Michael Saylor did what he always does before Strategy opens its wallet. On Sunday morning, the executive chairman of the world's largest corporate Bitcoin holder posted a bubble chart to X.com, this one captioned "A good time to add more dots". For anyone who has followed Strategy long enough, the move reads like clockwork: Saylor posts the orange-dot chart, and a purchase filing with the SEC follows within days.

 

The post landed alongside a more pressing piece of company business. Strategy is asking its retail shareholders to approve a change to dividend payment frequency on its STRC perpetual preferred stock, shifting from monthly to semi-monthly payouts. The proxy vote deadline is June 8, and as of Sunday, the company was still scrambling to drive participation from a base that has historically been slow to engage.

 

The Orange Dot Chart and What It Means

Strategy's orange-dot chart has become one of the more recognizable signals in digital asset markets. Each bubble represents a Bitcoin purchase, with larger circles tied to larger acquisitions. The clustering of oversized dots across late 2024 and into 2025 visually narrates what has become an aggressive, almost relentless accumulation campaign.

 

At the time of Saylor's Sunday post, Strategy held 818,869 BTC, with a total reserve value of roughly $64 billion based on dashboard figures. Bitcoin was trading near $78,262 at the time, putting the company's per-share BTC equivalent at 213,391 satoshis. MSTR stock had closed Friday at $177.42, down 5.11% on the week, with a market cap of $62.31 billion and an enterprise value of $81.85 billion.

 

By mid-afternoon on Sunday, the post had racked up 2.3 million views. CEO Phong Le added his own endorsement, writing that the company's goal remains to "increase net Bitcoin and Bitcoin per share over time." The confirmation from two senior executives in one afternoon removed any ambiguity about the direction of travel.

 

The signal proved accurate. Strategy subsequently filed an 8-K confirming it had purchased 24,869 BTC for approximately $2.01 billion between May 11 and May 17, at an average price of $80,985 per coin. That brought total holdings to 843,738 BTC, funded in part through at-the-market sales of MSTR shares and proceeds from STRC preferred stock issuances.

 

 

The STRC Dividend Vote: A Harder Sell

The buy signal was the easy part. The proxy vote has been a different story.

 

Strategy wants to change how it pays dividends on STRC, its Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock. The proposal would move payments from monthly to twice monthly. The company argues the shift would reduce reinvestment lag, improve liquidity, and cut volatility in the stock's price. Saylor put it plainly in prior remarks: going semi-monthly would provide more entry and exit points for investors, and with only 176 companies in the entire market paying monthly dividends, Strategy would distinguish itself further by going even more frequent.

 

The challenge is getting retail investors to actually vote. Strategy says 80% of outstanding STRC shares are held by retail investors, not institutions. That is a problem because, according to a November 2024 research note from the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, retail holders have voted only around 29% of their shares across the last five proxy seasons. Institutional holders, by contrast, vote roughly 77% of their shares.

 

Ahead of the June 8 deadline, both Saylor's personal account and Strategy's official social media channels were actively nudging holders to submit their ballots. The company had already scheduled a live Q&A with Saylor and CEO Phong Le on May 20 in an effort to build awareness. Strategy also engaged proxy solicitor Alliance Advisors to help drive participation, though the firm had not disclosed a vote count as of Sunday.

 

Context: Financing, Volatility, and a Quarterly Loss

The dual push comes at a complicated moment for Strategy. The company reported a quarterly net loss of roughly $12.5 billion earlier in the year, a figure driven largely by unrealized BTC valuation swings rather than operational trouble. Still, the headline spooked some corners of the market and briefly renewed debate over the sustainability of the company's treasury model.

 

Adding to the noise, Strategy had on May 15 announced an agreement to repurchase approximately $1.5 billion of its 0% convertible senior notes due 2029. The filing noted that sources of funds for the repurchase could include cash reserves, securities-sale proceeds, and Bitcoin-sale proceeds. That last option rattled traders briefly, given that any hint of BTC liquidation from the world's largest corporate holder tends to move markets.

 

Options activity around MSTR reflected the heightened attention. Open interest in MSTR-linked options stood at $49.49 billion heading into the weekend, with implied volatility at 60% and historical 30-day volatility at 71%. For a company that is, at its core, a leveraged Bitcoin position wrapped in a corporate structure, those figures are not out of the ordinary. But they do underscore how closely the market tracks Saylor's every post.

 

What Comes Next

The STRC dividend vote wrapped June 8, with results to be disclosed by the company in the following days. Whether the proxy measure passed likely hinges on how many retail holders bothered to log in and click a button, a notoriously difficult outcome to engineer without institutional guardrails.

 

As for the Bitcoin buying, the confirmed $2 billion purchase puts Strategy's total cost basis at roughly $63.9 billion, with an average acquisition price of $75,700 per coin. At current levels, that implies a paper gain in the low billions, and a holdings base now equivalent to more than 4% of Bitcoin's fixed 21 million supply cap. For Saylor, the orange dots keep getting bigger. The question for everyone else is whether the strategy holds if the market really turns and we see much much lower prices.

 

For years, perpetual futures have been crypto's most traded instrument and almost none of that volume has touched U.S.-regulated infrastructure. Until now. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) formally approved KalshiEX to list BTCPERP, a no-expiry Bitcoin perpetual futures contract tied to spot BTC prices. On the same day, the agency's Market Participants Division issued a staff-level interpretation clearing Coinbase Financial Markets to route U.S. customers to certain derivatives on Deribit, its offshore affiliate. Two very different regulatory moves, made on the same morning, pointed at the same underlying problem: American traders have been effectively locked out of the largest segment of global crypto markets.

