Bitcoin price climbed above $60,000 on Wednesday, a level the asset had ceded during the last couple weeks of turbulence, after Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh told a central bank forum that the threat of persistent inflation had moderated.

The cryptocurrency traded near $60,171 this afternoon, a gain of about 2.7% on the day, with a 24-hour high of $60,474 and a low of $57,718. Trading volume for the session reached $26.68 billion.

Warsh, in remarks at the European Central Bank forum in Sintra, Portugal, said inflation expectations in surveys and bond prices had eased. He paired the observation with a warning that price growth remains too elevated and that the Fed will not accept inflation above its 2 percent target. 

“We’re going to deliver price stability,” Warsh said.

Markets read the balance as a tilt toward relief. Bitcoin advanced as U.S. stocks rose and the dollar retreated from a weekly high. A softer dollar tends to lift demand for Bitcoin and other risk assets.

The move offered a reprieve in a hard year. Bitcoin sits about 30% below where it started 2026 and more than $66,000 under its record of $126,277, a slide that has kept the bear-market label in view. Its market value stands near $1.2 trillion.

Strategy (MSTR) and Strive (ASST) jump over 10% at times in intraday trading

Bitcoin treasury companies posted sharper gains. Strategy, the software firm turned Bitcoin holder under Michael Saylor, rose close to 7.5% on the day — with highs of 13% during the day. Strive jumped more than 10% at times to $12.02. 

Both trade as leveraged proxies for Bitcoin, and their swings tend to exceed those of the coin. Strive has spent 2026 building a treasury that now tops 16,000 BTC, and the stock has climbed more than 100% across three months.

Earlier this week, Strategy released a new Digital Credit Capital Framework that raised the dividend on its STRC preferred shares to 12%, authorized up to $2 billion in share buybacks, and created a bitcoin monetization program allowing limited BTC sales for specific corporate purposes. 

The company also established a $2.55 billion U.S. dollar reserve to cover preferred dividends and debt interest, with board rules requiring at least 12 months of coverage at all times. Strategy said any bitcoin sales would be limited to replenishing reserves, funding dividends and interest when preferable to issuing equity, or financing stock buybacks, while reaffirming bitcoin as its primary treasury asset.

This post Bitcoin Price Reclaims $60,000 As Strategy (MSTR) and Strive (ASST) Jump More Than 10% first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Shares of Strategy Inc. climbed 14% at times on Monday to roughly $94, their best single-day gain in weeks, after the bitcoin treasury company unveiled a sweeping capital overhaul.

The move marks a significant shift for the company once synonymous with an unrelenting bitcoin accumulation strategy. Strategy’s board approved a new Digital Credit Capital Framework that authorizes up to $1.25 billion in bitcoin sales to fund a newly created U.S. dollar reserve, cover preferred dividend obligations, and service debt. 

The company also authorized $1 billion in common stock buybacks and $1 billion in repurchases of its preferred securities.

The company raised the dividend rate on its Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock, known as STRC, to 12% annually — a 50 basis point increase effective July 1.

Strategy held 847,363 BTC as of June 28, purchased for an aggregate $64.10 billion at an average price of $75,651 per coin. With bitcoin trading near $60,000 Monday afternoon, the company sits on an unrealized loss on its entire stack — context that makes the new monetization framework more than just financial engineering. 

The company said it has approximately $2.55 billion in U.S. dollar reserves, covering roughly 17 months of annual preferred dividend and interest obligations of about $1.76 billion.

The stock had been grinding lower since hitting a high near $200 earlier this year in May, pulled down by bitcoin weakness and broader risk-off pressure. Monday’s bounce, driven largely by the capital plan announcement, brought shares back above $92 intraday, with a session peak near $94.

Other crypto and bitcoin-linked stocks also started the week out strong. 

Nakamoto (NAKA) shares surged more than 10% at points during Monday’s session, among the day’s strongest movers in the crypto equity space. Strive (ASST) climbed over 3.5% at its intraday peak. Coinbase (COIN), by contrast, saw a more muted session — shares up around 2% at their high.

Strategy and bitcoin price action

Bitcoin price shed roughly 6% over the past week, pulling back from a high near $64,400 earlier in the period to trade around lows of $58,800 today — a grind lower that has tracked weakness across broader risk assets.

