BTC2

Dan breaks the internet

1/ Russian forces have suffered a major defeat near Lyman, with the loss of numerous men and armoured vehicles. The survivors complain that the Ukrainians "fucked us up like pigs at the slaughterhouse" and accuse a Russian general of a reckless gamble. ⬇️ x.com/wartranslated/…

🇪🇺 EU prepares to issue standardized guidance for the surveillance of "self-hosted wallets" The EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) is preparing to issue guidance for the technical requirements to surveil transactions between "self-hosted wallets" and accounts held with Crypto Asset Service Providers (CASPs). The guidance will lay out what steps CASPs must take to identify the owner of a self-custodial address as required by the EU's Transfer of Funds regulation, in effect since December 2024. The guidance will be issued by July 2027.

Trump says the US gave Ukraine $400 billion. It's more like $11 billion. Let me show you. Now, it's damn tough to make sense of Washington accounting, and surely there are nuances to adjust here. But I'm 100 percent confident my numbers are closer to the reality than what Trump says here. When he met with the Irish Taoiseach, Trump said that the US had given "$350 or $400 billion" to Ukraine. That's not true. Most of the congressionally-pledged Ukraine "aid" either has not been spent, went to buy new weapons for America, was sucked up by USAID globally, or is an arbitrary valuation of old weapons the US gave to Ukraine. The real cash to Ukraine is much much less. More like $11 billion. Suggestions and corrections are welcome on this complex but gravely consequential topic. See the second post for our infographic ⤵️

A series of explosive reports—led by an investigation from The Washington Post—alleged that Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has been providing "minute-by-minute" updates to the Kremlin during confidential EU summits. According to intelligence sources and diplomatic cables cited in the reports, Szijjártó maintained a direct line to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during high-level meetings in Brussels. It is alleged that during breaks in sensitive discussions—particularly those concerning military aid to Ukraine and the 20th EU sanctions package—Szijjártó would call Lavrov to relay the specific bargaining positions and "red lines" of other EU member states. These reports provide the most concrete evidence to date, suggesting that Moscow isn't just watching from the outside but has a virtual seat at the table. The reaction from European leaders has been one of grim validation rather than shock. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk remarked that the allegations were "no surprise”, admitting that he and other leaders have been "self-censoring" for months. Tusk noted that he often limits his interventions in the European Council to strictly necessary points whenever Hungarian representatives are in the room. NATO and EU security officials have reportedly begun formalising a "tiered" information-sharing system. This effectively creates a "black box" around Hungary, where the most sensitive intelligence regarding Russian troop movements or cyber-warfare is no longer shared with Budapest. Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar, head of the Tisza Party, has labeled Szijjártó a "traitor to the homeland and Europe," using the reports to argue that the Orbán government has compromised national sovereignty for the sake of Kremlin interests. This is no longer just a policy disagreement over sanctions, it is a fundamental breakdown of trust within the EU’s security architecture. As the bloc attempts to finalise a €90 billion loan for Ukraine, the fear is that any strategy discussed with Hungary present will be on putin’s before the meeting even adjourns.

FT investigation finds 13 associates of Hungary’s premier won large share of state works after he took power. Read more here: ft.trib.al/oADdBWb

🛡 @balajis envisioned network societies. @VitalikButerin called for a cypherpunk revival. @zooko built the privacy infrastructure. Today @castacrypto, @michael2xl and I publish the framework that connects all three: anonymous governance, merit-based citizenship, built for Zcash. Introducing the Zcash Society (ZS) powered by Valocracy. medium.com/p/2cc93f86d739

Zcash Society (ZS) powered by Valocracy. Valocracy isn't just a concept, it's an actionable framework after years of iteration. The separation of economic and political power is the key unlock: your contributions are your governance weight, not your wallet. With Zcash's privacy layer, this is finally buildable. Excited to see it deployed.

