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   NEW! My YouTube Channel featuring short-form video content and all my podcast episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEPGN1YCIQcMxkUig5GaNrQ   Featured Substack Post: https://bitcoinfortress.substack.com/p/top-10-easy-ways-to-improve-your   Bitcoin Fortress Books: Bitcoin Fortress: A Simple Guide to Bitcoin for Beginners Bitcoin Retirement and Estate Planning The Bitcoin Lifestyle   Follow me on Nostr: npub122fpu8lwu2eu2zfmrymcfed9tfgeray5quj78jm6zavj78phnqdsu3v4h5   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