Wall Street Signals, State Reserves, and Satoshi’s Legacy
Welcome back to The Bitcoin Street Journal Podcast. I’m your host, Anna, and this episode is absolutely packed with breaking headlines, legislative fireworks, deep dives into Bitcoin’s macro narrative, and yes — some vintage pleb power at the end. Let’s jump right in.
First up, the news cycle is on fire: the state of New Hampshire has made history. Governor Kelly Ayotte just signed a bill into law allowing the state’s treasurer to invest in Bitcoin. This makes New Hampshire the first U.S. state to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Meanwhile, the U.K. Treasury ruled out a national Bitcoin reserve, stating it's "not the plan for us."
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in the U.S. made headlines of his own, claiming a central bank digital currency would be a sign of weakness. Instead, he emphasized Bitcoin’s rising status as a legitimate store of value. No CBDCs here, just hard money vibes.
Zooming out to the markets — BlackRock bought \$531 million worth of Bitcoin in a single day for its spot ETF, while Bitcoin ETFs collectively absorbed \$420.92 million in net inflows. BlackRock now holds over 620,000 BTC. Meanwhile, Ethereum ETF flows remained flat with a slight outflow.
Speaking of heavy hitters, Michael Saylor's Strategy added 555 BTC to its holdings, bringing its total stash to a jaw-dropping 555,450 Bitcoin. Saylor says the industry is heading to \$200 trillion, and his firm is using AI tools to create what he calls the first "AI-designed securities."
Public companies are stacking hard. Thumzup Media filed to raise \$500 million to buy more Bitcoin. DeFi Development Corp added another \$11.2 million in Solana, pushing their holdings past 400,000 SOL. Metaplanet, a Tokyo-based company, scooped up 555 BTC this week as part of its long-term debt-financed strategy. Not to be left out, Semler Scientific joined the fray with 167 BTC added to its corporate treasury.
Meanwhile, someone just moved 1,000 BTC they bought 11 years ago for \$100,000 — now worth over \$100 million. That’s the ultimate hodl story. That’s not just conviction — it’s generational vision.
In protocol updates, Bitcoin Core’s upcoming release will remove the OP\_RETURN size limit. Supporters call it long overdue; critics worry it opens the door to spam. The move has sparked heated debate across the dev and miner communities.
Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade is live, bringing game-changing improvements to wallet UX, validator economics, and L2 scalability. Max stake for validators was raised to 2,048 ETH, streamlining staking and reducing fragmentation. This update is a significant step in Ethereum’s long-term roadmap.
Solana is also flexing: its ecosystem saw a \$162 million revenue jump in April. Sol Strategies just deployed \$20 million from a funding deal to acquire 122,524 SOL. Meanwhile, Solana’s Pumpfun DApp alone earned more in platform fees this year than the entirety of Ethereum.
Tokenized real-world assets, or RWAs, now total over \$22 billion in value. BlackRock leads the charge, with the Securitize platform holding 31% of the entire RWA sector. Superstate and Plume are also rising fast, offering short-duration U.S. securities in tokenized form.
Regulatory tension is peaking: the Senate is preparing to vote on the GENIUS Act, a stablecoin regulation bill, amid a brewing clash between Democrats and Republicans. Arizona's Bitcoin Reserve Bill passed its final reading and is now in the hands of Governor Hobbs — again. Meanwhile, Florida’s similar bill has failed, ending hopes for a Sunshine State Reserve — for now.