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Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, has treated Bitcoin as a core treasury asset since 2020 and has long financed purchases through sales of common and preferred stock. The strategy has made it the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, but its high-interest financing costs and exposure to cryptocurrency price swings remain under market scrutiny.

Strategy raised funds by selling Class A common stock and preferred stock from March 2 to March 8, 2026, then spent about $1.28 billion to buy 17,994 Bitcoin at an average price of $70,946 each. The transaction increased its total holdings to 738,731 Bitcoin, continuing its long-term Bitcoin treasury strategy.

Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, is the world’s largest publicly traded corporate holder of Bitcoin. It has long raised funds through stock and bond issuance to buy the cryptocurrency, which it treats as a core reserve asset. The size of its holdings can affect both the company’s financial risk and market confidence, making each purchase closely watched by investors.

Strategy raised funds through an at-the-market (ATM) stock offering in late February 2026 and spent about $204 million to buy 3,015 Bitcoin at an average price of roughly $67,700 each. This was the company’s 101st Bitcoin purchase. The transaction increased its total holdings to 720,737 Bitcoin, formally taking the figure above 720,000.

Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, has continued raising funds through equity and debt instruments to buy Bitcoin under Michael Saylor, making BTC a core asset. The company recently raised capital through STRC perpetual preferred stock carrying an 11.5% dividend rate. Saylor said an annual Bitcoin gain of more than 2% would be enough to cover the dividend, underscoring the company's highly leveraged capital strategy.

Strategy added 3,468 Bitcoin on April 10, according to the latest report, which did not disclose the dollar value or average purchase price of the transaction. The purchase brought the company's total Bitcoin holdings close to 770,000 BTC. As proceeds raised through STRC continue to be converted into Bitcoin, the company's holdings are moving toward a new milestone.

Hyperliquid, best known for onchain perpetual futures trading, is expanding into outcome tokens tied to real-world events through HIP-4. The prediction-market sector is led by Polymarket and regulated platform Kalshi. Hyperliquid’s new product will rely on validator-governed settlement rather than external oracles, testing whether it can bring its existing liquidity into the event-contract market.

As of July 19, 2026, Hyperliquid had disclosed HIP-4’s fee structure, under which traders will pay no opening fee when establishing a position, reducing the initial cost of entry. A formal launch date and the amount of capital to be committed have not been announced. The latest plan focuses on wagers on macroeconomic outcomes, with settlement handled through validator consensus, putting Hyperliquid in direct competition with Polymarket and Kalshi for users and liquidity.

Hyperliquid began as an onchain venue for crypto perpetual futures. Through HIP-3, it now allows builders to launch round-the-clock markets for equities, commodities, foreign exchange and Pre-IPO assets, while HIP-4 marks its entry into event prediction. The strategy brings crypto assets, RWAs and outcome contracts under a single account, expanding its competitive field from CME Group to Kalshi and Polymarket.

HIP-4 went live on May 2, 2026, followed on May 25 by offchain event markets settled by validators. The first markets covered May's year-on-year CPI rate and the Federal Reserve's June interest-rate decision. FalconX said the 21Shares and Bitwise HYPE spot ETFs recorded combined net inflows of $53 million over several days. Hyperliquid's USDC partnership with Coinbase and Circle is estimated to generate $160 million in annual revenue.

On March 16, 2026, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on prediction markets, RIN 3038-AF65, seeking input on market oversight and the public-interest boundaries governing event contracts. The Hyperliquid Policy Center was concerned that rules based on assumptions about centralized exchanges could leave non-custodial onchain markets without a lawful path to operate.

On April 30, 2026, the consultation deadline, HPC submitted a 15-page comment letter, CFTC No. 115408. It called for flexible, function-based rules, a clear legal pathway for U.S. users to participate in decentralized prediction markets and support for U.S. onchain financial innovation. The letter did not discuss any investment amount; its policy objective was to provide regulatory certainty for Hyperliquid and HIP-4 outcome markets.

