Blockstream CEO Adam Back, reported by The New York Times, is viewed as a potential Satoshi Nakamoto candidate, drawing attention and raising questions. He proactively cooperated with a photo shoot, at a sensitive time when his Bitcoin treasury company BSTR is undergoing a SPAC merger for a public listing. Industry analysts believe that the continuation of this topic will give BSTR a huge opportunity for brand exposure. BSTR plans to merge with Cantor Equity Partners I to build the world’s largest bitcoin vault, but it still needs to pass SEC review and receive shareholder approval.

In brief A new proposal outlines a way to create quantum-resistant Bitcoin transactions without changing the network protocol. The design replaces elliptic-curve assumptions with hash-based puzzles

Reports say that Iran plans, during a U.S.-Iran ceasefire period, to require tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz to pay a toll of $1 per barrel in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. The cost for a single trip could reach $2 million. A fully loaded tanker must declare its cargo and make payment with cryptocurrency, while also ensuring the transaction is not tracked. The move is intended to evade the risk of sanctions from the traditional financial system.

Taiwan’s crypto-specific law will be implemented in 2026, and financial institutions will begin acquiring virtual asset service providers (VASP). Financial holding groups such as Fubon and Federal Bank are actively positioning themselves to accelerate the integration of traditional finance with the crypto industry. Emerging platforms like HOYA BIT are gaining competitiveness. With the regulations rolling out, the market expects demand for virtual assets to increase significantly.

The French National Assembly has passed a rule requiring mandatory reporting of crypto assets held in self-custody wallets above 5,000 euros, applicable to multiple mainstream wallets. The DGFIP opposes this, arguing that enforcement will be difficult and that data centralization will increase user risk. Experts say the law may be hard to implement and urge users to closely monitor subsequent developments.

Anthropic’s Claude Code in version v2.1.97 removed the terminal pet “Buddy” without warning, triggering widespread protests in the developer community. Developers say they refuse to upgrade and even are willing to roll back to older versions to keep Buddy. A petition calls for restoring Buddy as a permanent feature and notes that its data is still present. So far, there has been no official response.

Meta has disclosed its new multimodal AI model, “Muse Spark,” aiming to narrow the gap with competitors and support the Meta ecosystem. It has not been open-sourced yet, and it plans to test via invitation-only APIs. This release marks Meta’s return after reorganizing in the AI space, shifting toward a product-first commercialization strategy.

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs pulled in $471 million on Monday, setting a six-week high, indicating that institutional investor confidence is rebounding. Despite the strong inflows, geopolitical and economic uncertainties may still affect the uptrend. Analysts say that if key macroeconomic variables improve, the crypto market could see upward momentum again.

Quantum computing headlines increasingly suggest bitcoin is on the verge of collapse, with claims that future machines could crack its cryptography in minutes or overwhelm the network entirely. But academic research paints a more constrained picture. Some widely cited "breakthroughs" rely on

The U.S. Federal Court of Appeals ruled that the state of New Jersey lacks the authority to bar Kalshi, a sports-betting prediction market platform regulated by the CFTC, from launching sports event contracts, finding that federal law takes precedence over state law. Although Kalshi prevailed, experts say this is only a temporary victory, and the Supreme Court will ultimately need to decide the jurisdiction issue.