Strategy sells 3,588 Bitcoin for $216M to fund dividends

Michael Saylor’s Strategy sold 3,588 Bitcoin (BTC) to fund preferred stock dividend payments and replenish its cash reserves.

Strategy sold the Bitcoin for $216 million, reducing its total holdings to 843,775 Bitcoin, according to a Monday 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

This included 1,363 Bitcoin sold at an average price of $59,256 between last Monday and Tuesday, and 2,225 Bitcoin sold at an average price of $60,773 between Wednesday and Sunday.

Strategy disclosed the sale of 32 Bitcoin in early June, as its first reported Bitcoin sale since the 2022 tax-loss transaction.

Before Strategy disclosed its latest Bitcoin sale, Bernstein said the company was unlikely to be forced to sell its holdings, citing its liquidity position and cash reserve coverage.

Bernstein’s report said Strategy had 17 months of cash to cover dividend obligations and interest payments. It added that the company remained a net buyer of Bitcoin and served as a strong “balancing force” in a market where leading US Bitcoin miners are net sellers due to their pivot to AI.

Donald Trump says ‘nothing wrong’ with $1.4B crypto windfall while in office

US President Donald Trump has responded to criticism of his 2025 financial disclosures, showing that he earned $1.4 billion in income from crypto-related ventures while in office.

In a Thursday interview with CNBC’s Joe Kernen, Trump said that there was “nothing illegal” and “nothing wrong” with profiting from his crypto investments as president. He claimed that other people were responsible for his investments and he didn’t “even know who they are,” not directly answering questions about perceived conflicts of interest as president.

Trump’s comments followed the release of his 2025 financial disclosure report by the US Office of Government Ethics, showing that he took in more than $2 billion from his businesses and investments, about $1.4 billion of which was connected to crypto projects like his memecoin and family’s platform World Liberty Financial. Many advocacy organizations have characterized the investments as a “grift” allowing the president to influence related legislation like the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act.

Trump disclosed that his memecoin generated about $636 million, World Liberty sales about $588 million and $197 million from equity in a stablecoin venture.

US senator calls for ban on elected officials issuing memecoins

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, one of the US lawmakers behind negotiations for a digital asset market structure bill in Congress, has proposed barring elected officials and the president from issuing or sponsoring their own tokens, citing President Donald Trump’s and First Lady Melania Trump’s memecoins.

In a Friday notice, Gillibrand said that Congress should support measures barring elected officials and their spouses from “issuing or sponsoring their own digital assets.” The New York lawmaker said that the proposed restriction would include any US president and their spouse, but did not specifically mention extending the provision to the office of the vice president or other members of their families. 

“This is a commonsense requirement that should get broad bipartisan support – public officials and their spouses should not be issuing memecoins,” said Gillibrand. “We cannot let self-dealing destroy an opportunity to strengthen consumer protections, crack down on illicit finance, and expand economic opportunity for the millions of Americans our financial system has left behind.”

Vitalik Buterin shares top priorities for new ‘Lean Ethereum’ strawmap

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has named quantum resistance, scalability and privacy as three of Ethereum’s top priorities under a new “Lean Ethereum” strawmap, which lays out the network’s technical direction for the remainder of the decade. 

In a post to X on Saturday, Buterin said the collection of upgrades will roll out over the next three to four years, touching nearly every layer of Ethereum in a transformation he compared in scale to the September 2022 Merge, which shifted the network away from energy-intensive mining. 

“Quantum safety has shifted up a LOT in priority,” he said, adding that finalizing a quantum-safe solution for blobs has “become urgent.” Enhancing privacy is another priority, Buterin said, stating that it has become a “first class goal.”

Dankrad Feist, a former Ethereum Foundation researcher behind the payments-focused layer-1 Tempo blockchain, praised the new plan but argued the 3-4 year timeline is too slow, stating that AI could help developers ship the upgrades within a year. 

Financial companies join forces for US dollar stablecoin, keeping reserve earnings

More than 140 companies have reportedly signed onto a US dollar-pegged stablecoin project that allows them to “receive all of the earnings” from its reserves.