Western sanctions have restricted Russian companies’ access to channels for international trade and cross-border payments, prompting them to seek cryptocurrencies as an alternative settlement tool. The new bill distinguishes between cross-border trade and domestic consumer transactions, helping companies conduct international business while preserving the ruble’s legal status in Russia’s domestic payment system.

Russia’s State Duma has approved a cryptocurrency regulation bill in its first reading, allowing companies to settle international trade in cryptocurrencies while maintaining a blanket ban on their use to pay for domestic goods or services. The bill also designates the Bank of Russia as the main regulator responsible for issuing licenses and monitoring transactions. The information currently available does not specify the voting date, any monetary amounts or the timetable for further readings.

Non-monetary transactions such as Ordinals inscriptions have sparked fierce debate across the Bitcoin community since their introduction because they consume block space and drive up fees. Opponents of such transactions subsequently proposed the BIP-110 soft fork to restrict this type of data insertion. The dispute is Bitcoin’s most closely watched protocol-level conflict since the historic blocksize war, and its outcome could have far-reaching implications for the network’s core principle of decentralization and its future direction.

Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor and Blockstream CEO Adam Back have joined forces to oppose restrictions on inscriptions. The proposal has set a voluntary lock-in deadline of August 8, 2026, with activation scheduled for September 1 and requiring support from 55% of miners. However, miner support remained at 0% as of mid-July, making the proposal unlikely to pass without community consensus and raising the risk of a chain split.

BIP-110, or the Reduced Data Temporary Soft Fork, proposes a soft fork lasting about one year to restrict non-monetary data written to the Bitcoin blockchain through OP_RETURN, inscriptions and other methods. Supporters say it would curb blockchain bloat and preserve Bitcoin’s use for payments. Opponents argue that fee-paying transactions should not be censored, turning the dispute into a broader battle over block space and governance rights.

The first supporting block was mined on March 2, 2026. As of July 18, only eight of 940 blocks in the current signaling period had signaled support, or 0.85%, far below the 55% threshold, which requires 1,109 of 2,016 blocks. Strategy founder Michael Saylor and Blockstream co-founder Adam Back oppose the proposal. A mandatory signaling period is expected to begin in August, with activation possible as early as September, though the risk of a minority chain split remains.

Decentralized prediction market Polymarket has gained prominence in recent years by allowing users to wager on global political and economic events, becoming a popular fintech and blockchain application. Because such platforms involve monetary bets, however, they occupy a regulatory gray area between forecasting and gambling in many countries. As their influence grows, European governments are tightening oversight of decentralized platforms in an effort to curb unauthorized online gambling.

The Czech Finance Ministry recently formally added Polymarket to its blacklist of unauthorized online gambling websites. Under the Czech Gambling Act, local internet service providers must block access to the site within 15 days. The ban marks the Czech Republic's first major crackdown on a crypto prediction market and signals that scrutiny of such decentralized gambling platforms is continuing to intensify across the European Union.

Polymarket uses crypto assets to trade contracts tied to event outcomes. Supporters view it as a crowd-forecasting tool, while critics argue that it is essentially a form of gambling. Indonesia bans all gambling, and President Prabowo Subianto’s term is scheduled to run until October 2029. Indonesia’s classification of the platform also highlights its divergence from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which allows regulated event-contract markets to operate.

On May 21, 2026, Polymarket launched markets on whether Prabowo would leave office by May 31, June 30 or the end of the year. Trading volume exceeded $46,000, while the probabilities for the three outcomes reached 1%, 2% and 18%, respectively, at one point. Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs formally blocked the website on May 22, saying wagers involving money on uncertain events violated the online gambling ban. It was also investigating social media accounts linked to the platform.

Prediction markets allow users to wager through contracts on the outcomes of elections, sporting contests and other events, but they may be treated as regulated gambling in the Netherlands. The Dutch Gambling Authority (Ksa) blocked Polymarket in February 2026 for operating without a gambling license, highlighting the challenges of cross-border enforcement and investor protection involving decentralized platforms.

