Welcome to The Compiler, a daily curation of tech news.

BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF just hit $50B in assets, becoming the fastest-growing ETF launch ever. This rocket fuel helped propel Bitcoin past $100K in December. Who said institutional adoption was a pipe dream?

Why it matters: This isn't just about crypto bros getting rich. It's a massive validation of Bitcoin as an asset class, potentially opening the floodgates for more conservative investors. The knock-on effects could reshape how we think about digital assets in portfolios.

Tech insight: Managing an ETF tied to a volatile, 24/7 traded asset like Bitcoin is a fascinating engineering challenge. BlackRock's probably got some impressive real-time data pipelines and risk management systems humming behind the scenes.

• Samsung's dropping $181M to become the biggest shareholder in Rainbow Robotics, and they've launched a "Future Robotics Office" reporting directly to the CEO. Looks like someone's determined not to miss the boat on the next big computing platform. The real question: will your next Galaxy phone come with a robotic butler?

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• A U.S. Army soldier just got nabbed for allegedly extorting AT&T and Verizon. Forget nation-state actors, looks like the call is coming from inside the house. This Snowflake hack saga is a stark reminder that even our most sensitive systems are often protected by... humans. Oops.

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• China's gearing up to build a thorium molten-salt reactor in 2025. Nuclear nerds, rejoice! This could be a game-changer for safer, more efficient nuclear power. Read more
• Someone built a clever e-paper weather display powered by Cloudflare Workers. It's like a lo-fi smart home device for the hacker set. Read more
• The U.S. Treasury just declared a "major incident" after an apparent Chinese hack. Looks like someone's New Year's resolution was "more cybersecurity drama." Read more

If AI can now learn surgery by watching videos, how long until it starts picking up bad habits from binge-watching Grey's Anatomy?

Thanks for reading!