Michael Saylor’s Strategy adds 3.2K Bitcoin at nearly $78K per BTC

Bitcoin's Lightning Network is accelerating iGaming payouts, processing 237,000 transactions at 1.86-second settlement in a pilot study. The layer-2 protocol cuts fees to under a penny versus 2.9-5% for traditional processors, while eliminating chargebacks and freeing operator capital. Lightning preserves Bitcoin's security without new tokens or intermediaries, positioning real-time gambling withdrawals as a killer use case for mainstream adoption.

MARA Holdings launched a foundation pledging $100,000 to nonprofits and supporting Bitcoin's long-term resilience through open-source development, education, and quantum-threat research. CEO Fred Thiel emphasized Bitcoin requires active stewardship as a public utility. The initiative prioritizes sustainable transaction-fee markets, scaling infrastructure, and financial sovereignty, with recipients chosen via community voting at Bitcoin Conference Las Vegas.

OpenAgents, a Bitcoin-native AI lab, raised $1.3 million and launched Pylon, a distributed compute network paying gamers and PC users Bitcoin for spare processing power. The platform uses Psionic, a Rust-based ML framework, enabling everyday devices to participate in AI training. Early metrics show over one million satoshis distributed and 1,000+ active nodes, positioning this as accessible crypto earnings beyond traditional mining.