Blockspace: AI News

How the US Plans to Fast Track Data Centers, STRC Depegs from $100, Hive Signs $220M AI Deal

Welcome back to The Blockspace Podcast! The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has finalized new guidance aimed at fast tracking data centers across the U.S.. The rules aren’t set-in-stone or enforceable yet, but the new guidance is the most significant regulatory action yet by the agency in the age of AI. For other news, we cover Hive’s new $220 million AI contract and its pending acquisition of a 32 MW data center in Boden. Sweden. For interviews, we welcome Anchor Watch CEO Rob Hamilton to discuss why Strategy’s STRC has fallen 10% over the last month from its targeted $100 price, and Bitcoin developer Hunter Beast joins us to discuss the latest in solutions for Bitcoin’s quantum computing threat. And finally. Luxor Head of Derivatives Matt Williams hops on to explain why AI data centers require a greater degree of hedging than bitcoin miners, and why the most recent round of GPU compute futures are solving for the wrong thing. Check out Dimetrics, the AI industry’s Bloomberg terminal. Track financial metrics and news for AI stocks, GPU rental prices, state-by-state data center pushback, and more with the compute industry’s most powerful dashboard. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates for all of our shows and content. 👉CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK), a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success. 👉Luxor, Blockspace's preferred mining pool. Start hashing today with Luxor! 👉Lygos Finance, Borrow against your Bitcoin, without compromising on custody. Energy Investors Forum is coming to Dallas on July 23, bringing together executives, operators, fund managers and investors across AI infrastructure, energy markets, data centers and bitcoin mining. If you follow the business of power, compute and digital infrastructure, EIF is built to help you understand where these markets are heading and who is shaping them. BlockSpace listeners can get 30% off all tickets with code BSP30 at checkout. Register here: https://www.energyinvestorsforum.com/ Use code: BSP30

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Applied’s $1.59B Raise, Illinois’s Bitcoin Transaction Tax, Why SaaS Bonds May Be in Trouble

Welcome back to The Blockspace Podcast! Applied Digital just closed a $1.59 billion senior secured note round to fund a 150 MW expansion at its Polaris Forge 1 site for CoreWeave. Plus, we welcome Tim Neimeyer, the president of the Illinois Bitcoin Council, to discuss a new Illinois law that taxes every bitcoin brokerage transaction at 0.2%. For other news, we cover Moody’s Marc Pinto’s comments on Bloomberg TV that AI could spell danger of software-as-a-service company private credit, as borrowers may start to worry about eroding SaaS motes in the age of AI; plus, a story from Data Center Dynamics on supply chain risks for data center construction firms, and why California’s grid has more problems to worry about than awarding 1.5% of utilities budget to LGBTQ companies. Check out Dimetrics, the AI industry’s Bloomberg terminal. Track financial metrics and news for AI stocks, GPU rental prices, state-by-state data center pushback, and more with the compute industry’s most powerful dashboard. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates for all of our shows and content. 👉CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK), a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success. 👉Luxor, Blockspace's preferred mining pool. Start hashing today with Luxor! 👉Lygos Finance, Borrow against your Bitcoin, without compromising on custody. Energy Investors Forum is coming to Dallas on July 23, bringing together executives, operators, fund managers and investors across AI infrastructure, energy markets, data centers and bitcoin mining. If you follow the business of power, compute and digital infrastructure, EIF is built to help you understand where these markets are heading and who is shaping them. BlockSpace listeners can get 30% off all tickets with code BSP30 at checkout. Register here: https://www.energyinvestorsforum.com/ Use code: BSP30

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SpaceX Acquires Cursor for $60B, Nvidia Closes $25B Debt Raise, Cipher Hires Former ERCOT Director