In a Tuesday notice, Open Standard said it was launching the Open USD (OUSD) stablecoin, a US dollar-pegged coin supported by financial companies including Visa and Mastercard, as well as crypto companies Coinbase, Ripple, OKX and Bybit. The project will allow businesses to mint OUSD “at no cost and with no artificial limits on volume,” and keep earnings from the coin’s reserves.

“When Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, Coinbase and Google coordinate on a new stablecoin, the signal is unmistakable,” said Rhino.fi co-founder and CEO Will Harborne. “Open USD is the first launch with a real chance to win share from USDT and USDC, because reserve revenue flows back to everyone who holds it. But that same incentive is what drives fragmentation at scale.”

As the week continued, some of the signatories denied making any firm commitments to the consortium.

Winners and losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $64,039, Ether (ETH) at $1798, and XRP (XRP) is at $1.14. The total market cap is at $2.12 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin winners of the week are MemeCore (M) at 105%, Lighter (LIT) at 39%, and ether.fi (ETHFI) at 29%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Venice Token (VVV) at -13%, Stable (STABLE) at -10% and Audiera (BEAT) at -5%.

Top Prediction of the Week

Bollinger Bands creator eyes Bitcoin bear-market end, ‘W’-shaped reversal

John Bollinger, creator of the Bollinger Bands volatility indicator, believes he has spied a “W”-shaped double bottom on BTC/USD on the charts.

“$BTC has seen a series of bullish patterns broken, evidence of the power of the downtrend,” he commented in X posts on Friday.

 “Will this ‘W’ be the one that breaks the trend?”

“W”-shaped reversals involve two swing lows with a rejected rebound in between, with price ultimately breaking through that rejection level to form a new uptrend.

Bollinger has been bullish on BTC for some time. In early May, he revealed a new long position via his Bitcoin investment vehicle.

As Cointelegraph reported, an increasing number of price indicators are flashing signals not seen since the last bear market in 2022. Despite this, market participants broadly believe that the next macro bottom is still to come and is due in Q3 or later.

Top FUD of the week

Tim Draper says Arkham got Bitcoin wallet attribution ‘wrong’

Billionaire investor and longtime Bitcoin bull Tim Draper said blockchain analytics company Arkham incorrectly linked him to a wallet involved in a large Bitcoin transfer to Coinbase Prime.

“It just wasn’t me. I haven’t touched it. Arkham has it wrong,” Draper told Cointelegraph, adding that he still expects Bitcoin to reach $250,000 within one year.

The statement came after blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain reported Friday that a wallet “possibly linked” to Draper had transferred 1,000 Bitcoin worth about $62 million to Coinbase Prime, citing data from Arkham.

Draper is best known in the crypto community as one of Bitcoin’s earliest high-profile investors, having won a US Marshals Service auction for nearly 30,000 Bitcoin seized by US authorities from Silk Road-related holdings in 2014. The holdings are now worth $1.9 billion, meaning Draper selling could have a big impact on Bitcoin’s.

Bitcoin profit and loss ratio falls to 43-month low

Bitcoin’s realized profit and loss ratio has fallen to a 43-month low of -0.35, a figure that signals extreme market-wide loss conditions but has historically coincided with market bottoms, blockchain analytics platform CryptoQuant said.

The Bitcoin realized P&L ratio — which measures the net percentage of Bitcoin (BTC) in profit or loss relative to total supply — hasn’t fallen this low since December 2022, shortly after FTX shockingly collapsed and sent Bitcoin below $16,000.

“Historically the indicator has marked BTC bottoms with extreme precision,” CryptoQuant said on Thursday. In 2015 and 2019, the Bitcoin realized P&L ratio also fell below -0.35 before price rallies followed. 

The data could lift market sentiment, which has repeatedly fallen to near-record lows during the course of Bitcoin’s latest 50% drawdown from $126,080, set in October. Market sentiment has risen cautiously over the last 10 days, with Bitcoin up more than 7% since tanking to a near two-year low of $58,190 on June 25.

