Michael Saylor Tells BIP110 Supporters to "Stand Down" Ahead of Potential Bitcoin Fork Deadline

Michael Saylor is calling on supporters of the contentious Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 110 (BIP110) to back away from the effort, warning that an upcoming activation window could trigger a chain split. In a post on X dated Aug. 4, the Strategy executive chairman said that by block 961,022, BIP110 had only 38 signaling blocks, or 2.70%. Under the proposal's standard activation path, it would need 55% of miners to signal within the relevant window to lock in. Saylor argued that threshold is effectively unreachable at the current pace. Saylor also pointed to a second, mandatory phase slated to begin near block 961,632. Under that phase, nodes running BIP110 would begin rejecting blocks that do not signal for the change. If most mining power continues to follow today's rules, the main Bitcoin chain would proceed as normal while BIP110-enforcing nodes could end up tracking a separate, smaller chain—a classic chain-split scenario. "Unless major miners reverse, Bitcoin continues normally while BIP110 stalls or forks into irrelevance. Its backers should stand down," he wrote. BIP110 seeks to restrict the amount of nonfinancial data that can be attached to Bitcoin transactions. In practice, it targets use cases such as Ordinals inscriptions and large OP_RETURN payloads that can embed images, tokens, and other data. The proposal would cap most of that behavior for roughly a year while leaving standard payments and Lightning Network transactions unaffected. Support for BIP110 has largely been associated with the Bitcoin Knots software and the Ocean mining pool. Backers argue the limits would reduce the burden on node operators and curb fee pressure driven by data-heavy transactions. Opponents counter that the rule change moves Bitcoin toward judging transaction purpose rather than simply validating transactions under neutral rules. The signaling numbers are central to Saylor's critique. As of block 961,022, just 38 blocks out of roughly 1,400 in the current period had signaled support. Major mining pools—including Foundry, AntPool, F2Pool, and ViaBTC—had not signaled at all, leaving BIP110 far short of the 55% requirement. Saylor has repeatedly rejected BIP110 and expanded his argument in a mid-July X post titled "110 Reasons BIP 110 Is a Bad Idea." While he said he shares some goals of keeping node costs down and preserving Bitcoin as sound money, he warned against introducing rules that attempt to infer transaction intent. He likened Bitcoin's consensus rules to a constitution designed to protect economic activity equally, arguing that once the network starts filtering transactions by perceived purpose, the precedent could later be used against privacy tools, custody approaches, or new financial contracts built on Bitcoin. Market participants are now watching the approach to the mandatory signaling window, expected to open around block 961,632, likely between Aug. 7 and Aug. 9 depending on block times. If no major mining pool changes course, BIP110 is widely expected to fail to capture the main chain, with any enforcing nodes potentially splitting off. Observers are tracking block-by-block signaling data, any shifts in pool signaling, and updates from Bitcoin Knots developers as the window nears.