"Stripe's recent valuation of $159 billion dwarfs PayPal's $43 billion market cap, which makes it feasible," Mizuho analysts said.
Cited in the 2008 Bitcoin white paper, Back argued volatility is typical even as regulatory clarity and institutional access expands.
Circle shares surged 30% to around $80 after earnings, extending pre-market gains as analysts pointed to stronger-than-expected margins.
Strategy (MSTR) has moved to the very top of Wall Street’s crowded-short leaderboard, according to a Goldman Sachs screen of the 50 stocks above $25 billion with the largest short interest as a percentage of market cap, a positioning shift that matters for the market because MSTR has effectively become a listed, levered proxy for Bitcoin exposure. Wall Street Crowds Into Shorts On Strategy In Goldman’s table, Strategy ranks No. 1 with short interest equal to 14% of market cap, ahead of Charter Communications at 12%. CoreWeave and Coinbase follow at 11% each, with Kimberly-Clark next at 10%. After that, the list compresses quickly: Western Digital, Bloom Energy, Dell, Palo Alto Networks, and International Paper all sit at 8%. Related Reading: The Saylor Discount: Why Bitcoin Trading Below Strategy’s Realized Price is a Gift for Late-Cycle Allocators The screen adds context on size and hedge-fund footprint. Strategy shows an equity cap of roughly $34 billion, with 53 hedge funds owning the stock as of 31-Dec-2025. Hedge funds owned about 3% of Strategy’s equity cap at both 30-Sep-2025 and 31-Dec-2025, and the table shows a (18)% total return year-to-date for the period captured, alongside 0 average days of volume to liquidate the hedge-fund position. By comparison, Charter sits around $30 billion in equity value with 62 hedge funds owning it, also at roughly 3% hedge-fund ownership on both dates, and a 15% YTD return, with 2 days to liquidate. CoreWeave shows a different profile: about $39 billion in equity cap, 62 hedge funds owning it, and high hedge-fund ownership—27% at 30-Sep-2025 dropping to 23% by 31-Dec-2025—with 33% YTD return and 4 days to liquidate. Coinbase appears at roughly $37 billion equity cap with 72 hedge funds owning it, about 2% hedge-fund ownership on both dates, a (27)% YTD return, and 0 days to liquidate. That dynamic is exactly what Fundstrat’s Tom Lee pointed to in a post on X, framing heavy shorting as a positioning signal rather than a fundamental verdict. “More signs of a meaningful low in place,” Lee wrote. “When a stock becomes a ‘consensus’ short, it is also a crowded trade… Hence, a stock can rise on ‘bad news’ because the bad news is priced in.” Related Reading: Strategy Unfazed By Bitcoin Crash, Michael Saylor Vows Quarterly Purchases Brian Brookshire, advisor to Moirai Capital and former Head of Bitcoin Strategy at Swedish firm H100, added: “I suspect a lot of this short interest is still MSTR / BTC basis trade. Jane Street, in particular, has recently acquired a conspicuously large IBIT position. All bets are off when, not if, the BTC bull market returns. mNAV expansion during BTC’s ascent is a spectacular thing.” Saylor’s Message To Bears: “Short us” Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor has been unusually direct about what the company is and what it is not, trying to be for the market. In a prior interview, he argued that heavy short interest is a natural consequence of a company choosing to be a pure expression of a Bitcoin-heavy balance sheet. “You know, my real aspiration now is, if you really hate Bitcoin, I want you to love us,” Saylor said. “Like, we’re the perfect instrument to short, right? Because I promise you I won’t sell it, right? We’re going to be levered long Bitcoin. And if you don’t like it, or if you just want to hedge it, you get to sell our stock or sell puts or buy puts, right?” Saylor’s point wasn’t simply that shorts are welcome, it was that Strategy’s posture is designed to be legible. “We have been laser-like focused. We’re very consistent. We’re very transparent,” he said, before reiterating the operating promise: “We’re going to buy Bitcoin, never sell Bitcoin. We’re going to borrow money intelligently.” For Bitcoin-native investors, the practical takeaway is that MSTR’s equity has become a high-conviction battleground for BTC exposure: longs treat it as an amplified bet on BTC and capital markets access, while shorts treat it as the cleanest way to fade that package. At press time, MSTR traded at $127.80. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
Perplexity AI introduces a unified AI platform, Perplexity Computer, integrating research, design, coding, and app management.
The post Perplexity launches Computer to streamline end-to-end AI projects appeared first on Crypto Briefing.
The crypto lender suspended client deposits and withdrawals earlier this month due to recent market and financial conditions.
Coinciding with the FCA’s announcement of its stablecoin trial, Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong criticized the U.K.’s regulatory process, saying it puts the region's global crypto leadership at risk.
GD's market cap-to-net asset value ratio (mNAV) sits around 0.5, one of the worst among corporate bitcoin holders.
t54 Labs has raised $5 million in a seed round from Anagram, Franklin Templeton, Ripple and other investors.
Kalshi says it has closed two insider cases involving a former California gubernatorial candidate and an editor who worked at MrBeast.
The online marketplace said it will embed Tether's crypto wallet tools and USDT, USAT tokens to power crypto payments for over 18 million users.
Bitcoin surges past $68K, triggering $429M in liquidations as Circle jumps 28% and Coinbase leads a broad crypto stock rally.
The post Bitcoin surges past $68K as Circle jumps 28%, fueling surge in crypto stocks appeared first on Crypto Briefing.
The four firms will now have free reign to experiment in a program that will inform final UK stablecoin rules set to be released later this year.
