Crypto World
Staking Now Drives 60% of Revenue at Ethereum Treasury Firms
Staking accounted for 60% of disclosed revenue across publicly listed Ethereum (ETH) treasury firms in 2025, according to a new study from staking provider Everstake released Tuesday.
The finding runs counter to massive combined net losses booked by ETH treasury firms.
Staking Drives 60% of ETH Treasury Revenue
Among companies that separately disclosed staking-related revenue, yield generation has become a key operational signal. For example, Bit Digital reported $7 million in ETH staking rewards for 2025, up 287% year over year.
Everstake said staking is now a “major contributor to reported top-line performance.” The yield uplift arrives just as net losses pile up on the income statement.
Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens
Treasury firms in with available FY2025 results lost a combined $1.41 billion as the broader crypto market slid. Specific filings illustrate the damage.
- Sharplink Inc posted a $734.6 million net loss on $28.1 million in revenue.
- Bit Digital recorded an $80.3 million net loss against $113.6 million in revenue.
- BTCS Inc. logged a $33.4 million net loss on $16.5 million in revenue.
BitMine Immersion Technologies booked a $9.02 billion net loss across the six months ending February 28. Other firms in the cohort posted similarly heavy losses.
Everstake Co-Founder and COO Bohdan Opryshko said passive holders face structural repricing. He explained that revenue is now being generated primarily from actively deployed assets rather than idle holdings, a shift he believes could help sustain the business model.
“Those that actively deploy capital are setting the new standard. That deployment is no longer limited to standard protocol staking. It includes liquid staking, integration into DeFi lending markets, and more advanced validator-level strategies such as optimized block construction and MEV capture,” he said.
Everstake based its findings on regulatory filings and earnings disclosures from 15 publicly listed ETH treasury companies through May 2026.
Historically, DATs offered the only regulated path to crypto exposure for public-market investors. Spot ETH ETFs have stripped that monopoly, leaving yield as a key differentiator.
On the individual level, many DAT stocks are traded at a discount to their crypto holdings. This suggests an emerging shift in investor behavior, with investors becoming less willing to pay a premium for passive exposure alone. …Put simply, staking has become a structural floor for all DATs seeking to remain relevant in 2026 and beyond,” the study reads.
Whether passive accumulators can survive a repriced market is now an open question.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch leaders and journalists provide expert insights
The post Staking Now Drives 60% of Revenue at Ethereum Treasury Firms appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Crypto World
TeraWulf Buys entucky Site for 1 GW AI Data Center Expansion
Bitcoin miner TeraWulf has acquired a large data center development site in the US state of Kentucky, adding significant capacity to its artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HPC) business as miners continue diversifying beyond Bitcoin.
TeraWulf said Tuesday the site could eventually support more than 1 gigawatt of AI and HPC capacity. The company expects the first 500 megawatts to come online in 2028, with another 500 megawatts targeted by 2030.
The site includes planned grid infrastructure and long-term power agreements, underscoring TeraWulf’s ongoing shift toward AI and HPC hosting alongside its traditional Bitcoin mining operations.
The acquisition comes as TeraWulf’s HPC-related revenue jumped 117% in the most recent quarter, driven largely by its Western New York Lake Mariner facility, one of North America’s largest HPC campuses. Despite revenue growth, the company posted a wider quarterly loss as it continues to invest heavily in AI infrastructure.

Source: Rittenhouse Research
Its AI strategy is backed by a $3 billion financing deal arranged through Morgan Stanley and announced last September to support data center expansion. Google is helping backstop the debt financing.
TeraWulf is among several Bitcoin mining companies expanding into AI and high-performance computing as margins in the mining sector come under pressure. Others pursuing similar strategies include Hut 8, HIVE Digital, MARA Holdings and IREN.
Related: TeraWulf misses Q4 2025 estimates as Bitcoin mining revenue falls
WULF stock rises on data center expansion news
News of the Kentucky site acquisition boosted TeraWulf (WULF) shares on Tuesday, as investors bet the deal would strengthen the company’s AI and high-performance computing expansion strategy.
The stock rose as much as 13.6% in early New York trading, climbing to nearly $26 per share, its highest level in almost three weeks. Shares of industry tracker CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF (WGMI) were up 4.5% at last look. TeraWulf is the third-largest holding, at 10.86%, in that exchange-traded fund.