Upbit says it only expressed interest in future OUSD participation

South Korean crypto exchange Upbit said it is not participating in the issuance of Open USD, after its operator Dunamu was named among more than 140 businesses involved in the new stablecoin initiative. 

“Upbit has only indicated our potential willingness to consider taking part in the future expansion of the OpenStandard ecosystem,” an Upbit spokesperson told Cointelegraph. 

The clarification follows similar pushback from Samsung Electronics and other South Korean companies listed by Open Standard. 

According to a Friday report by ChosunBiz, Samsung said it had not held formal discussions with the project and did not know what role it was expected to perform. Meanwhile, Shinhan Financial Group and KBank reportedly said they had only indicated that they would consider the initiative. 

Cointelegraph reached out to Open Standard for comments but did not receive a response before publication. 

Top Cointelegraph Features of the Week

The biggest blockchain upgrades still to come in 2026

From Ethereum’s Glamsterdam and Solana’s Alpenglow, to proposed post quantum security changes for Bitcoin, 2026’s key crypto upgrades are some of the most significant in years.

Has Strategy’s capital overhaul put an end to ‘death spiral’ fears?

Has Strategy’s new capital overhaul defused the fears swirling around STRC, or has it simply bought more time before the next bout of stress?

From Bitcoin critics to blockchain believers: The 5 biggest crypto backflips

From crypto hater Nouriel Roubini launching the Technodollar to Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff putting out tokenized gold, meet the skeptics who are now cashing in on crypto.

The DAO behind the Bonk (BONK) memecoin says an unknown actor drained $20 million in tokens from its Solana treasury, claiming the theft was carried out via what it describes as a “malicious governance proposal.” BonkDAO says it has contacted law enforcement and is working to recover the funds and determine who is responsible.

On Monday, the Bonk project posted on X that it reported the incident to authorities after the attack, which it says resulted in the transfer of $20 million worth of BONK tokens from the DAO’s treasury. The project did not identify the attacker, but framed the event as an abuse of its governance process rather than a simple compromise of its wallet or infrastructure.

Key takeaways

• BonkDAO claims $20 million in BONK tokens were removed from its Solana treasury through a “malicious governance proposal.”
• The project says it has informed law enforcement and is pursuing a fund-recovery effort while investigating the responsible party.
• BONK’s price reportedly fell about 7% over 24 hours following the reports, while broader memecoin market capitalization has been volatile.
• The incident echoes other recent memecoin-related compromises where attackers exploited on-chain mechanics around liquidity or governance.

What BonkDAO alleges happened

According to Bonk’s announcement on X, the DAO’s treasury on Solana was drained by an entity the project says it cannot yet identify. BonkDAO specifically points to a governance proposal that it characterizes as malicious, suggesting that the attacker used the protocol’s decision-making mechanics to move funds.

The project stated that the parties involved drained $20 million in tokens from the BonkDAO treasury. As part of its response, Bonk said it has already contacted law enforcement, and it is focused on two immediate goals: recovering funds and identifying those behind the proposal.

While the company’s exact internal controls and the timing of the proposal were not detailed in the post, the core claim—that the theft route involved governance—matters for token holders because governance systems are typically designed to be resilient to single points of failure. If a malicious proposal can pass or execute successfully, it raises questions about how proposals are validated, how voting authority is distributed, and what safeguards exist against fraudulent or coercive actions.

Market reaction and broader memecoin fragility

The reporting of the attack coincided with weakness in the BONK market. The article notes BONK was down roughly 7% over 24 hours and trading around $0.05 at the time of publication.

That move occurred during a period when memecoins broadly have struggled. The market capitalization of major memecoins—including Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and Pepe (PEPE)—hit a reported two-year low last week, falling to roughly $22 billion before recovering to more than $26 billion in July. Based on CoinMarketCap data, total memecoin market capitalization stood at about $25.3 billion at the time of publication, down more than 54% compared with the prior 12 months.

For investors, incidents like this tend to amplify existing concerns about risk management and operational security across the memecoin sector. Even where the affected token is not the only one linked to memecoin sentiment, governance-driven treasury drains can quickly affect confidence in how safely community-controlled funds are managed.

