In Austin, the Bitcoin Takeover, running March 11-15, 2025, during SXSW, is set to reframe the city’s tech landscape by focusing on Bitcoin, as outlined by Parker Lewis, co-organizer and Zaprite’s head of business development. This week-long event features eight gatherings, including Bitcoin 101 presentations, a btc++ AI-powered hackathon, and a screening of the documentary "Dirty Coin" exploring Bitcoin mining’s energy impact. A main event on March 14th will showcase 10 industry entrepreneurs, discussing Bitcoin’s infrastructure in custody, payments, and energy over the course of the day. Lewis notes, “Bitcoin is returning a sound money standard to the world,” amid SXSW’s fiat-driven shift, this initiative aggregates advocates to plant a flag for continued technological innovation, and to correct an error Lewis identifies, where "the conference fails to include a dedicated track on the most important technology innovation of the past decade: bitcoin."
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The White House will host the 2025 Digital Assets Summit on March 7, featuring crypto leaders like Michael Saylor of Strategy and Brad Garlinghouse of Ripple, alongside Chainlink’s Sergey Nazarov and Exodus’s JP Richardson (Is the Bitcoin CEO not invited?). President Donald Trump’s event will explore integrating digital assets like Bitcoin, XRP, Solana, and Cardano into the U.S. financial system, amid efforts by the Presidential Working Group on Digital Assets. Saylor, a Bitcoin advocate, predicts its market cap could reach $200 trillion, with prices hitting $10 million, calling it the “greatest economic program of the 21st century.” (READ: Cue the hopium). The summit will address regulatory frameworks, CBDCs, and national digital currency systems, hopefully inspiring a vision for digital asset’s strategic role while mitigating the very obvious conflicts of interest incumbent in centralized alt-coins and protocols.
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Public U.S. Bitcoin mining companies are feeling the pinch as Bitcoin’s price dipped over 10% throughout the past month, trading as low as $87,300, according to JP Morgan’s latest report. The aggregate market cap of 14 major public miners, including Core Scientific, Greenidge, and MARA Holdings, dropped 22%—$6 billion—in February, with daily block reward revenue falling to $54,300 per EH/s, down 5% from January. Mining difficulty also hit a record 109.78 trillion hashes, straining production amidst the problem of managing fluctuating electricity costs. MARA Holdings reported a 6% drop in blocks won and Bitcoin production, citing network difficulty and fewer operational days. Despite miner diversification into AI, Chinese firm Deepseek’s launch disrupted miners. JP Morgan’s analysis highlights the complexities of the public mining sector, with miners’ pivot to new loads, growing demands for fleet efficiency, and ongoing risks associated with regional weather and grid operation.
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The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned Iranian national Behrouz Parsarad, accused of running the shuttered Nemesis darknet marketplace, blacklisting 49 Bitcoin and Monero addresses allegedly linked to him. Announced on March 4, 2025, this move follows Nemesis’s 2024 takedown and part of a global effort to dismantle illicit online platforms like Hydra Market. From 2021-2024, Nemesis facilitated over $30 million in drug sales, additionally offering hacking services and forged documents, with Parsarad reportedly earning millions in fees. Chainalysis reporting alleges that Parsarad moved over $1.6 million in crypto, using Bitcoin’s volatility to grow holdings while evading Iran’s severe anti-drug laws (e.g. the death penalty). Discussing actions against cybercrime, Chainalysis noted, “Parsarad deliberately obscured his illicit activities.” While one would expect nothing less from a regulatory entity, we wonder the effectiveness of 'blacklisting' addresses on an open and permission-less protocol?
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