In this week’s Crypto Long & Short Newsletter, Gregory Mall of Lionsoul Global on how ETFs have shifted a growing share of bitcoin volatility into U.S. equity options markets.
Axon's growth underscores the transformative impact of AI on business models, highlighting potential shifts in industry standards and competition.
The post Axon shares soar 20% after upbeat earnings as AI demand accelerates appeared first on Crypto Briefing.
The Fellowship political action committee promised $100 million, with reports that Tether may have been tied as a backer, but the fund has so far delivered zero.
XRP is gaining strength again. The token is up about 6% in the past 24 hours, trading near $1.43, slightly outperforming the broader crypto market rally. While the move may look modest on the surface, several factors say XRP could be setting up for a much larger breakout, potentially toward the $4 level and above. …
The tokenized US Treasury market had a market capitalization of under $4 billion at the start of 2025 and has been gradually rising.
WebN backed innovative digital asset firms like KAIO, Twinstake, TruFin and Geometry.
Crypto analyst BitQuant has commented on why market participants are not buying Bitcoin and Ethereum despite the recent lows. This comes amid current market weakness, with the on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant warning of a deeper decline. Why Investors Are Not Buying The Bitcoin and Ethereum Dip In an X post, BitQuant noted that no one, except Saylor’s Strategy, is buying Bitcoin at $65,000 because of reports that the U.S. may attack Iran. He added that if that happens, many believe that BTC will drop to $50,000, which is why they are not buying. Ethereum is expected to drop further if BTC declines. Related Reading: Here’s All You Need To Know About The Bitcoin Price This Week The analyst noted that these market participants are forgetting that Bitcoin fell from $90,000 to $60,000 without any news or headlines, and that they consider this nuance unimportant. As such, he suggested that BTC and Ethereum could still see lower prices, whether or not the U.S. attacks Iran. However, BitQuant indicated that current prices do not matter in the long-term as Bitcoin and possibly Ethereum are likely to trade higher. He stated that many still don’t understand that BTC is a system and that they only see it as an asset. The analyst added that for many, BTC resembles a football match where they celebrate when there is a goal and leave the stadium when there isn’t. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the broader crypto market are currently facing downside pressure not only due to a potential U.S. attack on Iran but also due to the uncertainty around the Trump tariffs. The U.S. president over the weekend announced plans to hike the global tariff rate from 10% to 15% after the Supreme Court ruled against the tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). BTC Could Still Drop Below $40,000 A CryptoQuant analysis recently suggested that Bitcoin could still drop below $40,000 to around $38,900, which is the long-term holders’ (LTHs) cost basis. The analysis also alluded to historical precedent, noting that each bear market has been characterized by BTC’s price breaking below its cost basis. This triggers a final capitulation phase marked by realized losses of around 20%. Related Reading: Analyst Predicts The Ethereum Price Bottom With A Marked Path To $15,000 The analysis also noted that it is only after this phase that the market has been able to rebuild the necessary foundations for a trend reversal, with Bitcoin and Ethereum reaching new highs. Meanwhile, another CryptoQuant analysis mentioned that the Coinbase Premium Index shows limited signs of recovery. The index’s 30-minute simple moving average had briefly crossed above the zero level but failed to maintain the momentum into the new week. CryptoQuant stated that this lack of sustained recovery in the premium, despite the temporary uptick, is considered a potential trigger for the recent downward price action. Featured image from Pngtree, chart from Tradingview.com
The claim sounds dramatic at first: one day, owning just 100 XRP might feel like holding something scarce. But that’s the argument gaining attention after a recent breakdown by Edo Farina, and he insists it’s less about moon-talk and more about simple math. XRP is trading around $1.37 during a broader market cooldown. Nothing explosive …
In the downtrend, HYPE has climbed to 8.2% of circulating supply held by digital asset treasuries, overtaking major crypto assets in just 12 months. At the same time, derivatives data show a sharp reduction in large short positions, signaling a potential shift in market sentiment. Hyperliquid is rapidly reshaping treasury allocation charts. According to data …
Hut 8's 2025 results were weighed down by $220 million in unrealized digital asset losses, reversing large gains a year earlier.
Kalshi revealed its first enforcement actions Wednesday, against a political candidate and an employee of YouTube star MrBeast.
Solana price eyes a potential rise toward the $110-$115 range, according to a confluence of bullish technical and onchain indicators.
Social media giant Meta is quietly plotting a return to stablecoins. This time, however, the primary beneficiary may not be Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse, but the US Treasury market. On Feb. 24, Coindesk reported that Meta was exploring stablecoin-based payments for a possible rollout in the second half of 2026, likely through a third-party provider rather […]
The post Meta’s digital dollar comeback could unlock a $1 trillion Treasury shift Washington is not ready for appeared first on CryptoSlate.
The cryptocurrency market staged a strong comeback over the past 24 hours, with major digital assets posting sharp gains and adding nearly $150 billion to total market capitalization. Market leaders Bitcoin and Ethereum broke key psychological levels, while XRP and several large-cap altcoins followed with solid advances. The rally also triggered liquidations of bearish positions, …
Ether, solana and dogecoin are among the altcoins posting 10% or more advances.
The stablecoin issuer reported $770 million in revenue for the final 2025 quarter, beating forecasts as full-year sales rose 64% and USDC circulation topped $75 billion.
Ethereum price rebounded over 6% in the past 24 hours, climbing back toward the $2,000 level after a sharp liquidation-driven decline earlier this month. However, despite the relief move, ETH remains below a critical resistance zone near $2,200 that continues to cap upside attempts. The recent rebound comes as derivative leverage resets and funding rates …