Security pattern: governance and liquidity attacks

BonkDAO’s framing aligns with a wider pattern seen in the memecoin ecosystem, where attackers have targeted the mechanisms that make token economies function—especially liquidity and permissions.

Earlier coverage cited in the article described how the memecoin launch platform DxSale reported losing $7.3 million in tokens after a cyberattack connected to liquidity providers on the BNB Chain. In that case, sleuths were said to have identified the attacker’s wallet, but an expert also warned that tracing can be complicated by the infrastructure used to move stolen funds.

Taken together, these episodes highlight a recurring asymmetry: even when analysts can identify wallets or link activity on-chain, recovering assets may remain difficult if funds are transferred rapidly across multiple addresses or through tools that obscure the trail. BonkDAO’s statement that it is working to recover funds suggests the project expects the process to be complex, potentially involving coordination with exchanges, chain analysis efforts, and legal processes.

Related pressure on memecoin investors

The article also points to reporting about losses among holders of Official Trump (TRUMP), a memecoin associated with U.S. President Donald Trump. The New York Times, the article says, reported that about 1 million investors holding TRUMP had collectively lost $3.8 million as of June 30, citing data from blockchain analytics provider Nansen.

While that report focused on performance and holder outcomes rather than theft, it underscores a key reality for memecoin participants: the sector can deliver sharp drawdowns quickly. When governance incidents and broader volatility overlap, traders and long-term holders alike may face heightened uncertainty, especially around treasury actions, token distribution, and the transparency of risk controls.

Readers should watch next for whether BonkDAO can publish additional technical details about the governance proposal—such as the voting pathway, approval mechanism, and the steps taken to prevent similar actions—as well as for any updates from law enforcement or chain-monitoring efforts tied to the stolen funds. Until the investigation clarifies how the malicious proposal succeeded and whether any assets can be recovered, the incident remains a reminder that memecoin “community control” still depends heavily on robust smart-contract and governance safeguards.

Solana price has held above key technical support even after slipping 1.7%, while U.S.-listed spot Solana ETFs have continued attracting fresh inflows as Bitcoin and Ethereum funds recorded weekly withdrawals.

After climbing more than 15% last week, Solana (SOL) price met selling pressure near the $80 level, where traders again defended resistance amid the broader market pullback. Even after the recent recovery, the token remains about 73% below its all-time high of $294.33 reached on Jan. 19, 2025.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin fell 1.65% during the same period, dragging the total cryptocurrency market capitalization down 1.47% to $2.14 trillion.

ETF demand has stayed positive despite market weakness

Fund flow data showed Solana diverging from the two largest cryptocurrencies during the latest reporting period. Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows of $527 million between June 29 and July 2, extending their losing streak to eight consecutive weeks. Spot Ethereum ETFs also registered net outflows totaling $13.67 million.

By contrast, U.S.-listed spot Solana ETFs attracted $5.75 million in net inflows over the same period. The inflows indicated that investors continued adding exposure despite weakness across the wider digital asset market.

Capital also moved into several other altcoin investment products. XRP ETFs recorded $17.19 million in net inflows, while HYPE ETFs added another $4.32 million during the week.

Away from fund flows, on-chain activity continued to strengthen. According to SolanaFloor, Solana ranked second in global spot crypto trading volume for the second consecutive week, processing $12.25 billion across centralized and decentralized exchanges. That total remained ahead of Bybit’s $10.57 billion, although Binance retained the top position among exchanges during the reporting period.

SolanaFloor also reported that weekly non-vote transactions surpassed one billion for the first time. Unlike validator voting activity, non-vote transactions represent actual network usage generated by users, decentralized applications, and traders. The sharp rise at the beginning of July points to heavier activity across the ecosystem.

Technical structure still favors buyers above key support

Network participation has accelerated alongside the recovery. According to Artemis data, Solana’s weekly active addresses climbed from 16.8 million to 29.7 million in just two weeks, an increase of roughly 12.9 million wallets, or about 76.8%. The rebound followed slower activity during June as users returned to decentralized applications across the network.

