Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, said on Tuesday that the software firm plans to raise as much as $500 million through a new offering to buy more Bitcoin.

The company plans to issue a new form of perpetual preferred stock called Strife, which will cost $100 per share and pay a fixed rate of 10%, the company said in a press release.

Available only to institutional investors, Strategy’s new stock would pay its first dividend in around 100 days. What makes the new offering distinct to Strategy’s so-called Strike, another form of perpetual preferred product, is that its dividend is only payable in cash.

Strategy was able to raise billions of dollars last year by selling stock and so-called convertible bonds, which offer 0% interest. Strategy’s Strife offering pays 10% interest, which is more than the 8% dividend for Strategy’s Strike offering in January.

On Monday, the company announced that it had purchased around $10.7 million worth of Bitcoin. Within holdings of the asset that are currently worth around $41.4 billion, the recent purchase grew Strategy’s Bitcoin stash by approximately 0.026%.

Although the company waited several weeks to unveil its latest Bitcoin purchase, analysts told Decrypt that there’s no indication Strategy’s Bitcoin buys will cease soon, despite market conditions that have made it harder for the company to raise cash to buy Bitcoin.

https://x.com/saylor/status/1901969874441654434

On Tuesday, the company’s stock price dropped when markets opened, showing a 6.5% decrease at around $275, according to Yahoo Finance. Strategy shares have fallen 5.5% on the year, but have still doubled in value over the past six months.

Speaking at Future Proof Citywide in Miami on Monday, Strategy co-founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor noted Bitcoin’s recent price drop. Shifting rate cut expectations, tariffs, and economic fears have led to a “macro, risk-off zone,” he said.

“When that flips, I think Bitcoin will rip forward with a vengeance,” he added.

Edited by James Rubin

President Donald Trump, and other principals of DT Marks DEFI LLC, have already netted roughly $390 million in revenue from their Ethereum-based decentralized finance project—and that’s just for promoting it. 

On Monday, World Liberty Financial announced it had completed its second round of token sales. All in all, the project has brought in $550 million from two rounds of sales of WLFI, its native governance token, according to the company’s own accounting. 

Though Trump himself is technically a promoter of World Liberty, and not an active member of the project, the president is still entitled to the lion’s share of revenues the project reaps. According to World Liberty’s gold paper, Trump and his business partners are set to receive 75% of net revenues earned by the project, including WLFI token sales, after operating costs are taken into consideration.

Of the sum raised from sales of WLFI, $30 million has been earmarked to cover company expenses, indemnities, and obligations. Trump and his partners in DT Marks DEFI LLC then get 75% of the remaining amount—a full $390 million—as payment for Trump promoting the project “from time to time” and allowing it to use his name and likeness, according to the project’s gold paper.

It’s unclear who, besides the president himself, will receive funds from the LLC. According to SEC filings, DT Marks DEFI is based in Jupiter, Florida, at the address of the Trump Organization’s executive offices. 

When World Liberty first launched token sales in October, the project struggled to attract investors. On the eve of the 2024 election, it had sold less than $15 million worth of WLFI tokens, according to Dune—a fraction of the project’s stated goal of $300 million in sales. 

But after Trump recaptured the White House, the project enjoyed a sharp spike in interest. Tron blockchain founder Justin Sun, for instance, said he purchased tens of millions of dollars worth of WLFI, and shortly thereafter joined the project as an advisor. 

In late February, the SEC asked a judge to pause its years-long fraud lawsuit against Sun, in order to explore a “potential resolution.”

Since returning to office, Trump has faced questions about potential conflicts of interest, given his personal investment in various crypto ventures at a crucial juncture when his administration is set to effectively write the book on crypto regulation.

One such project, the TRUMP meme coin that launched on the eve of the president’s inauguration, entitles his companies to eventually hold over $9 billion worth of the token at current prices.

Earlier this month, the president’s AI and crypto czar, David Sacks, dismissed the president’s crypto projects as “irrelevant” to industry regulation.

The launch of the Solana meme coin, JELLYJELLY in January prompted signups for an app to soar and a community to form, even after it fell 98% from its all-time high, Iqram Magdon-Ismail, a Venmo co-founder, told Decrypt.

Now nearly two months after its creation, JellyJelly, which debuted on Pump.fun, is set to be integrated into the app. 

JELLYJELLY climbed to a $250 million market cap, after it was tied to the in-development AI-powered podcasting app of the same name. But, there were no concrete plans on how the token would be used and it has since crashed to just $6 million.

Magdon-Ismail maintains that the JELLYJELLY token will be implemented into the app soon and explains that, above everything, the meme coin launch was an excellent marketing tool to establish an audience.

“We got 10,000 signups in a day,” Magdon-Ismail told Decrypt. “It brought an incredible amount of awareness. I have to be honest, I never thought of using this whole meme coin world as a form of promotion [but] it’s starting to become very clear to me.”

JellyJelly is essentially TikTok but for podcasters, allowing users to record full episodes on the app which are then clipped up and posted using AI. Users are able to sign up and download the app but it is far from the finished article.

Investor in the app Sam Lessin believes meme coins work as a marketing tool because you immediately attract tons of eyes looking to flip a quick buck on the token. In doing this, some of these traders may become genuinely interested in the product behind the speculative trade. At the time of writing, JELLYJELLY has 34,275 holders. This figure was likely much higher back in January.

“Out of all of that, I think there’s a genuine group of like two to three thousand people in our Discord and Telegram communities that genuinely believe in the product,” Magdon-Ismail said. “If you open the Jelly feed today, I would say 50% of our user base are people that hold the coin.”

Other projects like Pythia, a Russian research lab, have also embraced a meme coin as a form of marketing. Equally, AI projects like Truth Terminal have used related meme coins as a way to fund the development of the project, however, Lessin says that he’s unconvinced that’s in the future of JellyJelly.

“My personal take is: eh,” he said, smiling. “That’s coming out of someone’s pocket in a zero sum way—and, I just don’t think that that feels great. Now, again, I am really open to it down the line.”

JELLYJELLY debuted  mostly off vibes and fun, with no solid plans on what to do with it. This lack of clear direction combined with macro downward pressures sent it plunging. But, Magdon-Ismail says the token’s plan has progressed significantly since its spontaneous launch.

“[The plan has] developed very rapidly and swiftly,” he said. “The first thing we’re building into the app is the ability to prove and verify ownership of the coin—how much of the coin you own and how long you’ve held it. Once you do that you get a little Jelly coin badge.”

Alongside this development, a native JellyJelly wallet—akin to the Telegram wallet—is in the works which will allow you to pay and receive tips on the platform. While Magdon-Ismail is optimistic this feature is coming “soon,” he’s apprehensive to put any hard date on it.

Further down the line, the team plans to use data points relating to JELLYJELLY —number of tokens held, tipped, etc.—to determine what content the platform pushes onto users through its algorithm. This is one of many “experiments” that JellyJelly plans to deploy once the token is integrated.

“We don’t have to get it right the first time. We’re going to play with it a little bit,” Magdon-Ismail explained. “We’re going to experiment over the next couple months with ways to utilize the coin to present content in different ways.”

Edited by James Rubin