TeraWulf has been among the best-performing crypto mining stocks this year, with shares up nearly 120% since the start of 2026. The rally has been driven largely by investor optimism around the company’s AI infrastructure business, growing HPC-related revenue and broader demand for data center capacity tied to artificial intelligence workloads.

Terawulf (WULF) stock. Source: Yahoo Finance
The gains have significantly outpaced the broader crypto mining sector, the S&P 500 index and much of the traditional technology sector.
Related: Crypto Biz: Institutions tighten their grip on Bitcoin, AI and prediction markets
Crypto World
Binance Finds a Backdoor to Return Into the Philippines After Its 2024 Ban
Binance has partnered with Philippine fintech BlockShoals Technologies to return to the Southeast Asian market through a regulatory sandbox. The deal arrives years after the local Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) moved to block the exchange.
Announced Tuesday, the deal names BlockShoals as the approved local Crypto Asset Intermediary under the SEC’s StratBox sandbox. Binance contributes global technology, security systems, and compliance experience.
Inside the Binance Philippines Sandbox Setup
BlockShoals, a Philippine-incorporated company, secured in-principle SEC approval under Memorandum Circular No. 9 in November 2025.
The StratBox framework allows new digital-asset models to be tested under supervision, mirroring other Philippine crypto regulation moves.
The testing window starts in the second half of 2026 and runs for at least two years. BlockShoals serves as the locally accountable participant.
Binance supplies infrastructure, product capabilities, and operational support from other regulated markets.
“The Philippines is one of the most dynamic digital economies in Southeast Asia, with a highly engaged and digitally native population that continues to drive adoption of emerging financial technologies,” read an excerpt in the announcement, citing Seker, Head of APAC at Binance.
Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens
Why the 2024 Block Happened
The Philippine SEC first warned investors after a 12-page Infrawatch complaint in 2022.
“…we pray that this Honorable Commission undertakes the following actions: Conduct motu proprio proceedings on the illegal operations of Binance in the Philippines; Issue a cease and desist order to stop all operations of Binance, its affiliates, and partners in the Philippines; Impose the maximum fine or penalty against Binance and its workforce; and Reject any and all future applications of Binance and/or Binance affiliates to register with the SEC,” Infrawatch PH, a Filipino think tank,” wrote to the SEC.
The regulator then moved to ban Binance entirely in March 2024 over unregistered securities offerings and absent local licensing.
App stores then removed Binance from Philippine listings, though many users kept access through VPNs. The sandbox route is the company’s first compliance-led pathway back.
Operational responsibility now sits with a domestic counterpart rather than an offshore entity.
The Philippines has planned a CBDC launch and tightened broader oversight, placing it among Asia’s more structured crypto markets.
Whether the trial earns a full Crypto Asset Service Provider authorization depends on BlockShoals meeting milestones over two years.
The post Binance Finds a Backdoor to Return Into the Philippines After Its 2024 Ban appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Crypto World
The Hidden Bitcoin Bull Signal Buried in Wall Street’s Big Short
Rising short positions across American stocks are starting to shape a different conversation around Bitcoin’s role in global markets.
According to CryptoQuant contributor XWIN Japan, a market increasingly built on hedging, concentrated AI trades, and heavy leverage could push more institutional capital toward BTC if liquidity conditions improve later in the year.
Wall Street Hedging and Bitcoin’s Changing Behavior
XWIN Japan argued in a market update published earlier today that the rise in US equity short interest does not necessarily point to outright bearish sentiment. Instead, hedge funds appear to be stacking defensive positions while keeping long exposure intact.
Per the crypto research institution, hedge fund gross leverage has climbed to around 293%, alongside record S&P 500 short exposure and elevated Days-to-Cover metrics.
Much of that pressure appears tied to heavy concentration in a handful of AI-related megacap stocks, while weaker sectors and smaller companies have been attracting shorter bets.
That backdrop matters for Bitcoin because it has historically traded closely with equities during market panics. For example, during the COVID-19 selloff in 2020, BTC fell alongside stocks rather than acting as a safe haven.
But according to XWIN, that relationship started to shift in 2025. While the S&P 500 has traded in a relatively tight range, BTC has shown larger swings tied to ETF demand, leverage activity, and crypto-native liquidity flows.
