Speaking at The Bitcoin Conference U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis opened her keynote by recalling her first encounter with Bitcoin, describing it as an unfamiliar concept of owning an asset that exists on a blockchain, before purchasing three tokens at roughly $300 each.

Lummis told the audience that Bitcoin first struck her as “free money” because it removes the need to trust a third party to hold or move value. 

She linked that realization back to her early purchases of three bitcoin at about $300 each, when the idea of owning an asset that lives on a blockchain still felt strange.

Lummis referenced periods of war, noting that bitcoin often serves as a refuge from poor…

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Bitcoin’s Lightning Network is starting to turn iGaming payouts into a native Bitcoin use case, as operators look to escape card fees, chargebacks, and slow settlement that no longer fit a real-time betting market. 

A new benchmark report from Voltage frames Lightning as the next major phase of Bitcoin’s evolution, shifting it from a passive store of value to the backbone of instant, global gambling withdrawals. 

The study opens with a 30-day pilot at a single iGaming operator that routed a slice of its customer base through the Bitcoin Lightning Network. In that window, the platform pushed 88.2 bitcoin through Lightning, processed 237,000 payments, and recorded a 99.94%…

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OpenAgents, an open-source artificial intelligence lab building Bitcoin-native infrastructure for machine learning, today announced its graduation from the BitcoinFi accelerator and the close of $1.3 million in pre-seed funding.

The company is using the capital to expand Pylon, its distributed compute node that lets people sell spare compute for Bitcoin, and to accelerate work on Psionic, its Rust-based machine learning framework for inference, fine-tuning, embeddings, image generation, and distributed training.

“America needs an open-source AI lab that can compete at the frontier without recreating the closed, centralized incentives of the biggest labs,” said Christopher…

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Bitcoin Magazine announced BM TV, a daily live broadcast network focused on Bitcoin markets, macroeconomics, geopolitics, and frontier technology. The network is scheduled to begin broadcasts in Summer 2026 from Nashville, Tennessee. The program will air Monday through Friday from 9:30 to 11:30 AM Eastern Time, aligned with the U.S. market open.

BM TV will operate from the company’s Nashville offices and distribute content through six platforms: X, YouTube, Facebook, Rumble, BitcoinMagazine.com, and LinkedIn. The network targets an existing audience of 6 million aggregated followers across Bitcoin Magazine channels. The company reported more than 1 billion total impressions in…

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To kick off The Bitcoin 2026 Conference, panelists across policy, finance, and technology discussed the growing push to define bitcoin self-custody as a protected civil liberty. Joe Kelly, co-founder and CEO of Unchained, Nick Begich, a U.S. Congressman, and Zach Herbert, CEO of Foundation Devices, spoke on bitcoin self-custody rights. 

Congressman Nick Begich, who began acquiring bitcoin in January 2013 and witnessed the Mt. Gox collapse, said private property rights remain fundamental to American principles and must extend into digital assets.

“Private property rights are fundamental to the American Idea. I think it needs to extend into the digital space and we need to make…

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Digital asset investment products recorded $1.2 billion in net inflows last week, according to CoinShares’ weekly report. This marks the fourth consecutive week of positive flows, with total assets under management rising to $155 billion, the highest level since February 1.

Bitcoin led the inflows with $933 million, while Ethereum attracted $192 million. The United States accounted for the bulk of the flows at $1.1 billion. Bitcoin has recently traded above $76,000–$78,000, reaching its highest levels since early February 2026.

Block (NYSE: XYZ) introduced a series of bitcoin-focused products and features aimed at strengthening its position across custody, payments, and financial infrastructure. The announcements include a new Bitkey hardware wallet with a built-in screen, expanded bitcoin earning tools within Cash App, a Proof of Reserves system, and a forthcoming Square tap-to-pay experience for bitcoin transactions.

The updated Bitkey hardware wallet marks a shift in how users interact with self-custody. The device has a secure touchscreen that serves as the verification layer for transactions and security settings.

Block said via a note shared with Bitcoin Magazine that they designed the interface…

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Strive Inc. has expanded its Bitcoin treasury with a fresh purchase of 789 BTC valued at roughly $61.43 million. The Nasdaq-listed firm disclosed the acquisition in a recent filing, reporting an average purchase price of about $77,890 per bitcoin. 

The transaction lifts Strive’s total holdings to 14,557 BTC as of April 24, 2026, with the stack valued at roughly $1.1 billion based on current market prices.

The latest buy marks a continuation of Strive’s treasury strategy, which centers Bitcoin as a core balance sheet asset rather than a peripheral allocation. The company has framed Bitcoin as a benchmark for capital deployment, positioning it as a hurdle rate for investment…

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Strategy disclosed on April 27, 2026 that it acquired 3,273 Bitcoin for $255 million during the week ending April 26, bringing the company’s total holdings to 818,334 BTC valued at approximately $63.7 billion at current market prices. 

The purchase was executed at an average price of $77,906 per Bitcoin, funded through the sale of 1.45 million shares of Class A common stock via its at-the-market (ATM) equity program.

The Virginia-based business intelligence firm reported that its Bitcoin Yield metric reached 9.6% year-to-date 2026, up from 9.5% disclosed in the prior week. 

This proprietary metric measures the percentage change in the ratio between Bitcoin holdings and…

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