Where the panel landed
There was no assembled panel in this episode; Thomas Hunt carried the show alone after the holiday break. He treated the price recovery as cautiously positive, but pushed against any easy victory reading by emphasizing Bitcoin ATM scams, noisy mining facilities, Trump-linked crypto conflicts, and leniency toward crypto criminals. The landing was not despair, but institutional weariness: Bitcoin had survived into the future, and the future had paperwork.
What they were watching
The show watched Bitcoin reclaim the $90,000 area after a fourth-quarter tax-loss selling period, with the price quoted at a high of 90,949, a low of 88,338, and a last of 89,783. The directional consensus was near-term upward, helped by the Magic 8 Ball's answer, but the host treated the move as one item in a much rougher institutional ledger.
New year, same price question
Thomas opened the first show of 2026 with Bitcoin near 90,000, noting renewed United States buying and the possible end of tax-loss selling pressure. The Magic 8 Ball segment returned a clean bullish answer, but the host did not let the price become the whole episode.
Bitcoin ATMs and the scam pipeline
The show treated Bitcoin ATM fraud as a serious and probably losing policy fight for the industry. Thomas argued that ATMs have become part of the scammer workflow, especially when victims are isolated by phone and marched toward a kiosk to send irreversible funds.
Mining noise as local politics
A Texas crypto mining noise lawsuit became the episode's main physical-world warning. Thomas compared mining and AI data centers as similar sources of disruption, saying the complaint from residents was justified and not something Bitcoin advocates could dismiss as a side concern.
Automation, resentment, and basic income
The mining-noise segment widened into a Vonnegut-style argument about automation, data centers, and local anger. Thomas suggested that communities will increasingly see AI companies and Bitcoin miners as extracting wealth from their energy and data while returning too little.
Trump crypto favors and conflicts
The show moved through an alleged zero percent crypto capital-gains order, then lingered on Trump Media's plan to issue a cryptocurrency to shareholders. Thomas presented the family's crypto ventures as a conflict-rich landscape where regulatory leniency and private gain sit uncomfortably close together.
Bitfinex, Razzlekhan, and early release
The main story on Ilya Lichtenstein's early release gave the episode its crime-and-consequence thread. Thomas recounted the strange scale of the Bitfinex heist, the laundering attempts, and the broader impression that crypto offenders were receiving softer outcomes under the current administration.
ETF expansion and paper crypto
Solana's ETF debut led Thomas to ask which coins come next and whether markets are simply adding more paper claims to the system. The point was not celebration of access, but suspicion that Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, stocks, gold, and silver were all being folded into the same paper architecture.
Curio Cards as archival respect
The close shifted from public infrastructure to historical memory, thanking OX Baron for writing about Curio Cards and its creators. Thomas treated the work as a small act of documentation, giving early NFT history the kind of record that usually arrives late.
The future! Holy shit, we made it.— Thomas Hunt
Perhaps the floor is in.— Thomas Hunt
Bitcoin ATM's likely going away in 2026.— Thomas Hunt
This is not like a side concern.— Thomas Hunt
This is a recipe for anger and unsatisfaction in the future.— Thomas Hunt
Very interesting to see crime seeming to pay as ilia will be released— Thomas Hunt
Story of the Week
Bitcoin's infrastructure becomes its public liability
The dominant story was not price, but the way Bitcoin's physical and retail infrastructure had become politically exposed. Bitcoin ATMs were presented as useful to ordinary buyers but now embedded in scam operations that can drain victims in person. Mining and AI data centers were framed as the other flank: noisy, intrusive, locally resented facilities extracting value while communities bear the disruption. The episode's 2026 mood was that Bitcoin's next fights would be less about explaining the protocol and more about defending the machinery around it.
Bitcoin ATM's likely going away in 2026.— Thomas Hunt