Episode 1124 of Bitcoin And . . . is LIVE!
- Kazakhstan plans a state-controlled crypto reserve funded by seizures and state mining
- Kraken and Robinhood launch MICA-compliant stablecoin USDG in the European Union
- A New York man busted for a $1.7M fake-check scheme converted straight into Bitcoin
- Deutsche Bank and Sparkassen dive deeper into Bitcoin custody and retail trading
- Spain’s Venadí Coffee, a failing café chain, raises eyebrows with €1B Bitcoin pivot
Espresso and Expropriation
Kazakhstan is done playing the middle. The country just proposed a centralized crypto reserve backed by seized digital assets and funded through state-run mining operations. This is resource control in a tracksuit. When a nation starts hoarding confiscated sats under state custody, that is not permissionless finance. That is a data center with a badge. Still, it is another sign that governments are watching this thing a lot more closely than they admit.
While Kazakhstan piles up confiscated coins, Kraken and Robinhood are shipping product. Together, they just launched USDG, a stablecoin designed to play nice with MiCA, the European Union’s regulatory framework. It is compliant. It is clean. It is everything regulators said they wanted. Whether that means anyone will use it is another story. But now the line is drawn. Either you build a stablecoin inside the rules or you find yourself on the same blacklist as Monero. This is the tradeoff. The question is who blinks first.
Meanwhile, back in New York, a man walked into banks with fake checks and walked out with Bitcoin. He ran the scam all the way up to one point seven million dollars. Cash it, convert it, disappear. Until he didn’t. He got caught. But the story matters. Because it shows how fiat fraud still feeds the Bitcoin ecosystem. Not because of some flaw in Bitcoin. But because Bitcoin is the only exit ramp left. That is why people do this. They are not chasing yield. They are escaping gravity.
Over in Germany, legacy finance is starting to get loud. Deutsche Bank is expanding its crypto custody platform. Sparkassen, the German savings bank network, is prepping Bitcoin retail offerings. This is not a pilot program or a press release. These are actual institutions with real capital looking to give people access to Bitcoin. And they are not doing it because they love freedom. They are doing it because they have clients asking for it. Signal like that does not lie.
And then there is Vanadí Coffee in Spain. A small café chain struggling to survive suddenly announced plans to move one billion euros into Bitcoin. You read that right. One billion. With a B. For a brand with a few dozen cafés and very little visibility outside of Spain, that is a move so absurd you almost want to believe it. And maybe that is the point. Maybe this is not about corporate strategy at all. Maybe it is about becoming the story. Either way, they bought Bitcoin. And they did it big.
Just keep stacking and let the children pretend they know what's going on.
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