Bitcoin price has now dropped more than 18% on the month, with the June candle opening near $76,690 and finding no sustained bid on the way down. 

Six straight weeks of ETF outflows, totaling tens of millions in institutional selling, have weighed on the price throughout the stretch. Bitcoin remains below its key 50-month exponential moving average near $65,600, a level that technicians watch as a line between short-term recovery and deeper correction territory.

Bitcoin Magazine is published by BTC Inc, a subsidiary of Nakamoto Inc. (NASDAQ: NAKA)

This post Strategy (MSTR) Surges Over 12% As Bitcoin-Linked Stocks Have Green Day first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Strategy Inc. (MSTR) fell more than 9% at times on Thursday to its lowest level since March 2024, extending a five-day collapse of nearly 30% as Bitcoin broke below $60,000 and a securities investigation targeting the company became public.

Shares of the Michael Saylor-led Bitcoin treasury company hit $85 by midday Thursday, down from above $117 at the start of the week. The stock has now shed roughly 36% over the past month — nearly double the 18.5% decline in Bitcoin over the same period.

On top of this, Rosen Law Firm posted a press release saying it is investigating potential securities fraud claims against Strategy, alleging the company “may have issued materially misleading business information to the investing public.” The probe covers all five of Strategy’s publicly traded securities: MSTR, STRF, STRC, STRK, and STRD. 

The legal pressure compounds a financial squeeze that analysts say stems from Strategy’s own capital structure. 

The company holds 847,363 Bitcoin — the largest corporate stockpile in the world — purchased at an average price that now leaves the entire 2024, 2025, and 2026 acquisition tranche underwater. Unrealized losses on the Bitcoin portfolio stand at approximately $10.6 billion.

Strategy’s preferred stock breaks down

The deeper concern for investors is Strategy’s STRC preferred stock, which has crashed to an all-time low and now trades around $76 — roughly 24% below its $100 par value. The structure matters because Strategy has relied on selling preferred stock to fund ongoing Bitcoin purchases. 

When preferred shares trade below par, that capital-raise mechanism stalls.

As Strategy issued more STRC over the past six months, annual dividend obligations ballooned from $300 million at the start of 2026 to $1.2 billion — a fourfold increase. Cash reserves, meanwhile, fell 38% over the same period. 

CryptoQuant, the on-chain analytics firm, published a note June 23 urging Strategy to stop buying Bitcoin and rebuild its cash position to roughly $2.8 billion before resuming accumulation. The firm said dividend coverage has collapsed from more than seven years to approximately 14 months.

Strategy appears to have gotten the message before the report landed. In the week of June 22, the company bought just 520 Bitcoin for roughly $35 million — a fraction of its prior pace — and routed $300 million of a $335.5 million common stock raise into its cash reserve, lifting it to $1.4 billion.

Saylor has not commented publicly on the investigation or CryptoQuant’s warning.

This post Strategy Stock (MSTR) Nearly Craters Another 10% as Securities Lawsuit Lands first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin price plunged to an intraday low of approximately $58,000 Thursday morning before staging a partial recovery, as a bear market that began after October’s all-time high shows no clear signs of exhaustion — and a closely watched long-term valuation model appears to have broken for the first time in its history.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap was trading around $59,315 as of mid-morning Thursday, down more than 3% on the day and roughly 53% below its October 6, 2025 all-time high of $126,198. 

Bitcoin price rallied as high as $61,868 in the early hours before sellers overwhelmed buyers, sending the price off a cliff in a matter of minutes.

Thursday’s flash crash followed an already bruising 24 hours. On Wednesday, Bitcoin had already traded below $60,000 for a time at the lower support trendline of the Bitcoin Power Law — a long-term valuation model popularized by physicist Giovanni Santostasi that plots price against time on a logarithmic scale and has historically contained all of Bitcoin’s price action for over a decade. 

Analysts tracking the model noted that while Bitcoin has flirted with the floor in past market dislocations — most notably during the March 2020 COVID crash and the FTX collapse in November 2022 — a sustained close below the support band had never been registered until this week.

The bitcoin price support trendline, which drifts upward roughly 0.093% per day as Bitcoin’s network matures, was sitting in the low $60,000s at the time of the breakdown. Thursday’s intraday dip to the $58,000s pushed prices further below that level, deepening the historic deviation.

