The monetization program also authorizes Strategy to sell bitcoin to finance up to $1 billion of Digital Credit Securities repurchases and up to $1 billion of Class A common stock buybacks. Any bitcoin monetization beyond these authorized purposes would require additional board approval. The repurchase programs have no expiration date.

The monetization program is part of a broader capital allocation strategy that also includes increasing the dividend on Strategy’s preferred stock STRC to 12%, from 11.5%, adopting a formal USD Reserve policy, and requiring sufficient cash reserves to cover at least 12 months of preferred stock dividends and interest obligations.

Michael Saylor, Founder and Executive Chairman of Strategy said, “At the same time, Digital Credit requires liquidity, discipline, and active capital management. This framework is designed to strengthen credit quality and enable the Company to reduce expected preferred stock dividend payments when accretive. This framework also sets out how we plan to use our capital management toolkit while maintaining our commitment to long-term Bitcoin exposure.”

MSTR shares are up 3% following the announcement, while bitcoin trades below $60,000.

Bitcoin infrastructure company Breez has added a feature to its developer toolkit that lets users send USDC (USDC) and USDt (USDT) across more than 30 blockchain networks directly from a Bitcoin balance, without first converting or holding stablecoins.

According to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, the feature uses the Lightning Network alongside automated conversion to route payments from Bitcoin (BTC) to USDC or USDT before delivering funds to the recipient’s preferred blockchain.

When a user enters a recipient’s wallet address, the Breez SDK identifies the destination blockchain, calculates a conversion route and displays the amount, network and fees before the payment is confirmed. The transaction is then routed through liquidity providers, including Flashnet and Boltz, which convert the sender’s Bitcoin into stablecoins and deliver it on the recipient’s chosen blockchain.

Roy Sheinfeld, CEO of Breez, told Cointelegraph the feature does not require USDT or USDC to be issued on the Lightning Network. Instead, it relies on “interoperability” to let users spend from a Bitcoin balance while recipients receive stablecoins on supported blockchain networks.

Breez said users continue holding Bitcoin until they initiate a payment, while recipients receive stablecoins on their preferred blockchain without requiring the sender to manage separate stablecoin balances. The feature is non-custodial and initially supports only outbound stablecoin payments, with support for receiving stablecoins from external blockchain networks planned for a future release.

The feature is designed to allow developers to add stablecoin payments without integrating multiple blockchain networks or requiring users to manage separate Bitcoin and stablecoin balances.

Related: Credit unions managing $25B in assets join stablecoin infrastructure program

Bitcoin payment infrastructure expands

The launch comes as companies expand Bitcoin and the Lightning Network, a layer-2 payment network designed to make Bitcoin transactions faster and less expensive, into new financial and commercial applications.

In February, Secure Digital Markets, an institutional trading and lending desk, completed a $1 million Bitcoin payment to Kraken over the Lightning Network in less than half a second, demonstrating the protocol’s potential for high-value institutional transfers. The transaction illustrated how Lightning is increasingly being tested for use cases beyond small retail payments.

That same month, Bitcoin infrastructure company Voltage introduced a US dollar-settled revolving credit line that embeds business credit into Lightning payment flows, allowing companies to settle repayments in either US dollars or Bitcoin. The product is intended to enable businesses to access working capital using Lightning for payments, without holding crypto on their balance sheets.

Event platform Satlantis also launched a Bitcoin-native ticketing platform with embedded Lightning wallets, allowing organizers to sell tickets and accept BTC alongside traditional payment methods.

In March, Tether-backed Bitcoin infrastructure startup Ark Labs in a $5.2 million funding round to develop technology supporting stablecoin issuance, transfers and settlement on Bitcoin.

Lightning adoption has continued to grow. A February report from River estimated the network surpassed $1 billion in monthly transaction volume in late 2025, up from around $12 million in 2021.

Lightning Network transaction volumes continue to grow. Source: River

Magazine: Bitcoin decouples from tech stocks, Ether eyes ‘selling wave’: Market Moves

Strategy is adopting a new capital framework that allows it to monetize part of its Bitcoin holdings to fund dividends, build cash reserves and repurchase securities while maintaining its long-term Bitcoin strategy.

In a Monday 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Strategy introduced its “Digital Credit Capital Framework,” which includes a Bitcoin monetization program and changes to its STRC preferred stock dividend policy.

