03-17-2026Price:

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BITCOIN

Bitcoin's path to money faces political sabotage

Tuesday, March 17, 2026 · from 3 podcasts, 6 episodes
Presidio Bitcoin JamBitcoin And | Bitcoin & E…Rabbit Hole RecapBitcoin And | Bitcoin & E…Bitcoin And | Bitcoin & E…Bitcoin And | Bitcoin & E…
  • Coinbase lobbyists are reportedly pushing to limit a key tax exemption to stablecoins, sidelining Bitcoin's use as everyday money.
  • Governments from Paraguay to South Korea are enacting draconian surveillance regimes for all crypto transactions.
  • Internal industry tensions expose a schism between companies building Bitcoin as money and those treating it as a digital asset.

Bitcoin is being boxed in.

On one flank, regulators are building a panopticon. Paraguay now forces residents and platforms to report every crypto transaction over $5,000, including transfers between a person's own wallets. On Bitcoin And, David Bennett called the rules "absolutely over the top freaking ridiculous" and authoritarian. South Korea is investing billions in AI-powered tax surveillance, signaling a global push for total oversight.

On the other flank, the political path to making Bitcoin spendable is being blocked. The push for a de minimis tax exemption, which would remove capital gains reporting on small transactions, has hit a wall. According to reports from Matt Odell on Rabbit Hole Recap and others, Coinbase's lobbying team is working to sideline the exemption for Bitcoin while securing it for stablecoins. Stablecoins, pegged to the dollar, hardly need the relief.

Coinbase denies the accusations. Its Chief Policy Officer called them "a total lie." But the strategic divide is real. Jack Dorsey's Block is campaigning for "Bitcoin is everyday money" and building merchant tools. Miles Suter of Bitcoin Magazine stated the stakes plainly: "If Bitcoin just becomes digital gold, we failed the mission."

The data suggests the mission is viable. The Lightning Network processed over $1 billion in volume last November. This evidence undermines the Washington narrative that "no one is using Bitcoin as money," a talking point reportedly used to kill the exemption.

For developers, the legal environment remains perilous. The DOJ is pursuing a second trial against Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm, who faces decades in prison for writing code. He has said, "I will never stop fighting for freedom." This occurs as Coinbase expands a regulated "exchange for everything" in Europe, offering a sanitized, compliant future.

The fight is no longer just against hostile regulators. It is against an industry willing to sacrifice Bitcoin's utility for its own speculative ends.

Miles Suter, Bitcoin Magazine:

- If Bitcoin just becomes digital gold, we failed the mission.

- Bitcoin payments validate Bitcoin. They make it real. Bitcoin is money.

BTC MarketsRegulationStablecoins

Entities Mentioned

AardvarkProduct
Alex FinnPerson
BasecampProduct
BinanceCompany
Bitcoin Policy InstituteCompany
Cash AppProduct
CoinbaseCompany
Netflixtrending
PolymarketCompany
SAS Miningtrending
search_result blocksTool
SpiralCompany
TetherCompany
USDCProduct

Source Intelligence

What each podcast actually said

Presidio Bitcoin Jam
Presidio Bitcoin Jam

Strategy's STRC Buying Spree, Open-Source AI Blind Spots, Bitcoin Stablecoins from Utexo & Ark • Mar 13

  • Centralized bottlenecks in AI—data, compute, and distribution—undermine the promise of open-source decentralization, making true autonomy in AI development difficult to achieve.
  • Utxo and Ark introduced Bitcoin-native stablecoins that operate on Layer 2 solutions while maintaining settlement finality and censorship resistance on Bitcoin’s base layer.
  • Bitcoin-native stablecoins from Utxo and Ark aim to enable dollar-pegged utility without custodial intermediaries, offering a censorship-resistant alternative to Ethereum-style stablecoins.