 

CFTC Chairman Mike Selig framed the Kalshi order as delivery on a specific commitment to onshore crypto perpetuals, describing the move as a path for one of the most liquid segments of the crypto asset markets to exist inside the U.S. regulatory framework. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong put a number to the problem his company says it is solving: until now, U.S. users have been locked out of roughly 80% of global crypto markets, which includes perpetual futures and options. Coinbase cited Deribit's more than $185 billion in July 2025 trading volume and approximately $60 billion in open interest at the time of acquisition to illustrate the scale of what domestic traders could not legally access through regulated channels.

 

What the CFTC Actually Approved

BTCPERP is a cash-settled contract referencing the U.S. dollar spot price of one Bitcoin, as tracked by the CF Benchmarks Bitcoin Real Time Index. It trades in units of one ten-thousandth of a BTC, runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and has no fixed expiry date.  Traditional futures converge toward their underlying asset at expiration because physical delivery or final cash settlement pulls the contract to spot. A perpetual has no such date, so the convergence mechanism operates continuously through periodic funding payments between long and short holders. If the contract trades above spot, longs pay shorts. If it trades below, shorts pay longs. The economic pressure keeps the perpetual price tracking Bitcoin in real time.

 

The CFTC's approval leans heavily on Bitcoin's specific market structure as its justification. The order notes Bitcoin's deep, active, and continuous spot trading across broadly distributed venues, with pricing observable around the clock. That depth is what makes the funding rate mechanism credible: arbitrageurs can act while the perpetual is live, since the underlying spot market never closes. The agency was explicit that this reasoning applies to Bitcoin and to similarly structured digital commodities with comparable market depth. Other assets will need to go through a separate review. Bitnomial had previously received certification for a product labeled a perpetual futures contract, but that contract carried a 25-year term limit and is considered a different structure. BTCPERP is the first true no-expiry perpetual to receive a Commission-level order.

 

Two Paths, Very Different Weight

The distinction between the Kalshi approval and the Coinbase staff letter matters more than it might look at first glance. Kalshi's BTCPERP is a Commission-issued order under Section 5c(c)(4) of the Commodity Exchange Act and Regulation 40.3. That is formal product approval, with binding legal weight and a clear compliance framework. Coinbase's route is different in kind. The Market Participants Division issued an interpretation and a no-action position in response to Coinbase Financial Markets. Staff confirmed that certain Deribit digital commodity derivatives may be categorized as foreign futures under Regulation 30.1, and said it would not recommend enforcement action under specified conditions tied to how customer digital assets and stablecoins are handled as margin through Coinbase affiliates.

 

Staff letters are conditional by design. The CFTC was clear: these positions represent the Market Participants Division only, are not binding on the Commission, and can be modified, suspended, or terminated. The Coinbase path is useful for reaching scale quickly because it connects U.S. clients directly to Deribit's existing liquidity pool, which is among the largest in global crypto derivatives. But it carries a thinner precedential footprint. Coinbase said institutional onboarding to Deribit options has already begun, with perpetual futures access and broader retail availability described as coming later, without a hard timeline. Retail access is expected to carry additional eligibility criteria and risk disclosure requirements.

 

The Liquidity Question Nobody Can Answer Yet

Regulatory clearance is the easy part. Getting traders to use a U.S. regulated perpetual when Binance, Bybit, and OKX offer the same exposure with deeper order books and, in most cases, higher leverage, is the actual test. Offshore exchanges process billions of dollars in Bitcoin perp volume on a slow day. The CFTC has been working toward this moment for over a year, issuing a formal request for comment in April 2025 on perpetual derivatives, their benefits, risks, market integrity implications, and customer protection questions. The approvals are, in that sense, the policy answer to the RFI. The market answer comes when Kalshi's BTCPERP goes live and traders decide whether regulated access at U.S. leverage limits is a compelling enough trade-off.

 

The CFTC's case-by-case stance on future perpetual approvals means the template is now set, but the runway is not yet cleared. Ethereum perps, Solana perps, and other digital assets with sufficient spot market depth could follow, but each application needs to clear the same review process independently. Kalshi separately indicated it plans to launch perpetual contracts on more than a dozen currencies pending additional regulatory reviews. CME's parallel push toward 24/7 crypto futures and options trading adds another dimension to the picture: traditional derivatives infrastructure is adapting to match crypto's always-on market structure, while crypto-native exchanges now have a formal path to operate inside U.S. regulatory boundaries. Whether the liquidity follows is a question of product quality, margin efficiency, and distribution reach, and none of that gets answered in an approval order.

 

The next signals are practical: Kalshi's launch terms and funding rate performance, Coinbase's timeline for rolling out perpetual futures through CFM, how retail access gets structured, and whether formal rulemaking eventually hardens the current agency posture into something more durable. For now, U.S.-regulated Bitcoin perps exist. Whether they can actually compete is the harder question, and the market will answer it faster than any regulator. It usually does.

 

Speaking at the 2026 Reagan National Economic Forum in Simi Valley, California, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow that the United States has seized roughly $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency from entities linked to Iran's military since conflict broke out in February. 

 

"We just outright grabbed the wallets," Bessent said. "Some of them may be typing in right now, and they might not have realized that their wallet had been grabbed."

 

Operation Economic Fury

The seizures Bessent referenced didn't happen overnight. They are the product of a campaign called Operation Economic Fury, a Treasury-led financial pressure initiative that kicked off around March 2025 under the Trump administration's direction. The goal, broadly, has been to cut off Iran's ability to move money internationally by targeting its revenue streams, weapons funding infrastructure, and sanctions evasion networks.

 

Before this campaign intensified, Iran had reportedly been routing $400 million to $500 million per month through crypto, primarily USDT on the Tron blockchain, to fund oil sales and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps operations.  It's a shadow banking pipeline built on a stablecoin that, for various reasons, became the preferred dollar substitute in sanctioned economies around the world.