It concluded that going forward, Bitcoin may become a hybrid asset, still exposed to macro liquidity conditions, but more capable of moving on its own terms.
“If future conditions include Fed easing, weaker dollar conditions, and renewed ETF inflows,” XWIN wrote, “Bitcoin could become a secondary liquidity destination rather than simply a correlated tech-like asset.”
The OG crypto asset had fallen over the weekend to around $74,000 but rebounded above $77,000 as reports suggested developments toward a potential ceasefire agreement between the USA and Iran.
But as of the time of writing, data on CoinGecko showed it had dropped back below $77,000 by a few hundred dollars, leaving it down almost 30% over the past year.
On-Chain Activity Cools While Traders Watch Key Levels
Meanwhile, the current consolidation phase has seen Bitcoin’s network activity drop off sharply, with crypto analyst Ali Martinez revealing that active addresses fell nearly 40% in two weeks, from 821,000 to 494,000.
According to him, weaker activity during sideways price action often indicates short-term traders leaving the market, while longer-term holders retain supply.
He added that derivatives traders are increasingly positioned for a breakout, with funding rates recently touching 0.4%, their highest level in more than two months. On-chain data also showed large holders redistributing more than 18,000 BTC during the consolidation period.
Martinez identified resistance around $78,000 and support near $76,000, with a move above resistance, in his opinion, possibly opening the door toward $85,000, while losing support may send Bitcoin toward the mid-$60,000 range.
The post The Hidden Bitcoin Bull Signal Buried in Wall Street’s Big Short appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Crypto World
Bitcoin Price Cycle Debate Grows as Cowen Warns Bottom Is Not In
TLDR
- Benjamin Cowen said Bitcoin is still following its historical four-year cycle.
- Cowen argued that Bitcoin has not reached its final market bottom yet.
- Bitcoin’s rebound to $82,800 stalled near the 200-day simple moving average.
- Cowen compared the latest rejection with similar patterns seen in 2018 and 2022.
- Analyst Sykodelic expects Bitcoin to rally above $90,000 in June.
Bitcoin has remained within its historical four-year cycle, according to Into The Cryptoverse founder and CEO Benjamin Cowen, who says the latest rebound has not confirmed a market bottom.
Cowen said in a recent post on X that Bitcoin’s current structure still fits the cycle pattern that has guided previous bull and bear market phases. He argued that Bitcoin respected the four-year cycle during its October 2025 peak near $126,200, so traders should not assume the bottom will break from the same timeline.
The analyst said past Bitcoin bear markets ended late in midterm years, including November 2022 and December 2018. Based on that comparison, Cowen maintained that the latest decline has not reached its final low.
His comments came after Bitcoin recovered to a multi-month high of $82,800. While some traders viewed the move as evidence that selling pressure had eased, Cowen treated the rebound as another part of the same cycle.
Cowen Says Bitcoin Has Not Reached Its Final Low
According to Cowen, Bitcoin’s market cycle peak and bottom return-on-investment charts continue to follow earlier patterns. He said the bottom ROI has stayed close to prior cycle behavior, even though Bitcoin has not delivered the same size of gains seen in older cycles.
Cowen also said Bitcoin’s ROI from the previous cycle peak has held up better than in some past bear markets. However, he added that the chart still shows similar behavior to previous cycle declines.
In his view, the latest rally did not weaken the bear-market case. Cowen said Bitcoin’s move to $82,800 stopped near the 200-day simple moving average in early May. He compared that level with similar rejections in 2018 and 2022, which came before Bitcoin made another downward move.
The analyst also pushed back against claims that the current consolidation has lasted too long for another decline to follow. Cowen said previous countertrend rallies continued for more than 20 weeks, while the latest one has lasted about 16 weeks.
With those comparisons, Cowen said there is still enough evidence to support the four-year cycle view. He expects Bitcoin to remain under pressure until later in the year, based on the timing of prior market bottoms.
Analysts Split Over Bitcoin’s Next Move
In an earlier analysis, Cowen said Bitcoin’s next leg lower could begin this month and continue into June. He projected that the move could take Bitcoin below its February 6 low of $60,000 before the market forms a stronger base.
Several market analysts have treated the February 6 level as the cycle bottom, but Cowen disagreed with that view. He said Bitcoin’s historical cycle timing leaves room for another decline before the final low appears.
