hodler

29 Apr 2026, 23:00

Bitcoin’s Most Trusted Miner Stress Indicator Just Flashed a Buy Signal: Should You Trust It?

Bitcoin is holding above $76,000 as the market tests resistance and the broader environment remains uncertain. The price is constructive, but the forces operating beneath it tell a more complicated story — and top analyst Darkfost has identified a signal in the Hash Ribbons that adds a specific layer of structural context to where Bitcoin stands right now. The Hash Ribbons is an indicator that functions as a barometer of miner activity, comparing the 30-day and 60-day moving averages of Bitcoin’s hashrate to identify when mining operations are genuinely under stress. Understanding why that reading matters requires a brief look at the economics pressing on miners right now. Today’s block reward is 3.125 BTC — a number that sounds meaningful at current prices but represents a fraction of the 50 BTC that early miners received per block. The dollar value of that reward has grown enormously over time, but so has the cost and complexity of earning it. Rising mining difficulty demands increasingly efficient and expensive hardware. Energy costs remain high and volatile. Fixed operational expenses do not adjust when prices fall. Infrastructure disruptions — from weather events to geopolitical pressures on energy markets — can force shutdowns that have nothing to do with Bitcoin’s underlying health. When these pressures stack simultaneously, miners face a choice: scale back, find efficiencies, or capitulate. The Hash Ribbons are what make that choice visible in the data — and right now, it is signaling something that demands attention. The Signal Is Real. The Question Is What Caused It. The Hash Ribbons is built to detect a specific sequence. When mining becomes unprofitable enough that operators are forced to shut down machines, hashrate falls. As hashrate falls, difficulty eventually adjusts lower, improving the economics for the miners who survived. Forced selling eases. Machines come back online. Network conditions normalize. That recovery phase — the transition from capitulation to stabilization — is where the Hash Ribbons has historically identified some of Bitcoin’s most asymmetric entry points. The current signal fits that pattern on the surface. But Darkfost’s caution is grounded in a precedent that occurred earlier this year. When ice storms forced temporary miner shutdowns across parts of the United States, the Hash Ribbons fired a buy signal that had nothing to do with genuine capitulation. The hashrate drop was weather-driven, not economics-driven. The difficulty adjustment that followed reflected a temporary infrastructure disruption rather than the kind of sustained stress that historically precedes meaningful recoveries. Similar false signals appeared during China’s mining ban in 2021 and in June 2022. The pattern has not broken. But the signal has become harder to read cleanly. With block rewards at 3.125 BTC and shrinking every four years, mining operations are increasingly sensitive to external shocks — geopolitical tensions affecting energy markets, supply chain disruptions affecting hardware, weather events affecting infrastructure. Each of these can trigger the same hashrate decline that genuine capitulation produces, without the same underlying conditions that make that capitulation a meaningful buying opportunity. Hash Ribbons flashing a buy signal is significant. Understanding whether miners stopped because they had to or because they were forced to by something external is the distinction that determines whether the signal should be trusted or treated with caution. Bitcoin Reclaims Range but Faces Overhead Resistance Bitcoin is trading near $77,500 on the weekly chart, recovering from the sharp breakdown that followed the rejection near $120,000. The recent structure shows a stabilization phase after the capitulation into the $62,000–$65,000 demand zone, where strong buying interest previously entered the market. That area now stands as a confirmed macro support. The current recovery has pushed prices back above the $70,000–$74,000 range, which had acted as resistance during March. This reclaim is technically constructive and suggests the market has absorbed a portion of the prior selling pressure. However, the recovery is now approaching a more complex resistance cluster. The 50-week and 100-week moving averages are converging between $80,000 and $90,000, creating a dense supply zone overhead. These levels previously acted as support during the uptrend and are now likely to function as resistance. The slope of these averages has flattened, indicating the trend is transitioning rather than trending cleanly. Volume confirms the shift in regime. The capitulation phase showed elevated participation, while the recovery has developed on lower volume, suggesting a more cautious re-entry of buyers. Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com

29 Apr 2026, 19:35

Bhutan reduces BTC reserves to 3,400 holding after major sales

🚨 Bhutan sells off massive BTC reserves, leaving just 3,400 in $BTC. Bhutan once held around 13,000 Bitcoin from energy-powered mining operations. Continue Reading: Bhutan reduces BTC reserves to 3,400 holding after major sales The post Bhutan reduces BTC reserves to 3,400 holding after major sales appeared first on COINTURK NEWS .

29 Apr 2026, 18:36

Robinhood crypto revenue drops 47%, stocks fall 14%

🚨 Robinhood’s crypto revenue drops 47%, sending stocks down 14%. 📉 Shares tied to $BTC mining and trading also plunged up to 8%. 🛢️ Critical data: Oil tops $100 as Middle East tensions rise. Continue Reading: Robinhood crypto revenue drops 47%, stocks fall 14% The post Robinhood crypto revenue drops 47%, stocks fall 14% appeared first on COINTURK NEWS .

29 Apr 2026, 18:00

‘We increased BTC stash by 58%’- Eric Trump rejects Forbes’ $500mln investor-loss claim

American Bitcoin firm has ramped up Bitcoin mining operations and currently owns 7,000 BTC.

29 Apr 2026, 17:05

When Will the Royal Government of Bhutan Stop Selling Bitcoin?

