Asset management giant BlackRock, with over $10 trillion in assets under management, has published a new report touting Bitcoin as a unique portfolio diversifier. This marks the latest embrace of Bitcoin from the world’s largest asset manager.

Earlier this year, BlackRock launched a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (IBIT), rapidly becoming one of the most successful ETF launches ever. The Bitcoin ETF already has over $21 billion in assets under management.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink also recently changed his sceptical stance on Bitcoin, admitting he was “wrong” to dismiss it. The firm has steadily released research explaining Bitcoin’s potential role for investors.

The new report explains that while volatile, Bitcoin is fundamentally detached from other asset classes over the long term. It argues Bitcoin’s adoption depends on global concerns over monetary stability, geopolitics, fiscal policy, and political stability – the inverse of traditional “risk assets.”

“Bitcoin, as the first decentralized, non-sovereign monetary alternative to gain widespread global adoption, has no traditional counterparty risk, depends on no centralized system, and is not driven by any one country’s fortunes,” the report states.

As major traditional finance players like BlackRock increasingly embrace Bitcoin, its reputation and adoption will likely accelerate, bringing it further into the mainstream. BlackRock’s continued pro-Bitcoin stance reflects growing acceptance by global financial institutions.

Today, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) announced its most recent round of Bitcoin Development Fund grants, according to a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine.

10 BTC, currently worth $590,000 at the time of writing, is being granted across 20 different projects around the world focusing on technical education for people living under authoritarian regimes, Bitcoin development conferences, decentralizing mining, and providing human rights groups with more private financial solutions. The main areas of focus for these grants center around Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

While the HRF did not disclose how much money each project is receiving specifically, the following 20 projects are the recipients of today’s round of grants worth 10 BTC, or 1 billion satoshis, in total:

African Bitcoiners, a community dedicated to onboarding Africans to Bitcoin. Key initiatives include a “Bitcoin for Beginners” course, free Lightning payment routing for merchants, and the ability to buy airtime and data with Bitcoin. With the continent plagued by political and economic turmoil, Bitcoin can serve as a path to financial sovereignty. Funding will support the production of educational materials and support operational expenses, including salaries, infrastructure, and tools.

Stratospher, a Bitcoin Core developer focused on enhancing the privacy and decentralization of the Bitcoin protocol. Their work includes improving peer-to-peer (P2P) network privacy, reviewing critical pull requests in the libsecp library, and mentoring of new talent. Their work is important in helping protect users from financial surveillance and censorship by authoritarian regimes. This funding will support their full-time development efforts.

Coracle, a Nostr web client designed to create a social media experience that empowers individuals. Developed by hodlbod, recent and planned updates include customizable and shareable feeds, improved direct messaging for privacy, and the development of encrypted public and private communities. By leveraging Nostr, Coracle could offer a new censorship-resistant communications platform for human rights activists. Funding will support the hiring of a full-time developer.

Harbor, an open-source ecash wallet built to provide better Bitcoin privacy. Started by the Mutiny team, Harbor is now an independent project led by Ben Carman and Paul Miller. Harbor incorporates multiple mints, is Tor-only, and automates fund management. Financial tools like Harbor can help empower human rights defenders facing government surveillance by offering strong privacy guarantees. This grant will support the development of Harbor’s 1.0 production release.

The 256 Foundation’s mission is to make Bitcoin mining free and open, supporting developments in the Bitaxe initiative are the flagship project in achieving that mission. Bitaxe provides an affordable entry point for home mining, offering protection against surveillance in authoritarian regimes and enabling individuals to mine Bitcoin discreetly. Funds will support multiple engineers building on and improving Bitaxe with the aim of making the Bitaxe formfactor available with more ASIC manufactures.

Kiveclair, a community in the Democratic Republic of Congo educating individuals about Bitcoin. Led by Gloire Wanzavalere, co-founder of Africa Bitcoin Conference, Kiveclair hosts monthly meetups, training sessions for activists, journalists, and developers, and provides shelter to refugees. It is also planning its first local conference. Funds will cover the cost of meetups, educational materials, equipment purchases, and the rental of an educational space.

Jeff Gardner, a full-time developer focused on bringing end-to-end encryption to Nostr Direct and Group Messages without centralized servers, making them resilient against state intervention. His work is vital for enabling private communication channels for individuals and activists. Funding will support ongoing development, allocating bounties to community contributors, and conducting a security audit of the project.

Silentium, a self-custodial, privacy-focused Bitcoin wallet with built-in Silent Payments. Developed by Louis Singer, Silentium can help protect activists’ financial privacy by enabling them to receive Bitcoin donations through unique addresses generated from a static public key. This prevents surveillance regimes from linking transactions to activist’s identities. This grant will support the wallet’s infrastructure, including a full cloud node, web server, and the hiring of a software developer.

BTC Shule, an educational initiative by Belyï Nobel Kubwayo. It equips Burundians with the knowledge and skills to use Bitcoin for uncensorable payments under Burundi’s authoritarian regime. The project is structured around three key initiatives: a bilingual (Kirundi and French) educational platform, a physical center to host meetups, and a Bitcoin support community via Whatsapp and Telegram. The grant will support the development of the digital platform, educational materials, and the building of the center.

EttaWallet, an open-source, self-custodial mobile Lightning wallet by Collin Rukundo, a software developer and co-founder/CTO of Splice Africa. The wallet is designed to improve usability and accessibility. It seeks to challenge the dominance of custodial wallets and empower citizens in the Global South to take full control over their funds. This grant will support further development of the wallet, improve localization efforts, and foster a growing community of users.