Meanwhile, analyst Sykodelic offered a different outlook. Sykodelic said Bitcoin could rally in June and move above $90,000 after retesting its break-of-structure level.
The split leaves traders watching whether Bitcoin can move past the 200-day simple moving average with strength. For Cowen, failure at that level keeps the historical-cycle argument alive. For analysts with a bullish outlook, a June move above $90,000 would challenge his bearish timeline.
Crypto World
Base Launches MCP Agent Gateway for Onchain Portfolio Management

Base announced the launch of Base MCP, a new gateway enabling AI agents to connect directly to user Base accounts and execute onchain transactions. The protocol allows agents to swap, trade, and manage digital asset portfolios while integrating plugins from major DeFi applications on the Base… Read the full story at The Defiant
Crypto World
Peter Thiel-Backed Stock Crashes 50% After ‘Superhuman Sports’ Dream Collapsed
Shares of Enhanced Group (ENHA), the company behind the Peter Thiel-backed Enhanced Games, fell by as much as half on Tuesday after a six-hour Las Vegas debut produced only one unofficial world record.
The startup went public this month at a $1.2 billion valuation and has now shed hundreds of millions in market value over the past three weeks.
Vegas Debut Delivers One Record
The Enhanced Games held a single-night competition on May 24 at Resorts World Las Vegas, paying out a $25 million purse.
Roughly 42 athletes competed, with the company’s own monitoring data showing 91% used testosterone, 79% used human growth hormone, and 62% used stimulants like Adderall & modafinil ahead of the event.
“Peter Thiel and Donald Trump Jr. spent millions to create a steroid Olympics. They promised to “redefine human limits” and put up $25M in prize money…the whole pitch was that drugs would shatter the limits of clean sport. Instead, they proved the gap between juiced and clean…the only thing they actually proved was how good the clean athletes already are. You think the Enhanced Games exposed anything or just embarrassed themselves?” one researcher posed.
Only one unofficial world record fell. Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev clocked 20.81 seconds in the men’s 50-meter freestyle, beating Cameron McEvoy’s 20.88-second mark and earning a $1 million bonus.
Sprinter Fred Kerley, who had predicted Usain Bolt’s 9.58-second 100-meter mark would be “destroyed,” won in 9.97 seconds, a time that would not have qualified for the Paris Olympics final.
Clean athletes, including Olympic gold medalist Hunter Armstrong, took three events outright.
Silicon Valley Loses to Biology
After closing at $5.36 on Friday, ENHA opened near $2.67 on Tuesday, a roughly 50% intraday slide that wiped out close to $800 million in market value.
Market cap has fallen from $981 million on May 7 to roughly $655 million.
Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens
The setup echoes another recent venture-backed spectacle. A week earlier, Figure AI staged a 10-hour “Man vs. Machine” contest in which a human intern beat its F.03 humanoid robot 12,924 packages to 12,732.
When a single live-streamed proof point misses, the equity story tends to unravel in hours, not quarters.
With backers like tech investor Peter Thiel historically quick to rotate out of stalling bets, ENHA’s path to a second event now depends on public-market patience.
The post Peter Thiel-Backed Stock Crashes 50% After ‘Superhuman Sports’ Dream Collapsed appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Crypto World
Adam Back Calls 107 BTC Burn an “Accidental Quantum Bounty
Five transactions broadcast on May 26 sent a combined 107 Bitcoin (BTC) to Bitcoin’s well-known burn address, permanently removing the funds from circulation. Blockstream CEO Adam Back called the incident an “accidental quantum bounty” on X, drawing immediate attention across the crypto community.
The burn address, 1111111111111111111114oLvT2, has no corresponding private key, making any BTC sent there irrecoverable under current cryptographic assumptions. The 107 BTC adds to over 403 BTC already locked at the address across more than 146,000 prior transactions, all permanently withdrawn from the circulating supply.
Back’s Remark Revives a Long-Running Debate
Back’s comment pointed to one of the more unusual theoretical scenarios in Bitcoin’s quantum security debate. The address’s public key is mathematically derivable from its structure. A sufficiently powerful quantum computer could, in theory, compute the corresponding private key and claim those funds.