Separate ecosystem rankings also kept Solana at the top of several blockchain activity metrics. The network led all Layer 1 and Layer 2 chains in both 24-hour and seven-day decentralized application revenue while also recording the highest decentralized exchange trading volume over those periods. Polygon, Ethereum, Base, BNB Chain and Hyperliquid followed behind across the tracked categories.

Price action continues to support the improving network data. On the daily chart, Solana remains above its 20-day, 50-day and 100-day moving averages, while the MACD indicator is still in bullish territory despite momentum easing after last week’s rally.

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On the 4-hour chart, the Supertrend indicator continues to hold below price near $78.30, and Chaikin Money Flow has stayed slightly above zero, indicating modest buying pressure.

The latest consolidation has left immediate resistance around the recent high near $84, while the Supertrend level near $78 and the Fibonacci support around $76 remain the first areas buyers may need to defend if selling pressure returns. Together with steady ETF inflows and rising network activity, those technical levels suggest Solana’s recovery remains intact unless those support zones give way.

Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.

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Key Takeaways

• Rivian manufactured 12,613 vehicles and handed over 12,194 units in Q2 2026, surpassing its projection of 9,000–11,000 deliveries
• Full-year 2026 delivery expectations were increased to 65,000–70,000 vehicles from the previous 62,000–67,000 range
• Shares of RIVN climbed approximately 6% following the announcement, building on the prior week’s 10.2% increase
• Investment firm Baird maintained its Outperform rating with a $23 price objective, suggesting about 23% potential upside
• The quarterly performance benefited from EDV commercial van sales, R1 vehicle lineup, and initial R2 model shipments

Rivian (RIVN) is currently changing hands at $19.76, climbing roughly 6% on Monday, building momentum from the previous week’s 10.2% surge after the electric vehicle manufacturer reported quarterly delivery figures that substantially exceeded its own projections.

Rivian Automotive, Inc., RIVN

The automaker manufactured 12,613 units and completed deliveries of 12,194 vehicles throughout the three-month period concluded June 30. These numbers significantly outpaced Rivian’s internal projections of 9,000 to 11,000 deliveries.

Year-over-year delivery volume expanded by nearly 14%. The outperformance stemmed from robust demand for its electric commercial vans and R1 product line, combined with the commencement of R2 shipments — a development investors have been eagerly anticipating.

In response to these results, Rivian elevated its full-year 2026 delivery projections to a range of 65,000 to 70,000 vehicles. This represents an increase from the previous bracket of 62,000 to 67,000 — marking a 3,000-vehicle boost at the median point.

This represents an unusual positive development for a company whose public market history has been characterized more by missed projections than exceeded expectations.

Wall Street Analysts Express Support

Baird confirmed its Outperform rating and maintained its $23.00 price objective after reviewing the delivery data. With current trading levels between $18.63 and $19.76, this target suggests potential appreciation of approximately 23%.

Canaccord and Needham similarly reaffirmed Buy ratings, contributing to the favorable analyst sentiment surrounding the stock this week.

Baird’s projection had represented the most optimistic forecast among Wall Street firms, and Rivian’s actual delivery number fell marginally short of it — though still exceeded the broader consensus. The firm adjusted its financial model to incorporate the Q2 results while maintaining its rating.

One concern analysts highlighted: Rivian’s gross profit margin currently stands at merely 1%, which continues to represent a significant challenge despite improving production volumes.

R2 Introduction Provides Growth Narrative

The second quarter represented the beginning of R2 deliveries. Although volumes remain modest, production acceleration is anticipated throughout the latter half of 2026.

The R2 represents a more compact, affordably-priced vehicle targeting a wider consumer audience compared to the R1 trucks and SUVs. Rivian has characterized it as the product capable of achieving meaningful production scale.

Commercial van shipments through the EDV initiative also bolstered quarterly performance. This business segment has demonstrated consistent results, despite receiving less market attention than the consumer vehicle division.

Visible Alpha analysts forecast Rivian will achieve 63,138 total vehicle deliveries for the complete year — modestly under the midpoint of the revised guidance range, indicating some Wall Street observers maintain cautious expectations regarding production acceleration.