The company has raised the STRC annual dividend rate to 12% from 11.5% and authorized separate buyback programs for preferred securities and its Class A MSTR common stock. Strategy said it may sell Bitcoin (BTC) to raise as much as $1.25 billion to increase its cash reserve, pay dividends and debt costs, as well as fund stock buybacks.

The filing comes amid a volatile stretch that has seen the value of MSTR shares slide almost 50% year-to-date while the price of STRC on Friday dropped as low as $71.25, a 28.75% discount to par, according to TradingView data. Grayscale’s research head Zach Pandl last week said Strategy should sell $3 billion in Bitcoin to cover its cash obligations.

Ahead of Monday’s Nasdaq open, investors had bid up MSTR share price more than 5.5%.

Strategy boosts cash reserve to $2.55 billion

A key part of the new framework is the company’s cash reserve, which it said has grown to $2.55 billion, or enough to cover about 17 months of preferred stock dividends and interest payments.

Under the new policy, the reserve can only be used for those payments and must be maintained at a minimum of 12 months unless the board approves otherwise.

Source: Michael Saylor

Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor said the existing cash reserve, combined with the $1.25 billion Bitcoin monetization capacity, gives Strategy up to $3.8 billion in dividend coverage, or nearly 26 months.

Related: Grayscale’s Pandl says Strategy should sell $3B Bitcoin to restore confidence

“Strategy expects to remain disciplined in its use of MSTR issuance, particularly when the stock trades at or near 1x mNAV,” Saylor added.

No Bitcoin purchases as Strategy raises $1.15 billion

The biggest public Bitcoin treasury company also reported that it did not acquire any BTC during the week ended Sunday, leaving its holdings unchanged at 847,363 BTC purchased for a combined $64.1 billion, at an average of $75,651 apiece. At last look, traders were paying about $60,018 to buy the token.

The company has added a net 3,625 BTC so far in June after buying 3,657 BTC and selling 32 BTC earlier in the month.

Source: SEC

At the same time, the company disclosed raising around $1.15 billion in net proceeds by selling 12.67 million MSTR shares.

Magazine: Bitcoin slides to $58K, XRP hits $1 but onchain data promising: Market Moves

The road from believing “crypto is a scam” to “Bitcoin is a legitimate asset class” is a long way to travel, fraught with many a twist and turn.

Yet against all the odds, a surprising number of high-profile skeptics have undertaken the journey unscathed and, perhaps more remarkably, without ever admitting they were wrong.

The very naysayers who once warned of a “crypto apocalypse” have begun preaching the virtues of blockchain rails and launching tokenized products of their own.

From Bitcoin exchange-traded funds to tokenized gold, here are five of the biggest crypto backflips.

Born-again crypto converts

Larry Fink: ‘Index of money laundering’ to ETF king

Larry Fink may be the archetypal born-again crypto convert. In 2017, the BlackRock chief executive cast Bitcoin as an “index of money laundering,” nicely capturing mainstream finance’s view at the time of a market they believed was dominated by wild speculation and dubious flows.

As a side note: people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. While money laundering in crypto was estimated at $82 billion in 2025, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that roughly $800 billion to $2 trillion is laundered the old fashioned way each year.

Related: BlackRock Bitcoin ETF sees near-record outflows as BTC dips below $75K

It’s not entirely clear why Fink decided to recalibrate but by 2020 he started acknowledging its potential, in 2023 he was actively defending BlackRock’s crypto push, and today BlackRock has become one of the most important institutional access points to Bitcoin via spot ETFs, helping pull the asset into the heart of the regulated investment universe.

In his annual shareholder letters, Fink now waxes lyrical about tokenization and writes impassioned OpEds about how it is set to transform the financial system.

Reluctant but will make money anyway

Jamie Dimon: still hates Bitcoin, loves the rails

If Fink is a born-again believer, Jamie Dimon sits squarely in the reluctant and still skeptical camp.

The JPMorgan chief has called Bitcoin a “fraud,” crypto investors “stupid,” and warned that BTC will blow up on more than one occasion, not to mention using Congressional hearings as a platform to reiterate his distaste for the asset.

But watch what he does, not what he says as JPMorgan has quietly become one of Wall Street’s biggest blockchain infrastructure providers.

The world’s largest bank has built out its Onyx division, rolled out JPM Coin, experimented with linking bank infrastructure to crypto wallets, and developed tokenized collateral platforms to move cash and securities around more efficiently.

Oh sure, Dimon still trashes Bitcoin in public, but JPMorgan now sells many of the rails that make institutional digital asset markets viable.

