crypto

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy2/5/25

MicroStrategy is now just Strategy, releases bitcoin-branded merch you can’t pay for with bitcoin

Just hours before its earnings call at 5 p.m. ET today, MicroStrategy announced it has rebranded to just “Strategy.” The company also unveiled new websites and orange-colored merch with a bitcoin sign — Strategy’s new logo.

The merch ranges from Marine Layer orange T-shirts to water bottles, socks, hats, and UnderArmour backpacks. What’s less vast is the payment method.

Currently you can only pay by credit card, and bitcoin payments are not available. When we tried to ask the site’s chatbot about how to pay with bitcoin, we repeatedly got an error message in return.

Payment methods — Screenshot from FAQ of Strategy merch shop

Michael Saylor, founder and executive chairman of Strategy, said in a statement that the new name reflects “one of the most powerful and positive words in the human language.”

“It also represents a simplification of our company name to its most important, strategic core. Antoine de Saint-Exupery said, ‘Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.’ After 35 years, our new brand perfectly represents our pursuit of perfection,” he added.

The company is the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, though it has recently paused its bitcoin-buying spree.

MicroStrategy is Now Strategy

MicroStrategy is Now Strategy

Currently you can only pay by credit card, and bitcoin payments are not available. When we tried to ask the site’s chatbot about how to pay with bitcoin, we repeatedly got an error message in return.

Payment methods — Screenshot from FAQ of Strategy merch shop

Michael Saylor, founder and executive chairman of Strategy, said in a statement that the new name reflects “one of the most powerful and positive words in the human language.”

“It also represents a simplification of our company name to its most important, strategic core. Antoine de Saint-Exupery said, ‘Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.’ After 35 years, our new brand perfectly represents our pursuit of perfection,” he added.

The company is the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, though it has recently paused its bitcoin-buying spree.

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US-CRYPTOCURRENCY-CLIMATE-EMPLOYMENT-CHINA

Sage D. Young1/27/26

Crypto money laundering activity totaled more than $82 billion in 2025, more than 8x higher than 2020’s figure of $10 billion, according to a Tuesday report published by crypto analytics firm Chainalysis. Chinese-language networks dominated the ecosystem, accounting for roughly 20% of the illicit activity, or $16.1 billion, last year:

“Compared to other laundering endpoints, since 2020, inflows to identified CMLNs [Chinese-langugage money laundering networks] grew 7,325 times faster than those to centralized exchanges, 1,810 times faster than those to decentralized finance (DeFi), and 2,190 times faster than intra-illicit on-chain flows.”

Tom Keatinge, director at the Centre for Finance & Security at security think tank Royal United Services Institute, told Chainalysis that the rapid development of Chinese-language networks is an “an unforeseen consequence” of China’s imposition of capital controls.

“Wealthy individuals seeking to move money out of China and evade these controls provide the impetus and liquidity pool needed to service organized crime groups based in the West,” he noted.

Keatinge told Chainalysis, “The professional enablers of this capital flight provide the services necessary to match these two independent yet mutually beneficial needs.”

Chinese-language networks offer six primary money movement techniques to clean dirty money, which include recruiting individuals to rent out their financial identities, selling illicit cryptocurrency at a discounted rate, and obscuring fund origins through multiple transactions.

Overall, this Chinese ecosystem processed nearly $44 million per day last year.

crypto

Sage D. Young1/26/26

Avalanche joins class of cryptocurrencies with at least one ETF

Investment management company VanEck on Monday introduced the first exchange-traded fund offering spot exposure to AVAX, the native token for the Avalanche blockchain and the latest cryptocurrency with an ETF.

The new investment vehicle also aims to provide staking rewards for holders, according to the press release. AVAX, which has seen over $354 million in trading volume in the last 24 hours, is up slightly today. The token is trading at $11.70 as of 1:20 p.m. ET, a far cry from its all-time high of $144.96 in 2021.

The nascent VanEck fund joins a group of its crypto-specific ETFs, including the firm’s bitcoin ETF, with $1.4 billion in total assets; its ethereum ETF, which holds $147.5 million; and its solana ETF, with assets totaling $27.9 million.

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

Fears grow that bitcoin is entering a bear market

“While a new all-time high this year still isn’t out of the question, the next 30 days will be crucial in determining whether a bear market is already here.”

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