 

The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control has since sanctioned more than 1,000 Iran-linked entities and wallet addresses. It has also gotten some notable help from the private sector.

 

Tether as a Sanctions Tool

On April 24, 2026, Tether froze $344 million in USDT across two Tron blockchain addresses tied to Iran's IRGC and the Central Bank of Iran. One wallet held approximately $213 million; the other, $131 million. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis had flagged the addresses based on on-chain patterns consistent with known Iranian military wallets, and the freeze was coordinated directly with U.S. law enforcement and updated OFAC designations published the same day.

 

USDT circulates heavily on Tron precisely because it became a preferred rail for cross-border transfers in regions where traditional dollar-based banking is unavailable or restricted. By working with Tether to freeze those wallets, the Treasury effectively turned the world's largest stablecoin into a live sanctions enforcement mechanism. That's a significant shift in how financial pressure campaigns work in the digital asset era.

 

The implications go beyond Iran. Tether's cooperation confirms, in practice, that USDT is not a neutral financial instrument. It is subject to the same policy levers as the dollar-based correspondent banking system it was often pitched as an alternative to.

 

Bitcoin, Hormuz, and the Limits of "Untraceable" Crypto

The IRGC's crypto ambitions have not been limited to stablecoins. In April, the Financial Times reported that Iran was planning to require oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz to pay transit fees in Bitcoin. An Iranian official quoted at the time said the fees "can't be traced or confiscated due to sanctions." That quote aged poorly.

 

This month, Iran's state-affiliated Fars news agency reported that the IRGC promoted a Bitcoin-settled maritime insurance platform called Hormuz Safe. The scheme is a direct response to the ongoing blockade of the waterway, through which roughly 20% of the world's oil flows. With oil revenues choked and the regime under mounting financial pressure, digital assets have become one of the few remaining channels to keep funds moving.

 

Bessent did not directly link the $1 billion in seizures to the Bitcoin toll scheme. He also did not confirm whether Bitcoin itself was among the seized assets. Those details remain unspecified. What he did confirm is that the campaign is ongoing, that the seizures are substantial, and that some of those holding the funds may still be unaware.

 

Legal Fallout and Frozen Funds

The frozen Tether tranche is already the subject of a legal battle. A group of American terrorism victims, families connected to a 1997 Hamas bombing in Jerusalem, filed a motion in Manhattan federal court in mid-May seeking to have the $344 million transferred directly to their attorneys. Their unpaid court judgments against Iran total more than $2.4 billion across multiple terrorism-related cases. The plaintiffs served restraining notices on Tether just three days after the original freeze.

 

It is a legally complex situation. Tether froze the wallets by blacklisting the addresses at the smart contract level. Whether those funds can be redirected to private plaintiffs rather than held by the government is an open question, and one that federal courts will likely spend considerable time untangling.

 

Where This Leaves Iran, and Crypto

Bessent's comments Friday came as negotiations over a potential ceasefire deal were apparently inching forward. Reports citing Axios indicated that negotiators had reached a preliminary agreement pending Trump's approval. Whether that changes the pace of seizures is unclear.

 

What is clear is that Iran's crypto holdings are larger than the seized amount. Estimates put total Iranian digital asset holdings at roughly $7.7 billion, with about half attributed to the IRGC. The billion seized so far is meaningful pressure but not a knockout blow.

 

For the broader crypto market, the episode lands as a reminder that the "permissionless" framing of digital assets has always had limits. When the asset is a dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by a centralized company, and that company cooperates with the U.S. Treasury, the network rails may be decentralized but the kill switch is not. That reality is going to shape how governments, firms, and bad actors all think about crypto infrastructure for years to come.

 

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster has signed a new pro-crypto bill into law that establishes a comprehensive regulatory framework for the use of cryptocurrencies.

 

The bill, known as Senate Bill S.163, was passed this week and creates a crypto-friendly environment for crypto use. According to the new law, individuals and businesses are no longer prohibited from accepting digital assets as payment or from using self-hosted or hardware wallets to store their crypto holdings.

 

By passing this pro-crypto law, the South Carolina government enhances the real-world utility of cryptocurrencies, especially in payment finance, and removes regulatory uncertainty associated with their use in commercial activities.

 

Since the newly enacted law exempts cryptocurrencies used for payment from any additional tax or government-imposed charges, it prevents merchants and businesses from discriminating against crypto transactions or against converting crypto into a tax-disadvantaged payment method. The result is that crypto moves further into the mainstream and its adoption increases.

 

The Anti-CBDC Portion of the Bill

Another important aspect of the newly enacted law is the anti-CBDC provision, which rejects the use of a government-controlled digital asset.

 

Under the new legislation, no state-level government parastatal, including agencies, boards, commissions, and departments, may accept or require payments in central bank digital currency (CBDC). The law also prevents these state-level entities from participating in any “digital asset” test conducted by the Federal Reserve.

 

The law also strongly supports crypto mining, prohibiting local governments from restricting mining in industrial zones or imposing any additional limits on mining companies beyond general noise pollution regulations.

 

South Carolina Becomes Latest Crypto-Friendly State

With these pro-crypto bills passed, South Carolina has joined other crypto-friendly states, such as Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Louisiana, and Arizona, that have enacted similar laws.

 

In March of last year, Kentucky passed a pro-crypto bill, HB 701, into law. Just like South Carolina's new laws, the law allowed users to hold and use digital assets in self-hosted wallets or hardware wallets. The law also exempted digital asset mining companies from the requirement to obtain a money transmitter license or comply with securities regulations before operating in the state.

 

 

President Donald Trump's campaign promise of a Stretegic Bitcoin Reserve just took another step to being a reality today. A new piece of legislation making its way through Washington aims to permanently anchor the United States government's bitcoin holdings inside federal law, and adds in a mandatory two-decade lockup attached.