Welcome back to The Blockspace Podcast! SpaceX (SPCX) just won’t stop. The stock is up 50% from its IPO price, and it also just acquired AI coding startup Cursor for $60 billion in an all-stock transaction. For other news, Nvidia just closed a $25 billion senior unsecured note sale, which it upsized from an original $20 billion after seeing $85 billion in demand, and Cipher Digital has hired former ERCOT director Bill Blevins as the hunt for available power capacity heats up. Check out Dimetrics, the AI industry’s Bloomberg terminal. Track financial metrics and news for AI stocks, GPU rental prices, state-by-state data center pushback, and more with the compute industry’s most powerful dashboard. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates for all of our shows and content. 👉CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK), a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success. 👉Luxor, Blockspace's preferred mining pool. Start hashing today with Luxor! 👉Lygos Finance, Borrow against your Bitcoin, without compromising on custody. Energy Investors Forum is coming to Dallas on July 23, bringing together executives, operators, fund managers and investors across AI infrastructure, energy markets, data centers and bitcoin mining. If you follow the business of power, compute and digital infrastructure, EIF is built to help you understand where these markets are heading and who is shaping them. BlockSpace listeners can get 30% off all tickets with code BSP30 at checkout. Register here: https://www.energyinvestorsforum.com/ Use code: BSP30

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Why Anthropic Axed Mythos/Fable 5, IREN Seals 490MW Nostrum Acquisition, EPA Won’t Regulate Data Centers

Welcome back to The Blockspace Podcast! Anthropic and Uncle Sam are trading blows again, with the frontier LLM company pulling its recently released Mythos / Fable 5 model after whistleblowers said the model’s guardrails were bypassed. Lygos Finance’s CEO Jay Patel joins us for his reaction to the news and the market rally with a reported, imminent peace deal coming for the Iran War this week. For other news, we cover IREN’s closing its acquisition of Nostrum, which will give it a 490 MW foothold in Spain for AI data center development, and the EPA’s stance that it won’t regulate AI data centers. Check out Dimetrics, the AI industry’s Bloomberg terminal. Track financial metrics and news for AI stocks, GPU rental prices, state-by-state data center pushback, and more with the compute industry’s most powerful dashboard. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates for all of our shows and content. 👉CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK), a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success. 👉Luxor, Blockspace's preferred mining pool. Start hashing today with Luxor! 👉Lygos Finance, Borrow against your Bitcoin, without compromising on custody. Energy Investors Forum is coming to Dallas on July 23, bringing together executives, operators, fund managers and investors across AI infrastructure, energy markets, data centers and bitcoin mining. If you follow the business of power, compute and digital infrastructure, EIF is built to help you understand where these markets are heading and who is shaping them. BlockSpace listeners can get 30% off all tickets with code BSP30 at checkout. Register here: https://www.energyinvestorsforum.com/ Use code: BSP30

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Inside TeraWulf's Lake Mariner Data Center Construction: "They're Working Around the Clock"

Welcome back to The Blockspace Podcast! For today's bonus show, we have an interview with Rich Miller, the founder of Data Center Richness and a seasoned data center journalist with decades of experience under his belt. Miller shares his views on how much the data center industry has changed in the age of AI, and he also gives his takeaways from a recent tour of TeraWulf's Lake Mariner AI facility. Check out DIMetrics: https://www.dimetrics.ai/thesis Check out our latest report, “What’s a Megawatt Worth?” where we quantify the trillion dollar opportunity for bitcoin miners venturing into the AI sector. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates for all of our shows and content. 👉CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK), a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success. 👉Luxor, Blockspace's preferred mining pool. Start hashing today with Luxor! 👉Lygos Finance, Borrow against your Bitcoin, without compromising on custody.

