Good morning, readers!
This week, we begin in Kenya, where police and pro-government goons attacked peaceful demonstrators and violently suppressed June 25 marches, which marked the anniversary of last year’s anti-tax bill protests and honored the memory of at least 60 people killed then. The crackdown on June 25 marches left at least 19 people killed, more than 500 injured, 15 forcibly disappeared, 179 arrested, and multiple registered cases of sexual violence. The government also sought to impose an unconstitutional ban on live coverage of the demonstrations and restricted Telegram. President William Ruto defied calls for his resignation, despite growing anger over repression, impunity for police brutality, and lingering economic hardships.
Meanwhile, central banks around the world are accelerating efforts to roll out programmable central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). In China, officials announced plans to expand the digital yuan globally, posing it as an alternative to US-dominant payment systems in a “multipolar” currency world. While in India, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) doubled the number of banks that offer citizens offline access to its digital rupee CBDC (the value of which has grown in circulation more than fourfold over the past year).
In freedom tech news, JAN3 integrated the Liquid Network into BTCPay Server via its Aqua Wallet, enabling faster, cheaper, and more private bitcoin transactions for nonprofits and NGOs operating under financial repression. The integration emerged from collaboration at HRF’s 2024 Global Bitcoin Summit, showing how in-person events can drive the creation of tools for greater financial freedom.
We end with the live stream of this year’s Bitcoin Policy Summit, where academics, policymakers, and human rights activists gathered to discuss the opportunities and strategic decisions presented by Bitcoin. The programming includes a keynote from HRF Chief Strategy Officer Alex Gladtstein, who delivers a compelling speech explaining why Bitcoin is arguably the most powerful human rights technology of the 21st century.
Now, let’s get into the details.
Global News
Kenya | Protests and Police Repression on Anniversary of Anti-Tax Demonstrations
On June 25, 2025, Kenyans gathered nationwide to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the 2024 Finance Bill protests and to honor the memory of the 60 people killed then. What began as a peaceful march escalated quickly after police and pro-government goons violently suppressed demonstrators. The crackdown from security forces left at least 19 people killed, more than 500 injured, 15 forcibly disappeared, 179 arrested, and multiple registered cases of sexual violence. The government also sought to impose an unconstitutional ban on live coverage of demonstrations and restricted Telegram. Protesters called for justice for last year’s victims, accountability for police brutality, and an end to rising authoritarianism and deteriorating financial conditions under President William Ruto.
India | Expands Offline CBDC Access for Citizens
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expanding the number of banks offering offline access to its digital rupee CBDC from 17 to 30 in order to create greater access for Indians who do not have an Internet connection. “The RBI is aiming to enhance the adoption rate of CBDC, especially since it’s backed by the physical rupee and is capable of being tracked,” a senior RBI official said. In addition to offline features, the digital rupee is slowly being integrated into the state-run UPI digital payment system, which processes billions of transactions each month and underpins daily commerce for hundreds of millions of Indians. This appears to be working too: the value of the digital rupee in circulation jumped from approximately $28.2 million (₹234 crore) at the end of March 2024 to around $122.4 million (₹1,016 crore) by March this year. And in its latest report, the RBI confirmed it’s working with ministries to explore “defined end use” for payments. The level of programmability and traceability being embedded into the digital rupee poses risks to Indians’ civil liberties, as it gives the state unprecedented power to monitor, restrict, or freeze spending.
Bolivia | Bitcoin Adoption Grows as a Hedge Against Currency Devaluation
Across Bolivia, dollars are hard to find, and with inflation at 40-year highs, more Bolivians are moving to alternatives that the state can’t manipulate. According to a Reuters report, Bitcoin is appearing in places like salons and restaurants in the city of Cochabamba. Bitcoin ATMs are popping up in shops and cafés too. Some merchants even offer discounts to those who pay in Bitcoin. “If you go to the banks, they don’t have dollars,” one shop owner told Reuters reporters. “Paying for a chicken with Bitcoin or saving in Bitcoin is the most innovative and promising thing a city like Cochabamba can do.” Bolivia banned Bitcoin use until recently, but now adoption is quietly growing, with crypto transactions up more than 530% in the past year. “It’s a way to keep my money safe and also try to grow my wealth,” a Bolivian spa owner said. While adoption has yet to go mainstream, this shows growing evidence of Bitcoin’s role as a financial haven for those on the margins of the financial system.