 

Representative Nick Begich (R-AK), joined by Democratic co-lead Representative Jared Golden (ME), introduced the American Reserve Modernization Act of 2026 on Thursday. Known as ARMA, the bill arrived in Congress with 17 original co-sponsors spanning both parties, a fact that backers have been quick to point out, given how often digital asset legislation...well almost all legislation lately, seems to stalls along partisan lines.

 

A Tighter Legal Framework Than an Executive Order

ARMA is essentially a legislative upgrade to the strategic Bitcoin reserve President Donald Trump established through executive order back in March 2025. That order told federal agencies to hold their seized crypto and stop the "fire sale" liquidations that characterized the prior administration's approach. But executive orders can be reversed. Statutes are a lot harder to undo, and that difference is at the heart of why Begich and his co-sponsors pushed for the bill.

 

"Administrations have auctioned crypto off or held it in reserve, according to the whims of the executive branch," Golden said in a statement. Under ARMA, that kind of discretion would be gone. The stockpile would carry "the weight of law."

 

The 20-Year Hold and the 1 Million BTC Target

Under the bill, the Treasury Department would be authorized to acquire up to 200,000 BTC per year over five years, targeting a total reserve of 1 million bitcoin, or roughly 5% of the asset's fixed supply. All holdings, including the approximately 198,000 to 328,000 BTC the government already controls from years of criminal forfeitures, would be subject to a hard 20-year minimum holding period. During that window, no bitcoin could be sold, swapped, auctioned, or otherwise disposed of, with one very narrow exception: if doing so would help reduce the national debt.

 

The government's existing stash came primarily from high-profile seizures including the Silk Road takedown and the 2022 Bitfinex hack recovery, in which the DOJ clawed back 94,636 BTC. A White House official, Patrick Witt of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, acknowledged at a recent conference that managing those holdings has been messy. "We've heard stories and confirmed some of them of cold wallets that were being stored in drawers of desks in various agencies," he said. ARMA would consolidate all federally held digital assets under Treasury oversight and require proof-of-reserve reporting to bring transparency to what is currently a very scattered procedure.

 

Budget-Neutral by Design, But Skeptics Remain

The bill's drafters say new bitcoin purchases would be funded through Federal Reserve remittances and other budget-neutral financial mechanisms, sidestepping the politically charged question of whether taxpayer money would foot the bill. That type of framing was important for bipartisan appeal, and it seemed to work, for the most part. There will always be skeptics when it comes to this bug of a shift in tradition U.S. monetary policy. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent already threw cold water on agency-level purchases earlier this year, a signal that the White House and Congress may not be entirely aligned on the mechanics.

 

Begich drew a parallel to gold when defending the reserve concept to Fox Business. "When you look at gold, it is the dominant precious metal reserve," he said, making the case that bitcoin occupies an analogous role in the digital asset class. Strive CEO Matt Cole went further, calling ARMA "the single most important crypto legislation" that could emerge from Washington. A very dramatic statement, given the GENIUS and CLARITY Bills.

 

A Long Road Ahead

For all the bullish hype, ARMA is still just a bill. It needs committee action, alignment with a parallel Senate effort backed by Senator Cynthia Lummis, and floor votes in both chambers before it becomes law. The Senate Banking Committee recently passed the separate CLARITY Act with a 15-9 bipartisan vote, sending it to the Senate floor and setting a somewhat hopeful tone for crypto legislation broadly. We'll see whether that positive momentum carries over to a bill asking the federal government to buy and hold a trillion-dollar's worth of bitcoin for two decades.

 

At current prices, the U.S. already holds more than $25 billion in bitcoin, making it the largest national holder of the asset in the world. ARMA would formalize that position and potentially expand it dramatically. If Congress is ready to make this bet, in statute and for the long haul, is debatable. But even the discussion of doing something like this is extremely positive in my opinion.

 

Lawmakers in the lower house of the Polish parliament, the Sejm, have passed a bill implementing the European Union Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA), amid a probe into the collapse of Zondacrypto, the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

 

The passage of the bill marks a third attempt after the president vetoed earlier versions proposed by lawmakers. Following the latest parliamentary approval, the bill now awaits the president’s decision before it can become law.

 

The Polish government has until July 1, 2026, the end of the transitional period, to implement the MiCA framework. If the deadline is missed, virtual asset service providers risk having their licenses expire. Without valid authorization, crypto firms in Poland would no longer be permitted to provide crypto asset services to clients in Poland or across the European Union.

 

As a result, affected companies may be forced to shut down their operations in Poland or relocate to another EU member state in order to obtain a crypto asset service provider license, which is generally more costly and time-consuming. This requirement applies primarily to domestic crypto entities, while foreign crypto companies operating in Poland are expected to remain unaffected by this policy.

 

Zondacrypto Collapse

The passage of the bill adopting MiCA comes as Polish prosecutors have launched an investigation into the collapse of Zondacrypto, the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

 

Zondacrypto has halted withdrawals for thousands of users since December 2025, leaving many unable to access their funds. According to Polish authorities, about 30,000 users have been affected, with estimated losses exceeding 350 million zlotys ($95.93 million).

 

Amid Zondacrypto’s financial struggles and its admission that it lost access to a cold wallet holding about 4,500 BTC, allegedly linked to its former CEO, who has been missing since 2022, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has alleged that the exchange’s collapse is linked to fraud and its existing ties with Russian mafia groups.

 

According to Tusk, Zondacrypto’s success comes from “Russian money linked to the so-called Bratva Mafia group and Russian intelligence agencies.” Describing its roots as sinister, Tusk accused Zondacrypto of sponsoring right-wing opposition politicians. By advancing the bill supporting MiCA, Tusk aims to reduce the ease with which cryptocurrencies are used to finance sabotage activities in the country.