Peter Schiff: gold forever, but now onchain

Peter Schiff hasn’t softened his rhetoric as prices and adoption grow. If anything, each Bitcoin rally only amplifies his warnings about bubbles, “greater fools,” and inevitable collapse. It’s a highly effective form of advertising for Schiff’s beloved gold industry.

Peter Schiff’s infamous “greater fools” comment. Source: Peter Schiff

Yet even the perpetual goldbug has edged into the digital asset world by launching a tokenized gold platform, T-Gold.com, in December 2025, that uses blockchain to represent vaulted bullion as transferable tokens.

The product lets users buy physical gold and silver stored in segregated vaults and receive digital tokens representing specific quantities of the metals, with ownership recorded on a blockchain.

Related: Tucker Carlson presses Peter Schiff on Bitcoin as new global reserve currency

For Schiff, this is not apostasy but reinforcement: a way to tell crypto-native investors “you can keep the rails, but swap the asset for something with thousands of years of monetary history instead.”

Nouriel Roubini: Technodollars, not Bitcoin

Nouriel Roubini, once known in crypto circles as “Dr. Doom,” might seem like an unlikely candidate for any kind of crypto conversion.

He has spent years describing most digital assets as “useless,” warning of a “crypto apocalypse,” and cataloguing the sector’s governance failures, conflicts of interest, and investor harm.

Yet this week, he published a whitepaper co-authored with Atlas Capital and announced USAFi, a tokenized instrument marketed as a regulated permissionless security, designed to embody what he calls the “Technodollar.”

USAFi whitepaper. Source: Atlas AI Labs

Roubini insists this is “not a reversal,” telling Cointelegraph he “remains skeptical of unbacked crypto assets whose value depends primarily on speculation rather than fundamentals.”

The Technodollar, he argued, is about “modernizing the financial system through regulated, asset-backed digital instruments that can be trusted by institutions and individuals alike.”

He added that he still believes most crypto assets “suffer from excessive speculation, weak governance, conflicts of interest, and insufficient investor protections.”

Don’t understand it, but happy to cash in

Donald Trump: vibes over whitepapers

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Donald Trump belongs in a category of his own. The same politician who once said Bitcoin “seems like a scam” and warned that it could undermine dollar hegemony later rebranded himself as the “crypto president.”

Trump has flirted with nonfungible token drops, launched his own meme coin and one for his wife, and pitched himself as the defender of domestic crypto innovation against overreaching regulators (all while reportedly pocketing over $2.3 billion from his various crypto endeavors since 2024).

Trump promised to end Joe Biden’s war on crypto. Source: Vivek Ramaswamy

He may not be able to tell you the difference between proof-of-work and proof-of-stake, but he does understand his constituencies.

Related: Trump crypto company’s USD1 stablecoins backing UFC event bonuses

The crypto industry has matured into an important voting bloc, and its donors are increasingly strategic. What matters is the ability to read a room full of HODLers and say the right words about freedom, innovation, and firing Gary Gensler.

What changed: faith, incentives, or both?

Born-again converts like Fink have reframed crypto and tokenization as extensions of their existing mission, encouraged by clear demand and the opportunity to graft new fee streams onto enormous asset management franchises.

The reluctant skeptics, on the other hand, have tried to draw bright lines between “bad crypto” and “good digital finance,” and the opportunists, well, they’ve learned that even a shallow embrace of digital assets can unlock both support and riches.

Of course, whether these moves represent genuine intellectual evolution or a simple instinct to follow the money remains to be seen. But perhaps the bigger question is: which crypto skeptic will be the next to see the light? Is it too much to hope that Warren Buffett will review his famed opinion about Bitcoin that it is “rat poison squared?”

Magazine: Bitcoin will not hit $1M by 2030, says veteran trader Peter Brandt

The rapid consolidation of the prediction market technology stack is raising the odds of a new wave of mergers and acquisitions across sports betting and financial markets, according to Wall Street broker Bernstein.

Over the past eight months, every major consumer-facing prediction platform has moved to own both customer distribution and exchange infrastructure, the report said.

“Kalshi and Polymarket own the stack but trail on distribution, which leaves each as plausibly a target as an acquirer,” analysts led by Ian Moore said in the Monday report.

The analysts noted that DraftKings acquired Railbird to launch its DKeX exchange, Robinhood partnered with Susquehanna to build Rothera, Coinbase acquired The Clearing Company shortly after launching event contracts, and Flutter established a dual-FCM structure to preserve access to multiple exchanges.

