Bradley Rettler
6.5K posts
@rettlerb
Professor of Philosophy, Director of Bitcoin Research Institute @ https://t.co/3m9UzK1l8o; Co-author https://t.co/H5WV71etfj; Senior Fellow @btcpolicyorg
Bitcoin only works if people use it. Today at @Blocks, we’re making that easier: • New @Bitkey with 100% more screen • 5% BTC Back with @CashApp at @Square merchants • Turn P2P payments into bitcoin on @CashApp • Soon, NFC tap to pay and bitcoin toggle on @Square • Proof of Reserves you can verify This is how bitcoin becomes everyday money.
SAM BANKMAN FRIED PICKED EVERY WINNER OF THE 2020s AND HIS LAWYERS SOLD THEM ALL AT THE BOTTOM. If the FTX estate hadn't panic-sold its assets during bankruptcy, SBF would be sitting on a $114 billion empire today. Instead, he is watching the greatest trades of the decade from a prison cell. The data is almost impossible to believe: - Anthropic: $82.3 billion (165x) SBF bought an 8% stake for $500M. The estate sold it for $1.3B in 2024. Today, that stake would be worth over $80B. - SpaceX:$15 billion (75x) A massive stake liquidated early to pay creditors. - Solana: $5.1 billion (27x) SBF was an early backer at $8. The estate offloaded a massive chunk at $64. - Robinhood: $4.9 billion (8x) - Genesis Digital: $3.5 billion (3x) The Latest "Missed" Fortune: CURSOR In 2022, Alameda Research wrote a tiny $200,000 check for a 5% stake in the AI startup Cursor. In April 2023, the bankruptcy estate sold that entire stake back for exactly what they paid: $200,000. Yesterday, SpaceX announced a deal to buy Cursor for $60 billion. That "worthless" 5% stake would be worth $3 billion today. That is a 15,000x return that vanished because the lawyers wanted a quick exit. SBF was a genius at picking generational winners and a criminal at managing their money. The lawyers recovered $18 billion for users. If they had just held, they would be sitting on $114 billion and the most valuable venture portfolio in history.
Heads up: @claudeai is an idiot this morning.
holy fuck, a hair dryer at a Paris airport broke Polymarket weather markets & made someone $34,000 richer - polymarket was settling Paris temperature bets on a single Météo France sensor sitting near the Charles de Gaulle runway perimeter - basically unguarded - the guy bought the long-shot outcome (like "22°C" when everyone expected 18°C) for pennies, since nobody thought it'd hit - then he walked up to the probe and briefly heated the air around it with a portable heat source, spiking the reading just long enough to register as the daily max - temperature snapped back to normal in minutes, the market resolved in his favor, and he cashed out - twice, on April 6 and April 15, before Météo France caught on and filed charges hyperstitions.
Turning sunshine into bitcoin with Bitaxe ☀️ Off-grid citadel living is closer than you think
ANNOUNCEMENT: @bitstorian and I are thrilled to announce the winners of the Student Bitcoin Research Prizes for the 2025-2026 academic year. We got a number of good submissions, and these are the best of the best!
Yesterday I finished the final editing for “The Stolguard Incident” by @LynAldenContact, narrated by me and @carlabitcoin Just sent it out for mastering, then we’ll do final proofing. It’s a bittersweet moment to finish the audiobook… Carla and I both absolutely loved TSI when we read the manuscript, and through narrating we got even closer to the characters… It’s been a true honor to use our voices to bring Lyn’s words to life. It’s also quite a surreal timeline, because we recorded the final chapters the day before I had to call an ambulance for Carla… then emergency surgery… then a week in the ICU… then yesterday she was back at home recording the final minor edits. Just wild. Audiobook officially coming soon but grab yourself a physical copy in the meantime.