 

 

Strategy Inc. dropped a notable filing on Friday, announcing it has agreed to repurchase approximately $1.5 billion of its 0% Convertible Senior Notes due 2029 in a series of privately negotiated transactions with select noteholders. The buyback price comes in at roughly $1.38 billion in cash, meaning the company is retiring the debt at around 92 cents on the dollar. It is a discount, and that matters.

 

The notes in question were originally issued back in November 2024 with a $3 billion notional size and a 0% coupon rate. They carry a conversion price of $672.40 per share and mature December 2, 2029. With MSTR shares currently sitting around $183, that conversion price is a long way off. The decision to buy these back now, below face value, reflects what appears to be an active effort to tighten up the balance sheet while the opportunity exists.

 

Bitcoin Sales Back on the Table

Here is where it gets interesting. Strategy listed three possible funding sources for the repurchase: available cash reserves, proceeds from its at-the-market equity offering programs, and potentially the sale of bitcoin. That last part is drawing attention.

 

Executive Chairman Michael Saylor has long positioned the firm as a relentless accumulator of BTC, not a seller. At the Bitcoin 2026 conference, he stated that even if Strategy were to sell one bitcoin, it would be buying 10 to 20 more. That framing is still technically intact, but the formal inclusion of bitcoin sales as a stated funding mechanism in an SEC filing is a different kind of signal than a conference soundbite.

 

Strategy currently holds 818,869 BTC, acquired at a total cost of roughly $61.81 billion, or an average price around $75,537 per coin. At current prices near $80,400, the company is sitting on unrealized gains. Whether it actually taps those holdings remains to be seen, but the option is now formally on the table in a public document.

 

STRC Momentum and JPMorgan Projections Add Context

The announcement comes just one day after Strategy's Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock, known as STRC, hit a record single-day trading volume of $1.53 billion on Thursday. That beat the prior record of $1.1 billion set on April 13. Saylor flagged the milestone on X, calling it a sign of growing institutional confidence in the instrument.

 

The STRC instrument has become a key capital-raising tool for Strategy, helping fund a significant portion of its bitcoin accumulation over recent months. The company has added more than 101,000 BTC since March alone, with over 56,770 of those purchases occurring after April. JPMorgan analysts have projected Strategy's total bitcoin purchases for 2026 could reach $30 billion, citing the capital efficiency of its preferred equity programs.

 

Settlement Expected Around May 19

The final repurchase price is still subject to adjustment based on the volume-weighted average price of Strategy's Class A common stock over a designated measurement period, so the $1.38 billion figure could shift modestly before everything closes. Once settlement occurs, expected on or around May 19, the repurchased notes will be cancelled. That leaves approximately $1.5 billion of the 2029 notes still outstanding, implying the company held close to $3 billion in the instrument before this transaction.

 

MSTR shares were down roughly 2% in pre-market trading Friday, moving in line with a broader overnight dip in bitcoin. Analysts note that retiring the notes at a discount reduces future dilution risk, given the gap between the conversion price and current share levels, while also signaling that management is actively managing liabilities rather than simply letting them ride to maturity.

 

For a company that has built its entire identity around bitcoin accumulation, even the possibility of selling BTC to service debt is a nuance worth watching. Whether it stays hypothetical or not will likely depend on how bitcoin trades in the weeks ahead.

 

Charles Schwab, the United States based brokerage and banking firm, has launched Schwab Crypto, a spot crypto trading platform that provides direct access to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) trading, along with educational content and support from experienced professionals for users.

 

 

“We know our clients want to conduct more of their financial lives at Schwab. With Schwab Crypto, clients who want direct access to the asset class can trade it alongside their other investments, while benefiting from the service, education, and research they expect from us,” said Jonathan Craig, Head of Retail Investing at Charles Schwab.

 

The spot trading platform will provide direct trading in BTC and ETH, with more cryptocurrencies to be added in the future as the platform expands. Traders will also be able to view and trade both crypto and non crypto products across all of Schwab’s platforms, including its website, Schwab Mobile, its mobile app, and thinkorswim, its advanced trading platform, with 24/7 professional support available to traders.

 

Through Schwab Coaching, its educational program, Charles Schwab will provide in depth digital assets education and resources, including insights and commentary from the Schwab Center for Financial Research and crypto focused content, all aimed at helping investors understand the digital assets market and how digital assets fit into a broader investing strategy.

 

How Schwab Crypto Works 

Through Charles Schwab Premier Bank (CSPB), Schwab clients will be given a separate crypto account for the purpose of trading on Schwab Crypto, the retail trading platform. However, this account will remain linked to the clients main brokerage accounts, with CSPB serving as the primary custodian of all client digital assets.

 

Paxos, a leading blockchain infrastructure company regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, will be responsible for handling all trade execution and subcustody services.

 

Regarding Paxos’s role, Joe Vietri, Managing Director and Head of Digital Assets at Charles Schwab, said, “Paxos is a strong partner for blockchain infrastructure. Their regulatory standing and digital asset expertise will help us deliver the seamless, integrated experience our clients expect from Schwab.”

 

 

After months of gridlock and four hours of pointed debate, the Senate Banking Committee voted 15-9 to advance the Clarity Act, sending one of the most consequential pieces of financial legislation in recent memory toward a full Senate floor vote. Two Democrats joined all Republicans on the panel in support, a small but symbolically meaningful show of bipartisan backing that industry advocates say could prove decisive when the bill eventually needs 60 votes to pass the full chamber.

 

For the digital asset industry, the vote felt like a long time coming. The bill, formally titled the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025, has been kicking around Capitol Hill for well over a year. The fact that it cleared committee at all, given the partisan atmosphere that dominated much of Thursday's hearing, was seen by many in the space as a genuine win.