China | Pledges Expansion of Digital Yuan at the Lujiazui Forum
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is doubling down on its vision for a state-controlled financial future. At the Lujiazui Forum, the governor of the People’s Bank of China, Pan Gongsheng, announced plans to expand the digital yuan CBDC and open an international operations hub for it in Shanghai. Gonsheng called for a “multipolar” currency world. But the alternative China proposes isn’t open or neutral. The digital yuan is fully programmable and centrally managed by the CCP. And in a country with an egregious human rights record, the temptation to use such a tool as a means to monitor and repress is likely insurmountable. Now, the CCP hopes to export that model abroad, cloaked in the language of balance and reform.
Malawi | Inflation Continues to Accelerate Post-Devaluation
Malawi is facing one of the harshest inflation crises on the African continent. Prices have surged 28.5% in 2025, defined by daily increases in the cost of goods and eroding purchasing power of savings across the country. A Malawian mother even shared with the BBC that she tells her children not to play, just so they can save soap. This latest wave of inflation comes on top of a devastating 44% overnight currency devaluation in 2023. These hardships reflect a corrupt and authoritarian regime that has long mismanaged public resources and manipulated monetary policy for political gain while leaving ordinary Malawians, like children, to bear the cost. Against this backdrop, organizations like Bitcoin Boma, with support from HRF’s Bitcoin Development Fund (BDF), are working to provide Malawians with financial freedom through Bitcoin. The goal is to help people access a form of money that isn’t subject to political mismanagement or runaway inflation, offering, for some, a path toward financial self-determination in the face of worsening repression and economic instability.
Hong Kong | One of the Last Pro-Democracy Groups Disbands
One of Hong Kong’s last major pro-democracy groups, the League of Social Democrats, announced its disbandment on Sunday after nearly two decades of activism. The party, known for its street protests and outspoken criticism of Beijing, cited “intense pressure” and an increasingly dangerous environment under Hong Kong’s expanding national security laws. Since the 2019 protests, Chinese officials have targeted opposition groups with arrests, bank account freezes, and legal crackdowns. Party leaders described a city where “red lines are everywhere” and said the erosion of civil society has left them with no safe space to continue. This news comes just before the fifth anniversary of the Beijing-imposed national security law and showcases the near-total dismantling of organized political dissent in Hong Kong.
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Leopoldo López: Freedom Tech for Venezuela
In this interview, Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López joins journalist Frank Corva for a discussion at PubKey in New York City to discuss freedom technology and its implications for human rights and democracy. López, who has experienced imprisonment and exile for his advocacy against the Maduro regime, shared how decentralized technologies, especially Bitcoin, can empower Venezuelans to bypass censorship, safeguard savings against hyperinflation, and support grassroots democratic movements. Watch it here.
Bitcoin News
JAN3 | Integrates Liquid into BTCPay Server via Aqua Wallet
JAN3, creators of Aqua Wallet, launched the SamRock Protocol, integrating the Liquid Network into BTCPay Server through Aqua and enabling nonprofits and dissidents to accept Liquid bitcoin payments. Liquid is a Bitcoin sidechain that uses federations to custody funds and allows for faster transactions, lower fees, and greater privacy, with the tradeoff of being less self-custodial than base-layer Bitcoin. On the other hand, BTCPay Server is a free, open-source payment processor that facilitates censorship-resistant Bitcoin payments. Integrating the two could expand the utility of Liquid for nonprofits. NGOs could benefit from greater privacy, cheaper transactions, and alternatives to traditional financial rails, which are too often surveilled and censored by authoritarian regimes. This innovation came as a result of collaboration between JAN3 and BTCPay Server contributors at HRF’s 2024 Global Bitcoin Summit, highlighting how events like these can spark powerful freedom advancements.