Also from this episode:

Lightning (1)
  • Spiral’s team hosted the first Builder event in New York at PubKey, signaling the expansion of grassroots Bitcoin development beyond Austin and into major financial centers.
Other (1)
  • The New York Builder event drew 50 attendees, reinforcing the growing momentum of in-person Bitcoin development meetups focused on open building, fast iteration, and stacking sats.
Nostr (1)
  • Steve from Presidio Bitcoin Jam credits Haley with the idea to launch the New York Builder event, noting the team has run monthly events for nine consecutive months in San Francisco.
Models (1)
  • Open-source AI models face centralization risks despite their decentralized appearance, as control over training data, compute resources, and distribution remains concentrated among a few well-funded entities.
Philosophy (1)
  • The ethos of Bitcoin builders—autonomy, transparency, and permissionless innovation—is now influencing adjacent domains like AI and financial infrastructure, challenging centralized defaults.
AdoptionAI & TechStablecoinsOpen Source
Bitcoin And | Bitcoin & Economic News
Bitcoin And | Bitcoin & Economic News

Basel's Basil | Bitcoin Regulation • Mar 13

  • Paraguay enacted a law requiring annual reporting for any cryptocurrency transaction exceeding $5,000, with platforms mandated to report wallet addresses, transaction hashes, and counterparty details. David Bennett called the move "absolutely over the top freaking ridiculous" and "authoritarian."
  • The new Paraguayan law's reporting scope is broad, covering purchases, sales, exchanges, mining, staking, yield farming, airdrops, and transfers between a person's own wallets.
  • David Bennett argues that Paraguay's invasive financial surveillance, while framed as anti-money laundering, is more likely to repel foreign investment than attract it.
  • Paraguay's regulatory push aligns with recommendations from the Financial Action Task Force, which has urged countries toward stringent crypto reporting since 2019.
  • A report from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime claims stablecoins like Tether are gaining relevance as a payment method in the illicit Amazon gold trade, particularly in Venezuela for gold smuggled out of Guyana.
  • David Bennett labeled the report linking stablecoins to illicit gold trading as "bullshit," arguing the criminal enterprise has existed for centuries and the narrative aims to tarnish cryptocurrency by association.
  • South Korea's National Tax Service is developing an AI-powered platform to monitor digital asset transactions and identify tax evasion, with a 3 billion won budget.
  • The global regulatory shift is moving beyond legislation toward active, automated enforcement, using advanced technology for comprehensive crypto taxation and oversight.
BTC MarketsRegulationPrivacy

Wholly Unholy Matrimony | Bitcoin News • Mar 12

  • The fight for a Bitcoin de minimis tax exemption is exposing a strategic schism between companies building payment infrastructure, which need Bitcoin treated as money, and those content with its status as a taxable digital asset.
  • Podcaster Marty Bent, citing three sources, accused Coinbase of lobbying to limit the de minimis tax exemption to stablecoins only, an accusation echoed by the Bitcoin Policy Institute's Connor Brown.
  • Bitcoin Policy Institute's Connor Brown confirmed a strong political shift in Washington D.C. toward a stablecoin-only de minimis tax rule in recent months, creating headwinds for a broader Bitcoin exemption.
  • Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad called the lobbying accusation a total lie, but CEO Brian Armstrong has not made a definitive public statement, prompting public calls for clarity from Jack Dorsey's Block.
  • Jack Dorsey's Block is campaigning for Bitcoin as everyday money, building Lightning tools for merchants, and argues that a de minimis tax exemption is essential to validate its entire payment infrastructure business model.
  • A powerful faction in Washington D.C. is moving to treat stablecoins as the only viable digital currency for payments, a policy outcome that would cement Bitcoin's status solely as a capital asset.

Also from this episode:

Adoption (1)
  • Block's Miles Suter argues that Bitcoin payments are what validate Bitcoin as money, stating if Bitcoin just becomes digital gold, we failed the mission.
Lightning (2)
  • Lightning Network volume data from November 2025, showing $1.17 billion across over 5 million transactions, provides the strongest evidence against the political argument that no one is using Bitcoin as money.
  • Cash App processed one in four outbound Lightning Network payments in November 2025, demonstrating significant user adoption of Bitcoin for payments.
BTC MarketsAdoptionPaymentsRegulation

Civil AI | Bitcoin News • Mar 11

  • Binance has filed a defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal's publisher, Dow Jones, following a report alleging the DOJ is investigating if Iran used the exchange to circumvent US sanctions.
  • Binance stated it never fired employees for raising compliance concerns and fully cooperated with law enforcement, denying the WSJ report's claims.
  • The lawsuit comes while Binance operates under a US-appointed compliance monitor, who has requested records pertaining to the alleged Iranian transfers.
  • Despite institutional resistance, firms like Mastercard are advancing mainstream crypto adoption through new global partner programs, including with Binance.
  • Binance has a history of legal action against media, having previously sued Forbes in 2020, and pleaded guilty to US AML and sanctions violations in 2023, paying $4.3 billion in penalties.

