OSGrid, OpenSim’s largest and oldest public world, will hold its annual fundraiser and auction starting on September 22 in order to support the grid’s hosting environment and community operations.

“The future of OSgrid is powered by your passion and creativity,” organizers said in their call for donations last month.

The event wants creators to donate unique virtual items, including furnishings, avatars, services, jewelry, and entire regions in OAR format, the organizers said. All donated items must be created exclusively for the event and cannot be for sale or available elsewhere.

“ECHO 1 is starting to look fuller,” OSgrid staff member Caro Fayray said in a Facebook post this week. “But we still need more items. And the sooner I have them, the more time for people to view them before the auctions.”

And, of course, people can donate at any time via the grid’s donation page.

Preview of auction items will be available on the Echo 1 as they are received. Contributors or those with questions can contact an admin or Caro Fayray in-world for more information.

Hypergrid link: hg.osgrid.org:80:ECHO 1

Running on volunteers and donations

OSGrid operates as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization run entirely by volunteers, according to the grid.

All proceeds from the auctions go directly toward keeping the virtual worlds alive and thriving. The fundraiser celebrates community talent while providing crucial financial support for the grid’s operations.

OSGrid has a clear preference when it comes to donations. They’d rather have regular monthly donations of $10 to $15 than big one-time payments, according to their official donation page.

“We strongly prefer a regular donation of $10.00 or $15.00 per month to a one-off payment of $50.00,” administrators said. “This lets us better plan for the growth of the grid.”

Their math is simple: “If 10% of the active userbase paid us $10.00 per month, it would be sufficient to permanently keep the grid infrastructure online, and give us plenty of room to expand as required.”

Just turned 18 and ready to party

OSGrid recently hit a major milestone — its 18th birthday. The grid threw a week-long beach party celebration at the end of July and the beginning of August.

“For 18 years, we have been a cornerstone of the open metaverse, a hub for creators, explorers, and communities,” organizers said.

For the event, the grid transformed Event Plaza into a coastal paradise with “sun-drenched shores, swaying palm trees, cool tunes drifting on the virtual breeze, and a bonfire or two to gather around with old friends and new ones.”

OSGrid has been running almost continuously since 2007. The grid serves double duty — it’s both a testbed for developers and a creative sandbox for builders, scripters, educators, and explorers.

In addition, its LBSA Plaza serves as the unofficial crossroads of the hypergrid, where newcomers get their first taste of virtual worlds and developers test cutting-edge features. That’s where I go if I need to ask someone a quick question about OpenSim, or to meet other people without having to run around for active regions or ongoing events.

Hypergrid link: hg.osgrid.org:80:LBSA Plaza

There’s also no charge to connect regions to the grid in any quantity. You can run a region on a home computer, and, as long as you’re online, anyone can visit the region. You just need to download and run the pre-configured OSgrid region installer. Besides having to have your computer on and the region running for anyone to visit, the other downside to self-hosted regions is that you can only support as many simultaneous visitors as your home computer’s bandwidth allows. However, there are OpenSim hosting providers that can run a region for you at a low cost, and attach it to OSgrid — or any other open grid — for better performance and always-on connectivity.

OSGrid is also hypergrid-enabled, meaning users can hop between hundreds of other grids, attend cross-grid events, and share creations across the entire OpenSim metaverse. In particular, OSgrid users can buy content from the Kitely Market and have it delivered directly to their avatars.

Back from a rough patch

Earlier this year, the grid had about a month of downtime during an extended maintenance nightmare.

“This slightly extended downtime has allowed us to come back stronger, offering a more professional and stable experience for the entire OSgrid community,” grid administrators said in an announcement in April, when the grid came back up.

The problem? Their database had become bloated and broken.

“The current database is a massive burden to the grid,” administrators said. “Sixty percent of it is probably never used, and it kills the performance of our state-of-the-art hardware.”

According to the latest Hypergrid Business data, January 2025 showed OSGrid as the largest grid by land area in the OpenSim ecosystem, with 35,873 standard-sized regions. Today, the grid’s stats page shows a total land area of more than 55,000 square kilometers. With more than 15 standard region equivalents per square kilometer, this means that the grid is now more than ten times bigger than it was then.

I’m checking with the grid managers now to see what’s up with that. Sometimes, people spin up huge tracks of land for roleplay activities — endless stretches of open ocean for naval warfare, or miles of deserts for quest adventures.

French lawmakers have doubled down on their plans for Bitcoin mining by highlighting that the country could generate an annual revenue of up to $150 million from the industry.

In a July 11 bill submitted to the French National Assembly, the lawmakers outlined a five-year pilot program allowing electricity producers to redirect excess power, often wasted during low grid demand, toward Bitcoin mining operations.

According to the lawmakers, data from the Association for the Development of Digital Assets (ADAN) projects that dedicating just one gigawatt of surplus energy could generate between $100 million and $150 million each year.

This revenue could help offset the fixed costs of maintaining France’s nuclear fleet while monetizing energy that would otherwise be sold at a loss.

The bill comes a month after French lawmakers initially urged the government to examine whether Bitcoin mining could absorb the excess power generated from the country’s nuclear plants.

The lawmakers argued that France’s energy grid faces mounting pressure from the growth of intermittent renewables like wind and solar.

