Ten31 Timestamp 905,241

*Taps mic*

*Clears throat*

Bitcoin.

Following the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill just in time for July 4th, markets seem to have gotten the message that the plan is to press on the fiscal gas pedal and hope for the best. Tellingly, equity indices shrugged off the return of aggressive tariff threats from the Trump administration and extended their streak of new all-time highs, as investors were apparently more focused on Trump’s comments early in the week highlighting the stock market’s resurgent strength and his intention to “keep it that way.” Indeed, all indicators this week suggested that’s certainly the goal, as the Treasury Department announced its plan to continue shifting more issuance to short-dated bills, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson suggested we’ll see two more large reconciliation budgets similar to the OBBB within the next 12 months. The ramping federal largesse prompted a frustrated Elon Musk to declare that “fiat is hopeless” alongside his announcement of a new “America Party” focused on fiscal restraint. We deeply sympathize with Elon on this point, but we’re skeptical that the underlying problem can be solved with a new political party, and we hope the world’s richest man will continue to shift more focus toward bitcoin, which some readers may have noticed was up just a bit this week. The orange coin has accumulated more total value since late June than the entirety of its market cap on the day of the EU’s infamous 2022 obituary, and our sense is we’re just getting started given the aggressive fiscal trends the market seems to be sniffing out.

Portfolio Company Spotlight

Unchained is a bitcoin financial services platform offering a suite of products to consumers and enterprises for securing and managing bitcoin holdings through a multi-signature, collaborative custody model. Unchained’s infrastructure allows users and institutions to hold 2 of 3 keys in a multi-sig quorum, offering customizable custody experiences to meet a variety of personal, family, and business needs while enhancing security and mitigating custody risk. Unchained offers many additional financial services on top of its custody platform, including integrated trading services, bitcoin-backed lending, IRA and inheritance products, a mobile app for easy access to the platform, and much more to come.

As the world’s largest investor focused entirely on bitcoin, Ten31 has deployed $200 million across two funds into more than 30 of the most promising and innovative companies in the ecosystem, and we expect 2025 to be the best year yet for both bitcoin and our portfolio. Visit ten31.xyz/invest to learn more and get in touch to discuss participating.

Selected Portfolio News

Unchained announced it has surpassed $1 billion in cumulative bitcoin-backed loans since inception:

Strike activated lending capabilities for several additional US states:

Media

Fold Founder and CEO Will Reeves joined CNBC to discuss bitcoin’s recent rally and growing investor interest in the bitcoin ecosystem.

Strike Founder and CEO Jack Mallers was featured in a CoinDesk interview on Strike, bitcoin treasury companies, and more.

AnchorWatch Co-Founder and COO Becca Rubenfeld appeared on TFTC with Ten31 Managing Partner Marty Bent as well as two other shows to dig into the emerging bitcoin insurance market.

Unchained Co-Founder and CEO Joe Kelly was featured on a panel alongside Congressman Warren Davidson regarding the push for legal protections of bitcoin self-custody.

Market Updates

Bitcoin clocked a new all-time high of nearly $119,000 this week, briefly putting the magic internet money at fifth place on the list of most valuable assets in the world, just ahead of Amazon.

BlackRock’s IBIT spot bitcoin ETF breached the $80 billion AUM mark, making it handily the fastest ETF to ever achieve that milestone (after setting the same record for the $70 billion level just a couple weeks ago).

Amid bitcoin’s monster week, hedge fund magnate and prolific philanthropist John Arnold suggested bitcoin is a safe, responsible investment comparable to mutual funds or the work of established artists. This John Arnold and Ten31’s own John Arnold are collectively worth billions, and we believe their agreement on bitcoin’s value is still not priced in.

Bitcoin’s strength was all the more notable given the direction of headlines. After months of dialing up the focus on growth and deemphasizing tariffs, the trade war came roaring back this week, with President Trump kicking things off by announcing there would be no more extensions to negotiations beyond August 1st.

Shortly after, the President sent letters to more than a dozen trading partners announcing tariffs of 25% or higher. Notably, each letter included specific language about additional penalties for “transshipments” of goods from one country through another, presumably an attempt to exert further pressure on China’s exports into the US.

Trump also threatened incremental tariffs on any nations aligning with the “anti-American” nexus of BRICS countries, and he made good on that threat with a new 50% tariff on goods from Brazil (which, interestingly, already runs a trade surplus with the US).

And just for good measure, the administration closed out the week by announcing a 35% tariff on Canada, as well as 30% for the EU and Mexico.

Never fear, though – after many months of ignoring the stock market (which seemed to be his most important KPI during his first term), President Trump took a victory lap on the stock market’s new all-time highs this week and suggested “we’re going to keep it that way.”

Potentially in tacit support of this goal, the Treasury Department announced it will increase its issuance of 4- and 8-week bills, in line with Secretary Bessent’s clear shift toward an embrace of short-end funding.

Somewhat surprisingly, the Treasury actually posted a small budget surplus in June on the back of higher than expected tariff receipts.

However, they’re going to need all the help they can get, as Speaker of the House Mike Johnson indicated this week that we’ll see two more jumbo reconciliation packages similar to the Big Beautiful Bill over just the next twelve months.

In response, the world’s richest man Elon Musk, who very publicly ragequit the Trump administration last month over his objections to deficit spending, announced his plan to found the “America Party” as an alternative to the Republican / Democrat duopoly. Elon indicated that this new party will support bitcoin because “fiat is hopeless.”

US rare earths producer MP Materials announced that the US Department of Defense is set to become its largest shareholder as part of a strategic “public-private partnership” aimed at securing US access to the rare earth elements necessary for various advanced manufacturing processes.

This deal represents one of the clearest examples of explicit, targeted industrial policy in the US in many decades, a noteworthy development as tariff threats take clearer shape and the federal budget continues to expand.

Even during a busy week filled with trade letters and saber-rattling, President Trump made sure not to miss his weekly anti-Powell tirade, this time calling the beleaguered Fed Chair “terrible” and demanding his immediate resignation.

At the same time, the head of the Office of Management and Budget announced the agency is opening an investigation into the Fed’s spending plans for a lavish new headquarters building, and FHFA head Bill Pulte issued a one-sentence press release to declare he’s “encouraged by reports” that Powell is considering resigning. One way or another, we suspect Trump is going to get his way, and you may want to consider the implications of that for hard assets.

Regulatory Update

Various digital asset advocacy organizations including the Bitcoin Policy Institute collaborated on an amicus brief in a case that should have substantial implications for the future of non-custodial, open source software in the United States.

Congressman Nick Begich participated in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine on the legislative path to a US strategic bitcoin reserve, as well as legislation to protect self-custody.

Noteworthy

Following rumors from last week, data center giant CoreWeave announced a $9 billion acquisition of public bitcoin miner and hosting provider Core Scientific.

SoFi CEO Anthony Noto indicated the company plans to use bitcoin to facilitate global remittances in the near term.

Twitter and Block Founder Jack Dorsey introduced Bitchat, a peer-to-peer messaging tool that works without internet access, servers, or user accounts by leveraging bluetooth mesh networks to allow for more private and censorship-resistant communication.

Tools like this are only going to become more important in the coming years, as the EU announced this week it wants to be able to decrypt private data by 2030.

Travel

• Austin Bitdevs, July 17
• Bitcoin Park Imagine IF Summit, Sep 19-20