Welcome to Easy Bitcoin - the easiest way to digest all the best bits of Bitcoin each fortnight (cos we hate spam too)...

PRICE + NETWORK STATS

BTC Price: TODAY: ~$91,000

(approximate live range ~A$89,000–A$92,000 based on recent exchange data)

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​LAST TIME: ~$103,000 (Last Newsletter)​
​LAST YEAR: ~$164,000 (1 Year Ago)

*Historical references are approximate and used for narrative comparison.

Bitcoin has spent the past fortnight doing its best impression of a soggy cardboard box... not collapsing, per se, just slowly drooping sideways in the high-$80k to low-$90k Dollarydoo zone. Compare this with last year’s far more glamorous six-figure neighbourhood, and the vibes are clearly more instant coffee than even cheap Champagne...

Nonetheless, the network keeps ticking, blocks keep landing, and the supply schedule remains gloriously indifferent to everyone’s emotions.

Forget price tracking. Keep stacking 🥞

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Bitcoin Market Cap: ~A$1.80 trillion
​Money Supply: ~20,048,000 BTC
​Percentage Issued: ~95.46%

Only ~4.54% BTC left to be mined!

Hashrate: ~998 EH/s
​Difficulty: ☝️~5.82% on 14th June 2026

⚒️ Learn more about Bitcoin mining ⚒️

(FAKE) SPARROW(S)
IN APPLE'S WALLED GARDEN

Bitcoin self-custody gives people direct control over their money, but that control comes with responsibility... A fake wallet app can cost someone their savings, which is why trusted software, official download links and careful verification matter so much...

Sparrow Wallet creator Craig Raw has confirmed that his Apple Developer account will not be terminated, after a dispute that raised fresh concerns about scam Bitcoin wallet apps.

Sparrow is a respected open-source Bitcoin wallet for desktop (only). It is especially popular with users who care about privacy, hardware wallets and multisig. But Sparrow is not an iPhone wallet.

That became the heart of the problem.

​Raw said apps impersonating Sparrow were reaching users through Apple’s App Store and putting funds at risk. To help protect people, he submitted an iOS app that was not intended to be a mobile wallet. Its purpose was to warn users that Sparrow is desktop-only and that mobile apps using the Sparrow name should be treated as suspicious.

Instead, Raw said his Apple Developer account was flagged for termination over “dishonest activity.” Unless reversed, the decision could have affected future Sparrow installs and updates on macOS.

The Bitcoin community quickly rallied behind him, urging Apple to review the case and address the scam apps. Raw has since posted that Apple’s App Review Board reviewed the appeal and confirmed his account will not be terminated. He thanked those who shared the issue and credited Apple for reaching the right outcome.

That is a good result. But the larger lesson remains.

App stores can be useful, but they are not perfect. If a scam wallet convinces someone to enter their seed phrase, the Bitcoin can be gone permanently. Always download wallet software from official links, check the developer carefully, and never trust an app simply because it appears in a store.

Self-custody gives you control. It also makes you the final line of defence.

TLDR: Don't trust. Verify. 🍎🦜

TAXING YOU TO PROSPERITY

Governments shape behaviour through incentives. Australia and El Salvador offers a remarkable contrast. One country is making investment less attractive in the name of "housing affordability", while the other is lowering barriers for Bitcoiners, remote workers and globally mobile capital...

Australia and El Salvador are sending investors two very different messages.

In Australia, the Albanese government has secured Greens support for changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing. The reforms are aimed at "housing affordability", but they also make the investment landscape less generous.

Negative gearing allows investors to offset losses from an investment property against other income. Capital gains tax rules affect how much tax someone pays when they sell an asset for a profit. For decades, these two settings have shaped how Australians think about property, shares, retirement planning and long-term wealth.

The government says the changes are about fairness and helping first-home buyers. Critics argue they risk doing the opposite: reducing investor confidence, discouraging capital formation, adding pressure to rental supply, and pushing people away from productive risk-taking.

Now, compare that with El Salvador...

Rather than making investment harder, El Salvador is trying to attract people who earn, build and save globally. Recent reforms reportedly reduced the physical presence requirement for temporary residency from nine months to just 90 days per year. Combined with its territorial tax system, that can mean foreign-sourced income is not taxed locally. Under El Salvador’s Bitcoin framework, Bitcoin gains have also been treated favourably.

That does not mean Australians can simply pack a suitcase and stop paying tax. Tax residency is complex, and anyone considering a move needs proper advice. Your home country may still have something to say.

But the contrast is still powerful.

Australia is trying to solve housing affordability by changing the tax treatment of investors. El Salvador is trying to grow by competing for mobile talent, entrepreneurs, remote workers and Bitcoin capital.

One approach says: tax the gains, restrict the deductions, manage the market.

