Many of the largest public Bitcoin miners have been pivoting to AI.
I sat down with @fgthiel, CEO of MARA, to ask the obvious question: does that mean they're walking away from Bitcoin?
Don't miss his candid read on the future of mining and the network - some of his answers may surprise you.
Thoughts on Stacks (blockstack:native) and markets:
- The four year cycle stays true. Bitcoin highs are muted but lows also likely muted.
- The AI models discovering bugs issue is real. Flight to safety will be a trend to watch.
- Bitcoin stayed simple with verifiable and transparent supply. All additional functionality can be built on top.
- Stacks optimized for safety and went for a decidable language (Clarity). Safety will end up being *the* thing to optimize for.
- There is likely going to be one maybe two Bitcoin L2s that take all/most of the traffic.
- After Bitcoin gets a quantum upgrade, depending on new signatures, Bitcoin bandwidth will likely decrease by 50%-97%; highlighting increased need for L2s.
- Bitcoin staking is a $100B+ market with increased demand for BTC on BTC yield coming from institutions and DATs.
- Stacks has seen two cycles before (1) mainnet launch (BTC smart contracts), (2) Nakamoto launch (speed & sBTC), now we’re working on (3) Bitcoin Protocol Bonds launch that unlocks the largest market yet.
- Last year, the ecosystem restructured for operational efficiency plus a new treasury. Stacks Labs is well funded, laser-focused, and hyped up about the new launch.
- Stacks is Lindy in crypto & Bitcoin at this point. Largest Bitcoin project by marketcap & active devs for 5 years. When BTC starts to recover, so will STX but as higher beta.
- Bitcoin might reach $150K-$250K next cycle (halving is early 2028) which is a 3-4x, Stacks is more in the 20-50x range given higher beta history and upcoming catalyst of Bitcoin Protocol Bonds. (Not financial advice and more on protocol bonds later).
- In the chart below, there were only three times in history for lowest entry points. Before mainnet when everything was unproven, before Nakamoto, and now.
- The upcoming SIP for protocol bonds launch will likely get accepted, with good feedback from community to drop/adjust the boosted rewards period (I support adjusting/removing this variable.)
We’re buying here and then patiently waiting next 6-months for protocol bonds to go live, markets to bottom out, and our thesis of Bitcoin as the king asset with a thriving on-chain BTC economy to play out. Let’s go! 🟧
Physics-informed AI meets ADC innovation. 4D Path and Daiichi Sankyo announce a collaboration to develop next-generation predictive biomarkers from routine biopsy slides. https://t.co/syJalCldGq
Great space!
I think it is all just a step in a “roadmap” to keep China and US balanced long term, avoid that conflict (even risk of it) at all costs. China influence is growing and flashpoint risk with Taiwan is real.
Ukraine - consequence of terrible policy of NATO/EU vs Russia. EU now investing in military (Poland!)
Iran - consequence of terrible policy between UAE/SA and US’ necessity to scale back its presence and to pull back from the region.
Oil market rebalancing will be top of mind for China for a period of time.
There is only one side to this global power struggle, innocent people (all countries) are dying in this process as a bunch of 80 year old leaders of major superpowers are building legacies and succession plans?
Pullback from NATO and Middle East had to happen for US, no clean way to do it? You can’t balance China with fully armed Iran? Especially when Dubai spent its resources on luxury travel destinations and gold trading?
Unfortunate situation that was 40 years in the making….
Thoughts?
���Dr. David Sinclair's, lab reversed biological age in animals by 50 to 75% in six weeks
The FDA has just cleared the first human trial for next month.
He describes the human body as a computer that can be rebooted.
Happy 2026 to the Stacks family!
As the tourists leave this space, the road is wide open for creating the largest on-chain economy for the best global money.
STX is the rails.
BTC is the money.
We’re fired up with new treasury, clear roadmap, and growing devs 🚀
x402 on Stacks is HTTP-native Bitcoin payments.
Micropayments without Stripe. No accounts. No trust. No delays.
Just a 402 Payment Required → instant on-chain settlement.
Built for APIs. Built for agents. Built for what the internet should’ve had all along.
@x402stacks
USDC now fully supported on @Stacks is a game-changer for stablecoin adoption in the Bitcoin L2 economy.
But what's more intriguing than that? The Clarity contracts powering it 🤓
USDC on Stacks is simply a SIP-010 standard token, but i've always found it interesting how different SIP-010 token contracts are designed and written. There's alot that’s very Clarity-idiomatic and great for teaching new devs.
🧵 Here's 5 things new Clarity devs should study in the USDC Clarity smart contracts:
JUST IN: @MessariCrypto in their 2026 Theses:
"A notable standout in 2025 was Stacks."
"Outside of Stacks, no other Bitcoin layer experienced meaningful growth in bridged BTC"