From Yesterday's Simply Bitcoin Live | Episode 1629
The Numbers
Bitcoin is clinging to its 50 week moving average near $75,520, the line that has marked every major uptrend since 2015.
The News
Thursday was the worst day in stock market history in dollar terms. The crash erased $2.8 trillion, more than the $2.6 trillion wiped out during the COVID crash of March 2020.
Bitcoin fell into the mid 70s and stopped there. It never broke its 50 week moving average, which is sitting at $75,520, the same line that has marked the start of every major uptrend since 2015.
Last time markets crashed this hard, Bitcoin got cratered. This time it barely moved.
After five months offline, Strategy's Stretch preferred shares touched par again this week. The ATM activated on Wednesday, moving 392,000 shares for 191 Bitcoin, Saylor's first purchase in months.
The timing lines up with Stretch's new daily dividend, which started Monday. Wall Street noticed too. The Stretch ticker is now the largest holding in BlackRock's 11.5 billion dollar PFF fund at 3.5 percent and the fifth largest in VanEck's PFXF at 7.6 percent. BNY Mellon also added to its Bitcoin exposure this morning.
A 50 percent drawdown did not shake institutions out. It just made them quieter about buying.
A system failure knocked out ATMs, branch counters, and internet banking at 128 Shinkin banks across western Japan on Friday, hitting 3,430 branches for several hours before service was restored that evening. Officials say it was a communications equipment failure, not a hack.
It is not isolated. French bank Credit Mutuel Arkea confirmed roughly 100 million euros in fraudulent transfers this week, with the funds traced through crypto exchanges. Brazilian exchange Mercado Bitcoin disclosed a hack worth around 40 million dollars. And Nubank briefly paused crypto transactions this morning citing a provider issue, a week after Binance itself was hacked.
Bitcoin's whole pitch is that the network does not go down. This week kept making that argument for free.
The Culture
Political ReactionElizabeth Warren is set to take over the Senate Banking Committee, and a day later House Democrats are already floating a tougher version of the Clarity Act, one that hands the SEC more power over crypto markets and adds ethics restrictions aimed at Trump.
Republicans spent all of 2025 and 2026 promising to pass crypto legislation and lost the midterms anyway. Now the party that blocked Clarity the first time wants to be the one that rescues it.
Vote however you want. Just do not expect either side to hold up their end once the votes are counted.
Opti breaks down why Bitcoin shrugging off the worst stock crash in history might be the most bullish signal of the year, plus the exact price levels that decide if that holds.
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