The other says: come here, build here, bring your capital here, and keep more of what you earn.

For Bitcoiners, this is the bigger story. Bitcoin makes capital more mobile. It gives people a savings technology that can cross borders. As that happens, countries will increasingly compete for the people who hold it, build on it and understand it.

The lesson is simple: incentives matter. And in a Bitcoin world, governments may discover that savers have more choices than they used to.

TLDR: Incentives matter. Buy Bitcoin. 🟧

STRC-ING THE TRUTH?

Bitcoin is fairly simple to understand: there will only ever be 21 million coins. But financial products built around Bitcoin can be much more complicated. Strategy’s recent wobble is a reminder that Bitcoin exposure is not always the same as owning Bitcoin...

Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, has become the world’s best-known corporate Bitcoin treasury company.

Its basic pitch has been simple: raise money, buy Bitcoin, and give investors exposure to Bitcoin through public markets. That strategy has made Michael Saylor one of Bitcoin’s loudest advocates and helped bring a huge amount of attention to corporate Bitcoin adoption.

But the latest drama around STRC shows why wrappers matter.

STRC is Strategy’s “Stretch” preferred stock product. It was designed to appeal to investors looking for income, with dividends linked to Strategy’s broader Bitcoin-backed capital structure. In theory, this gives yield-seeking investors a way to participate in the Bitcoin treasury story without simply buying common shares.

In practice, STRC recently traded well below its $100 target level, according to the topic notes. That pushed the effective yield higher and raised questions about market confidence, dividend obligations and how efficiently Strategy can keep using these products to fund more Bitcoin purchases.

None of this means Bitcoin itself is broken. It does not even mean Strategy is finished. The company still holds an enormous Bitcoin stack, and Saylor’s long-term thesis remains clear.

But it does show that financial engineering adds layers.

When you buy Bitcoin directly, the main questions are custody, volatility and your own conviction. When you buy a corporate Bitcoin proxy, you also take on management decisions, capital structure, debt, dilution, dividend pressure and market sentiment.

That does not make every Bitcoin wrapper bad (although we strongly advocate for buying spot-Bitcoin only from HardBlock). It just means investors need to know what they own.

The Bitcoiner lesson is old but still useful: appreciate the adoption, understand the trade-offs, and remember that owning your own sats is different from owning someone else’s promise built around them.

​TLDR: Buy spot Bitcoin in self-custody or bust. 🟧

REAL LIFE BITCOIN FOR REAL LIFE

Bitcoin adoption does not always look like a major bank announcement or a government policy shift. Sometimes it looks like a small business accepting sats for lunch...

A small food truck payment has given Bitcoiners a cheerful reminder of what everyday adoption can look like.

According to a post from Mike Germano, newly appointed President of Simply Bitcoin, a food truck in New Jersey was able to accept a Bitcoin payment using Square and Cash App. The merchant reportedly enabled the feature on the spot, accepted the payment, and received sats through the Lightning Network.

Lightning is a payment layer built on Bitcoin (and is activated on HardBlock). It is designed for fast, low-cost transactions, which makes it better suited to everyday payments like coffee, lunch or groceries.

The important part is not just that the payment worked. It is that it looked simple. The customer paid with Bitcoin. The merchant used familiar point-of-sale hardware. No long explanation. No complicated setup. Just a normal payment experience, with sats moving in the background.

That is how Bitcoin becomes more useful to everyday people.

For now, this is mostly a U.S. story. Square’s native Bitcoin payment tools are not yet broadly available to Australian merchants, and Cash App’s Bitcoin features remain limited here. Australian businesses that want to accept Lightning payments still need to use other tools.

But the direction is encouraging. If Bitcoin payments can become simple enough for a food truck, they can become simple enough for many small businesses.

Not every Bitcoin adoption story needs to be dramatic. Sometimes it starts with lunch.

TLDR: Wanna on-board your local merchant?
​Give them Easy Bitcoin 🍔

Have You Read This?

Check Your Financial Privilege: Drawing directly from his frontline experience advocating for civil liberties under authoritarian regimes, Alex Gladstein provides insight into how Bitcoin functions as a lifeline for people facing financial oppression - from activists in Nigeria to families in El Salvador coping with currency devaluation... If you want to understand Bitcoin’s real-world impact on freedom and economic justice, this book offers grounded examples and perspectives that challenge conventional financial narratives. 📙

Listen Up: ABP115
| WHERE THERE'S A WILL|

Join Mike + DJ + Dale Warburton as they discuss all of the above, and more: Click to Listen.​

Need More Bitcoin Podcasts in your life?

Tune in to these outstanding shows - Get $10 Free Bitcoin:

• ​Discovering Bitcoin​​​
• ​Honest Money Show​​​​​
• ​​Regenerative Health​​

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