Looking Ahead

Rivian plans to release complete Q2 2026 financial results on July 30, following market closure. A live audio presentation is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. ET to discuss operational performance and forward outlook.

RIVN has gained 1.8% year-to-date but remains 12% beneath its 52-week peak of $22.45, established in December 2025.

Key Takeaways

• MRNA reached a 52-week peak of $81.42, representing a 169.2% annual increase
• Six-month performance shows a remarkable 124% climb
• InvestingPro identifies the stock as trading above its Fair Value calculation
• Wall Street analysts hold an average “Reduce” stance with a $37.13 mean target
• Corporate insiders have offloaded 125,088 shares totaling more than $6.1 million over 90 days

Moderna shares peaked at $81.42 on July 6, establishing a fresh 52-week record and continuing what has become one of biotech’s most dramatic rallies this year. Trading hovered around $81.51 shortly thereafter, pushing the company’s market capitalization to approximately $32.2 billion.

Moderna, Inc., MRNA

The 52-week floor stands at $22.28. This positions MRNA with more than a triple-digit gain from its nadir — specifically, a 169.2% total return over twelve months.

The half-year climb alone registers at 124%, fueled partly by revitalized enthusiasm for Moderna’s mRNA technology and multiple developmental announcements.

During its Science Day presentation, Moderna disclosed that mRNA-6007, its in vivo CAR-T initiative, is advancing into preliminary development targeting autoimmune conditions, particularly systemic lupus erythematosus and related B cell-driven disorders.

Regulatory developments also contributed momentum. An FDA advisory panel delivered a unanimous endorsement for Moderna’s experimental seasonal influenza vaccine, mRNA-1010, for the 50-and-over demographic — representing a significant validation for the company’s expanding portfolio.

Options market participants responded actively. Contract volume reached 121,257, with substantial interest concentrated in the June 18, 2026 $65 call option.

Wall Street Remains Unconvinced

Notwithstanding the share price momentum, the analyst consensus tells a starkly different story. Moderna holds an aggregate rating of “Reduce” with a consensus price objective of merely $37.13 — representing less than 50% of current trading levels.

Goldman Sachs elevated its projection from $43 to $49 while maintaining a “neutral” stance. Bank of America adjusted upward from $32 to $34 but preserved an “underperform” rating. Barclays increased from $25 to $48 with “equal weight.” Both Jefferies and UBS maintained “hold” recommendations.

Among analysts tracking MRNA, two assign it a Buy rating, eleven suggest Hold, and five recommend Sell.

InvestingPro analytics position the equity among the platform’s most overextended securities when measured against its Fair Value assessment.

Corporate Leadership Reduces Positions

While institutional investors have been accumulating shares, company insiders have been liquidating positions. Board member Abbas Hussain divested 5,682 shares at $46.63 on May 1, trimming his holdings by 32%. Board member Noubar Afeyan sold 9,263 shares at $46.84 on May 21, decreasing his position by 70.24%.

Cumulatively, corporate insiders have liquidated 125,088 shares valued at more than $6.1 million during the previous 90-day period. Insider ownership currently represents 10.80% of outstanding shares.

Regarding institutional activity, the trend appears more constructive. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System established a fresh position of 17,700 shares valued at approximately $899,000 during Q1. AQR Capital, NewEdge Advisors, and American Century Companies similarly expanded their holdings. Institutional ownership now accounts for 75.33% of MRNA.

The company’s latest quarterly disclosure, published May 1, revealed Q1 revenue of $389 million — representing a 260.2% year-over-year expansion and significantly exceeding the $236.37 million analyst estimate. Earnings per share registered at -$3.40, falling short of the consensus forecast of -$3.02. The stock’s 50-day moving average currently sits at $53.50, while its 200-day average rests at $48.22.

In 2025, OpenAI raised funding at a $300 billion valuation. That number didn’t come from a single product launch or a breakthrough sitting in a lab somewhere. It came from usage, hundreds of millions of people opening ChatGPT every day, asking it questions, writing code with it, drafting emails through it, editing documents, building entire workflows around it, for years on end. That accumulated usage is the actual asset behind the valuation. It’s what proved the product worked at scale, what justified the pricing, and what ultimately convinced investors the company was worth funding at that number. 

