THURSDAY, FEB19
1. Funding payjoin, 2. Physical mail phishing, 3. Bitcoin credit benchmarking, 4. Trump accounts for kids.
Supported by Proto and Bitkey - a part of the Bitcoin ecosystem at Block, Inc.
1. payjoin
The Payjoin Foundation has received 501(c)(3) recognition from the IRS, making donations to the bitcoin privacy project tax-deductible for the first time, according to Joakim Book for The Rage. The Foundation focuses on implementing BIP-78 standard payjoins, a method that breaks a core assumption used by blockchain analytics firms: that inputs spent together in a transaction belong to the same wallet owner. By having both sender and receiver contribute inputs via partially signed bitcoin transactions, payjoins make common-input-ownership heuristics unreliable while remaining indistinguishable from standard transactions on-chain. That last point allows payjoin style functionalities to improve privacy for tools like Samourai Wallet's Whirlpool, which uses Stowaway, their post-mix tool for payments. The Foundation previously operated through grants from OpenSats and Cake Wallet, and formal 501(c)(3) status lowers the friction for individual and institutional donors while establishing ongoing governance and reporting requirements. As chain-analytics capabilities grow more sophisticated, open infrastructure that obscures economic relationships at the protocol level becomes harder to replicate through any other means.
-EDITOR·OP_DAILY SHARE TO X2. phishing
Hardware wallet users are facing a new wave of physical mail phishing attacks targeting Ledger and Trezor customers, with scammers sending professionally printed letters containing QR codes that route victims to credential-harvesting fake websites, according to Bitcoin News. The letters, complete with company logos, holograms, and Pennsylvania return addresses, demand users complete a "mandatory Authentication Check" by a fabricated deadline or risk losing wallet access. Scanning the QR code leads to convincing replicas of official Ledger and Trezor sites that request the user's 12-, 20-, or 24-word recovery phrase, at which point funds are drained instantly and irreversibly. Cybersecurity expert Dmitry Smilyanets reviewed one letter and confirmed its professional appearance, noting the social engineering pressure built into the copy. The likely source of mailing addresses is prior data breaches at both companies that exposed customer contact information. The attack vector is notable because it sidesteps email spam filters entirely, raising the cost of defense for self-custody users who now must treat physical mail with the same skepticism as digital communications.
-EDITOR·OP_DAILY SHARE TO X3. credit
Firefish, a non-custodial bitcoin-backed peer-to-peer lending marketplace, has integrated its interest rate data into the London Stock Exchange Group's Workspace analytics platform, giving more than 400,000 financial professionals daily access to volume-weighted average lending rates across all currencies and tenors. Firefish is the only bitcoin-backed lending platform currently embedded in LSEG's infrastructure, which serves over 40,000 customers across approximately 190 markets worldwide. Co-founder and COO Igor Neumann framed the move in straightforward terms: "Financial professionals can access Firefish tenor and curve-level data, benchmark it against the market, analyze spreads, and track historical performance. Bitcoin credit deserves the same transparency as any mature financial market." The platform operates via a 3-of-3 multisig escrow structure that keeps collateral in user custody while eliminating rehypothecation risk, and has facilitated over $160 million in notional value with 4,400 BTC collateralized. The integration places bitcoin-backed credit data alongside traditional fixed income instruments in a terminal used by institutional analysts daily, a structural step toward bitcoin functioning as recognized prime collateral in mainstream credit markets.
-EDITOR·OP_DAILY SHARE TO X4. trump
According to Satoshi Pacioli Accounting, the IRS has released substantive guidance on Section 530A accounts, commonly called Trump Accounts, with half a million families already filing Form 4547 to establish custodial IRAs for children under 18. The accounts, created under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed last July, open for contributions on July 4, 2026, and provide a $1,000 federal seed for children born between 2025 and 2028. During the growth period, funds must remain in low-cost U.S. equity index funds with expense ratios capped at 0.10%, and employers may contribute up to $2,500 annually per employee as a tax-deductible, income-excluded benefit. A notable wildcard in IRS Notice 2025-68 is the "qualified general contribution" framework: Michael and Susan Dell have pledged $6.25 billion to deliver $250 to 25 million children in lower-income zip codes, with those contributions exempt from the $5,000 annual aggregate limit. At 18, accounts convert to traditional IRAs with full investment flexibility, creating a potential Roth conversion window for children with low earned income. Final regulations follow the standard notice-and-comment process, with proposed rules expected before the February 20 comment deadline closes.
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