Leviathan News’ “The Tentacle” newsletter covers several notable developments across Bitcoin, DeFi, L2 infrastructure, new L1s, and crypto-native IP tooling.
Fold, a Bitcoin-focused personal finance platform, has launched a Bitcoin rewards credit card on the Visa network, issued via Stripe Issuing, extending its existing debit-card-based rewards model. Cardholders earn a flat 1.5% back in bitcoin on all qualifying purchases with no rewards cap, with behavior-based boosts that can increase rewards to up to 4% back on the first portion of monthly spend. Users who pay their credit card bill in bitcoin receive an additional 0.5% back on that payment, and rewards accrue and can be tracked in real time through the Fold app. This launch marks a push to make bitcoin accumulation part of everyday consumer spending rather than speculative trading, positioning Fold against traditional points or miles-based cards.
Alongside this, the newsletter highlights upgrades and launches across the broader crypto ecosystem: Liquity’s V2 Stability Pools for decentralized borrowing; Arbitrum’s move toward BoLD (its new fault-proof / dispute resolution design for optimistic rollups); the anticipated Berachain mainnet launch for a Cosmos-based, DeFi-focused L1; the Central African Republic’s experimentation with a meme coin tied to its ongoing crypto policy experiments; and the Story Protocol mainnet, aimed at on-chain intellectual property and creator tooling. Taken together, these stories illustrate ongoing efforts to deepen real-world payments integration (Fold), refine core DeFi collateral and stability mechanisms (Liquity), harden scaling infrastructure (Arbitrum BoLD), launch specialized new infrastructure (Berachain, Story Protocol), and experiment with state-level crypto branding and engagement (CAR meme coin).
✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.