SpaceX’s $2T IPO by the Numbers and Anthropic’s 1 GW Search for Capacity

Welcome back to The Blockspace Podcast! SpaceX’s historic IPO came and went today, marking a day of firsts that saw the company close the largest IPO ever at a $2 trillion valuation, making its founder Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. Nakamoto’s Brandon Bailey joins us to discuss the IPO and the current state of the AI stock market and bitcoin, plus his project Dimetrics, a Bloomberg-esque terminal for the data center space. In other big news, Anthropic has reportedly entered into 12 letters of intent to rent 1 GW+ of data center space for its first-ever self-owned GPU clusters. Check out DI Metrics: https://www.dimetrics.ai/thesis Check out our latest report, “What’s a Megawatt Worth?” where we quantify the trillion dollar opportunity for bitcoin miners venturing into the AI sector. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates for all of our shows and content. 👉CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK), a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success. 👉Luxor, Blockspace's preferred mining pool. Start hashing today with Luxor! 👉Lygos Finance, Borrow against your Bitcoin, without compromising on custody.

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Retail Piles into SpaceX IPO, Inside TeraWulf’s Lake Mariner AI Site, CoreWeave’s $3.5B Unsecured Note

Welcome back to The Blockspace Podcast! Retail investors alone have accounted for roughly $75 billion of SpaceX’s IPO round – an amount that SpaceX originally intended to raise before the round became 3x oversubscribed. Plus, for today’s interview, Rich Miller of Data Center Richness gives us an inside-look at the construction of TeraWulf’s AI data center. For other news, we cover CoreWeave’s proposed $3.5 billion senior unsecured note, OpenAI’s crackdown on a CCP anti-data center campaign, and why LLM token prices are dropping while usage surges.

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SpaceX’s $250B IPO Raise, KEEL’s $458M Convertible Note, Hut 8’s $4.25 Senior Note, OpenAI’s 10 GW Datacenter

Welcome back to The Blockspace Podcast! Reuters has reported that SpaceX’s IPO round could come in at $250 billion, a 3x oversubscription from the company’s planned $75 billion. Plus, Cormint CEO Jamie McAvity joins us to give an optimistic outlook on bitcoin mining with hashrate stagnant – even as hashprice flirts with all-time lows. For other news, we cover Keel’s $458 million convertible note; Hut 8’s $4.25 billion senior secured note for its Beacon Point data center, the second investment-grade bond for project-level financing for the burgeoning AI firm; Crusoe hitting pause on a proposed 10 GW data center in Wyoming; and OpenAI’s plans for its own 10 GW, $500 billion project in Ohio. Check out our latest report, “What’s a Megawatt Worth?” where we quantify the trillion dollar opportunity for bitcoin miners venturing into the AI sector. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates for all of our shows and content. 👉CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK), a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success. 👉Luxor, Blockspace's preferred mining pool. Start hashing today with Luxor! 👉Lygos Finance, Borrow against your Bitcoin, without compromising on custody.

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What Investors Miss About SpaceX’s IPO, Cipher’s $810M Riase for AWS Site, Applied Digital’s 210 MW AI Deal

Welcome back to The Blockspace Podcast! Markets are bleeding, and AI/semiconductor stocks are taking the brunt of the bloodletting, so we open today’s show with a quick stock update from emerging AI factories like $HUT, $IREN, and $KEEL. Plus, we cover why if you’re thinking about SpaceX as a rocketship stock, you’re doing it wrong – the compute tells the real story. For news, we cover pricing for $CIFR’s $810M senior secure notes for its Stingray data center, which is set to host 70 MW of AI load for Amazon, and Applied Digital signing a 210 MW hyperscaler tenant, a deal that pushes its contracted AI revenue to $36 billion. And we end with news on China’s commitment to pour $295 billion into its AI sector over the next 5 years to close the gap with the US’s roaring AI sector. Check out our latest report, “What’s a Megawatt Worth?” where we quantify the trillion dollar opportunity for bitcoin miners venturing into the AI sector. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates for all of our shows and content. 👉CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK), a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success. 👉Luxor, Blockspace's preferred mining pool. Start hashing today with Luxor! 👉Lygos Finance, Borrow against your Bitcoin, without compromising on custody.