Whether the breach constitutes a structural breakdown of the model — or a temporary excursion that will ultimately resolve higher — is up for debate. 

Historically, the Power Law Oscillator reaching extreme lows has preceded significant recoveries.

Bitcoin price sell-off

The macro backdrop driving the selloff over the last couple months is well-documented. Spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen outflows in the billions in recent weeks. Strategy sold Bitcoin for the first time in four years, rattling institutional confidence. 

Escalating U.S.-Iran tensions have sent oil prices higher, reviving inflation fears and prompting some Federal Reserve officials to float the possibility of rate hikes rather than cuts.

Capital rotation out of crypto and into AI-related equities has compounded the pressure, with investors chasing a different technology narrative entirely.

With Bitcoin price now sitting more than 50% below its all-time high and the Power Law model in uncharted territory, bulls face a critical test with bears clearly in control. 

This post Bitcoin Price Flash Crashes from $61,000 to $58,000 as Market Waits For Support first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin price has crashed through $60,000, touching lows not seen since October 2024 and erasing months of gains in a matter of days. At press time, bitcoin price trades at $59,566 — down more than 10% in 24 hours and roughly 53% off its all-time high of $126,277 set last October.

The drop has been brutal, fast, and — for many holders — a gut punch that raises a question nobody wants to ask: how much lower can this go? No single event really broke bitcoin price. What happened instead was a convergence of bad news that hit all at once.

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs posted net outflows of approximately $113.8 million as of June 23, marking a fourth consecutive day of withdrawals. BlackRock’s IBIT led the exits with roughly $182 million in outflows, while Fidelity’s FBTC and ARK 21Shares’ ARKB attracted about $23 million and $31 million, respectively.

The Federal Reserve made things worse. With U.S.-Iran tensions pushing crude oil prices higher and reigniting inflation fears, Fed officials began walking back any talk of rate cuts — and some floated the possibility of rate hikes. That sent a clear signal to risk asset markets: the liquidity spigot is closing.

Then came Strategy. The company, long seen as an anchor of corporate Bitcoin conviction with its “never sell” posture, sold 32 BTC between May 26–31. 

This might (or might not) be the end for bitcoin price

Standard Chartered’s Geoffrey Kendrick, Global Head of Digital Assets Research, put out a client note in early June declaring that Bitcoin price’s drop to $59,000 marks the definitive cycle bottom — and reaffirmed the bank’s year-end target of $100,000. That’s roughly 70% upside from current levels. Kendrick tied his conviction to three signals he said needed to materialize: renewed ETF inflows, fresh corporate treasury purchases, and declining oil prices as geopolitical tensions ease.

On June 23, the first of those signals flickered. Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $39.2 million in net inflows — the first positive day after a prolonged bleeding streak — led by ARK 21Shares’ ARKB at $31 million. 

Corporate buyers have not stopped. Strategy purchased 520 BTC for approximately $35 million this week. Strive Asset Management added 759 BTC at an average price near $65,850. These are not panic sells — these are institutional bids placed into a falling market.

On-chain, roughly half of all Bitcoin supply is now underwater. In prior cycles, that crossover has marked the floor — not the beginning of a deeper collapse.

This post Bitcoin Price Collapses to $59,000 — and the Worst May Not Be Over first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Strategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR) shares fell more than 10% Tuesday to $92, a two-year low, as bitcoin cratered below $60,000 and an analyst note from CryptoQuant warned the company has overextended itself and should halt bitcoin purchases before its financial situation deteriorates further.

Bitcoin fell to roughly $59,000 on the day, a drop of more than $6,700 or about 5%, its worst single-day loss in months. The selloff sparked a liquidation cascade across crypto derivatives markets, with roughly $1.1 billion in leveraged positions forcibly closed within a 24-hour window. The move pushed bitcoin below the average cost basis for all of Strategy’s purchases made in 2024, 2025, and 2026 — leaving the company sitting on an estimated $10.6 billion in unrealized losses.

Strategy fell alongside bitcoin, as it almost always does. Shares opened near $103 and shed $10.97 from Monday’s close of $103.84 — the first time the stock has traded below $100 since March 2024.

