Bitcoin Holds $77K as Quantum Shield Targets $400B Dormant Stash, ARMA Bill Filed

Bitcoin News

Mark Cuban told viewers in a televised interview that he has sold the majority of his Bitcoin holdings, saying the asset has "lost the plot" and failed to behave as the inflation hedge he once championed. The billionaire investor and former Dallas Mavericks owner had previously argued Bitcoin could rival gold as a long-term store of value. With BTC trading near $77,672 on Thursday and gold rallying past $4,500 an ounce, Cuban said the divergence proved his thesis wrong. He also dismissed memecoins as "garbage," reversing his earlier flirtation with launching one. Bitcoin remains roughly 38% below its October all-time high of $126,080.

A separate development could carry far greater long-term weight for the network. Researchers at AmericanFortress unveiled a patent-pending post-quantum signature scheme designed to shield Bitcoin against future cryptographic attacks without forcing holders to migrate funds. The team estimates the framework could safeguard Satoshi Nakamoto's dormant 1.1 million BTC and nearly five million additional coins held in inactive wallets, a stash valued at roughly $400 billion. The defense relies on a backward-compatible soft fork that would freeze Pre-BIP32 addresses lacking seed-phrase derivation, preserving them until governance decides whether to move, burn or redistribute the assets.

On Capitol Hill, Reps. Nick Begich (R-AK) and Jared Golden (D-ME) introduced the American Reserve Modernization Act, legislation aimed at codifying a strategic Bitcoin reserve into federal law. The proposal directs the Treasury to establish and maintain the reserve for a minimum of 20 years and to consolidate the billions of dollars in digital assets already held across federal agencies through forfeitures and penalties. ARMA also mandates a proof-of-reserve report to deliver transparency around the holdings. Seventeen original co-sponsors signed on, including Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), seeking to cement an executive-order pledge ahead of the 2026 midterm election cycle.

Cuban's exit reflects a broader recalibration of safe-haven flows that has rewarded gold and punished risk assets through 2026. Gold has climbed more than 37% over the past year and recently changed hands near $4,548 an ounce, even after retreating roughly 17% from a $5,500 peak earlier this year. The metal's market value now exceeds $31 trillion, dwarfing every other asset class on the planet. Bitcoin has moved the other direction, sliding about 29% over the same window and trailing far behind every rally that should, in theory, have reinforced its digital-gold narrative during a turbulent macroeconomic stretch.

AmericanFortress paired the cryptographic disclosure with an $8 million seed round co-led by SAVA Digital Asset Fund, Moon Pursuit Capital and 0G Labs. A companion research paper identifies the throughput bottlenecks that have hindered earlier post-quantum trials, including a recent test on BNB Chain that worked but reduced transaction speed by 40%. The protocol layers three approaches across the blockchain stack: Pre-BIP32 raw key protection, standard BIP32 quantum shielding and a high-speed "QBIP32" derivation scheme. Zero-knowledge proofs verify master-seed ownership at the moment of spending, allowing native compatibility with existing elliptic curves and avoiding the performance penalty seen elsewhere.

The ARMA filing arrives months into an interagency effort to translate President Trump's reserve executive order into operational rules, a process that Patrick Witt, executive director of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, recently described as still working through legal interpretations. Begich framed the reserve as part of America's "insurance policy" against monetary uncertainty, while Golden argued a stockpile created by statute would carry "the weight of law" rather than shifting with each administration's preference. The bipartisan co-lead structure gives the bill rare cross-aisle optics in an otherwise polarized digital-asset legislative environment on Capitol Hill.

BTC trades at $77,549 with a marginal 24-hour gain of 0.04% on $15.2 billion in volume, signaling indecision rather than conviction. Immediate support sits at $77,596, with deeper buffers at $76,112 and $74,281, while resistance stacks at $78,534, $80,425 and $82,788. The RSI at 49.1 leaves the asset squarely in neutral territory, yet the bearish MACD signal points to continued downside pressure. Bulls need a reclaim of $78,534 on rising volume to invalidate the sideways thesis; a breakdown beneath $74,281 would confirm a deeper bear-market leg toward the $70,000 psychological zone.