Sberbank is lining up loans against Bitcoin as Russia’s new law takes effect. That is the story. The country’s largest bank already tested the model in December 2025 with a pilot loan to miner Intelion Data. It has still published no rate, no term sheet, and no launch date. What it is waiting on now is the statute taking full force, not another announcement. A bank gets a legal wrapper for Bitcoin as collateral. September starts tomorrow. Tomorrow's issue has four parts: USA news with consequences, worldwide news, the sovereign question of the week, and legal Bitcoin news read against what prediction markets are already pricing. Would you hand Bitcoin to a bank just because the law now blesses the loan? 👇

When lawmakers say Bitcoin is illegal but the network keeps running anyway 👇

Over $5 billion of self-custodied bitcoin has been converted into BlackRock's IBIT shares. Not sold. Converted in kind, meaning no coins hit the market and no tax event fires. The holders simply stopped holding their own keys. BlackRock's head of digital assets, Robbie Mitchnick, named one reason: kidnappings and custody failures. That is the trade being made right now at the top of the distribution. Direct ownership of the asset, exchanged for a share that represents a claim on a custodian who holds it for you. Whether that is prudent risk management or the thing we spent fifteen years building an exit from depends entirely on how you weigh a wrench against a counterparty. I have a view. Issue #76 of The Bitcoin Act is live, and it also covers: 🇪🇺 ECB board member Piero Cipollone says the digital euro offers the maximum privacy current technology allows, while conceding the banks distributing it can still identify you 🔍 Chainalysis counted $457 billion of taxable activity in 2025. International reporting rules reach 14 percent of it Free. Tuesdays and Sundays. Link in the first reply. Tell me where you land: is the in-kind conversion a rational security decision, or the fastest reintroduction of the custodian in Bitcoin's history?

Bought her Bitcoin. She wanted a bag. Who’s right in 20 years?

Bitcoin: The only asset that doesn’t need permission

While governments fight over regulations, Bitcoin just keeps running!

I’ve been working on something I’m really excited about. I’m building one place with a growing collection of free legal resources for Bitcoin. And this is important: It will NOT be limited to people who subscribe to my newsletter. It will be free and open to everyone. Glossaries, tools, templates, country specific resources and practical information to help Bitcoiners better understand the legal side of Bitcoin. And I want this to be global. Not just the US. There’s a lot already in the works. I’ll share each resource as it’s ready. Bitcoin is going to need a lot more legal knowledge and infrastructure in the years ahead. I want to help build it. What’s one free Bitcoin legal resource you wish existed today? 👇

Be like Bill: Stack sats through every regulation

The SEC just sent its proposed custody-rule changes to the White House. That matters because the rules governing how investment advisers safeguard client assets may finally be rewritten to account for Bitcoin. The proposal is now under OIRA review. The problem is structural. The SEC’s custody framework was built around conventional assets. Investment advisers have asked how they can hold Bitcoin for clients while complying with those rules. The SEC now says the framework needs modernization. “Custody” sounds simple. Legally, it means an adviser has possession or control of client assets. The proposed rulemaking would address how that concept applies when the asset is Bitcoin rather than a conventional security. The SEC’s stated objective is not simply to loosen custody rules. It says the proposal would clarify custody requirements while removing provisions it considers outdated where they no longer provide needed investor protection. That distinction matters. The proposal is not law. OIRA review is part of the federal regulatory process. The SEC would still need to formally propose the rule and complete the required rulemaking process before anything becomes binding. For advisers, the practical question is becoming clearer: Can custody law recognize Bitcoin’s actual custody architecture without forcing it into rules designed for entirely different assets? That is the question this rulemaking is trying to answer. And custody is only one piece of the legal picture. The rules around Bitcoin are moving across agencies, legislation, enforcement and tax. Keeping track of each change separately is how important details get missed. That’s exactly what I built The Bitcoin Act for. A free newsletter focused on Bitcoin law, regulation and policy. If you want the legal signal without the noise: →

The Bitcoin Act

Home | The Bitcoin Act

The Bitcoin Act is the first newsletter covering Bitcoin regulation, sovereignty, and legal developments — and rewards you with 21 sats every iss...

Mathematics > Politics

Treasury just put a Bitcoin address on the Iran sanctions list. Same week: 11 families of 9/11 victims are challenging the DOJ’s right to keep 11,000+ BTC seized from a trafficking ring, claiming the coins trace to an Iran-China network the government left out of its case. Today’s issue also covers: → the $667K wrench-attack laundering trail ZachXBT just cracked → Illinois getting sued a second time over its 0.2% broker tax → every country moving on Bitcoin rules this week — Pakistan, Russia, Nigeria, and more Link in bio.

Bitcoin is the only crypto that matters. Everything else is noise.

Bitcoin doesn’t care. 🧡

Trump just told the Senate to pass a “fair version” of the CLARITY Act. His real objection: the ethics language would stop him and his family from issuing tokens. Today’s issue of The Bitcoin Act breaks it down, plus: → 885,000 phone numbers targeted in a fake wallet-app scam → how many warning letters one government just sent to bitcoin holders over unpaid tax → every legal + bitcoin event on the calendar this week Link in bio.

Divorce papers incoming but my stack stays intact! 😂

The White House hosted crypto executives this week and pushed Congress to pass the CLARITY Act. What did actually move: the SEC proposed its first crypto-specific fundraising rule in the agency’s 90-year history. Tomorrow’s issue: → What the experts are actually saying about this week’s biggest legal developments, beyond the headlines → Numbers of the Week: the odds, the dollar figures, and the deadlines actually shaping policy → Every Bitcoin + law date on next week’s calendar Opening tomorrow’s issue the second it lands? Drop a 🧡 below.

The more they try to control it, the more it scatters! 🧡

Bitcoin understanding it’s literally the only uncorrelated asset left in a collapsing financial system. 👇

Building The Bitcoin Act in public and this keeps hitting me: I’d rather have a few hundred real Bitcoiners who open every issue and actually reply… than 50k silent scrollers who just like and move on. Big audiences are fiat vanity. 
Tight circles of people who give a fuck are Bitcoin. Signal over noise. Always. Who else is choosing the small, locked-in community over the numbers game? 👇

Me knowing exactly where every sat is, and that nobody can take it from me👇