An investigation by Dutch financial newspaper FD found that, as of May 5, 2026, users in the Netherlands could still trade prediction contracts through Kalshi, Hyperliquid and Interactive Brokers. Hyperliquid has also recently expanded its local services. The Ksa warned that similar platforms could face penalties, while an April study by London Business School found that only 3% of participants were consistently profitable and nearly 70% lost money.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law on July 18, 2025, creating the first federal framework for payment stablecoins, with requirements covering reserves, redemptions and anti-money-laundering controls. The law also preserves a state regulatory pathway. Issuers with aggregate circulation of no more than $10 billion may opt for state oversight if the state regime is substantially similar to the federal framework and receives approval from the Stablecoin Certification Review Committee.

The U.S. Treasury Department proposed its first implementing rules on April 1, 2026, setting out principles for assessing whether state regimes are substantially similar to the federal framework. The proposal was published in the Federal Register on April 3, opening a 60-day comment period that ran through June 2. On June 16, a bipartisan group of senators including Cynthia Lummis again urged the Treasury to specify the process and timeline for states to seek certification on an ongoing basis, preventing state oversight from being rendered ineffective.

Stablecoin regulation is in focus as the U.S. Congress returns. The GENIUS Act seeks to establish a federal regulatory framework whose rules will shape issuers' reserve-asset quality, yield distribution and compliance obligations. The framework will also affect the market strategies of banks, payment providers and cryptocurrency companies.

The public comment period for the GENIUS Act's stablecoin rules concluded in the first week of June, while the U.S. Senate is expected to make another push on the Clarity Act on June 3. As the regulatory process accelerates, global stablecoin circulation reached a record $322 billion at the end of May.

Stablecoins typically maintain their value through assets denominated in U.S. dollars and have become an important dollar channel for crypto trading and cross-border payments. The United States signed the GENIUS Act into law on July 18, 2025, establishing a federal issuance framework for the first time. It requires every $1 token to be backed by at least $1 in eligible reserve assets. Stablecoins, however, are not bank deposits and are not covered by FDIC deposit insurance.

The FDIC board approved a proposed rule on April 7, 2026, and published it in the Federal Register on April 10. The proposal would require issuers under its supervision to meet standards covering reserve assets, redemption within two business days, capital, risk management and custody. The OCC issued its own proposal on February 25, followed by customer identification rules proposed by five federal agencies on June 18. Final rules had yet to be issued by the July 18 statutory deadline.

Cross-chain bridges lock assets on one blockchain and mint corresponding tokens on another. If their validation systems fail, unbacked tokens can be redeemed for real assets. The IBC bridge between Axelar Network and Secret Network had operated since early 2023. The incident underscores how bridge contracts and monitoring systems remain critical risks in the cross-chain ecosystem.

On June 10, 2026, an attacker exploited an “infinite mint” vulnerability in the Secret-side ics20-for-axelar contract, which failed to verify the source channel. The attacker minted seven types of unbacked tokens and redeemed them for about $4.67 million in assets. The incident did not come to light until June 17. Axelar subsequently disconnected Secret Network and notified law enforcement, while some of the funds flowed to Ethereum, BNB Chain and exchanges.

Gravity Bridge is a cross-chain protocol connecting the Ethereum and Cosmos ecosystems, with validators jointly authorizing asset transfers. Cross-chain bridges hold large concentrations of tokens, and stolen keys can allow attackers to bypass security controls. The incident again highlights key-management risks in DeFi infrastructure.

On-chain analyst Specter raised the alarm on May 30, 2026, saying an apparent contract-key exposure had allowed about $5.4 million to be removed from Gravity Bridge. The assets included 4.3 million USDC, 274 WETH, 434,000 USDT and 14.164 PAXG, leaving only about $85,000 in the contract. The team confirmed the following day that the bridge had been paused.