Crypto
Michael Saylor
Michael Saylor during a bitcoin conference (Marco Bello/Getty Images)

MicroStrategy pauses its bitcoin buying spree after 12 weeks of continuous accumulation

One of bitcoin’s biggest cheerleaders, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, has pressed pause on growing the company’s bitcoin stockpile.

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

MicroStrategy, the largest corporate bitcoin holder, paused its bitcoin buying spree after 12 consecutive weeks of accumulation. The mega stockpiler’s halt coincides with a brutal few days for bitcoin, which saw its price seesaw in sync with the market and the overall crypto ecosystem. The Fed’s pausing of rate cuts, coupled with President Trump’s on-and-off-again threats of tariffs and China’s retaliatory 15% tariff, threw a wrench in global markets.

MicroStrategy’s last purchase was on January 27, bringing its total holdings to 471,107 bitcoin. Last week, it also announced the pricing of its Series A Perpetual Strike Preferred Stock “at a public offering price of $80.00 per share,” according to a statement. The offering raised $563.4 million — up from the initial $250 million target — and intends to use the proceeds “for general corporate purposes, including the acquisition of bitcoin and for working capital.”

“The issuance and sale of the perpetual strike preferred stock are scheduled to settle on February 5, 2025, subject to customary closing conditions,” the statement read, which is also the date of the company’s next earnings release.

Many are trying to read the tea leaves in the surprising pause, with some bears arguing that this might be a harbinger of bad news for bitcoin.

Yet others also noted that, given the company’s huge stash, it’s hard to negate its commitment to bitcoin. 

“With a ~$45 billion position in bitcoin, I don’t think anyone is questioning Michael Saylor’s conviction regarding the investment,” Autonomys CEO Todd Ruoff said.

That’s why some experts say the pause is more likely due to other factors and strategic plans.

First, MicroStrategy, which joined the Nasdaq in December, has earnings tomorrow, which could place pre-earnings restrictions for a period to remain compliant with the SEC, Two Prime CEO Alexander Blume said.

In addition, the recent $563 million raise also underscores Saylor’s hodling conviction.

“Bonds are a capital-efficient way to raise capital and signals strength to fund future bitcoin investments,” Kevin Rusher, founder of tokenization platform RAAC, said. “The buying pause is unlikely to be driven by market sentiment — it will just be part of MicroStrategy’s long-term plan.”

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy is a financial journalist who’s written for Dow Jones, The Financial Times Group, and Business Insider.

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Sage D. Young

Ethereum hits highest price in over a month as BlackRock joins the fray of ethereum staking ETFs

Ethereum climbed to its highest level in over a month on Friday, briefly touching $2,200. The price swing comes amid a new change among ETFs focused on the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. 

Yesterday, ETHB — BlackRock’s iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF — started trading on the Nasdaq, making the investment vehicle the first from the financial titan to include staking, the process of locking up tokens to help secure the network’s consensus mechanism in exchange for rewards. 

The nascent staking ETF has nearly $150 million in net assets, drawing in $43.5 million in inflows on its first day, data from SoSoValue shows. “Pretty good start for any ETF,” Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart wrote in a social media post.

While ETHB is BlackRock’s first ethereum staking ETF, it’s not the first to market. The Grayscale Ethereum Staking Mini ETF launched in 2024, while the Rex-Osprey ETH Staking ETF rolled out last year. 

Ethereum ETFs have seen nearly $157.7 million of inflows in March, on track to record their first monthly inflow since October. 

Meanwhile, the Ethereum Foundation published its mandate, “a document that serves as part constitution, part manifesto, and part guide for the Ethereum Foundation,” on Friday. 

“Our Mandate to EF states what must be cherished to protect the ultimate reason for Ethereum’s existence: user self-sovereignty,” the Ethereum Foundation board wrote. “To be a part of EF, our own teams must remember that Ethereum must, above all, remain censorship resistant, open source, private, and secure (CROPS).”

The mandate is a new chapter in how the organization views its position in the world, according to ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin. “We must see ourselves not just as the Ethereum community, but also as maintainers of the Ethereum tool within what you might call the CROPS community,” Buterin said. “This means open-mindedness to new conceptions of what things in the world are our natural allies.”

crypto
Sage D. Young

Trump meme coin skyrockets following new gala luncheon invitation for largest holders

President Trump’s meme coin has risen 54.6% in the last 24 hours to trade at a more than one-month high. The token’s price performance is outpacing an overall rise throughout the wider crypto industry, boosting its total market capitalization 4.3%.

What’s driving it? Something we’ve seen before: on Thursday, GetTrumpMemes announced that the top 297 holders of $TRUMP will have the opportunity to attend a gala luncheon next month at Mar-a-Lago, where the president will be a keynote speaker.

Last year a similar competition was announced, and the top $TRUMP whales attended a dinner with him at the Trump National Golf Club in Washington, DC, drawing supporters, critics, and protestors to the event.

Despite the recent spike, the cryptocurrency is down 94.2% from its all-time high of $73.43, set the day before Trump’s inauguration last year, when it topped a $70 billion valuation.

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy
22h
Bitcoin hits its highest level in a week, crossing $73,000

“A firm break above 73K will set us up for a nice rally,” one analyst noted.

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Sage D. Young

Meme coin factory Pump.fun has surpassed $1 billion in revenue, making it the first protocol built on the solana blockchain to reach the milestone. 

The platform launched two years ago and has gained immense popularity in part for jump-starting viral cryptocurrencies such as fartcoin, pnut, and Moo Deng.

The solana-based token launchpad has seen around $98 million in revenue so far this year and is on pace to generate $476 million in annualized revenue, a drawdown from 2025’s figure of nearly $651 million, data from DefiLlama shows. 

Pump.fun’s revenue in the last 24 hours, 7 days, and 30 days places the platform among the top earners in the entire crypto ecosystem, trailing only perpetuals venue Hyperliquid as well as stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle. 

The platform uses the vast majority of its revenue to buy back its native token, PUMP, a program aimed at reducing the circulating supply of the token and absorbing sell pressure. Over $323.5 million worth of PUMP has been purchased since the start of the program, offsetting 28.8% of the cryptocurrency’s circulating supply. 

Currently, the price of PUMP is down 77% from its all-time high set in September 2025, per CoinGecko. 

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy
Bear case
3/12/26
Bloomberg Intelligence analyst keeps prediction for bitcoin to fall to $10,000

Many disagree, saying bitcoin is “too big to fail” and that such a fall would require an “extreme systemic shock.”

Bitcoin Continues Months-Long Steep Decline In Value

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