A Californian lawmaker has just added Bitcoin and crypto investor protections to a February-introduced money transmission bill aimed at securing crypto self-custody rights for the US state’s nearly 40 million residents.

California’s Assembly Bill 1052 was introduced as the Money Transmission Act on Feb. 20, 2025, but was amended by Democrat and Banking and Finance Committee chair Avelino Valencia on March 28 to include several Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto-related investor protections.

The amendments cross out “Money Transmission Act,” with the legislation now called “Digital assets.”

“California often sets the national blueprint for policy, and if Bitcoin Rights passes here, it can pass anywhere,” Satoshi Action Fund CEO Dennis Porter said in a March 30 statement.

“Once passed, this legislation will guarantee nearly 40 million Californians the right to self-custody their digital assets without fear of discrimination.”

Source: Satoshi Action Fund

The bill would also deem the use of a digital financial asset as a valid and legal form of payment in private transactions and would prohibit public entities from restricting or taxing digital assets solely based on their use as payment.

The bill would also expand the scope of California’s Political Reform Act of 1974 to prohibit a public official from issuing, sponsoring or promoting a digital asset, security or commodity.

“A public official shall not engage in any transaction or conduct related to a digital asset that creates a conflict of interest with their public duties,” one section of the AB 1052 states.

AB 1052 is now in the “desk process” — meaning the bill has been formally introduced and is awaiting its first reading.

A total of 99 merchants currently accept Bitcoin payments in California, BTC Maps data shows.

Ripple Labs, Solana Labs and Kraken are among the largest crypto firms based in California.

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A stablecoin-related bill was also introduced in California on Feb. 2, 2025, which aims to provide more clarity over stablecoin collateral requirements, liquidation processes, redemption and settlement mechanisms requirements and security audits.

Bitcoin-related bills and measures near 100 at the US state level

According to Bitcoin Law, 95 Bitcoin-related bills or measures have been introduced at the state level in 35 states, including 36 Bitcoin reserve bills that are still live.

The Texas Senate passed a Bitcoin strategic reserve bill in a 25-5 vote on March 6, while Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear signed a Bitcoin Rights bill into law on March 24.

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a Digital Asset Stockpile, both of which will initially use cryptocurrency forfeited in government criminal cases.

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Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings Inc (MARA) is looking to sell up to $2 billion in stock to buy more Bitcoin as part of a plan that bears a resemblance to Michael Saylor’s Strategy.

MARA Holdings, formerly Marathon Digital, said in a March 28 Form 8-K and prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it entered into an at-the-market agreement with investment giants, including Cantor Fitzgerald and Barclays, for them to sell up to $2 billion worth of its stock “from time to time.”

“We currently intend to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, including the acquisition of bitcoin and for working capital,” MARA added.

MARA’s move copies a tactic made famous by Bitcoin (BTC) bull Saylor, the executive chair of the largest corporate Bitcoin holder Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, which has used a variety of market offerings, including stock sales, to amass 506,137 BTC worth $42.4 billion.

MARA Holdings falls just behind Strategy with the second largest holdings by a public company, with 46,374 BTC worth around $3.9 billion in its coffers, according to Bitbo data.

In July, the company’s CEO, Fred Thiel, said it was going “full HODL” and wouldn’t sell any of the Bitcoin it mined to fund its operations, as is typical for crypto miners, and would purchase more of the cryptocurrency to keep in reserve.

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The Bitcoin (BTC) miner’s planned stock sale follows a similar offering it made early last year that offered up to $1.5 billion worth of its shares. It also issued $1 billion of zero-coupon convertible senior notes in November with plans to use most of the proceeds to buy Bitcoin.

Google Finance shows that MARA closed the March 28 trading day down 8.58% at $12.47, following on from crypto mining stocks being rattled a day earlier with reports that Microsoft abandoned plans to invest in new data centers in the US and Europe.

MARA shares have fallen another 4.6% to $11.89 in overnight trading on March 30, according to Robinhood.

Bitcoin is trading just above $82,000, down 1.2% over the past 24 hours after falling from a local high of around $83,500, according to CoinGecko.

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Ethereum-based DeFi protocol SIR.trading, also known as Synthetics Implemented Right, has been hacked, resulting in the loss of its entire total value locked (TVL) — $355,000 at the time of the attack. 

The March 30 hack was initially detected by blockchain security firms TenArmorAlert and Decurity, both of which posted warnings on X to alert users of the protocol.

The protocol’s founder, known only as Xatarrer, described the hack as “the worst news a protocol could received [sic],” but suggested the team intends to try to keep the protocol going despite the setback.

Source: SIR.trading on X 

“Clever attack” targeted contract vault

Decurity described the hack as a “clever attack” that targeted a callback function used in the protocol’s “vulnerable contract Vault” which leverages Ethereum’s transient storage feature. 

According to Decurity, the attacker was able to replace the real Uniswap pool address used in this callback function with an address under the hacker’s control, allowing them to redirect the funds in the vault to their address. TenArmorAlert further explained that by repeatedly calling this callback function, the attacker was able to fully drain the protocol’s TVL.

Source: Decurity 

SupLabsYi, from blockchain security firm Supremacy, went into more detail on the attack in an X post, stating it may demonstrate a security flaw in Ethereum’s transient storage. 

Transient storage was added to Ethereum with last year’s Dencun upgrade. The new feature allows for temporary storage of data leading to lower gas fees than regular storage.  

According to SupLabsYi, it’s still a “nascent feature,” and the attack may be one of the first to exploit its vulnerabilities.

“This isn’t merely a threat aimed at a single instance of uniswapV3SwapCallback,” SupLabsYi said.

TenArmorSecurity said the stolen funds have now been deposited into an address funded through the Ethereum privacy solution Railgun. Xatarrer has since reached out to Railgun for assistance. 

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SIR.trading’s documentation shows that it was billed as “a new DeFi protocol for safer leverage.” The stated purpose of the protocol was to address some of the challenges of leveraged trading, “such as volatility decay and liquidation risks, making it safer for long-term investing.”

While it aimed for safer leveraged trading, the protocol’s documentation did warn users that despite being audited, its smart contracts could still contain bugs that could lead to financial losses — highlighting the platform’s vaults as a particular area of vulnerability.

“Undiscovered bugs or exploits in SIR’s smart contracts could lead to fund losses. These might stem from complex logic in vault mechanics or leverage calculations that audits failed to catch, exposing users to rare but critical failures,” the project’s documentation states.

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