Bitcoin surged above $87,000 on Friday, driven by softer-than-expected U.S. jobs data showing nonfarm payrolls increased only 29,000 last month and unemployment ticked up. Weaker labor market conditions typically ease inflation pressure, potentially reducing Federal Reserve rate hikes and boosting riskier assets like bitcoin and stocks.
Frank Holmes, executive chairman of HIVE Digital Technologies, argues that Bitcoin miners control infrastructure essential for AI development and predicts massive monetary printing will drive adoption of Bitcoin and gold as alternative stores of value.
Bitcoin developer Peter Todd joined the MARA Foundation as lead maintainer of Slipstream, a private mempool service that allows users to send transactions directly to MARA Pool without using Bitcoin's public network. The service protects transaction privacy before confirmation and has been used for research projects and to prevent front-running exploits.
Robinhood VP Nicola White discusses the launch of crypto perpetual futures with up to 10x leverage on Bitcoin and Ether in the US, enabled by a CFTC no-action letter and Robinhood Derivatives. The company is pushing for 24/7 global markets and explaining how institutional demand is reshaping crypto trading infrastructure.
Misha Komarov presents Shielded Bitcoin, a proposed zero-knowledge privacy protocol that hides transaction senders, receivers, and amounts using Bitcoin PIPEs without requiring a soft fork. The research proposal enables private Bitcoin transfers without custodians or bridges, and is compared against privacy-focused cryptocurrencies like Zcash and Monero.