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Strategy is paying credit card rates to keep STRC at $100

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Strategy is paying credit card rates to keep STRC at $100

At a certain point, Strategy investors might start asking themselves what the difference is between STRC and just buying bitcoin (BTC) on a credit card.

Michael Saylor has called STRC his company’s “greatest feat of financial engineering to date,” but its costs keep getting worse. Indeed, its dividend obligations have increased 27% since July, worsening every month since issuance.

Saylor is sticking to the belief that BTC will somehow rally 30% a year for at least a decade to pay for everything, even though the last year it appreciated that much was 2021. Fixated on that number as an imaginary cushion, Saylor has casually hiked STRC’s monthly interest rates toward something that looks more like paying off a credit card than responsibly raising capital for long-term investing.

STRC is a perpetual dividend-paying preferred stock and the company’s self-proclaimed “iPhone moment.”

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When the company sells STRC to investors, it funds BTC purchases for Strategy in exchange for monthly dividend payments at an interest rate about 60% the rate of the average US credit card.

On average, US consumers pay about 18.7% to 19.6% APR to service their credit card balance, depending on the poll. Strategy now pays STRC holders 11.5%, or about 60% of that rate, just to keep STRC near its quasi-peg or “par” value of $100 per share.

When STRC launched last July, it offered generous 9% annual dividends, and Saylor’s dubious promise of bank account-like stability.

After STRC fell to $90.52 in November, and again to $93.10 in February, Saylor paid up to guarantee his “iPhone moment” wouldn’t flop.

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Incredibly, Strategy has hiked STRC’s dividend seven times since launch.

Read more: Strategy manager wrong about BTC backing STRC

‘Low volatility’ needed a bailout from volatility

Strategy’s cumulative 250 basis point increase since launch has worked, at least temporarily. The rapid and dramatic dividend hikes have bailed out STRC from its downside volatility.

This week, Saylor boasted about STRC trading in a tight intraday range near $100. He then retweeted a Strategy employee calling STRC “the most creative financial instrument in today’s capital markets.”

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On the back end, that creativity carries a price tag. Strategy’s total annual dividend obligations now exceed $900 million.

Moreover, the company is under considerable pressure. It’s reported a $12.4 billion net loss for Q4 2025 and its common stock, MSTR, has declined 8% year-to-date, 54% over the past 12 months, and 74% from its November 2024 high.

Worse, the company’s entire BTC-buying operation has lost money since inception. BTC is worth less than Strategy’s average purchase cost of $75,985 per coin, and the company would have fewer losses if it had never bought BTC in the first place.

Moreover, the company’s premium to its BTC holdings has collapsed entirely.

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At 11.5% and rising, the question is probably not whether STRC can trade at its $100 par, but how much Strategy can afford to pay to keep it trading there.

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Crypto World

BTC in deep bear market, could crash by another 30%, investment firm says

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BTC in deep bear market, could crash by another 30%, investment firm says

Bitcoin is firmly in the deepest phase of the bear market and the pain may worsen, according to CK Zheng, founder of crypto investment firm ZX Squared Capital.

“Bitcoin’s price is convincingly in deep bear market territory now. We expect a further 30% price drop during 2026 as the Iran war started,” Zheng told CoinDesk in an email, citing the “four-year cycle” as one of the key catalysts.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency has already nearly halved since hitting a record high of over $126,000 in October last year, according to CoinDesk data. As of writing, it changed hands at around $68,000.

The four-year bitcoin cycle

Crypto investors often talk about the “four-year cycle” – a pattern in which prices surge, crash, and then recover, centred on the quadrennial mining reward halving.

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The halving, most recently implemented in April 2024, is a programmed event that halves bitcoin’s supply expansion rate every 4 years. As of today, 3.125 BTC are emitted as rewards for each block mined on the Bitcoin network, down from the original 50 BTC at launch after four halving events to date.

Historically, bitcoin’s price has tended to peak about 16–18 months after a halving, followed by a bear market that typically lasts about a year.

BTC topping out in October last year, roughly 18 months after the April 2024 halving, means the cycle is playing out again. So, the bear market could deepen in the near term.

Zheng said that the cycle is proving very difficult to break. According to him, the reason is simple: human psychology.

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“The “Four-year crypto cycle” momentum is gaining strength and is extremely difficult to break due to individual investors’ psychological behaviors,” Zheng said.

Individual investors tend to behave in predictable ways — buying during hype and selling during panic. That behavior reinforces the boom-and-bust four-year pattern that has defined crypto markets for more than a decade.

Because of this, Zheng said bitcoin still trades more like a speculative asset than a safe haven like gold.

He added that the institutional adoption of bitcoin remains very slow and limited in scope at this stage and warned that some firms that have purchased bitcoin as a treasury asset may be forced to sell, leading to a deeper price sell-off.

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“The total size of crypto ETFs and Digital Asset Treasury companies is only around 10% of the whole crypto market. Some Digital Asset Treasury firms may be forced to sell cryptos to meet certain debt servicing requirements during this bear market, which may create a vicious cycle,” Zheng said.

For now, Zheng’s outlook is clear: crypto’s bear market may have further to run before the next cycle begins.

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Is XRP at Risk of Falling Below $1?

