In this week’s news roundup, Will, Colin, and Matt break down how Babylon Chain’s launch pumped Bitcoin transactions fees to multi-month highs. Plus, they discuss Bitfarms’ merger with Stronghold and what it means for Riot’s hostile takeover attempt, and they wrap up the pod by covering Q2 numbers from the public miners – oh, and a note on the IMF’s absurd plea to tax bitcoin miners into oblivion.

Welcome back to The Mining Pod! On Thursday, Bitcoin transaction fees soared to their highest levels since April, but it has nothing to do with runes or inscriptions. This go around, it was all thanks to the launch of Babylon Chain, a new off-chain BTC staking platform. We also tackle Bitfarms’ merger with Stronghold and what it could mean (or not mean) for Riot’s ongoing attempt at a hostile share takeover of Bitfarms. Finally, we close on the latest Q2 figures and operational updates from public bitcoin miners, and Colin rants about why the IMF needs to take their bitcoin miner tax proposal and shove it...someplace where it won’t see the light of day.

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

02:33 Difficulty report

04:45 ASIC prices

12:13 Babylon staking

15:51 Bitfarms Expands with $175M Stronghold Merger

16:47 Riot vs Bitfarms Poison Pill

25:30 Public Miner Reports

32:19 IMF Idea to Tax Bitcoin Miners

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THE MINING POD: Babylon Launch Pumps Fees, Bitfarms Merges with Stronghold, Public Miner Q2 Numbers, and the IMF’s (not so Modest) Tax Proposal

CoinDesk Podcast Network

THE MINING POD: Babylon Launch Pumps Fees, Bitfarms Merges with Stronghold, Public Miner Q2 Numbers, and the IMF’s (not so Modest) Tax Proposal