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CIFR & KEEL rip, SpaceX IPO, and Saylor didn’t sell

Francis Corvinho of Lygos Finance and Kaan of Luxor join us to talk about the massive shift in Bitcoin mining economics, Michael Saylor's credit strategies, Zcash protocol bugs, and the Texas 4CP summer mining curtailments. We also break down the AI infrastructure boom, featuring Galaxy Digital's market surge and Elon Musk's multi-billion-dollar xAI compute leases with Google and Anthropic. Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com Notes: * Hash price hit a new all-time low. * Galaxy Digital stock surged 22% in a morning. * xAI generates $26 billion in annual revenue. * Situational Awareness fund hits $20B AUM. Timestamps: 00:00 Start 02:09 Hashrate forming a bottom? 05:13 KEEL 08:12 Galaxy 11:10 Cipher Digital (CIFR) 14:24 Francis 33:21 Kaan 50:21 Situational Awareness 53:30 Coremint 54:30 SpaceX Check out our latest report, “What’s a Megawatt Worth?” where we quantify the trillion dollar opportunity for bitcoin miners venturing into the AI sector. Download here: https://megawattreport.com/ Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates for all of our shows and content: https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com 👉CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK), a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success. 👉Luxor, Blockspace's preferred mining pool. Start hashing today with Luxor! 👉Lygos Finance, Borrow against your Bitcoin, without compromising on custody.

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SpaceX IPO, Ohio's data center woes, Sphere3D goes public, and Bitcoin Volatility

Today, we review SpaceX’s prospectus on rockets and interplanetary life extraterrestrial data centers. Plus, IREN gets a nod from B Riley and Hut 8 is raising a lot of cash for its Beacon Point facility.

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IREN's 800MW in Australia, Zcash bug, and Google upscales to $84b

Janusz, former engineer at Electric Coin Company, joins us to talk about a potential Zcash soundness bug and the trade-offs of privacy versus auditability. Plus, Charlie and Will dive into Michael Saylor's STRC asset crash, IREN’s massive 800MW data center agreement in Australia, Google's unprecedented $80B equity upsize for AI infrastructure, and why the Texas grid is moving away from the 4CP mechanism. Timestamps: 00:00 Start 02:07 STRC down bad 05:03 IREN back to the AUS 13:37 Zcash bug with Janusz 28:20 Google upsizes deal 31:50 Jeff Park tweet 41:15 Joe Weisenthal thread 46:56 ERCOT & 4CP Check out our latest report, “What’s a Megawatt Worth?” where we quantify the trillion dollar opportunity for bitcoin miners venturing into the AI sector. Download here: https://megawattreport.com/ Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates for all of our shows and content: https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com 👉CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK), a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success. 👉Luxor, Blockspace's preferred mining pool. Start hashing today with Luxor! 👉Lygos Finance, Borrow against your Bitcoin, without compromising on custody.

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$GOOG is Raising $80B for AI, Polymarket’s MSTR Debacle, Swan Dismisses Proton Lawsuit

Welcome back to The Blockspace Podcast! Bitcoin miner-turned AI stocks are ripping this week, led by $KEEL, $HUT, $HIVE, and $BTDR. We break down the moves in the sector and take a look at Berkshire Hathaway adding $10B to its $GOOG stake as the mag 7 giant seeks $80B for AI efforts. For guests today, AnchorWatch’s Rob Hamilton and Becca Amilee Rubenfeld join us to discuss the bitcoin selloff and the Polymarket contract dispute over Strategy selling bitcoin. To close, we cover the news that Swan is dismissing its lawsuit against former employees, and take a look at Bitdeer breaking ground on a $155 million site in Alberta with on-site natural gas power. Check out our latest report, “What’s a Megawatt Worth?” where we quantify the trillion dollar opportunity for bitcoin miners venturing into the AI sector. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates for all of our shows and content. 👉CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK), a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success. 👉Luxor, Blockspace's preferred mining pool. Start hashing today with Luxor! 👉Lygos Finance, Borrow against your Bitcoin, without compromising on custody.

