BF197 - Top Bitcoin News - 1/4/26

🎙️ The Bitcoin Fortress Podcast — Episode 197

Date: January 4, 2026
Block Height: 930,901
Moscow Time: 1097
Fees: 1 / 1 / 1

 

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NEWS LINKS (15)
1) Reuters — Bitcoin set for first yearly loss since 2022 (Dec 31, 2025)
https://www.reuters.com/business/bitcoin-set-first-yearly-loss-since-2022-macro-trends-weigh-crypto-2025-12-31/

 

2) Reuters — Global markets Jan 2, 2026 (includes BTC move)
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/global-markets-global-markets-2026-01-02/

 

3) Yahoo Finance — US crypto ETFs draw ~$670M inflows; BTC ETFs lead (Jan 2, 2026)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-crypto-etfs-draw-670-110114860.html

 

4) CoinDesk — Tether adds nearly $800M in BTC; holdings above 96k BTC (Jan 2, 2026)
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/01/02/tether-adds-nearly-usd800-million-in-bitcoin-bringing-holdings-above-96-000-btc

 

5) Barron’s — Strategy buys ~$109M BTC (Dec 28, 2025 window)
https://www.barrons.com/articles/strategy-bitcoin-crypto-michael-saylor-829f6fd8

 

6) MarketWatch — Prenetics halts further BTC purchases (late Dec 2025)
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/buying-bitcoin-is-no-longer-a-thing-for-this-david-beckham-backed-health-company-24911393

 

7) DL News — Bitcoin ETFs in 2026 outlook (late Dec 2025)
https://www.dlnews.com/articles/markets/bitcoin-etfs-to-top-180-billion-usd-in-2026-say-analysts/

 

8) Bitcoin Core v30.1 release thread (Jan 2, 2026)
https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/bitcoin-core-v30-1-released/2183

 

9) Bitcoin Core downloads (v30.1)
https://bitcoincore.org/bin/bitcoin-core-30.1/

 

10) Lightning Engineering — Taproot Assets v0.7 (Dec 16, 2025)
https://lightning.engineering/posts/2025-12-16-tapd-0.7-launch/

 

11) Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #386 (Jan 2, 2026)
https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2026/01/02/

 

12) Yahoo Finance — Mining difficulty nears record high heading into 2026 (late Dec 2025)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-mining-difficulty-nears-record-064434953.html

 

13) CoinWarz — Bitcoin difficulty chart / next adjustment estimate
https://www.coinwarz.com/mining/bitcoin/difficulty-chart

 

14) The Block — 2026 Bitcoin mining outlook (late Dec 2025)
https://www.theblock.co/post/383997/2026-bitcoin-mining-outlook

 

15) The Verge — Bitfinex hacker Ilya Lichtenstein early release (Jan 3, 2026)
https://www.theverge.com/news/853160/ilya-lichtenstein-released-razzlekhan-bitcoin-hack