Back has been active in discussions about quantum preparedness throughout 2026. In April, he pushed for optional quantum-resistant upgrades to Bitcoin over forced wallet freezes. His framing of the burn event as a bounty illustrates why that debate carries real stakes, even if the technology to collect such a prize remains distant.
Quantum Risk to BTC Has Grown More Concrete
ARK Invest has outlined five quantum risk stages for Bitcoin, with early stages already influencing how large investors manage BTC exposure. Separately, Caltech researchers found that Bitcoin may need far fewer qubits to crack than earlier models assumed. That finding has compressed the theoretical threat window considerably.
Research confirms that quantum computing is reshaping Bitcoin allocations among institutional investors well before any machine poses a direct threat. ARK’s broader estimates put roughly $480 billion in BTC at long-term risk due to publicly visible keys. That category includes funds sitting at all known burn addresses.
Whether those 107 BTC remain permanently lost or become an early benchmark for quantum progress is an open question. The answer depends on how quickly hardware development narrows the gap between theoretical capability and practical key derivation.
The post Adam Back Calls 107 BTC Burn an “Accidental Quantum Bounty appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Crypto World
Traders share Pope Leo’s worries on AI’s job market impact
Pope Leo XIV holds his weekly general audience at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City, Vatican, on June 11, 2025.
Massimo Valicchia | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Pope Leo warned over the weekend about a “social calamity” that could come from mass unemployment due to the adoption of artificial intelligence technologies. Prediction market traders appear to think that worry isn’t misplaced.
In his first encyclical, a document that is a form of teaching by the leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo urged the world to regulate AI. He also warned about the effects it may have on the labor market.
“The pursuit of greater profits cannot justify choices that systematically sacrifice jobs, because the human person is an end, not a means, and the economic order must remain subordinate to human dignity and the common good,” he wrote.
Traders on Kalshi place 60% odds that U.S. unemployment will cross 8% at some point before 2030. They also give a 47% chance it will cross 9% in the same period.
A 9% unemployment rate would likely stem from a severe recession or displacement of workers. Not including the Covid-19 recession in 2020, there have only been three economic contractions that have pushed the unemployment rate in the U.S. above 9% since World War II.
Kalshi traders think there’s a low chance of a recession in 2026, with odds just at 16%. However, in 2027, they see those odds climbing to 45%. There are no contracts about potential recessions in 2028 or 2029.
At the same time, traders think AI is driving layoffs right now. Traders place a 78% chance that AI is the number one reason for job cuts in May, which will be confirmed or denied by data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
In his first encyclical, Pope Leo wrote that “unemployment is a grave evil.” He acknowledged that any new technology leads to temporary labor displacements — a view supporters of the AI buildout have acknowledged too even while reassuring workers that they project there won’t be a mass labor disruption by automation.

But the pope still worries about what the consequences of any disruption may be.
“Work remains a fundamental dimension of the human experience, for not only is it a means of sustenance, but it is also a context for expression, relationships and contributing to the community,” Leo wrote. “A society that guarantees employment to only a small fraction of the population, despite having a high level of technical development, risks exposing many to forced inactivity, a lack of responsibility and the absence of daily tasks and stimuli, resulting in human and cultural impoverishment.”
Disclosure: CNBC and Kalshi have a commercial relationship that includes customer acquisition and a minority investment.
Crypto World
Ethereum Price Stuck Sideways as Tom Lee Hints at Russell 1000 Inclusion: Passive ETF Flows Could Boost ETH USD
Ethereum price is grinding sideways while an indirect institutional catalyst might be building in the background. Onchain data shows that BitMine Immersion Technologies, the biggest Ether treasury company chaired by Tom Lee, has added another 60,000 ETH to its holdings, withdrawing those funds from Kraken. Although it is not yet confirmed by either Bitmine or Tom Lee officially.
FTSE Russell simultaneously placed BitMine on its preliminary Russell 3000 inclusion list, and Lee is publicly flagging that the company’s $10.15 billion market cap clears the $5.7 billion threshold required for Russell 1000 eligibility.
It is not baseless as BitMine’s market cap comfortably exceeds the Russell 1000 minimum, and Lee posted on X that “many active managers only buy equities on the Russell 1000.” His estimate: passive index funds and ETFs typically hold 20% to 25% of any included stock’s market cap.