The Royal Government of Bhutan has continued reducing its Bitcoin holdings, raising questions over how long the country’s selling activity may continue after months of steady outflows from state-linked wallets. According to reports, Bhutan has sold more than $200 million worth of Bitcoin since the start of 2026. The kingdom now holds roughly 3,400 to 3,800 BTC, valued near $263 million to $272 million, depending on market prices and wallet-tracking estimates. Bhutan’s Bitcoin position was built through state-backed mining operations linked to its hydroelectric power resources. At its peak in late 2024, the country’s holdings were estimated at nearly 13,000 BTC. Since then, more than 70% of that balance has been moved out through repeated transfers. Bhutan Cuts Bitcoin Holdings From Peak On-chain data shows Bhutan has sold about 9,579 BTC since its peak holdings were recorded. The latest transfer involved 100 BTC, worth nearly $7.8 million, moving from government-linked wallets. The sales have not appeared as a single large liquidation. Instead, Bhutan has moved Bitcoin in smaller batches, often valued between $5 million and $10 million. Some transfers have gone to exchange-linked wallets, trading firms, OTC desks, and unlabelled addresses. Source: Arkham This pattern suggests a managed selling strategy rather than a sudden market exit. Smaller transactions may reduce the chance of sharp price disruption while allowing the government to gradually convert Bitcoin into cash or other assets. Mining Slowdown Changes Reserve Strategy Bhutan’s Bitcoin holdings were unusual among governments because they were mined rather than seized through law enforcement actions. The country used excess hydropower to support mining operations through its sovereign investment arm. That strategy helped Bhutan build one of the largest known government Bitcoin positions. However, wallet data now shows little evidence of major new mining inflows for more than a year. The lack of fresh inflows suggests mining activity has slowed sharply or stopped. Without new production replacing sold coins, each transfer reduces the country’s remaining Bitcoin reserve. Bhutan’s realized profit from Bitcoin is estimated at more than $750 million. Because the coins were mined using domestic hydropower, the cost basis may be far lower than open-market purchases. Remaining BTC Could Last Into Late 2026 At the current pace, analysts are estimating that Bhutan’s remaining Bitcoin could be exhausted by around October 2026. That projection assumes the government continues selling at recent rates and does not restart major mining operations. The final timeline could change if Bitcoin prices rise, sales slow, or authorities decide to retain part of the remaining reserve. A policy shift could also leave Bhutan with a smaller strategic Bitcoin position rather than a full exit. For now, the wallet activity points to continued monetisation, but the government has not issued a detailed public explanation of its long-term Bitcoin plan.

29 Apr 2026, 15:31

Litecoin MWEB exploit resolved, block reorganization corrected

Litecoin recently faced one of its most serious technical incidents tied to the Mimblewimble Extension Blocks (MWEB) feature, after a validation flaw allowed an attacker to generate an inflated peg-out of approximately 85,034 LTC. The issue was traced to a failure in block connection-level verification, where MWEB input metadata did not properly match the underlying UTXO being spent. While the incident briefly shook confidence in the extension layer, it was ultimately contained through coordinated miner response and rapid protocol fixes. How the MWEB exploit unfolded According to a postmortem released by Litecoin , the exploit began in March 2026 at block height 3,073,882, when an attacker successfully exploited the validation gap. By manipulating MWEB input data, the attacker made a small input appear to justify a much larger output during peg-out processing. In reality, the underlying input value was only around 1–2 LTC, but the system incorrectly accepted it as valid backing for more than 85,000 LTC. This was not a standard wallet- or transaction-layer issue. Instead, it originated in how MWEB blocks were validated during chain connection. While the mempool and transaction construction layers functioned correctly, the final consensus-level verification step failed to fully validate the integrity of MWEB metadata against the referenced outputs. Once the abnormal peg-out was detected, miners quickly identified the inconsistency and initiated coordinated action to prevent further propagation. The suspicious outputs were isolated, and a portion of the funds was frozen at the protocol level to prevent further movement across the network. Containment, recovery, and miner coordination Following detection, developers and major mining pools moved into emergency response mode. Mining pools, including F2Pool, played a central role in stabilising the network by aligning on updated validation rules and rejecting malformed MWEB data. This coordination helped prevent the exploit from spreading further across the chain. The attacker later entered negotiations and returned the majority of the exploited funds. Approximately 84,184 LTC was recovered through coordinated transactions, while an 850 LTC bounty was retained as part of the agreement in exchange for cooperation in resolving the incident. Rather than reversing the chain, developers opted for a reconciliation approach. The system effectively neutralised the inflated output by rebalancing MWEB accounting through controlled peg-in mechanisms and freezing invalid outputs. This approach allowed the network to restore consistency without requiring a full rollback. Second incident triggered a 13-block reorganisation A second related incident occurred in April 2026, when attempts to re-exploit the same vulnerability exposed a different weakness in how nodes handled malformed MWEB data. This time, the issue did not result in additional inflation but instead caused instability in node processing. Upgraded nodes experienced processing stalls when encountering mutated MWEB blocks, while some miners continued extending a chain built on outdated validation rules. This divergence led to a temporary 13-block chain reorganisation, with F2Pool mining a significant portion of the affected blocks during the unstable period. The reorganisation was short-lived. Once upgraded nodes gained majority hash power and rejected the invalid history, the network converged back to the correct chain. No permanent ledger corruption remained after reconciliation. Protocol fixes and final resolution Developers released emergency updates under the 0.21.5.x Core series, addressing both the original validation flaw and the secondary block-handling issue. The fixes strengthened MWEB input validation during block connection, improved handling of mutated block states, and reinforced consistency checks across mining and consensus layers. Post-incident analysis confirmed that the exploit did not result in lasting inflation or loss of final-chain integrity. However, it highlighted the sensitivity of extension-block systems like MWEB, where added privacy and complexity introduce new validation risks. With miner coordination restored, patched nodes deployed, and invalid outputs neutralised, the network has returned to stable operation. The post Litecoin MWEB exploit resolved, block reorganization corrected appeared first on Invezz