Headline: Saylor unlocks another $44 billion in firepower to keep buying Bitcoin
MicroStrategy just cleared the way to raise up to $44 billion more in equity to fuel its Bitcoin buying program — a huge boost for Michael Saylor’s long-running accumulation strategy.
What happened
- MicroStrategy said it can now issue $44 billion of additional equity, split as $21 billion of common stock (MSTR), $21 billion of STRC and $2.1 billion of STRK. The package is explicitly intended to finance future Bitcoin purchases.
- STRC accounts for nearly half of the total authorization. MicroStrategy recently raised demand for STRC by hiking its monthly dividend to 11.5%, helping the company pull in more than $1.5 billion this month and supporting large-scale Bitcoin buys earlier in March.
- The firm’s buying cadence briefly slowed, but this new authorization is designed to keep the purchase engine running. Bitcoin held around $70,500 on the day the announcement dropped.
Why it matters
More authorized capital gives MicroStrategy — and Saylor — a long runway to buy Bitcoin as a corporate treasury play, and STRC’s outsized role shows convertible-share instruments remain central to that plan.
Congress, prediction markets and sports betting
- The Wall Street Journal reports lawmakers are preparing a bipartisan bill to ban sports betting on prediction-market platforms — a move squarely aimed at fast-growing use cases at firms like Kalshi and Polymarket.
- Sports markets make up a big chunk of volume: Kalshi’s weekly sports volume is said to be 70–85% of its handle, while Polymarket’s sports volume is roughly 35–40%. Kalshi is also coming off news of a substantial recent fundraise.
- The debate pits state gaming regulators — who classify these products as sports betting — against platforms arguing they are federally regulated event contracts that belong under derivatives oversight. Legislation would test that jurisdictional split directly.
Product moves and compliance responses in prediction markets
- Polymarket launched a referral program for traders with >$10k in volume (with up to 30% rewards) and a revamped fee schedule that varies by market type and probability, topping out at 1.8% for crypto markets. It also tightened insider-trading rules and flagged a “multi-layered monitoring system.”
- Kalshi is banning athletes, coaches and politicians from trading on markets where they could have inside information. Polymarket says it’s working with Palantir to beef up surveillance for sports-focused markets. These steps come as the sector faces rising political and regulatory scrutiny.
Coinbase backlash over March Madness notifications
- Coinbase users complained after receiving repeated March Madness push notifications promoting sports-related predictions, with complaints trending on X. Some users said they got multiple push alerts per day and saw prominent March Madness promotions on the app homepage.
- CEO Brian Armstrong called the criticism “a fair point” and said Coinbase will add more notification customization options.
Sen. Warren questions Beast Industries over teen crypto app Step
- Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a 12-page letter probing whether Beast Industries could reintroduce crypto features to Step, the teen-focused banking app tied to MrBeast. Her concerns focus on past activity when Step allowed teens (with parental consent) to buy digital assets and NFTs.
- The inquiry comes after Beast Industries received a $200 million investment from BitMine.
Also in today’s coverage: Corporate treasuries & ETFs, and the Meme Coin Tracker.
Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news