The trend reflects Bernstein’s view that prediction markets are converging with sports betting and consumer finance into a single competitive landscape, opening the door to combinations that previously seemed unlikely, including sportsbooks buying exchanges, exchanges buying sportsbooks, and consolidation among sportsbook operators themselves.

Institutional interest in digital assets continues to accelerate, and this September the industry’s key decision-makers will gather in Barcelona for the 12th European Blockchain Convention (EBC12).

Taking place on September 16–17, 2026, EBC12 will host 6,000+ attendees, 300+ speakers, and participants from more than 70 countries, creating one of Europe’s largest meeting points for blockchain, digital finance, and institutional crypto.

As an official media partner, we’re happy to share an exclusive 15% ticket discount. Register using the promo code SLR_15.

The Marketplace for Europe’s Digital Asset Economy

Rather than simply being another blockchain conference, EBC12 positions itself as the place where Europe’s fragmented digital asset ecosystem comes together.

Banks, asset managers, venture capital firms, exchanges, custody providers, blockchain protocols, fintech companies, regulators, and institutional investors will meet to discuss the next stage of market development.

The conference comes at a pivotal moment following regulatory progress across Europe, increasing institutional participation, and growing adoption of tokenized financial products.

Key Themes for 2026

EBC12’s program explores the issues that matter most to institutional participants, including:

• Market infrastructure for institutional adoption
• Tokenization of real-world assets
• Stablecoin ecosystems and payment innovation
• MiCA and global regulatory developments
• AI-powered financial services
• Investment strategies for digital assets
• Cross-border market collaboration

The speaker lineup includes representatives from organizations such as BlackRock, Cardano, WisdomTree, Bitwise, Baillie Gifford, Zodia Custody, Hilbert Capital, Midchains, Caisse des Dépôts, and many more.

Why Attend?

Europe remains one of the world’s most dynamic digital asset markets, but opportunities are spread across multiple jurisdictions.

EBC12 creates a single venue where investors, institutions, entrepreneurs, and policymakers can build partnerships, explore investment opportunities, and stay ahead of industry developments.

Whether you’re raising capital, expanding internationally, or looking for strategic partners, Barcelona becomes the industry’s meeting point this September.

Secure your ticket today and receive 15% off with promo code SLR_15.

Learn more: https://eblockchainconvention.com/european-blockchain-convention-12/

Tickets: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/europeanblockchainconvention/1927550

Censorship of crypto assets has become so popular that a new dashboard is tallying the number of times companies have frozen tokens.

According to new tracker, stables.rip, two companies have frozen 3.7 billion stablecoins.

Although BTC as good as created the crypto industry as a protest against trusted intermediaries, stablecoins are more than twice as popular as BTC by trading volume.

By this measure, trusted intermediaries still maintain a majority share of power over most crypto transactions.

Despite crypto users being vaguely aware of these censorship practices as something nebulous, few could quantify its precise scope. This new tracker has helped turn an abstract reality into a specific quantity.

Alex Gladstein at the Human Rights Foundation pushed the headline into social media’s timeline on Friday, calling it a “Good reminder that while stables have utility they are not freedom money.” 

Matt Odell remarked, “Two billion frozen in two years. Wild.” 

Another widely shared comment contrasted stablecoin censorship with censorship-resistant BTC.

More crypto censorship than ever

The numbers behind the outrage are real.

Over the past six years, two stablecoin issuers have frozen approximately 3.7 billion coins on the Ethereum and Tron blockchains, censoring the power of those coins’ keyholders from moving them on-chain. 

Worse, the trend has accelerated substantially. Of that six-year total, 2.8 billion tokens, or 75%, froze within the past two years.

Although the number and value of coins is known, it’s impossible to determine how many transactions were unilaterally prevented.

The two most popular stablecoins, for example, trade over $40 trillion annually in on- and off-chain trades against other assets, according to CoinMarketCap.

Tether and Circle, the respective issuers of USDT and USDC, maintain privileged administrative control over their own smart contracts. 

At any time, they may add any wallet to a blacklist, forcing the tokens sitting in that wallet to stop moving until they lift the freeze.

Tether even goes a step further with a function named destroyBlackFunds, which lets it burn tokens outright.

Indeed, in 2025 alone, it incinerated $698 million of the $1.26 billion it froze that year.

Many other stablecoins, including the Trump family’s USD1, have similar powers to remotely freeze tokens.