First time reading? I’m Jordan, and this is The Bitcoin Minimalist. Every Tuesday & Thursday, we scour 100s of sources to bring you need-to-know Bitcoin insights.

Today we’re covering:

• Senator Lummis proposes BTC as Federal reserve asset,

• Bitcoin hash ribbons signal 'buy',

• New Proton Wallet enables Bitcoin via email,

• And everything else you need to know.

—Jordan

BITCOIN RESERVES

Senator Lummis To Announce Bitcoin Reserve Proposal

Lummis' Proposal: At the Nashville conference, Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis is set to propose that the Federal Reserve adopt Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset. This move is akin to how the Fed currently holds gold and foreign currencies.

Trump's Endorsement: Rumors suggest former President Donald Trump, who will also speak at the conference, might endorse this proposal, adding significant support.

Legislative Details: While details of the bill are still confidential, initial drafts indicate that the Fed would be directed to purchase and hold Bitcoin. Lummis has been gathering support from Senate Banking Committee members for co-sponsorship.

Current Holdings: The US already holds around 210,000 bitcoins, valued over $66,000 per token, mainly through Department of Justice seizures.

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

💬 Trump's comments on El Salvador spark Bitcoin community debate. He accused El Salvador of exporting criminals to the U.S., which Bitcoin supporters refuted, defending President Bukele's crime policies. Bukele, instead of responding, focused on promoting his new coffee brand.

📊 Less than two days into her campaign, Kamala Harris' advisors consulted Mark Cuban about Bitcoin policy. Cuban believes Harris may support emerging technologies like Bitcoin. The Chamber of Digital Commerce urged Harris to endorse Bitcoin, signaling potential openness.

📈 Bitcoin's hash ribbons indicator signals a 'buy' for the first time in 2024, according to one trader. This suggests an end to miners' capitulation and a potential price rally. The hashrate stands at 676 exahashes per second, and is rising fast.

🚀 VanEck predicts Bitcoin could hit $52.38 million by 2050 in a bullish scenario. They attribute this to Bitcoin's potential as a reserve currency, technological advancements like Layer 2 solutions, and economic shifts weakening traditional currencies. Their base case scenario projects Bitcoin at $2.9 million, with a bear case of $130,314.

💳 Bitcoin rewards app Fold plans to go public on NASDAQ via a $365M SPAC merger with Emerald Acquisition Corp. The combined entity will have over 1,000 BTC ($67M) on its balance sheet. Fold's cashback debit card has processed over $2 billion and distributed $45 million in bitcoin rewards.

🔬 Researchers using Nvidia GPUs have made progress towards developing a quantum computer, focusing on quantum annealing systems. Their simulations tackled magnetic behavior issues in quantum computing. Quantum annealing, unlike general quantum gating, aims to solve specific problems in finance, blockchain, and other industries.

🚨 Mt. Gox transferred 47,500 BTC ($3.2B) to unknown addresses within two hours, reducing its reserves to around 42,744 BTC ($2.85B). This move is part of ongoing repayments to creditors, with over $12B in BTC distributed since July 16. The exchange sent significant amounts to unknown wallets and Bitstamp.

BITCOIN MADE SIMPLE

ProtonMail Email Service Unveils New Self-Custody Bitcoin Wallet

ProtonMail's New Self-Custody Bitcoin Wallet: Proton, the company behind ProtonMail, has launched Proton Wallet. This new non-custodial Bitcoin wallet simplifies Bitcoin transactions via email.

Seamless Bitcoin Transactions: Proton Wallet, integrated with ProtonMail, allows users to send Bitcoin as easily as sending an email. Andy Yen, CEO of Proton, stated:

“Proton Wallet’s ability to support Bitcoin via email now makes Bitcoin transactions as easy to use as PayPal, while preserving the decentralized and non-custodial nature of Bitcoin.”

Proton’s Bitcoin History: Bitcoin has played a crucial role in Proton’s history. When PayPal froze Proton’s funds during its 2014 crowdfunding campaign, Bitcoin donations helped save the company. This connection deepened in 2023 when holding Bitcoin safeguarded Proton during the Credit Suisse collapse.

Waitlist: Currently, Proton Wallet is accessible to Proton Visionary users and select community members, with broader access planned via a waitlist.

POLL

TUESDAY’S POLL RESULTS

What will Trump announce at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference, if anything?

Something major, like plans to add Bitcoin to US reserves - 37.5%

Some somewhat major, like no capital gains tax on BTC - 12.5%

Nothing specific, just general support - 33.3%

He won't announce anything - 16.7%

Something major - “100,000 bloggers can't be wrong!” - Chris

IN THE LOOP

📉 Kamala Harris decided not to speak at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference in Nashville, confirmed by Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey. Despite earlier discussions and inquiries from Harris' team to Mark Cuban about Bitcoin policy, she opted out of the event.

🏎️ Ferrari will extend Bitcoin payments to Europe by the end of July, expanding a program started in the U.S. last October in partnership with BitPay. The luxury car maker plans to support Bitcoin transactions in other markets by year-end.

⛏️ A tiny 500 Gh/s home Bitcoin mining device, the Bitaxe, mined a block on July 24, earning over $200K in BTC. This device, connected to Solo CKPool, achieved this despite having a 1 in 1.1 billion chance every ten minutes due to the Bitcoin network's massive total hash power.

📈 Riot Platform acquires Block Mining for $93M, enhancing its self-mining hashrate by one exahash per second. The deal includes $18.5M in cash and $74M in Riot's stock, plus potential performance-based considerations. This acquisition expands Riot's operations into Kentucky and aims to boost capacity to over 300 MW.

CHARTS & DATA

Cycle Repeat (above) - Cycle repeat currently predicts around a $400,000 post-halving top for Bitcoin’s price.

Hash Ribbons - The Bitcoin hash ribbons (above) have moved out of the red zone, meaning mining hash rate has stopped slowing down. The creator of hash ribbons noted that as miners shut down and hash rate slowed, this was often a bottom in Bitcoin’s price.

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