy chairman of the Odessa regional council, 5328 bitcoin

https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-whale-watching-may-become-popular-at-ukrainian-town-council-meetings
archive: https://archive.ph/TbFvo

Coldcard v4.0.2 firmware released

- Set a special PIN code, and when used, the Coldcard is immediately bricked while a normal-looking countdown for login is shown (default 1 hour).

https://blog.coinkite.com/version-4.0.2-released/

Bitcoiners Should Stand Up for My Brother, Julian Assange

> My hope is that the rational technologists who made big bets against the establishment come together to see the benefit of defending one of their brothers and their own cypherpunk roots.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/bitcoiners-should-stand-up-for-my-brother-julian-assange
archive: https://archive.ph/yxRWA

Citadel Dispatch e0.1.6 - bitcoin privacy and coinjoin with chris belcher and waxwing

EPISODE: 0.1.6
BLOCK: 678040
PRICE: 1719 sats per dollar
TOPICS: bitcoin privacy, coinjoin

https://anchor.fm/citadeldispatch/episodes/Citadel-Dispatch-e0-1-6---bitcoin-privacy-and-coinjoin-with-chris-belcher-and-waxwing-euc7pb

Bitcoin Optech #143

- C-Lightning v0.10.0
- BTCPay v1.0.7.2
- changes to popular Bitcoin infrastructure projects

https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2021/04/07/
archive: https://archive.ph/8nGH6

Square Crypto to provide 14043207 sats (~.14 bitcoin) per month for the next 12 months as a grant to the mempool.space project.

https://twitter.com/sqcrypto/status/1379830372461113346
archive: https://archive.ph/rX8av

Bitmain is suing MicroBT over a bitcoin mining hardware IP dispute – again

- After Bitmain’s first attempt to sue its biggest competitor with patent infringement failed, the mining hardware giant is trying again with an IP theft accusation and demanding a damage claim of as much as 99 million yuan, or $15 million, from MicroBT.

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/100895/bitmain-microbt-bitcoin-mining-ip-dispute
archive: https://archive.ph/0A2EB

Peter Thiel urged the U.S. government to consider tighter regulations on bitcoin during an appearance at a Richard Nixon Foundation event.

- “I do wonder whether at this point, Bitcoin should also be thought [of] in part as a Chinese financial weapon against the U.S.,” Thiel said

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-07/peter-thiel-calls-bitcoin-a-chinese-financial-weapon-at-virtual-roundtable
archive: https://archive.ph/0X1uG

Video of recent Peter Thiel bitcoin comments.

“I do wonder whether at this point, Bitcoin should also be thought [of] in part as a Chinese financial weapon against the U.S.,”

https://twitter.com/nixonfoundation/status/1379894036060864516

Jake Chervinsky: Q1 2021 in Review

- FinCEN proposal
- FATF guidance
- Biden admin
- Bitcoin ETF

https://jchervinsky.substack.com/p/q1-2021-in-review
archive: https://archive.ph/sHoKX

sphinx-relay v2.0.9 released

- better error handling
- external tokens route
- min time on MQTT reconnect
- fix some sender columns

https://github.com/stakwork/sphinx-relay/releases/tag/v2.0.9

Sparrow Wallet v1.3.2 released

- Minimize to tray functionality
- SSL server certificate pinning
- Export addresses as CSV functionality
- Automatically switch between internal and external Tor proxy
- Save PSBTs in binary format by default
- HWI v2.0.1
- Trezor One passphrase toggle
- Request strongest instance of SecureRandom when generating a seed
- Bug fix: Fix export of Sparrow wallet from Settings screen

https://github.com/sparrowwallet/sparrow/releases/tag/1.3.2

Bitcoin firm NYDIG has raised $100 million of additional growth capital from strategic partners including property and casualty (P&C)-focused insurers Starr Insurance, Liberty Mutual Insurance, and other P&C insurers, joining NYDIG's existing life insurance and annuity-focused strategic partners New York Life and MassMutual.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nydig-raises-100-million-from-strategic-partners-including-starr-liberty-mutual-insurance-and-other-pc-insurers-launches-global-insurance-solutions-business-under-mike-sapnar-301264834.html
archive: https://archive.ph/a04C7

Electrum v4.1.2 released

- Qt GUI:
- fix some crashes when exiting
- make sure pressing Ctrl-C always quits
- Kivy GUI (Android):
- fix bug with scrollbar, again
- 2fa wallets: fix making transactions
- implement freezing addresses
- Android: use more modern application launcher/icon

https://electrum.org/#download