News Block: Is This Bear Market Almost Over? "Big Bitcoin" Unites to Defend Network, Strategy Makes Its First STRC Buyback

**Natalie Brunell** (0:01)
Welcome to the Coin Stories News Block, powered exclusively by Ledn. I'm Natalie Brunell, and in about 10 minutes or less, I'll provide you with insightful updates on Bitcoin, financial markets and the global economy. Everything you need to know in one block. Let's go.
So much to cover this week. Bitcoin is still about 50% below its all time high, and at this point in the bear market, the damage isn't just showing up in the price, it's showing up in businesses.
Last week, BitMEX, one of the original crypto exchanges that literally invented the perpetual swap, announced it's shutting down after 11 years. BitMart is also winding down. And Poolin, once the largest Bitcoin mining pool in the world, filed for bankruptcy with 173 million in obligations.
Other companies are making quieter but equally telling moves. The SmarterWeb company sold Bitcoin to repay debt. Satsuma shareholders voted to sell the company's remaining Bitcoin, return capital to investors and delist from the London Stock Exchange. Adam Back's Bitcoin Standard Treasury company saw its $4 billion SPAC merger with Cantor fall apart. The original terms were scrapped, the $1.5 billion in financing was dropped and the shareholder vote was postponed indefinitely. They say they're negotiating new terms, but the original deal is dead. And Jack Mallers stepped down as CEO of Twenty One Capital to return to focusing on strike. This is what bear markets do, they force hard decisions. Weak balance sheets that looked fine when Bitcoin was $126,000 start breaking when it's at $60,000. And nowhere is that pressure more visible than in Bitcoin mining. MARA sold $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin earlier this year to repurchase its convertible notes at a discount, cutting its convertible debt by 30%.
Bitdeer sold over 1,500 Bitcoin as it pivoted toward AI and data center infrastructure. The math is simple. Bitcoin's price has fallen, but the cost of mining hasn't. Electricity, infrastructure, equipment, all so expensive. And at the same time, AI companies are willing to pay a premium for the exact thing miners control, power. So for some miners, the rational move right now is to rent their capacity to AI rather than use it all for Bitcoin mining. That doesn't mean they're abandoning Bitcoin. It means they're adapting. I hosted MARA CEO Fred Thiel on the show last week to talk about exactly this. Some of his answers really surprised me. And you can check out that episode right now.
Now, here's the thing about bear markets. They tend to follow a pattern across the last three major downturns. Bitcoin hit its cycle low an average of 384 days after peaking. If this cycle follows that average, we'd be looking at a potential bottom sometime around late October. That despite so many analysts and investors saying the bottom is in. Past drawdowns were also deeper, roughly 80 percent. Now, could that happen again? It's definitely possible. But Bitcoin's market is fundamentally different now. It's larger, more liquid and held by a much broader investor base. And here's a stat that really stands out. According to CheckOnChain, 84 percent of Bitcoin's circulating supply is now held by long-term holders, which is at an all-time high. As River put it, Bitcoin conviction is at an all-time high.
No one rings a bell when a bear market ends. But when companies are closing, weekends are selling and the people still holding are at record conviction, those are clues that we are closer to the end of the bear market than the beginning.
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Here's a story right out of the future, but it happened last week. AI agents paid each other in Bitcoin for real. Lightning Labs launched a new toolkit called Wavelength that lets apps and AI agents send and receive Bitcoin payments without needing a bank account, a credit card, or anyone's permission. At the same time, Block, Jack Dorsey's company, released an open-source workspace called Buzz, where AI agents can communicate and work together. Then a developer combined the two. Independent AI agents talked to each other through Buzz, completed tasks, and paid one another in Bitcoin over the Lightning Network. One machine performed a service, another machine paid for it, and Bitcoin settled the transaction instantly. It's early, but it's a glimpse of what an AI-powered economy could look like, and it can run on Bitcoin, not just dollars. And finally, a major institutional development. Nine companies, including BlackRock, Fidelity, Coinbase, Block and Strategy, announced the Bitcoin Security Consortium last week, pledging $15 million over the next three years to fund Bitcoin developers and researchers. Their focus? Preparing for quantum computing. No quantum computer today can break Bitcoin, but a powerful enough one could eventually threaten the cryptography Bitcoin relies on. And because Bitcoin is designed to change slowly, it makes sense to start preparing now.