Shoutout to @nuttycom for pointing out that CipherPay didn't need to store the full viewing key (UFVK), the incoming viewing key (UIVK) is sufficient for address derivation and payment detection. We made the change this weekend: - Merchants can still register with either UFVK or UIVK - Server-side, we derive the UIVK and discard the UFVK - Only the UIVK is stored (encrypted) - CipherPay can detect incoming payments but can never see outgoing transactions from your wallet Principle of least privilege. Less data stored = less risk. Thanks for flagging this @nuttycom 🫡

🚨 Hungarian investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi @panyiszabolcs published transcribed communication between Hungarian FM Péter Szijjártó and Kremlin fascist Sergey Lavrov in which they conspire to subvert the election in Slovakia with Russian help. Hungary and Slovakia are both NATO/EU members. Date: 14.02.2020 Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó: Hello Sergey, Peter here. Thank you for talking to me. As I understand you are in Munich, at the conference, right? Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov: Yes, I am in Munich. Hungarian FM Szijjártó: I don’t want to bother you but the Prime Minister asked me to do it, because we have kinda big plea for you. As you know then there are elections coming up in Slovakia 29.02 and it is of key importance to us that the coalition there would continue. I understand it may sound strange coming from Hungarian conservatives but we are hoping for social democrats since they are the only rational force in Slovak political landscape and the only ones who are acting without foreign interference. All others are basically funded by Soros. If the opposition wins then it would be a tragedy for the Central European cooperation. It is also important that the speaker Danko’s Slovak National Party would cross the 5% threshold. We hope they manage it but the only hope for the coalition to continue is when the ruling party wins elections. The prime minister Pellegrini was here yesterday and he told us that if your prime minister would host him even for half an hour it would be of great help for winning the elections. He told us it is way more important for their society than a visit to Washington. So he asked us to ask you, and we also want to ask it ourselves, if such thing could be organized that your PM would host Slovak PM in Moscow somewhere in February... Russian FM Lavrov: It’s quite a plea but I’ll pass it on to PM. Hungarian FM Szijjártó: I understand. It would be great if you’d manage to organize it. Pellegrini asked for our help in that regard since he knows we have good relations and that our presidents also have good personal relations. And he trusted us in this matter. Russian FM Lavrov: Peter, I will pass this plea on today and will be in contact as soon as I have any updates. Hungarian FM Szijjártó: Thank you. And let me emphasize it once more how important it is for us that the coalition in Slovakia continues. If they can’t continue then there is no hope for pragmatic cooperation in Central Europe and we would lose a lot. Russian FM Lavrov: I understand. Hungarian FM Szijjártó: You have no idea how grateful I am that we are having this conversation. It is a sign of friendship. Russian FM Lavrov: Any time, my friend. All the best. ----------------------- Hungarian investigative journalist Panyi is now under attack by the Orban regime for releasing this information. You can support him here: buymeacoffee.com/szabolcspanyi/…

🇺🇸🇺🇦 Trump’s Defense Secretary blames Ukraine for U.S. missile shortage… except it never happened Pete Hegseth is out here saying Tomahawk stockpiles ran low because they were sent to Ukraine. That’s just not true. The U.S. has never provided Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, not once. Feels like they jumped into a fight without the inventory to back it up, and now Ukraine’s being used as the excuse.

This MF just endorsed Orban, Netanyahu is now officially an enemy of EU and friend of Russia. 🇮🇱🇭🇺🇷🇺

Israel lost 8.6% of annual gross domestic product, or 177 billion shekels ($57 billion), during the two years through 2025 bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Epstein survivor: “I was r*ped three times a day and I wasn’t the only girl. It was a conveyor belt of abuse.” Congress is actively protecting the monsters behind this. The entire system needs to be destroyed. Don't stop talking about the Epstein files. Don't stop talking about the Epstein files.

Hungary’s opposition leader Peter Magyar said an alleged Budapest–Moscow backchannel should be investigated as “treason,” after The Washington Post reported Hungary has for years shared detailed EU Council information with Russia, adding that Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto “appears to be colluding with Russia, thereby betraying Hungarian and European interests.” Magyar, who is leading in the polls ahead of the April 12 election, added: “If confirmed, this would amount to treason, which carries a potential life sentence. A future TISZA government will immediately investigate the matter.”

Incredible isn’t it.

Is this the best timed trade of 2026? At 6:50 AM ET today, $1.5 BILLION in notional value worth of S&P 500 futures contracts were bought. This trade was so large it sent the entire index +0.3% higher that minute. Then, 14 minutes later at 7:04 AM ET, President Trump announced "productive discussions" with Iran were underway. By 7:10 AM ET, the S&P 500 had added +$2 TRILLION in market cap. That $1.5 billion position gained +$60 million in minutes. Absolutely incredible.

Trump, Netanyahu and Putin: plunging the world into barbarism, oligarchy and authoritarianism.

Privacy first, chain security second, evolution third Zcash built its culture + technical stack on a privacy first foundation It's great to see this passed on - doing one thing well defines every category winner