CryptoQuant: Stop buying, rebuild cash

The slide came on the same day that CryptoQuant published a note calling on Strategy to pause its bitcoin accumulation and restore its cash reserves before buying more. The firm’s head of research, Julio Moreno, identified a set of numbers that tell a story of a company whose capital model is under strain.

Strategy’s annual dividend obligations — the payments owed on its stack of preferred instruments including STRC, STRK, STRF, STRD, and STRE — have grown from roughly $300 million at the start of 2026 to approximately $1.2 billion now, a near fourfold increase in under six months. 

Cash reserves have fallen 38% this year. Dividend coverage, once more than seven years, has compressed to around 14 months. CryptoQuant recommends the company restore cash reserves to roughly $2.8 billion before resuming bitcoin purchases.

The preferred shares themselves are flashing a warning sign. STRC, Strategy’s variable-rate perpetual preferred, has been trading near $84, well below its $100 par value.

When preferred shares trade below par, the capital-raise mechanism that funds bitcoin purchases breaks down — the company can’t issue new preferreds at attractive terms if the existing instruments are trading at a discount.

Strategy’s self-reinforcing cycle, in reverse

Strategy’s model was built on a premium. When MSTR shares trade above the value of the bitcoin on its balance sheet, the company can issue stock or preferred instruments, use the proceeds to buy bitcoin, and push the NAV per share higher — a cycle that rewards existing shareholders. The stock now trades at a discount to its bitcoin NAV, an mNAV of approximately 0.80x. That means both capital taps — common equity and preferred issuance — are constrained at the same time.

The company holds 847,363 bitcoin, acquired at an average price of roughly $75,680 per coin. With bitcoin at $59,324, that gap has widened to more than $16,000 per coin across the entire stack.

Peter Schiff, a longtime bitcoin critic who has watched Strategy’s trajectory, said Tuesday that if MSTR shares continue to fall, Saylor could face pressure to sell bitcoin to meet obligations — a scenario that would put further downward pressure on the asset underpinning the entire structure.

Strategy made its first bitcoin sale in nearly four years in early June, offloading 32 BTC. The company framed the sale as a demonstration that it could cover dividend obligations through asset liquidation. The market’s reaction today suggests investors remain unconvinced.

Whether Saylor pauses purchases, as CryptoQuant recommends, or finds another path forward, the central question now is whether a model built to thrive with a premium and a rising bitcoin price can hold together in an environment where both have reversed.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $59,300, and Strategy shares are near $92.

This post Strategy (MSTR) Stock Craters 10%, Hits Two-Year Low as Bitcoin Crashes Below $60K, CryptoQuant Warns Company to Stop Buying first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin price is trading near $61,500 today, extending a decline that has erased more than half its value since the token hit a record high in October 2025. The sell-off is rippling through publicly traded crypto companies, where losses have at times outpaced Bitcoin itself.

The token fell to $61,877 earlier this week — its lowest level since June 11 — before sliding further. Bitcoin price briefly broke below $60,000 on June 5, a level not seen since late 2024, before a partial recovery that has since stalled.

Deutsche Bank attributed Bitcoin’s weakness to a convergence of institutional pressures. A shift in Federal Reserve expectations — the bank now forecasts two rate hikes in 2026, reversing earlier expectations for cuts — has removed a key pillar of institutional demand. Higher rates make risk assets less attractive relative to cash and bonds.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen six consecutive weeks of net outflows totaling roughly $6 billion, with $2.4 billion leaving in June alone. Deutsche Bank analyst Marion Laboure described Bitcoin as “increasingly trading like an institutional risk asset,” with the marginal buyer now an ETF allocator or corporate treasury rather than a retail participant. When those buyers exit, the price follows.

Competition from artificial intelligence has added pressure. U.S. tech giants are on track to spend more than $700 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026, and investors are treating Bitcoin and AI-linked equities as competing destinations for speculative capital. A tech stock sell-off that began Monday pulled Bitcoin price lower in tandem, with the Nasdaq 100 falling as much as 3.4%.

Blood in the streets for the bitcoin price and for crypto stocks

The pain has been acute for companies that built their business models around Bitcoin accumulation.

Strategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, has fallen for five consecutive trading sessions and is down more than 20% over the past week. 

The stock is off 26% over the past 30 days. A major catalyst came in late May when Strategy sold 32 BTC for approximately $2.5 million — its first Bitcoin sale since 2022 — to cover distributions on its preferred stock. The move shattered the company’s “buy only, never sell” identity and spooked investors. 