 

Rules of the Road, Finally

At its core, the Clarity Act tries to solve a problem that has dogged the crypto industry since its earliest days: nobody could quite agree on who was in charge. The SEC and the CFTC have spent years in an uneasy standoff over which agency has jurisdiction over which digital assets, leaving companies in legal limbo and pushing some development offshore. The bill would draw a cleaner line, classifying digital assets as either securities or commodities and assigning oversight accordingly.

 

The market responded before the committee even finished voting. Coinbase surged more than 8% on the session, as investors bet that regulatory clarity could finally unlock the broader institutional participation that has been sitting on the sidelines. Galaxy Digital climbed over 6%. Strategy, the largest corporate bitcoin holder, was up 7%. Bitcoin itself ground higher, hitting session highs near $81,500.

 

"For too long, regulatory uncertainty has sent talent, investment, and innovation overseas, strengthening foreign competitors while leaving American builders without the certainty they need to compete," said Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger, who called the committee vote a "defining moment." Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse was blunter: "If the largest economy in the world is going to lead on crypto, and it must, this is the moment."

 

Still Some Runway Ahead

Thursday's vote was a milestone, but it is not the finish line. The bill still needs to be reconciled with a separate version approved by the Senate Agriculture Committee, and the full Senate will require 60 votes to pass it, meaning a significant number of Democrats will have to come on board. The House passed its own version of the legislation last year, so the two chambers will also need to hammer out a unified text before anything heads to President Trump's desk.

 

The largest outstanding issue is an ethics provision intended to limit government officials, including the president, from profiting off crypto. Democrats have made clear they will not move forward without some version of it, while White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt has said the administration will not tolerate language targeting a specific officeholder. Both sides appeared at least open to finding common ground, with Cody Carbone of the Digital Chamber telling reporters that a deal on the ethics provision is likely a prerequisite for getting the bill to a floor vote at all. The window, several lawmakers noted, is probably August.

 

A Framework Built to Last

What makes the Clarity Act different from the patchwork of guidance and enforcement actions that have defined crypto policy for the past decade is its ambition. It does not try to pigeonhole digital assets into frameworks designed for equities or futures contracts decades ago. It builds something new, with defined registration pathways for digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers, as well as clear definitions covering blockchain applications, protocols, and smart contracts.

 

Ji Hun Kim, CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation, put it plainly after the vote: "Clear durable rules will help drive greater institutional and retail adoption, support innovation, create more high quality jobs in the U.S., protect Americans, and ensure that our country leads when it comes to digital assets policy and innovation."

 

The GENIUS Act, which passed the full Senate 68-30 last year, showed that comprehensive crypto legislation can attract broad support once the details are sorted. The Clarity Act is a harder lift, covering more ground and touching more competing interests. But Thursday's committee vote suggests the political will is there, and the industry is watching closely.

 

"Durable, lasting digital asset policy must be built on a bipartisan foundation," Mersinger added. By that measure, the Clarity Act is not finished yet. But for the first time in a long while, it looks like it might actually get there.

 

Why This Matters for the Future of Digital Assets

Let's be clear about all of this: Thursday was a great day for anyone who believes that digital assets have a meaningful role to play in the future of finance. I am certainly one of those. Not because the Clarity Act is perfect, and not because it's done, but because it signals something important that has been missing for years: the U.S. government is starting to treat this industry like it's here to stay.

 

The case for optimism goes beyond this single vote. The GENIUS Act passing 68-30 last year proved that stablecoin legislation could attract real bipartisan support. Institutional investment in Bitcoin ETFs has steadily matured. Major financial players who once dismissed crypto as a fringe asset are now building infrastructure around it. The underlying technology, particularly in DeFi and tokenization, keeps advancing regardless of what Washington does. What regulation does is create the conditions for all of that to compound. It clears the path for pension funds, endowments, and large asset managers who have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for legal certainty before committing serious capital.

 

That said, the Senate still has to close the deal, and that is not a given. The remaining sticking points on the ethics provision and law enforcement concerns are real, not just noise. Lawmakers like Senator Kirsten Gillibrand have been consistent that they will not deliver Democratic votes without meaningful conflict-of-interest guardrails, and that is a fair position. The 60-vote threshold means the bill needs to be genuinely bipartisan, not just technically so.

 

On timing, the realistic window is narrower than it might appear. Industry insiders, including Cody Carbone of the Digital Chamber, have pointed to August as a likely deadline if the bill is to move this year. Congress typically slows through the fall ahead of elections, and the legislative calendar fills up fast. That gives negotiators roughly ten to twelve weeks to reconcile the two committee versions, finalize the ethics language, and lock down the 60 votes needed for a floor vote. It is achievable, but it requires both parties to decide they want a deal more than they want a talking point.

 

If it does pass, the long-term impact will be substantial. Clear rules attract capital. Capital attracts builders. Builders create products that bring in users. That cycle, running inside a legitimate regulatory framework and anchored in the world's largest economy, is how digital assets stop being a niche and become infrastructure. You know...that "mass adoption" that people have been talking about for years? Well, this could be it. It might not look like how we all imagined, but what ever really does? Thursday was one huge step in that direction. The Senate now needs to finish what it started and we need to come together to make sure they all know that they need to do just that. Let's get it done.

 

The U.S. Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh as the next chair of the Federal Reserve on Wednesday, handing President Donald Trump a long-sought win and putting one of the most crypto-sympathetic figures in recent memory at the helm of the world's most powerful central bank.

 

The final tally was 54-45, and it wa a bit too close for comfort. In fact, it was the most partisan confirmation vote for a Fed chair in modern history, with only Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. John Fetterman crossing the aisle to support Warsh's nomination. The near party-line split underscores just how politically charged the Federal Reserve has become under Trump, who spent much of the past year publicly haranguing outgoing Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting rates fast enough.