Also from this episode:

Adoption (3)
  • Netflix blocked Bitcoin mining firm SAS Mining and lending platform Ledden from sponsoring a boxer's gear for a live-streamed fight, citing a policy against speculative financial products.
  • Ken Halliburton, CEO of SAS Mining, called Netflix's decision incoherent, noting it approved sponsorships from gambling sites Polymarket and DraftKings, which involve real-money speculation.
  • The reversal forced boxer Justin Cardona to replace custom-embroidered trunks at his own expense just a week before the fight, disrupting his preparation.
BTC MarketsRegulationAdoption

BTC's Golden Ticket | Bitcoin News • Mar 10

  • The Department of Justice is pursuing a second trial against Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm on unresolved money laundering charges, which could carry a maximum 40-year sentence.
  • Roman Storm was previously convicted of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business. Bitcoin & Economic News host argues Storm is being prosecuted for writing open-source code for a protocol he doesn't control, calling him a political martyr.
  • The host characterizes the DOJ's pursuit of a second trial against Storm as political theater, questioning why a potential Trump administration hasn't intervened with a pardon.
  • U.S. authorities are sending conflicting messages, with a DOJ official stating 'writing code is not a crime' and the Treasury acknowledging legitimate privacy uses for mixers, while prosecutors simultaneously push forward with the case against Storm.
  • Coinbase has launched regulated Bitcoin and crypto futures in 26 European countries through its MiFID-registered entity, offering a regulated alternative to offshore platforms.
  • Coinbase's new European futures platform, which includes cash-settled Bitcoin futures and a 'MAG7' crypto-equity index with up to 10x leverage, uses USDC for funding instead of Tether. The host sees this as a regulatory-driven choice.
  • The host frames the dual narratives of the legal battle over code and the race to build regulated financial empires as two sides of the same fight to define the next era of finance.

Also from this episode:

Markets (1)
  • The host speculates Coinbase's European futures launch aligns with its 'exchange for everything' strategy and predicts Elon Musk might attempt to buy the company to integrate it into his 'everything app' vision for X.
PrivacyRegulationETFsCustody
Rabbit Hole Recap
Rabbit Hole Recap

RABBIT HOLE RECAP #400: COINBASE FIGHTS BITCOIN • Mar 12

  • According to Matt Odell, citing two sources, Coinbase lobbyists are pushing Washington to prioritize a de minimis tax exemption for stablecoins while sidelining a similar exemption for Bitcoin payments.
  • A de minimis tax exemption would remove a major barrier to Bitcoin as everyday money by eliminating capital gains reporting on small purchases like coffee.
  • Odell argues that seeking a de minimis exemption for stablecoins is redundant, as they are pegged to the dollar and any taxable gain is inherently minimal.
  • In the broader crypto market structure bill FIT21, the only provision seen as favorable to Bitcoin core principles, the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act protecting open-source developers, is reportedly intact due to Senator Lummis's efforts.
  • Odell contends the rest of the FIT21 Act is designed primarily to grease the wheels for token casinos and speculative crypto markets, not to support Bitcoin's foundational use cases.
  • The episode frames this lobbying report as part of a recurring pattern where the broader crypto industry sacrifices Bitcoin user interests, like developer protection and self-custody rights, to prioritize its own speculative agenda.

Also from this episode:

Custody (1)
  • Coinbase's product focus, such as its commerce tool supporting only wrapped bitcoin on Ethereum or Base, not native Bitcoin, signals the firm's historical alignment with 'shitcoin land' over Bitcoin-as-money, according to the show.
BTC MarketsPaymentsRegulation