Strategy Ups Stretch Offering to $2B for BTC

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Good Morning.

Strategy ramped up its BTC war chest with a $2B preferred stock offering, signaling peak institutional conviction. Meanwhile, FTX, still haunted by its collapse, gears up for a $1.9B creditor payout. One is stacking BTC like it’s 2021, the other is finally paying for it.

In Today's Email:

• What Matters: Strategy Ups Stretch Offering to $2B for BTC 👀 

• Founders Highlight: Alex Smirnov of deBridge 👨 

• Deal Flow: Poseidon Raises $15M for Physical AI Data 🌊 

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WHAT MATTERS

Strategy Ups Stretch Offering to $2B for BTC

State of play: Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) raised its Stretch preferred stock offering from $500M to $2B, pricing shares at $90 with a 9% annual dividend. The proceeds will fund more BTC buys.

• Last week, Strategy spent $739.9M to acquire 6,220 BTC.

• The purchase brings Strategy’s holdings to 607,770 BTC worth $72B+, or about 3% of Bitcoin’s 21M total supply.

• Strategy’s market cap is $124B with common stock trading at $414. Analysts say its BTC stash could grow to 900,000 BTC by 2027.

What’s next:

For builders and investors: 

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Alex Smirnov of deBridge

Intro: Alex Smirnov is the Co-Founder and the Project Lead of deBridge, a cross-chain interoperability and liquidity transfer protocol that allows the truly decentralized transfer of assets between various blockchains.

Previous background: Before deBridge, Alex founded Phenom, a crypto custody startup focused on secure cold storage and key management for institutions. He was Head of R&D at Navigine (2014–2017), developing real-time indoor navigation systems.

• Earlier, he worked as a research engineer at Moscow State University and holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics and Physics from MSU.

The big idea: Alex, through deBridge, is aiming to create a universal infrastructure for seamless, decentralized cross-chain communication and asset transfer.

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INSIGHTS

FTX to Begin $1.9B Creditor Payout on Sep 30

State of play: FTX will start its next creditor payout on Sep 30 after a court approved reducing its claims reserve by $1.9B, freeing funds for distribution. So far, $6.2B has been paid out, with the total plan targeting $14.7B to $16.5B in recoveries.

• About 98% of creditors are set to receive at least 119% of their original claims.

• Payouts will be made via BitGo, Kraken, and Payoneer.

• A controversial motion to forfeit claims in restricted countries was revised by the court to allow alternative transfer options.

DEAL FLOWS

Poseidon Raises $15M for Physical AI Data

Deal flows slowed down this week - we saw $91M in deals 💼 

Poseidon has raised a $15M seed round led by a16z crypto to build infrastructure for collecting and licensing real-world data used in physical AI, including robotics and autonomous systems.

• Incubated by Story Protocol, Poseidon will serve enterprise AI teams needing curated, traceable datasets.

• The round supports scaling data pipelines, IP registration, and expansion into video, audio, biometric, and healthcare data.

• Founders Sandeep Chinchali and Sarick Shah aim to solve AI’s growing data bottleneck as models move beyond the digital world.

Deal flows in the past week:

• Quack AI, $3.6M Seed Round

• Questflow, $6.5M Seed Round

• ACM+, $12M Seed Round

• Poseidon, $15M Seed Round

• DSRV, $11.6M Series B Round

• Soluna, $20M Equity Round

• xTAO, $22.8M Equity Round

QUICK BITES

• OG bitcoin wallet moves 3,962 BTC worth over $460M.

• BitMine Immersion’s ETH stash doubles to more than $2B.

• JPMorgan says crypto inflows have surged to $60B year to date.

• GameSquare purchases CryptoPunk as treasury asset for $5.15M.

• Christie's offers $1B in luxury real estate to buyers paying with crypto.

• FTX to start next creditor payout on Sep. 30 with $1.9B granted by court.

• Anchorage to issue first GENIUS‑compliant stablecoin in US with Ethena.

• Strategy upsizes preferred 'Stretch' stock offering to $2B to buy more BTC.

• Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen sends roughly $140M in XRP to exchanges.

• BlackRock’s ETHA becomes third-ever ETF to hit $10B in assets within a year.

NOTEWORTHY READS

• Jordan’s read on Sanctum.

• Chilla’s read on Most DAOs Don't Work.

• Coinmetrics’s read on More on Canton Coin.

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