FTSE Russell will publish updated lists on June 5, June 12, and June 18, with reconstituted indexes taking effect after market close on June 26. Every one of those dates is a potential volatility event for BMNR, and indirectly, for ETH.
Meanwhile, Ethereum ETF flows, regulatory overhang from the SEC’s delayed tokenized-stocks proposal, and Ethereum Foundation governance shifts are all unresolved. This backdrop has been keeping ETH pinned.
Discover: The Best Crypto to Diversify Your Portfolio
Ethereum Price Outlook: Russell 1000 Tailwinds vs. Sideways Grind
ETH volume has been uninspiring during this sideways phase, and Tom Lee’s framework provides the longer-range scaffolding. Lee has publicly outlined Ethereum price targets of $12,000, $22,000, and even $62,000 depending on Bitcoin’s trajectory, historical ETH/BTC ratios, and Ethereum’s expanding role in tokenization and payments.
These figures are long-cycle projections, not near-term calls, but they establish the directional bias held by one of Wall Street’s most visible crypto advocates.
For ETH, FTSE Russell confirmation on BitMine’s Russell 1000 inclusion would trigger forced buying from passive ETFs. The 20–25% passive ownership estimate translates to billions in mandated exposure, some of which flows through to ETH’s price indirectly as BitMine accumulates further.
At the moment, the ETF flow dynamic remains the most underappreciated variable in Ethereum’s near-term setup. The index calendar is the clock now.
Discover: The Best Token Presales
LiquidChain Targets Early-Mover Upside as Ethereum Tests Key Levels
Ethereum’s consolidation is a familiar pattern for cycle-aware investors, and history suggests the sharpest gains in a bull phase often accrue not at the large-cap level, but one layer deeper in the infrastructure stack. That’s the window LiquidChain ($LIQUID) is positioning to exploit.
LiquidChain is a Layer 3 infrastructure project with a specific, technically grounded thesis: fuse Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana liquidity into a single execution environment. One deployment, all three ecosystems. That’s not a vague cross-chain promise.
The architecture centers on a Unified Liquidity Layer, Single-Step Execution, Verifiable Settlement, and Deploy-Once Architecture. These are components designed to eliminate the fragmentation that currently forces developers to choose chains rather than combine them.
Capital rotation into on-chain infrastructure has been accelerating as ETH-adjacent narratives heat up — and LiquidChain’s presale reflects that momentum. The numbers speak for themself. Currently priced at $0.01463, Liquid has managed to grow its IPO with more than $800K raised to date, approaching the $1 million milestone.
Research LiquidChain’s presale terms before the next pricing tier moves.
The post Ethereum Price Stuck Sideways as Tom Lee Hints at Russell 1000 Inclusion: Passive ETF Flows Could Boost ETH USD appeared first on Cryptonews.
Crypto World
Someone just burned $8 million of bitcoin
On Monday at 10am New York time, five old Bitcoin addresses each sent their entire balance to the network’s best-known burn address, 1111111111111111111114oLvT2.
The combined total was over 107 BTC, worth about $8.2 million at the time.
Because the bizarrely selfless transactions occurred at the same time, the action is likely the work of a single person or group acting in synchrony.
Adam Back joked that it increased the accidental quantum bounty pool alongside other burned BTC for whoever cracks elliptic curve cryptography.
The recipient address has no private key. Sends to its public key is the cryptographic equivalent of dropping cash into an incinerator.
Across more than 256,000 confirmed transactions stretching back to 2010, the address has received 385,811 outputs and spent exactly zero.
Most Bitcoin public keys derive from a private key. In contrast, 111111111111111111114oLvT2 is a syntactically valid address that was handcrafted directly as a Base58Check string.
Because this null address was made first as a public address, attempting to derive backwards from its public key to a private key is computationally infeasible, until someone invents a cryptographically relevant quantum computer in the distant future.
‘Looks like Maximus Retardimus’
The wallet 111111111111111111114oLvT2 has no known or expected private key until the dawn of quantum, so coins sent to this address are effectively burned.
Timechain Index founder Sani flagged the burn. The post collected hundreds of thousands of views within hours.
Protos has previously reported on draft Bitcoin improvement proposals that actually propose burning legacy outputs if their owners don’t migrate coins to quantum-resistant addresses.
Voluntarily piling more coins onto quantum-vulnerable addresses certainly inverts that effort.
