Bitcoin BIP 110 soft fork stalls

Bitcoin’s BIP-110 soft-fork effort has stalled after miner signalling reportedly reached only 2.53%, well below the proposal’s 55% activation threshold, triggering a chain split at block height 961,633 for nodes configured to follow the upgrade. The failure left thousands of affected nodes isolated from the network they expected to join, while Ocean, the only mining pool reported to have signalled support, returned to non-BIP-110 mining.

The episode quickly became a governance dispute. Two days after the reported stall, the Bitcoin BIP editorial group removed editor permissions from Luke Dashjr, the lead behind BIP-110, following a motion filed by Bitcoin developer Mark Erhardt.

Erhardt’s motion cited conflicts of interest, limited recent contribution activity, Dashjr’s leadership of a controversial fork effort, and deteriorating coordination among editors and contributors. Records referenced in the dispute showed Dashjr accounted for less than 1% of code contributions since April 2024.

Supporters of Dashjr argued that the editorial process itself was used to advance BIP-110 before the proposal had received sufficient public scrutiny. They said Dashjr assigned the proposal its BIP number and merged a pull request before a substantive mailing-list discussion had taken place. The dispute places renewed attention on the informal but consequential roles held by editors and maintainers in Bitcoin’s standards process.

BIP-110’s failed activation exposes coordination risks

Soft forks normally rely on broad agreement among miners, node operators, wallet developers, exchanges and businesses, even when their formal activation mechanism is based on miner signalling. BIP-110’s reported 2.53% support rate showed that the proposal did not come close to achieving that alignment.

The reported halt at block 961,633 appears to have affected nodes running software configured specifically for the BIP-110 rules, rather than the wider Bitcoin network. Such events can create immediate operational problems for participants who expect a proposed upgrade to activate but find themselves on an incompatible chain.

Ocean’s role also became a focus of the debate. The mining pool was described as the sole pool signalling for BIP-110 before resuming ordinary mining activity. A single pool’s support can demonstrate technical willingness to test an upgrade, but it cannot deliver an activation threshold designed to require much wider miner participation.

The incident adds a practical warning for node operators and service providers evaluating future protocol changes. Running software that enforces rules not adopted by the network can produce a split view of Bitcoin’s ledger, potentially affecting payment processing, block validation and internal accounting systems.

Trump Media’s crypto exposure weighs on earnings

Trump Media & Technology Group disclosed that declining cryptocurrency prices contributed to a first-half loss of $361 million, according to its quarterly filing. The company held 9,477.16 BTC with a fair value of $557 million as of June 30, down from 9,542.16 BTC at the end of March.

The 65 BTC reduction came as the company also committed part of its holdings to financing and trading arrangements. Trump Media said 4,260.73 BTC had been pledged to support convertible notes, while another 2,077.34 BTC had been pledged for a bitcoin options strategy.

Its Cronos position remained unchanged at roughly 756.1 million tokens, though the reported fair value fell from $68 million at the end of 2025 to $40.60 million on June 30. The filing illustrates how corporate crypto holdings can affect reported earnings even when the underlying token balance changes little.

Trump Media separately said its paid Truth API service has signed more than 10 customers and has started generating revenue. The product is marketed to traders seeking faster access to posts from prominent Truth Social accounts. U.S. oversight organizations and Democratic lawmakers had previously questioned whether selling faster access to potentially market-moving posts could create an uneven information advantage.

Large Ethereum transfer reaches Bitmine-linked address

A wallet identified as 0x95d...c44, associated with Bitmine, received 13,000 ETH worth about $24.36 million, according to on-chain analyst Yu Jin. Yu Jin reported that the transfer originated from BitGo.

Large transfers can reflect custody movements, treasury allocations, over-the-counter settlement or preparation for other transactions, and the transfer alone does not establish an intention to sell. Its size nevertheless puts the Bitmine-linked address among the Ethereum wallets being watched by market participants tracking major holder activity.

Companies reposition around AI infrastructure

Keel Infrastructure Corp., formerly Bitfarms, said it has shut down all U.S. bitcoin mining operations as it prepares to convert its sites for AI and high-performance computing data centers. In its second-quarter report, the company said it sold 1,085 BTC for $75 million between April 1 and Aug. 7 and retained 1,861 BTC.

Keel reported $819 million in liquidity and unused power capacity extending into 2027. The decision reflects the growing competition between bitcoin mining and AI data centers for access to electricity, land and grid interconnection. Companies with established power infrastructure may see greater value in long-term contracts serving computing customers than in operating mining fleets through volatile bitcoin cycles.

Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang also described an AI-infrastructure financing platform involving Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR. Huang said the arrangement is intended to mobilize more than $500 billion of third-party capital over the long term.

Under the proposed structure, the financial firms would independently assess projects based on customer demand, utilization, cash flow and asset values. Nvidia would provide the AI-factory platform and could offer residual-value support of up to 25% for some projects.

Policy groups seek frontier AI access for security work

The Bitcoin Policy Institute and more than 40 organizations called on leading AI laboratories to provide trusted access to their most capable models for eligible open-source security defenders. Their open letter argued that developers protecting Bitcoin and other digital-asset systems increasingly face AI-assisted cyber threats while legitimate defensive research can be constrained by safeguards on frontier models.

The group’s request centers on access controls that distinguish defensive security work from malicious use. Its proposal would place cryptocurrency developers alongside software-security researchers seeking advanced tools to identify vulnerabilities before attackers exploit them.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is also scheduled to hold a public meeting Friday at 10 a.m. Eastern to consider a possible tailored issuance framework for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets. A formal proposal could clarify how some token issuers structure offerings, though the meeting agenda alone does not indicate what rules the commission may ultimately adopt.