SeedSigner | Adds Support for Seven New Languages
In its latest firmware release, SeedSigner, a customizable and open-source Bitcoin signing device, introduced support for larger displays and seven new languages: French, Chinese, Catalan, Dutch, German, Italian, and Japanese. Together, these languages are spoken by more than 1.5 billion people worldwide, greatly expanding the accessibility of Bitcoin self-custody. The update can specifically empower activists and dissidents worldwide by improving readability and enabling people to interact with the SeedSigner device in their native language. This makes bitcoin self-custody more achievable for human rights defenders and improves their financial freedom. More languages, including right-to-left scripts like Arabic, Persian, and Hebrew, are also coming. HRF is happy to see this BDF grantee’s commitment to language expansion that helps bring Bitcoin self-custody tools to a broader global audience while supporting the financial freedom of people living under authoritarian rulers.
Wallet of Satoshi | Launches on Spark
Wallet of Satoshi, one of the most popular custodial Bitcoin Lightning wallets, has launched a limited beta for its integration with Spark, a new Bitcoin payments layer designed to make everyday transactions easier while giving users greater control over their funds. While Spark-powered wallets offer an improvement over traditional custodial systems, it’s not fully trustless and still requires users to rely on the operator’s honesty. As a result, this beta marks a meaningful step toward greater user sovereignty that can benefit dissidents or merchants in authoritarian regimes, but it does not yet achieve true self-custody, where no third party can freeze or seize funds. Notably, the release is available in the US, where regulatory pressure has forced many Bitcoin companies to restrict services or exit entirely, including Wallet of Satoshi in 2023.
Core Lightning | Recurring Payments for BOLT12
Core Lightning, an implementation of the Lightning Network for Bitcoin, reaffirmed its intentions to implement recurring payments through BOLT12. BOLT12 is an upgrade to the Lightning Network that increases receiver privacy and provides greater censorship resistance. Specifically, last week, core-lightning developer Rusty Russell committed to building recurring payments for BOLT12 after hearing from activists at the 2025 Oslo Freedom Forum who described the difficulty of sustaining their work without simple, repeatable, and private funding. Recurring payments like this were originally a part of the BOLT12 design but were paused to make the original implementation of the protocol release faster. Adding recurring payments would enable ongoing contributions to nonprofits and dissidents securely and permissionlessly and could become another tool for those in repressive regimes. Follow the development progress here.
Evento | Nigerian Women’s Hackathon
Evento, a nostr-powered event app and HRF grantee, is hosting Hack4Freedom, a women-led hackathon in Northern Nigeria focused on building decentralized, open-source tools using Bitcoin, the Lightning Network, nostr, and ecash. The event is a two-week hybrid program that equips Nigerian women with hands-on skills to build privacy-preserving, censorship-resistant technologies that respond directly to the financial and digital restrictions they face daily. This includes a lack of access to bank accounts, surveillance, and barriers to communication. Week one features in-person workshops and learning sessions, followed by a week-long remote building sprint with mentor support. You can learn more and donate to the event here.
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Bitcoin Policy Summit 2025 Livestream
Catch the full live stream of this year’s Bitcoin Policy Summit 2025. Hosted by the Bitcoin Policy Institute, the conference brings together policymakers, academics, industry leaders, and human rights advocates to discuss the opportunities and strategic decisions presented by Bitcoin. This year, HRF supported the event by bringing activists and dissidents to the forefront of the programming to discuss how Bitcoin has become vital to their work under dictatorships. HRF Chief Strategy Officer Alex Gladstein also delivered a keynote speech, explaining why Bitcoin is arguably the most powerful tool for human rights activism in the 21st century. You can watch the full recording here.