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Anthropic's IPO, IREN’s $3.65B GPU Financing, Strategy Sells BTC, DMG’s 50 MW AI Data Center

Welcome back to The Blockspace Podcast! Anthropic has filed for an IPO as the public markets race for frontier AI companies heats up. Plus, Strategy just sold bitcoin for the first time since 2022, and Lygos’ Francis Corvino joins to give his take on whether Strategy is losing favor as Strive makes inroads with BTC treasury investors. We also welcome DMG’s Sheldon Bennett and Steve Eliscu to discuss DMG’s flagship, 50 MW AI data center in BC, Canada. And to finish the show, we touch on IREN’s new $3.65B GPU finance deal and a new executive order in Utah to regulate the roll out of AI data centers in the state. Check out our latest report, “What’s a Megawatt Worth?” where we quantify the trillion dollar opportunity for bitcoin miners venturing into the AI sector. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates for all of our shows and content. 👉CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK), a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success. 👉Luxor, Blockspace's preferred mining pool. Start hashing today with Luxor! 👉Lygos Finance, Borrow against your Bitcoin, without compromising on custody.

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Semiconductor Smugglers, Google’s 200 MW Solar Deal, Iran War’s Energy Market Impact, Debunking Data Center Water Myths

Welcome back to The Blockspace Podcast! Today for our lead story, we cover the latest Nvidia chip smuggling crackdowns in Taiwan, and then we hop into an interview with Udi Wertheimer of Taproot Wizards to discuss the current state of Ethereum, and why one of its chief proponents sold his entire bag of ETH. Then, Haley Thompson, Director of Energy at Luxor, joins us to talk about how the Iran War is impacting energy markets in the U.S.. Plus, we analyze Google's 200MW solar PPA in Oklahoma, concerns with Strategy’s STRC, and debunk the viral criticisms surrounding AI data center water usage. Check out our latest report, “What’s a Megawatt Worth?” where we quantify the trillion dollar opportunity for bitcoin miners venturing into the AI sector. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates for all of our shows and content. 👉CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK), a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success. 👉Luxor, Blockspace's preferred mining pool. Start hashing today with Luxor! 👉Lygos Finance, Borrow against your Bitcoin, without compromising on custody.

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Robinhood Opens AI Trading, IREN’s $1.6B GPU Buy, Hut 8 CEO Beacon Point Update

Welcome back to The Blockspace Podcast! Today, Asher Genoot, CEO of Hut 8 joins us to talk about the company’s $9.8 billion deal for its Beacon Point AI data center in Texas. For news, we cover Robinhood launching access for AI trading agents, IREN’s $1.6B Dell Blackwell purchase, hardware rollout, Core 42’s $500M financing, and Mara’s rising executive security expenses. Check out our latest report, “What’s a Megawatt Worth?” where we quantify the trillion dollar opportunity for bitcoin miners venturing into the AI sector. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates for all of our shows and content. 👉CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK), a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success. 👉Luxor, Blockspace's preferred mining pool. Start hashing today with Luxor! 👉Lygos Finance, Borrow against your Bitcoin, without compromising on custody.

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Pope Leo Calls AI the Tower of Babel, China is Funding Anti-AI FUD, TeraWulf’s 1 GW KY Data Center

Welcome back to The Blockspace Podcast! For our top story today, Pope Leo’s latest encyclical – in which Leo likens AI to a modern, cyber Tower of Babel – gives us the Catholic Church’s official stance on AI. For interviews, Lygos Finance CEO Jay Patel touches on Strategy’s latest balance sheet clean up, and Sam Lyman of the Bitcoin Policy Institute joins us to talk about BPI’s new research on how China and other foreign actors are leveraging the media and dark money networks to astroturf opposition against AI data centers in the US. For other news, we break down TeraWulf’s plans for a 1 GW AI data center in Kentucky and Strategy’s repurchase of $1.5 billion in convertible notes and its latest BTC purchase. Check out our latest report, “What’s a Megawatt Worth?” where we quantify the trillion dollar opportunity for bitcoin miners venturing into the AI sector. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates for all of our shows and content. 👉CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK), a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success. 👉Luxor, Blockspace's preferred mining pool. Start hashing today with Luxor! 👉Lygos Finance, Borrow against your Bitcoin, without compromising on custody.

