FRIDAY, JUN05
1. miners become AI landlords, 2. bitcoin-backed mortgage funded, 3. ETF streak record, 4. UK privacy toolkit
From Proto and Bitkey - part of the Bitcoin ecosystem at Block, Inc.
1. landlords
Bernstein has initiated coverage on TeraWulf and Cipher Digital with Outperform ratings, framing both Bitcoin miners as “power landlords of AI” whose brownfield grid positions give them structural advantages that new data center entrants cannot replicate. Writing in The Block, analysts led by Gautam Chhugani set price targets of $36 and $32 respectively and project aggregate AI revenue across their Bitcoin miner coverage to expand ninefold from $1.2 billion in 2026 to $10.7 billion by 2030. Miners have already contracted out 6 gigawatts of power capacity to hyperscalers across 17 deals worth more than $110 billion, representing roughly 10% of U.S. data centers currently under construction. For TeraWulf specifically, Bernstein projects AI revenue compounding at 163% annually to reach $1.7 billion by 2030, with EBITDA margins at approximately 84% at maturity. Morgan Stanley simultaneously raised its price target on TeraWulf to $66.50 and Cipher to $53.50. The dual initiation confirms that Wall Street has reclassified the top tier of the mining sector from energy-intensive commodity producers into capital infrastructure platforms whose value is denominated in megawatts, not hashrate.
-EDITOR·OP_DAILY2. mortgage
Coinbase and Better Home and Finance have funded the first actual Fannie Mae-conforming mortgage using bitcoin as collateral, moving from product announcement to operational reality and confirming plans for nationwide rollout. As reported by The Block, borrowers pledge bitcoin at a 40% valuation rate as collateral for a standard conforming down payment loan, avoiding a taxable sale event while retaining price upside. A 250% overcollateralization buffer applies, and collateral liquidation is triggered only by 60-day mortgage delinquency — mirroring standard conforming mortgage rules. The first funded loan confirms that Fannie Mae’s volatility haircut framework has absorbed bitcoin’s price variability without forcing liquidations under real-world conditions. Better CEO Vishal Garg described the infrastructure as extensible to any tokenized asset, pointing toward a broader transformation in U.S. housing collateral frameworks. With 52 million Americans holding digital assets, the product targets a homeownership gap that conventional down payment requirements have historically excluded younger, bitcoin-native earners from bridging.
-EDITOR·OP_DAILY3. bleed
U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs extended their outflow streak to a record 13 consecutive trading days as of June 4, breaking the prior mark of 8 days set in February 2025, with cumulative redemptions reaching $4.4 billion. As CoinTelegraph reports, BlackRock’s IBIT accounted for roughly $3.3 billion of total withdrawals — approximately 75% of the streak’s total — with Fidelity’s FBTC and Grayscale’s GBTC as secondary contributors. CryptoQuant head of research Julio Moreno described the demand contraction as comparable to the post-Terra/Luna collapse period in 2022. Analysts at Compass Point flagged top-buyer capitulation as the 200-week moving average touched $61,300, historically a significant bear-market support level. Factors cited across multiple research notes include profit-taking after Bitcoin’s October 2025 peak near $128,000, hawkish Federal Reserve rate expectations, Strategy’s symbolic bitcoin sale breaking its long-held never-sell posture, and Mt. Gox creditor wallet movements signaling potential supply. CryptoQuant founder Ki Young Ju framed the transfer of supply from early holders to U.S. institutions and ETFs as a structural long-term positive even as the short-term price action tests support.
-EDITOR·OP_DAILY4. hygiene
A thread by Freddie New, working through the Bitcoin Policy UK Privacy Toolkit and widely circulated by BTC Sessions, lays out practical email and password hygiene steps for individuals navigating a tightening UK surveillance environment. The context is pointed: the incoming head of Ofcom is on record describing VPNs as “a problem” and has deliberately avoided consulting tech companies before forming policy. The toolkit covers switching from Gmail, which reads user email, to end-to-end encrypted alternatives; adopting a password manager with unique credentials per service; and enabling two-factor authentication across accounts. New describes email and password hygiene as two areas where most people are most exposed and where a few simple changes make an enormous difference. The backdrop includes the UK’s Online Safety Act, Canada’s advancing Bill C-22 surveillance mandate, and the recurring EU Chat Control proposal — a convergence of Western legislative pressure that makes the toolkit more than a guide for one jurisdiction. Bitcoin Policy UK has published it as an ongoing series, freely available.
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