Laws move slower than markets. But they hit harder. This is issue #72 of The Bitcoin Act — your Tuesday and Sunday briefing on the legal and regulatory moves that actually shape Bitcoin.

Now for today’s top stories:

🏛️ Trump expected at industry meeting
Trump and CFTC Chair Mike Selig are expected Wednesday to open federal market-rule talks with industry executives.

🇫🇷 French tax hack proves point
A French Bitcoin institute warns the tax-agency breach shows mandated data collection turns holders into targets.

🗽 BitLicense on the chopping block
New York's Republican candidate for governor pledged to scrap the BitLicense, the permit Bitcoin firms need there.

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Russia's Energy Ministry said Moscow's mining ban, which took effect Saturday and covers Bitcoin, had to run year-round rather than seasonally because energy-hungry facilities connecting to regional grids risk power shortages.

Institut National de Bitcoin (INBi, French Bitcoin policy think tank) warned that France's tax-agency hack illustrates how mandatory data collection builds databases that become high-value targets once breached.

Simon Harris (Tánaiste, Ireland's deputy prime minister, and Finance Minister) launched an anti-money-laundering strategy adding checks on transfers involving privately held wallets and stricter diligence on overseas firms.

Patrick Witt (executive director, President's Council of Advisers on Digital Assets) said Trump’s memorandum allowing vetted U.S. firms to participate in government-supervised operations against foreign cybercrime networks is a major step toward shutting down crypto scammers.

Decentra Suze (co-founder, Bitcoin Policy UK) urged Bitcoiners to visit the Museum of Civil Liberties, an online archive documenting surveillance, internet shutdowns and other freedoms governments have removed.

Two people familiar with the matter, speaking to The Block, said Trump and CFTC Chair Mike Selig are expected to join crypto industry executives Wednesday to open talks on federal market regulation.

Bruce Blakeman (Nassau County Executive, Republican candidate for New York governor) pledged to abolish the BitLicense, the state permit Bitcoin firms need to serve New York customers.

Galaxy Research (research arm of Galaxy, led by Alex Thorn) said the pace of Coldcard attacks appeared to be slowing, while confirmed losses continued to climb as additional victims were identified.

Paul Atkins (Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission) postponed Friday's open meeting on “Reg Crypto”, his planned token-fundraising rules, again delaying a related exemption for tokenized securities, with no new date.

Kris Mayes (Arizona Attorney General, Democrat) said her office helped 35 victims obtain $171,332 in refunds under a state law covering new kiosk customers who report fraud within 30 days.

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🇫🇷 678,437 – A hack of France's tax authority exposed 678,437 people's names, addresses and incomes, handing kidnappers a fresh target list in the world's wrench-attack capital. The Block

🚫 16 – Binance will block transactions with 16 exchanges, including HTX, after the European Union sanctioned them for helping Russia evade restrictions. The Block

🇲🇨 1131 – Monaco filed Bill No. 1131 on August 6; if adopted it would replace the 2022 regime with licensing modelled on the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. Bitcoin.com

🏦 6 – The Crypto and Digital Assets All-Party Parliamentary Group put six questions to every major bank chief executive over the debanking of cryptocurrency firms. Tbstat

🏝️ October 1 – On October 1, Hawaii's Act 224 bars kiosks from taking cash for Bitcoin, though selling coins back for dollars stays legal. Cointelegraph

🏔️ August 17-20 — Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, Four Seasons Jackson Hole — Invitation-only, 500 investors and policymakers, with SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and Senate Banking Chairman Tim Scott speaking. Rulemaking gets previewed here long before it hits the Federal Register.

🏛️ August 19 — White House meeting with industry and prediction-market executives, Eisenhower Executive Office Building — Trump and CFTC Chair Mike Selig are expected, per people familiar. Closed-door read on market-structure law ahead of September's Senate fight. 

⚖️ August 20 — CFTC Innovation Advisory Committee's first meeting, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Eastern, streamed publicly — Sessions on asset regulation, artificial intelligence and prediction markets, at the agency CLARITY would hand most Bitcoin oversight.

🇲🇽 August 20-21 — PlebLab Startup Day, Ciudad Creativa Digital, Guadalajara — Founder talks, demos and investor conversations, showing where Bitcoin capital and building move when United States rules tighten.

🇮🇩 August 20-21 — Coinfest Asia, Bali — Broad cryptocurrency festival, not Bitcoin-only, but Indonesian regulators and exchanges use the stage to signal supervision plans across Southeast Asia.

🇬🇧 August 21 — Mempool Dev Day, The Bindery, Hatton Garden, London — Free workshops on Mempool.space, node infrastructure and tooling. Running your own node is the practical answer to know-your-customer creep.

🇨🇦 August 21-23 — Learning Bitcoin 2026, Vancouver, British Columbia — Education conference where self-custody and privacy habits get taught.

🇮🇩 August 22 — Bitcoin Indonesia and My First Bitcoin Unconference, Rustic Market Forest Tree, Surabaya — Bitcoin-only sessions on self-custody, full nodes and Lightning, the defense when local rules push users toward licensed custodians.

"The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design." — Friedrich A. Hayek

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