 

A Confirmation That Almost Wasn't

Getting Warsh to this point was a rocky path. The nomination process stretched over months, at one point stalling entirely when Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) refused to let the confirmation advance until the Justice Department dropped a criminal investigation into Powell. That probe, led by DC U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, centered on alleged cost overruns at the Fed's Washington headquarters. A federal judge had ruled the investigation was essentially a pretext to pressure Powell into cutting rates or resigning.

 

The DOJ eventually closed the probe, clearing the path for Warsh. Though Pirro left the door open to reopening the case if the Fed's inspector general turns up evidence of wrongdoing. For now, the drama is over, and Warsh has his confirmation.

 

What Warsh Means for Crypto

Warsh isn't exactly a crypto maximalist. He has, at times, referred to certain digital asset projects as fraudulent or worthless. But his disclosed investments tell a deeper story. Earlier this year it emerged he holds positions in Polymarket, the decentralized prediction market, and Solana. He has also stated that Bitcoin "does not make me nervous," a phrase that might seem understated but represents a meaningful shift from the posture of most previous Fed leadership.

 

During his Senate confirmation hearing in April, Warsh told Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) that digital assets are "already part of the fabric of our financial services industry" and affirmed he believes they should be incorporated into America's broader financial ecosystem. That was enough for Lummis, one of the most vocal pro-crypto voices in Congress, who said after the vote that digital asset holders "finally have a leader at the Fed who is ready to deliver."

 

The CFTC's chairman Mike Selig, who has defended prediction markets against a string of state-level lawsuits this year, also welcomed the Warsh confirmation, saying he looked forward to working together. That kind of interagency alignment on digital assets would represent a notable departure from the fragmented, sometimes hostile regulatory environment crypto has dealt with in recent years.

 

Juan Leon, a senior investment strategist at Bitwise, put the significance plainly: "Kevin Warsh is the first Fed Chair to endorse Bitcoin and describe it as a useful signal for policymakers, reflecting a shift in institutional legitimacy for crypto. While he's known as an inflation hawk, his stated belief that rates can move lower as a result of AI-driven productivity gains provides a plausible path to more accommodative liquidity conditions for crypto assets."

 

Rate Cuts: Don't Hold Your Breath

Here's where things get complicated. Trump has made no secret of what he expects from Warsh, having reportedly joked earlier this year that he'd sue him if rates don't come down. But market expectations have shifted sharply, and not in the president's favor.

 

Fresh inflation data released Tuesday showed consumer prices rose 3.85% in the 12 months through April, the highest reading since May 2023 and well above the Fed's 2% target. Traders are pricing in essentially no rate cuts for the rest of the year; some are even calling for a hike, largely because energy prices have climbed sharply following escalating tensions in the Middle East that have snarled tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.

 

Warsh himself has signaled some openness to easing, particularly if AI-driven productivity gains help cool inflation over time. But he's also a known inflation hawk from his first stint at the Fed between 2006 and 2011, when he was among those who felt post-crisis quantitative easing had gone too far. It's not entirely clear which Warsh shows up to that first FOMC meeting on June 16-17.

 

And it's worth noting: Warsh is just one of 12 votes on the Federal Open Market Committee. Even as chair, he doesn't have unilateral authority over rate decisions. Powell, for his part, will remain on the Fed's Board of Governors after Friday, when his term as chair expires, retaining his FOMC vote. It's an unusual arrangement, last seen nearly 80 years ago, and Powell has been explicit about his motivations: he wants to protect the institution from what he has described as "unprecedented" legal and political pressure.

 

A New Era, With a Lot of Asterisks

Warsh also takes the helm at a Fed dealing with serious internal turbulence. Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook is locked in a legal fight with the president, who is trying to remove her on allegations of mortgage fraud, a case now making its way toward the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Warsh will have to divest significant holdings, as he's set to become the wealthiest Fed chair on record, with a portfolio well north of $100 million.

 

Bitcoin barely reacted to the confirmation news, trading around $79,500 in the hours following the Senate vote, according to CoinGecko. But the longer-term implications could be meaningful. Whether or not rate cuts materialize, Warsh's ascent signals a growing institutional acceptance of digital assets at the highest levels of American financial policy. For a sector that has spent years fighting for legitimacy, that's not nothing.

 

Nakamoto, a Bitcoin treasury company listed on the Nasdaq, recently announced the details of its Bitcoin derivatives program, a program designed to generate recurring volatility income from a defined portion of Nakamoto’s Bitcoin holdings while hedging some portion of the company’s downside exposure to Bitcoin price risk.

 

While the Bitcoin derivatives program had already begun in the first quarter of the year, Nakamoto will be partnering with Bitwise Asset Management and the crypto exchange Kraken, with Bitwise running the derivatives strategy and Kraken offering its custody solution that will hold a portion of Nakamoto’s Bitcoin holdings that will be used for the derivatives program.

 

The derivatives program, according to Nakamoto, is aimed at achieving two main objectives: (1) monetizing Bitcoin volatility and (2) mitigating downside risk.

 

By systematically writing covered calls and call spreads against a portion of its Bitcoin holdings, Nakamoto’s Bitcoin derivatives program aims to convert the volatility in the Bitcoin options market into recurring income, which the company says can be reinvested into its Bitcoin treasury or used for its everyday operational costs.

 

The program also aims to mitigate downside risk due to a decline in the Bitcoin price by maintaining a defined allocation of Nakamoto’s Bitcoin holdings to protective puts and put spreads, supporting the stability of Nakamoto’s net asset value and reducing the risk of forced deleveraging, especially during stressed market conditions.

 

"Bitcoin's implied volatility is one of the most persistently mispriced assets in capital markets," said Tyler Evans, chief investment officer of Nakamoto and UTXO Management.