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XRP Exchange Netflow


“Our long-term target is $0.9000,” one analyst stated.

Ripple’s XRP has registered a minor uptick over the past week, coinciding with the broader cryptocurrency market’s revival.

However, some analysts believe its price may decline sharply in the near future and even fall below the psychological $1 level.

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New Pullback Ahead?

Earlier this week, XRP tried to reclaim the $1.50 mark but failed and now trades at around $1.39 (per CoinGecko’s data). The asset’s market capitalization stands at approximately $85 billion, making it the fourth-biggest cryptocurrency, trailing behind BTC, ETH, and USDT.

One person who has been closely monitoring its performance is the X user TradingShot. In their view, XRP has been moving within a downward channel throughout its entire bear cycle, which, according to the chart, began in July 2025 – shortly after the price reached its all-time high of over $3.65.

TradingShot noted that the severe decline in February this year hit the previous target on the 1W MA200, suggesting the asset’s next potential pullback may lead to a further drop to the 1M MA100 support, set at under $0.90.

“This level is critical as it formed the June 2022 bottom of the previous Bear Cycle. Our long-term Target is $0.9000,” the X user concluded.

X user WealthManager also presented a bearish forecast. They believe XRP looks “very dangerous” right now, warning that a “huge drop could be imminent.”

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Meanwhile, the prominent Bitcoin educator and advocate Adam Livingston spoke sharply against Ripple’s native cryptocurrency. He said he would rather have $100,000 in FTX customer refund claims than $100,000 in XRP.

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“At least SBF might send a heartfelt apology from prison before he dies of old age,” Livingston added.

The Bullish Scenario

Despite the pessimistic views some express toward XRP, many indicators suggest its price may head north soon. Numerous market observers pointed out that large investors have purchased almost 4.2 billion tokens (worth a whopping $5.7 billion at current rates) since the October 10 crash.

This development reduces the amount of XRP tokens available on the open market, and economic principles dictate that the valuation should rise if demand doesn’t diminish. Moreover, this shows that whales are confident in the asset and view lower prices as an opportunity, a signal that could encourage smaller players to follow suit.

XRP’s exchange netflow is next on the list. Over the past several weeks, outflows have consistently exceeded inflows, indicating that investors are moving their holdings off centralized platforms and into self-custody. This shift reduces the amount of coins immediately available for sale, easing short-term selling pressure.

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XRP Exchange NetflowXRP Exchange Netflow
XRP Exchange Netflow, Source: CoinGlass

The asset’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) is also worth mentioning. It has fallen to around 30 on a weekly scale, marking oversold territory that can sometimes be a precursor to a rally. On the other hand, ratios above 70 are considered bearish.

XRP RSIXRP RSI
XRP RSI, Source: CryptoWaves
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US National Cyber Strategy Pledges Support For Crypto And Blockchain

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Cryptocurrencies, United States, AI, Donald Trump, Quantum Computing

Crypto industry executives are combing through US President Donald Trump’s National Cyber Strategy after it was released on Friday, searching for hints about what it could signal for government support of the crypto industry.

“Crypto and blockchain are explicitly named as technologies to be ‘protected and secured.’ This is a first for any US cybersecurity strategy,” Galaxy Digital’s head of firmwide research Alex Thorn said in an X post on Friday.

Crypto and blockchain were mentioned once in the six-page report:

“We will build secure technologies and supply chains that protect user privacy from design to deployment, including supporting the security of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies.”

However, industry executives have also been interpreting other parts of the document to see how they relate to crypto.

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Cryptocurrencies, United States, AI, Donald Trump, Quantum Computing
Source: Mark Chadwick

Thorn pointed to a section pledging to “uproot criminal infrastructure and deny financial exit and safe haven.” “This language could easily justify crackdowns on mixers, privacy coins, and unregulated off-ramps,” he said.

Bitcoin VC points out that quantum has been taken “seriously”

Castle Island Ventures founder Nic Carter, who has been vocal about the threat of quantum computing to Bitcoin (BTC) in recent times, pointed to the section saying the government “will accelerate the modernization, defensibility, and resilience of federal information systems by implementing cybersecurity best practices, post-quantum cryptography, zero-trust architecture, and cloud transition.”

“Sure seems like they’re taking quantum seriously. Nothing to worry about, I’m sure,” Carter said in an X post.

It comes as the crypto industry continues to debate about how close quantum computing is to being a serious threat to Bitcoin. On Feb. 15, Carter said that major Bitcoin-holding institutions may eventually lose patience with Bitcoin developers for not addressing quantum computing concerns quickly enough.

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Trump points to the next generation as a priority

Trump said that the National Cyber Security outlines his priorities for “ensuring that America remains unrivaled in cyberspace.” Artificial intelligence was a key focus of the report.

“We will secure the AI technology stack—including our data centers—and promote innovation in AI security,” it said.

Related: Community banks and crypto industry ‘are allies’ in CLARITY Act debate: Exec

Trump also emphasized the importance of recruiting the next generation of workers in the cyber workforce to “design and deploy exquisite cyber technologies and solutions.”

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The US typically releases a national cybersecurity strategy every administration, outlining the government’s priorities for emerging technologies.

Magazine: The debate over Bitcoin’s four-year cycle is over: Benjamin Cowen