They stressed:

“The significant share of [renewable energy sources] in our electricity mix is leading to recurring imbalances on the grid, including episodes of overproduction that force electricity producers to sell at a loss due to a lack of storage facilities. These unutilized surpluses represent an unacceptable economic and energy loss.”

Benefits of Bitcoin mining

To solve this challenge, the French lawmakers are pushing for Bitcoin mining centers to be co-located with nuclear production facilities.

These centers would only activate when there’s excess energy, offering a real-time, flexible method for grid stabilization without affecting consumer supply.

According to them:

“Existing infrastructure, currently underutilized or closed, could accommodate this new infrastructure. Abroad, some former factories or decommissioned power plants have already been transformed into mining farms operating on carbon-free electricity.”

Meanwhile, the legislation highlighted the secondary benefits of Bitcoin mining activities, including heat recovery. The lawmakers noted that the mining rigs can generate significant heat, which can be redirected to district heating systems, greenhouses, or industrial operations.

They also highlighted examples from countries like Finland, where Bitcoin mining heat is used to support agriculture and sustainable infrastructure.

If approved, the pilot would begin immediately and last roughly five years, with oversight from the French Council of State. After six months, a full evaluation report would assess the feasibility of broader adoption.

Meanwhile, this effort places France among a growing group of countries, such as Pakistan, Belarus, and Texas in the US, that are exploring Bitcoin mining as a strategic response to electricity oversupply.

BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, trading under the ticker IBIT, has overtaken BlackRock flagship S&P 500 ETF (IVV) in annual revenue generation. Despite being a fraction of its size in terms of assets under management, IBIT’s surge is pivotal. It indicates an increase in institutional demand for regulated Bitcoin exposure.

According to 2 July 2025 Bloomberg report, IBIT’s higher expense ratio of 0.25% has propelled it ahead of the iShares Cor S&P 500 ETF IVV.

Notably, IVV charge a nominal 0.03% fee in terms of annual fee income. So the higher fee structure of IBIT, combined with the surging interest in Bitcoin as an asset class, has given BlackRock a powerful new revenue engine.

“IBIT overtaking IVV in annual fee revenue is reflective of both the surging investor demand for Bitcoin and the significant fee compression in core equity exposure,” NovaDius Wealth Management president Nate Geraci told Bloomberg on 2 July 2025.

Importantly, IBIT is projected to generate over $187 million in annual fees.

BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF is now more profitable than its S&P 500 fund.

The firm is raking in $187M in fees from its Bitcoin ETFs, a clear signal of where investor demand (and revenue) is heading.

Wall Street isn’t just adopting crypto, it’s actually profiting from it. pic.twitter.com/PQOpuYyZkt

— Bitcoinsensus (@Bitcoinsensus) July 3, 2025

DISCOVER: 20+ Next Crypto to Explode in 2025

Standard Chartered’s Bitcoin Outlook: Poised for a Historic Rally?

According to Standard Chartered’s latest market outlook, Bitcoin is poised for its strongest dollar rally in history in the second half of 2025. Bitcoin is expected to reach $135,000 before the close of September, according to Standard Chartered. 

Geoff Kendrick, Standard Chartered’s head of digital asset research said, “Thanks to increased investor flows, we believe BTC has moved beyond the previous dynamic whereby prices fell 18 months after a ‘halving’ cycle.”

Standard Chartered says #Bitcoin is heading to $200K by late 2025.

If that happens…

Where will ETH, SOL, and XRP be?
Drop your predictions. pic.twitter.com/KwPHIY67DW

— Crypto Decode (@TheCryptoDecode) July 2, 2025

If this forecast materialises, the appeal of spot Bitcoin ETFs like IBIT could grow even further.

“Strong inflows drove Q2 price gains,” added Kendrick, “US spot ETFs saw inflows of $12.4bn (120,000 BTC) during the quarter, and Bitcoin treasury companies added 125,000 BTC.”

DISCOVER: Next 1000X Crypto: 10+ Crypto Tokens That Can Hit 1000x in 2025

BTC ETFs See Interrupted Inflow Streak Amid Bearish BTC Price

However, BlackRock’s IBIT is clearly an exception.

The relentless inflow streak into US spot Bitcoin ETFs came to an abrupt halt amidst renewed bearish momentum and political headwinds. On 1 July 2025, the 12 US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs collectively recorded $342.25 million in net outflows. This marks the end of a robust 15 day run that had seen $4.73 billion pour into US spot Bitcoin ETFs since mid-June.

Fidelity’s FBTC saw the largest withdrawal with $172.73 million in outflows. Grayscale’s GBTC saw $119.51 million redeemed.

ARK21Shares’ ARKB recorded $27.03 million in outflows. Bitwise’s BITB registered $22.98 million in redemptions.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs are more than just headlines, they’re unlocking serious liquidity.

Big money is flowing in, retail confidence is rising, and the market structure is shifting fast.

If you’re still trading like it’s 2021, you’re missing the ETF effect.

Stay sharp.#Bitcoin… pic.twitter.com/OUP7dTCkmo

— CryptonautX (@CryptonautX_) July 2, 2025

Explore: Bitcoin ETFs See Interrupted Inflow Streak Amid Bearish BTC Price

BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF IBIT Surpasses S&P 500 ETF Annual Revenue