Aug 10, 2026
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong publicly criticized crypto firms pivoting to AI as 'zero-sum thinking,' arguing instead that cryptocurrency will become more important in the AI era as autonomous AI agents need programmable money for transactions without traditional banking infrastructure.
Strategy executives, including Michael Saylor, announced the company may sell Bitcoin to fund dividend payments or other corporate needs, reversing years of hardline 'never sell' rhetoric as the firm reported its third consecutive quarterly loss.
Paul Sztorc announced a Bitcoin hard fork that would introduce a competing layer-1 blockchain and seven layer-2 networks, with plans to reallocate Satoshi Nakamoto's estimated 1.1 million BTC reserve to investors.
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson releases a video calling BIP-361 a mischaracterized soft fork that would render 1.7 million BTC permanently unrecoverable. He tweets "Have fun stealing Satoshi's coins" directly at supporters of the proposal and argues Bitcoin's lack of on-chain governance makes the quantum problem unsolvable, while positioning Cardano's governance model as the alternative.
China has ordered Apple to pull Bitchat, a peer-to-peer messaging app that runs over Bluetooth and mesh networks without internet, from its App Store. The app has been used during protests in Iran, Madagascar, Uganda, Nepal, and Indonesia when authorities restricted internet access.