 

"Working with institutional grade partners like Bitwise and Kraken, we have built a disciplined framework to harvest that premium systematically, at scale, and convert that opportunity into long term value for shareholders. This program is just one component of a broader effort to identify and execute on opportunities to generate yield on our Bitcoin holdings."

 

Nakamoto as a Bitcoin Treasury Company

Nakamoto Inc is a publicly traded company that operates a Bitcoin treasury strategy as its core business. The company currently holds approximately 5,342 BTC on its balance sheet, valued at roughly $467.5 million.

 

It made its first major Bitcoin purchase in August 2025 when it purchased 5,743.91 BTC worth approximately $679 million through its subsidiary Nakamoto Holdings. However, it recently sold 284 BTC for $20 million last month, with the proceeds used to support its working capital and fund its business operations.

 

 

Something may have shifted in the Bitcoin market. After months of grinding sideways action and periodic dips that had retail investors questioning their convictions, a handful of closely watched indicators are quietly aligning in the same direction, and it's not bearish.

 

Glassnode's proprietary Risk Index, which quantifies systemic market risk on a scale of 0 to 100, has dropped to zero. That's the floor. The firm's Moderate Strategy tracker has simultaneously flipped from "Moderate" to "High Confidence" for the first time since October 10, a combination analysts at the on-chain data firm are calling a "cleared risk landscape." The last time these two signals aligned, Bitcoin was on the cusp of a significant leg higher.

 

"This is an excellent window for strategic accumulation rather than chasing deeper dips," said Lacie Zhang, research analyst at Bitget Wallet. Zhang added the firm holds "a strong conviction for a positive close to 2026," pointing to improving market structure and mounting institutional confidence as the two pillars that could drive Bitcoin to a fresh all-time high before year-end.

 

 

 

Institutions Are Loading Up, Quietly

While retail sentiment has been mixed at best, institutional players appear to have decided the discount is too good to ignore. Strategy, Michael Saylor's Bitcoin-focused firm, made its largest BTC purchase since late 2024 in April, acquiring 34,164 coins for roughly $2.54 billion at an average price near $74,395. That brings the firm's total stash to over 815,000 BTC, a figure that continues to tighten long-term supply in ways that matter.

 

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have also recorded five consecutive days of net inflows, with BlackRock's IBIT leading the charge at $256 million in a single session. Cumulative net inflows have now eclipsed $57.98 billion. For a market that spent much of Q1 2026 dealing with outflows and persistent selling pressure, that's a meaningful reversal. Exchange balances are declining, on-chain data shows addresses holding more than 1,000 BTC have grown by roughly 3.2% month-over-month, and stablecoin supply sitting on the sidelines has been creeping higher. The classic setup, in other words.

 

Sentiment Thaws as Geopolitical Clouds Part

It's not just the on-chain picture that's improving. The macro backdrop has started to cooperate too, at least at the margins. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index has climbed from "extreme fear" at the start of April to simply "fear," which doesn't sound like much but actually represents a significant thaw in how traders are feeling. Bitcoin briefly touched $79,388 on Wednesday, its highest print in over three months. It is currently sitting just below that around $78,300 at time of writing.

 

Separately, CryptoQuant's Bull Score Index, which blends ten different on-chain metrics, has climbed to a neutral reading of 50 for the first time since Bitcoin was trading above $126,000. Reaching neutral from a structurally bearish position is, in CryptoQuant's framework, confirmation that the bear market may have ended. The bounce from near $60,000 to current levels is, by that measure, something more than a dead-cat rally.

 

Easing tensions in the Middle East are helping too. "As the US-Iran conflict subsides, bullish bets will continue to propel the market upward in the near term," said Jeff Mei, COO at crypto exchange BTSE. Prediction markets appear to agree, with users on one popular platform assigning a 74% probability that Bitcoin extends its rally to $84,000 in the near term.

 

The Path to $80K and Beyond

Analysts are cautiously optimistic about what comes next. A clean break and hold above $80,000 would serve as both a technical and psychological trigger, opening up the road toward $90,000 and ultimately a retest of all-time highs. The technical structure supports it, with Bitcoin forming higher lows through the April consolidation and the MACD histogram beginning to flatten from negative territory.

 

Longer-term forecasts remain ambitious. Standard Chartered carries a $100,000 year-end target, while Bernstein has maintained $150,000, arguing that spot ETFs, corporate treasury adoption, and structured capital products have changed the underlying market structure in ways that make cycle drawdowns shallower and recoveries faster. JPMorgan's volatility-adjusted Bitcoin-to-gold framework puts implied fair value even higher, somewhere north of $170,000.

 

Momentum from Bitcoin’s recent rally could spill into the altcoin market, which could see gains of as much as 60% if Bitcoin continues to rise, according to a crypto analyst.

 

“I think this leg has enough room to continue to $86K, and altcoins to run 30-60% from here,” MN Trading Capital founder Michael van de Poppe said on Thursday. A move to that $86K price would only be a 9% increase.

 

The Risks Haven't Gone Away

That said, nobody credible is calling this a certainty, certainly not this guy...who has been in the space long enough to know that NO ONE has a crystal ball. Glassnode's own data shows 54% of recent buyers are currently sitting in profit, and short-term holders' realized profit has spiked to $4.4 million, three times the $1.5 million level that marked every local top so far in 2026. Those numbers suggest the market is not without vulnerability, particularly in the absence of a fresh demand catalyst.

 

A flare-up in Middle East hostilities, any disruption to oil flows that sparks renewed inflation, and the broader uncertainty around Federal Reserve policy. The potential CLARITY Act, Fed rate cuts, and a lasting geopolitical resolution remain the three catalysts most often cited by analysts as what the market needs to convincingly clear $80,000 and hold.

 

For now, the risk landscape has cleared at the indicator level. Whether the price follows is the only question that matters.