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SpaceX’s $2T IPO, FBI Scams the Scammers, Trump Media Sells Bitcoin

Welcome back to The Blockspace Podcast! Today, we cover SpaceX’s highly anticipated IPO, which could value the company at $1.75-2 trillion and become the biggest IPO ever. Plus, how the FBI spun up a scam token to arrest pump and dumpers, and is Trump Media selling bitcoin? For interviews, KBW senior analyst Stephen Glagola hops on to discuss which bitcoin miner AI stocks are best positioned; Tom Masiero joins to discuss the Sphere 3D shareholder vote to approve its combination with Cathedra Bitcoin, as well as the opportunities for smaller AI/HPC sites; and Zach Herbert of Foundation joins us to talk about how Foundation is building Passport Prime to address cyber security concerns for AI. Check out our latest report, “What’s a Megawatt Worth?” where we quantify the trillion dollar opportunity for bitcoin miners venturing into the AI sector. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates for all of our shows and content. 👉CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK), a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success. 👉Luxor, Blockspace's preferred mining pool. Start hashing today with Luxor! 👉Lygos Finance, Borrow against your Bitcoin, without compromising on custody.

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Prime Bankruptcy Trust Sues Strike Parent Co for $150M, NAKA’s Reverse Stock Split, SEC Tokenized Stock Framework

Welcome back to The Blockspace Podcast! Today, we cover the latest in the Prime Trust bankruptcy saga, as the bankruptcy trust from Prime is suing Zap Solutions (Strike’s parent company) for nearly $150M in clawbacks. We also welcome Kush Bavaria of Ornn to discuss the company’s forthcoming AI compute futures in a partnership with the Intercontinental Exchange, and Alexander Leishman of River Financial joins to talk about the Prime Trust suit and proof of reserves. For our final guest, Clenn Cameron of On Ramp joins to discuss the company’s $12.5M series A. And to round out the news, we break down Nakamoto's reverse stock split to avoid Nasdaq delisting, and the SEC's upcoming framework for tokenized equities. Check out our latest report, “What’s a Megawatt Worth?” where we quantify the trillion dollar opportunity for bitcoin miners venturing into the AI sector. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates for all of our shows and content. 👉CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK), a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success. 👉Luxor, Blockspace's preferred mining pool. Start hashing today with Luxor! 👉Lygos Finance, Borrow against your Bitcoin, without compromising on custody.

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Iran’s Hormuz Safe BTC Insurance, Prime Trust’s Swan Lawsuit, Hive’s 320 MW AI Data Center

Welcome back to The Blockspace Podcast! Today, we cover the bombshell news that Iran is now accepting bitcoin for maritime insurance for tankers trapped in the Strait of Hormuz. Francis Corvino of Lygos Finance joins us to talk about why he believes this is the greatest threat to the Bitcoin network yet, plus his takes on STRC, SATA, and “digital credit.”. We also break down the lawsuit where the Prime Trust Bankruptcy Trust is seeking to claw back nearly $1 billion from Swan Bitcoin, as well as similar clawbacks from Circle, Strike parent company Zap, and Huobi. We also look into the public backlash surrounding a proposed 9-gigawatt data center in Utah, IREN’s acquisition of Awaken Media, and Hive's 320 MW AI data center in Canada. 👉CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK), a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success. 👉Luxor, Blockspace's preferred mining pool. Start hashing today with Luxor! 👉Lygos Finance, Borrow against your Bitcoin, without compromising on custody.

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