However, none of the people who generated that usage own any part of what it built. They paid a subscription, used the product, and walked away with nothing beyond the product itself. Stargate LLM is built around a different premise: that the people generating a platform’s usage should have a way to benefit from the value that usage creates, not just the company running it.

Where the $300 Billion Actually Came From

This isn’t a criticism of OpenAI’s business model so much as a description of how it works, and how every major AI platform’s valuation works. A company’s worth is built on engagement, retention, and the size of its active user base. ChatGPT’s usage numbers are the reason a $300 billion valuation was possible at all. Anthropic followed a similar trajectory, crossing $30 billion in annualized revenue in April 2026, again driven by daily usage from people using Claude for work, research, and everyday tasks.

The structure is consistent across the industry: users generate the data, the engagement, and the subscription revenue that make these companies valuable. The equity upside from that value sits with venture capital firms and early investors. The people doing the actual using never had an ownership stake to begin with, so there’s nothing for them to be paid out from.

Why This Structure Exists

This isn’t unique to AI. It’s how venture-backed software has worked for two decades. Google’s search engine ran on free usage from billions of people while a small group of early backers and employees became billionaires. The pattern repeats because private companies aren’t required to offer public equity, and by the time an IPO happens, if it happens at all, the earliest and steepest growth has usually already occurred. The users who built the company’s value in the meantime were never in a position to hold any of it.

AI has simply made this pattern more visible, because the scale is bigger and the growth is faster. A $300 billion valuation built substantially on usage is a bigger number than most historical examples, which is part of why it’s drawing more attention now than the same dynamic did with earlier tech platforms.

What Stargate LLM Does Differently

Stargate LLM is built around a different assumption: that usage itself should generate a return for the person doing the using, not just for the company running the platform. The mechanism for this is Proof of Usage, one of the largest allocations in Stargate’s tokenomics, with 50% of the total 150 billion coin supply, 75 billion Stargate coins, set aside specifically to reward users for real platform activity: conversational AI queries, image and video generation, referrals, staking, and structured feedback that improves the models.

This is a structural difference, not a marketing claim. The Stargate coin is required for core platform functions, subscriptions, credits, premium model access, which means usage and coin demand are directly connected from day one. Staking in the Stargate Vault adds a second layer: locked coins earn rewards drawn from platform revenue and the usage rewards pool, with governance votes determining how a portion of that revenue gets distributed to stakers over time. It means that the people generating the platform’s usage have a mechanism to benefit from that usage that ChatGPT and Claude’s user bases simply don’t have.

Stargate’s presale is where early access to this model is currently priced. It runs across ten escalating batches, from $0.0005 up to $0.0125, building toward a $0.025 launch price target, with Batch 1 entering at a 50x ratio to that target. Of the fixed 150 billion coin supply, 96% is allocated to community, ecosystem, and presale participants, with just 1% going to the core team, a deliberate contrast to the ownership concentration typical of venture-backed AI companies.

The Bottom Line

OpenAI’s $300 billion valuation and Anthropic’s $30 billion in revenue are both real, and both were built substantially on usage from people who hold no stake in either outcome. That’s not a flaw specific to those two companies; it’s how the current AI industry is structured almost everywhere, from Google to SpaceX to every major venture-backed platform before them. Stargate LLM’s bet is that a meaningful share of AI’s next phase of growth can be built differently, with usage rewarded directly rather than only benefiting the platform running it. The mechanism for that already exists in the tokenomics: Proof of Usage rewards, Vault staking, and governance-directed revenue distributions, all tied to the same coin users are already spending on the platform. The presale is where that structure starts, open to anyone with a wallet, not just the investors who got there first.

Explore Stargate LLM:

Website: Stargate.org

Buy: own.Stargate.com

Telegram: https://t.me/StargatellmOfficial

Twitter/X: https://x.com/Stargatellm

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