Tor relay operator associations to support increased network reliability and performance, as recommended by the Tor Project. Funding will allow relay operator associations to deploy nodes that improve the stability and reliability of onion services and increase network robustness against DOS attacks. Tor is vital to human rights activists, as well as Bitcoin and Lightning nodes that use onion services.

Rikto Xonghoti, a Bitcoin education initiative led by Anurag Saikia, Basanta Goswami, and Pallab Goswami. Focused on creating a Bitcoin circular economy in the state of Assam (a region marked by underdevelopment), the project offers online Bitcoin education in Assamese. It also plans to establish a physical Bitcoin center in the town of Titabar. This grant will support teacher salaries, the center’s development, and the acquisition of Bitcoin nodes and mining equipment to boost local economic growth.

Yes Bitcoin Haiti, a grassroots organization led by Val, Papouche, and Armand. It seeks to empower Haitians living in political and financial turmoil with Bitcoin. As a new project, it will proceed in phases: first, project leaders will complete the Bitcoin Diploma course offered by The Core; next, they will translate educational materials into Haitian Creole and host workshops. Funding will support project leaders’ salaries, the purchase of equipment, and the production of educational materials.

Bitcoin Indonesia, an educational initiative led by Dimas, Marius, Keypleb, and Diana. It focuses on building an educational platform in Bahasa Indonesia (local language), expanding the local Bitcoin community, and connecting Indonesian talent with Bitcoin-related companies to drive career opportunities. It has also successfully hosted the country’s largest Bitcoin conference. This grant will support content creation, community outreach, and operational expenses.

Bitcoin++, a Bitcoin-only developer conference series organized by software developer and educator Lisa Neigut. The conference features long-form lectures and workshops for developers eager to dive into the intricacies of Bitcoin technology. Held in cities like Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Austin, Bitcoin++ has explored key themes like scripts, mempool, and soon, eCash. Funds will cover travel expenses for developers from authoritarian countries to attend the upcoming Bitcoin++ mints ecash conference in Berlin.

TABConf, a Bitcoin conference hosted by Michael Tidwell in Atlanta, GA. Its mission is to create a forum for protocol and application developers to debate and collaborate on Bitcoin. Through collaborative workshops and interactive activities, attendees can share their insights, knowledge, and experience to further Bitcoin development and innovation. Funds will be used to cover conference expenses and travel costs for developers in need of financial assistance.

Baltic Honeybadger, the world’s first non-profit, Bitcoin-only conference hosted by Hodl Hodl. With its cypherpunk roots, the conference fosters discussions on technologies that support financial freedom, security, and privacy, especially for those in authoritarian regimes. Funding will cover travel expenses for activists and human rights defenders to deepen their knowledge on Bitcoin as a human rights tool.

LaBitconf and Descentralizar, two annual conferences in Argentina. LaBitconf, hosted by Rodolfo Andragnes, is the longest-running Bitcoin conference in Latin America. Funds will cover travel expenses for software developers and keynote speakers. Descentralizar, a one-day event held in three cities across the country, offers debates, workshops, and networking opportunities for attendees. Funds will also support travel expenses and conference equipment. Given Argentina’s ongoing economic challenges, these conferences provide an opportunity for Argentines to explore Bitcoin as a tool for financial freedom.

Satsconf, the largest Bitcoin-only conference in South America. Held in São Paulo, Brazil’s economic hub, Satsconf connects the local community with global thought leaders, including macroeconomists, veteran Bitcoin educators, freedom advocates, and developers shaping the future of Bitcoin. Funds will support travel expenses for speakers, event logistics, and the hackathon.

Solidarity Summit: Standing with Political Prisoners, a Vienna-based event organized by Hager Eissa that unites former political prisoners, human rights advocates, and others to address the challenges faced by political prisoners. The Summit promotes dialogue, advocacy, and support for political prisoners worldwide and serves as a catalyst for change. HRF support will help add a financial freedom component to the program. A documentary will also be produced to further highlight these issues. Funds will cover venue and event logistics, program development, speaker costs, and film production.

The HRF is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies. The HRF continues to raise support for the Bitcoin Development Fund, and interested donors can find more info on how to donate bitcoin here. Applications for grant support by the HRF can be submitted here. 

MicroStrategy, a leading business intelligence and Bitcoin development company, has announced a proposed private offering of $700 million in convertible senior notes, due 2028. The offering will be made to institutional buyers under Rule 144A of the Securities Act. The company also plans to grant an option for purchasers to buy an additional $105 million of the notes.

The notes will be senior, unsecured obligations of MicroStrategy, bearing interest semi-annually and maturing in September 2028. Holders of these notes may convert them into cash, shares of MicroStrategy’s class A common stock, or a combination of both, at the company’s discretion. Conversion terms will be determined at the time of pricing.

MicroStrategy intends to use the proceeds to redeem all $500 million of its existing 6.125% Senior Secured Notes due in 2028. The remaining proceeds will be allocated to acquiring additional Bitcoin.

“On September 16, 2024, MicroStrategy issued a redemption notice pursuant to which the Senior Secured Notes will be redeemed on September 26, 2024 (the “Redemption Date”) at a redemption price equal to 103.063% of the principal amount, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to but excluding the Redemption Date (approximately $523.8 million in the aggregate), with the redemption of the Senior Secured Notes contingent on the closing and settlement of the sale of the notes,” MicroStrategy stated. “Upon redemption of the Senior Secured Notes, all collateral securing the Senior Secured Notes, including approximately 69,080 bitcoins, will be released.”

The offer is subject to market conditions, with no guarantee on the timing or terms of completion. The notes will not be available for public sale, maintaining private status under the Securities Act.