BTC VIII: Arch Insider Scenes from Vegas

In this weekly newsletter, we update you on the latest ways to do and earn more with your Bitcoin. Read more for the latest news from the Bitcoin universe and Arch community.

Roadmap

1. This Week's Headlines
2. One Big Thought
3. Arch Community Updates
4. Quick Hits: Watch, Read, Listen.

💰 Metaplanet issued $71m in bonds to acquire more $BTC. Bitcoin Treasury Company Metaplanet Inc. announced its 16th and 17th series of 0% Ordinary Bonds this past week. This followed the announcement that the company purchased 1088 BTC, bringing its total holdings to 8,888 BTC.

🌎 GameStop announces $500m in Bitcoin holdings.  The arms race continued in the private sector, with Game Stop CEO Ryan Cohen announcing the company had purchased 4,710 BTC. Cohen said that "if the thesis is correct, then Bitcoin, and gold as well, can be a hedge against global currency devaluation and systemic risk." He listed its portability, authenticity, storage, and scarcity as advantages over investing in gold.

Arch hosted one of the most anticipated events in Vegas last week, with the "Bitcoin All-In! The Bitcoin Programmability Summit."

It was a memorable afternoon, with five panels, plus five more keynotes and demos, from more than 25 speakers.

It was also critical step for the Arch ecosystem, as it showcased the many builders that are working together to show what is now possible in Bitcoin DeFi.

Missed it? Check out a recording of the live stream, or watch out for highlights from our X accounts, including @arch and @archntwrk.

We also featured a community showcase highlighting leading Ordinals and Runes projects — a reminder that the programmable Bitcoin movement is thriving from the grassroots up.

Thanks to all our amazing sponsors who worked together to make this happen.

Product Updates:

✅ Advanced Cryptographic Infrastructure. Implemented native Keccak-256 hashing syscalls with comprehensive testing suite, enabling enhanced smart contract cryptographic capabilities and blockchain interoperability. This foundational enhancement supports complex DeFi protocols and cross-chain operations with optimized performance characteristics.

✅ Just-in-Time (JIT) Compilation Integration. Successfully deployed JIT compilation features for the Arch runtime, significantly improving program execution performance and reducing computational overhead. This breakthrough positions Arch as a high-performance blockchain platform capable of handling enterprise-scale workloads with enhanced efficiency.

✅ Network Synchronization & Consensus Refactoring. Completed major architectural improvements to the sync mechanism and ROAST consensus protocol, including role separation for coordinators and signers, optimized block propagation, and enhanced validator coordination. These upgrades strengthen network reliability and prepare the infrastructure for increased transaction throughput.

✅ Comprehensive Token Framework & Tooling. Advanced development of robust token testing infrastructure with compute unit optimization, enhanced CLI deployment tools with Docker orchestration capabilities, and improved RPC endpoints for transaction management. These developer experience improvements accelerate ecosystem adoption and streamline dApp deployment workflows

Join 104K+ Bitcoin builders in the Arch Discord

📺 Watch

📖 Read

• The Problems Every BTC Dev Faces — And How the ArchVM Tackles Them
• How Cross-Program Invocation Unlocks BTC Composability

🎧 Listen