Beyond the Casino – Week In Review
A weekly review covering bitcoin's flat week, bond yield speculation, crypto regulation, Hyperliquid's rise, and major security developments.Summary
This editorial reviews the week's market and crypto news. Bitcoin was roughly flat over seven days while U.S. equities were mixed (Dow up ~1.8%, S&P 500 down ~0.5%, Nasdaq down ~2.3%). Treasury yields sank Thursday, prompting speculation that bond yields may have peaked; Chilean pension funds suffered losses betting against rising yields, and China may be buying U.S. bonds via Canada. The author pushes back on Bitcoin maximalists who treat a fixed money supply as an unmitigated good, citing Saifedean Ammous and rebuttals from TXMC and George Selgin. The OCC confirmed Operation Chokepoint 2.0 occurred, finding all nine reviewed large banks had policies restricting access based on political or religious beliefs or lawful business activities; Bank of America was fined $1.2 billion for AML failures. In crypto, Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal highlighted Hyperliquid catching up with Solana in USDC issuance, and Backpack's tokenized stocks and token-equity split drew attention. China disrupted a Solana event in Shanghai, dampening hopes of improved relations with crypto. NEAR expanded its AI thesis via Mert Mumtaz joining its Foundation Council and Brave integrating NEAR AI-backed private inference into Leo; Venice's AI-token usage accelerated. Blur announced a frontend wind-down, following Blast's shutdown, which the author frames as necessary experimentation. A Pump.fun-associated Token2049 party drew criticism, and memecoin launchpads are judged net negative. In security, XRP Ledger disclosed a patched flaw that could have created XRP outside supply rules, with a $250,000 bounty criticized as too small; the Monero-Zcash debate returned, with cross-chain fingerprinting rather than a privacy break implicated; and Ledger reported reseller-sold devices containing implants that captured recovery phrases, later unveiling its phone-shaped Atom self-custody device.
(Source：Bitcoin News)