Sani replied to Back’s joke in his own thread, “Looks like Maximus Retardimus,” he wrote.
Read more: Cloudflare’s 2029 quantum sprint raises Bitcoin alarm bells
Five wallets, one signature pattern
The five source addresses were:
- 16g5hMoREWqMcaQGvnCHCWPheotD99bVQt
- 1PkWqW1P7KsxYXsAnWMPru6NNTfBeiRT6V
- 1LieqLD1qNadbQrSGjYAUT3tVL2w4cxXQu
- 14UNkCVPDQFCZAvq3j4vUQ6h6pHwBtegMa
- 1JtpAuksysZdwzkCjwQpTG5mzE8BRq7qmh
All five share the same first-seen date on the chain: April 10, 2014. This reinforces the conclusion that today’s burn was likely one person or synchronized group.
Each transaction used an identical locktime of 950,958, identical RBF preferences, and a fee rate of 1.81 satoshis per vByte. Each consolidated multiple UTXOs into a single output.
Transaction execution lined up to the second across all five wallets.
That pattern points to a single controller running an action in parallel, not five strangers coincidentally arriving at the same, bizarre conclusion.
After the burn, all five source addresses hold exactly zero satoshis. The largest of the five, 1PkWqW1P7Ks…, moved 551.86 BTC through 71 transactions over a decade.
Its final transaction sent 1.42 BTC to the null address.
A growing pile of burned bitcoin
The May 25 burn pushed the null address from roughly 700 BTC to 807.24 BTC, a 15.3% jump in a single block.
That number has been climbing for years. A Bitcoin community post in February 2025 measured the address at 669 BTC. Holdings were closer to 555 BTC roughly two years earlier.
At today’s BTC price, the wallet contains over $62 million of permanently destroyed coins.
Unlike Ethereum, where EIP-1559 burns base fees automatically with every transaction, Bitcoin has no protocol-level destruction mechanism. Every satoshi at 1111111111111111111114oLvT2 had to be deliberately sent there by someone holding a working private key.
Got a tip? Send us an email securely via Protos Leaks. For more informed news and investigations, follow us on X, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.
-
Crypto World5 days agoBlockchain.com files with SEC for U.S. IPO
-
Fashion4 days agoHoliday Weekend Open Thread – Corporette.com
-
Business4 days agoDell Technologies DELL Stock Surges 15% on AI Server Momentum and Analyst Upgrades in 2026
-
Crypto World5 days agoBitcoin Accumulation Weakens as BTC Realized Losses Hit $600M
-
Crypto World3 days agoRobinhood crypto COO Tanya Denisova exits
-
Crypto World4 days agoSpace X IPO Is ‘Bad News’ for Tech Stocks: But What About Bitcoin?
-
Politics4 days agoMakerfield: a tale of two social-media histories
-
Business2 days agoNYT Strands Answers May 24 2026 Revealed for Puzzle No. 812 Theme Summer Essentials
-
Crypto World5 days agoMicroStrategy’s Saylor Says Miners No Longer Set Bitcoin Price, Another Force Has Taken Over
-
Tech5 days agoWhatsApp ads could make Irish debut after discussions with DPC
-
Crypto World4 days agoAI infrastructure race heats up as IREN pitches full-stack strategy, WhiteFiber lands $160M deal
-
Tech4 days agoA 0.12% parameter add-on gives AI agents the working memory RAG can’t
-
Tech5 days agoYou Can Now Add ChatGPT To PowerPoint
-
NewsBeat5 days agoCharity run by Reform leader Malcolm Offord accused of ‘law breaking’ over Scottish registration
-
Business5 days agoTrump Invests $1M-$5M in Kura Sushi USA Chain With 27 California Locations
-
Tech1 day agoMicrosoft’s quiet Claude Code retreat and the real cost of enterprise AI
-
Sports5 days ago2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson leaderboard: Brooks Koepka finds putting stroke in Round 1
-
Crypto World6 days agoExa Labs raises $250 million in funding led by a16z
-
Business4 days ago
Goldman Sachs reinstates Ageas stock coverage with neutral rating
-
Crypto World4 days agoVerus Bridge Hacker Returns $8.5M ETH, Keeps $2.8M as Bounty


⟁
You must be logged in to post a comment Login