Hey everyone, welcome back to The Bitcoin Weekly - your five things you need to know about Bitcoin this week.
Let's get into it.
1. Bitcoin Enters Q2 Bruised As Geopolitics Drive Price to $66K
Bitcoin limped into April trading around $66,500 after posting a brutal 23% decline in Q1 which was its worst first-quarter performance since 2018. The week started with a glimmer of hope: prices briefly climbed toward $68,500 on Tuesday after reports emerged that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was prepared to negotiate an end to the conflict if Tehran received guarantees but that relief rally was short-lived.
President Trump's announcement of escalated military action against Iran sent risk assets tumbling, dragging Bitcoin back down to roughly $65,800 before a modest recovery to around $66,500 as the week closes. April has historically been one of Bitcoin's best months, averaging a 33.4% return, but with geopolitical uncertainty this heavy, the seasonal tailwind is fighting a strong headwind. Keep your eyes on developments in the Middle East as they're driving short-term price action more than anything on-chain right now.
2. Strategy Now Holds 3.6% of All Bitcoin That Will Ever Exist
Michael Saylor's Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) continues its relentless accumulation of Bitcoin. The company resumed major purchases after a rare one-week pause in late March, having acquired roughly 45,000 BTC over the past 30 days. This is their fastest buying pace since April 2025.
Strategy now holds approximately 762,099 BTC worth about $51.6 billion, representing 3.6% of Bitcoin's 21 million fixed supply. The company's stated goal is to reach 5%. What makes this even more notable: Strategy is accelerating while rivals sit on the sidelines. Most other corporate treasury buyers have pulled back amid the Q1 drawdown, leaving Strategy as effectively the only major institutional bid providing consistent buying pressure. Whether you view Saylor as a visionary or a risk-taker, his conviction trade is becoming one of the most consequential positions in Bitcoin's history.
3. The SEC and CFTC Finally Drew the Lines And Crypto's Regulatory Map is Taking Shape
March was a big month for U.S. crypto regulation. On March 11th, the SEC and CFTC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) establishing a formal coordination framework which is the first of its kind between the two agencies on digital assets. A week later on March 17th, they jointly issued a comprehensive interpretation clarifying how federal securities laws apply to crypto assets.
This is a big deal. For years, the industry suffered from regulatory ambiguity asking questions like "Is this token a security or a commodity? Who's in charge?" and now there's at least a shared framework. Globally, the picture is sharpening too: Europe's MiCA framework is laying the foundation for uniform market rules, and the UK's FCA is finalizing stablecoin issuer criteria. Lawmakers are also working on proposals to reduce tax friction around staking, lending, and everyday crypto payments, with progress expected by late summer. The era of "regulation by enforcement" appears to be giving way to actual rulemaking.
4. Bitcoin Miners Are Becoming AI Companies And Hashrate Just Posted Its First Q1 Drop in Six Years
Here's a stat that should get your attention: Bitcoin's hashrate declined roughly 4% in Q1 2026 which was the first first-quarter drop since 2020, breaking five consecutive years of double-digit growth. The hashrate sits at about 1.02 ZH/s (that's zettahashes — over a quintillion hashes per second).
What's happening? Well a Bitcoin bear market. With production costs near $90,000 per bitcoin and the spot price hovering around $67,000, roughly 15-20% of the global mining fleet is now operating at a loss. Hash price has collapsed to $28-30 per petahash per second per day. The result: publicly listed miners are aggressively pivoting their infrastructure toward artificial intelligence and high-performance computing, where margins are better and contracts are more predictable. Over $70 billion in cumulative AI/HPC contracts have been announced across the public mining sector through early 2026. A difficulty adjustment landed on April 2 with an estimated 6.43% increase, squeezing margins further. CoinShares still forecasts hashrate growth to 1.8 ZH/s by year-end — but only if Bitcoin recovers toward $100K.
5. Bitcoin Weekly Concept: Custodial vs. Non-Custodial Wallets
When you buy Bitcoin on an exchange like Coinbase or Kraken, you don't actually "hold" your Bitcoin, the exchange does. That's a custodial wallet. The exchange controls the private keys (the cryptographic password that proves ownership), and you're essentially trusting them to keep your coins safe and give you access when you want it. It's convenient, but it comes with risk: if the exchange gets hacked, goes bankrupt, or freezes withdrawals, think FTX, your Bitcoin could disappear with it. There's a reason the saying "not your keys, not your coins" has become a mantra in this space.
A non-custodial wallet flips that entirely. You hold your own private keys, which means you, and only you, control your Bitcoin. Nobody can freeze your funds, block a transaction, or deny you access. It's the way Bitcoin was designed to work: peer-to-peer, permissionless, sovereign. The tradeoff is responsibility. If you lose your private keys or your seed phrase (the 12-24 word backup that recovers your wallet), there's no customer support to call. It's gone.
The best way to self-custody is with a hardware wallet — a dedicated physical device that stores your private keys offline, away from internet-connected devices where hackers operate. If you're serious about securing your Bitcoin, I personally use and recommend Trezor. It's open-source, battle-tested, and one of the most trusted names in the space. You can check them out here: Trezor Official Website. Taking your coins off an exchange and into cold storage is one of the most important steps you can take as a Bitcoiner.
That's your five for this week. Stay stacked, stay informed, and I'll see you next Friday.
— The Bitcoin Weekly