Strategy carries five series of preferred stock with combined annual dividend obligations estimated at $750–$800 million, and its cash reserves have fallen from $2.25 billion at the start of 2026 to around $900 million.

Strive, the Bitcoin treasury company backed by Vivek Ramaswamy, has also taken a hit. The company purchased 2,500 BTC for $185 million at an average price of $74,092 — well above current levels — leaving it sitting on paper losses. Shares of Strive (ASST) dropped after the purchase was disclosed, a sign that investors are skeptical of aggressive accumulation strategies at elevated cost bases. 

Strive now holds roughly 19,864 BTC valued at approximately $1.3 billion, and like Strategy, carries preferred dividend obligations that must be paid regardless of where Bitcoin price trades.

Coinbase fell 2.5% on Tuesday. Stablecoin issuer Circle dropped more than 4%.

At the time of writing, the bitcoin price is $61,205.

This post Bitcoin Price Crashes Toward $61,000 as Bloodbath Engulfs Crypto Stocks first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin price climbed above $65,000 Monday morning, caught between a sixth straight week of spot ETF outflows, a hawkish Federal Reserve debut, and a U.S.-Iran peace deal that gave risk assets a short-lived lift.

The move higher came as U.S. and Iranian officials reported progress at peace talks in Switzerland, building on last week’s signed memorandum of understanding that formally ended more than 100 days of conflict. 

The deal reopened the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil flows, and sent crude prices to three-month lows. The initial geopolitical relief pushed the bitcoin price to $66,230 late last week before the macro picture reasserted itself.

That reassertion came in the form of new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, whose first FOMC meeting landed as a hawkish reset. Warsh expressed a strict commitment to returning inflation to the 2% target — a stance shaped in part by May CPI coming in at 4.2%, well above target. 

CME FedWatch now puts the probability of a rate hike at the July meeting at roughly 36%, with markets pricing at least one 25-basis-point increase before year-end. The U.S. dollar index recovered to the 100.6–100.8 range in the wake of the Fed’s tone, a headwind that has historically weighed heavily on the bitcoin price.

Against that backdrop, spot bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. logged a sixth consecutive week of net outflows. Funds bled $226.8 million in the week ending June 18, according to SoSoValue data, bringing the six-week total to $5.94 billion — the longest consecutive weekly outflow streak on record. U.S. spot ETFs have now shed a record $6.35 billion over the past 30 days, per Galaxy Research.

The pace of outflows, however, has slowed. The first week of June saw $1.72 billion leave the funds; last week that figure dropped to just over $226 million. Bitfinex analysts note that funding rates remain subdued and leverage has not expanded, pointing to spot order books — not speculative positioning — as the driver of recent price action. 

“Investors remain cautious given the shift in the macro regime, while institutional and treasury-style buyers continue to provide the marginal bid,” Bitfinex said in a note to Bitcoin Magazine. “That combination points to an under-positioned market rather than an overheated one, leaving room for further upside if spot demand strengthens.”

Bitfinex also flagged a pattern in its margin data: BTC/USD margin longs have been building in a range tracking 10–25% off the recent downside, a positioning pattern that has historically preceded medium-term bottoms, according to the note.

Strategy and Strive stack some sats 

Corporate buyers showed no signs of pulling back. Strategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) disclosed Monday that it acquired 520 bitcoin last week for approximately $35 million at an average bitcoin price of $67,068, its third straight weekly purchase. That brings the firm’s total holdings to 847,363 BTC. The company also raised its USD reserve by $300 million to $1.4 billion to support dividend obligations on its preferred stock program.

In a notable week for the broader bitcoin treasury space, Strive, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASST) out-bought Strategy for the week. The Dallas-based firm disclosed the purchase of 759 bitcoin for approximately $50 million at an average bitcoin price of $65,850 per coin, lifting its total holdings to 19,864 BTC. 

It was Strive’s largest single-week acquisition in recent months and a significant step-up from the 73 BTC it purchased the week prior.

Bitcoin price catalysts

Bitcoin’s options market tells a more nuanced story than the headline price suggests. One-week implied volatility has retreated from 60% to 36%, and the 25-delta put skew has pulled back from its June extremes, suggesting the rush for downside protection has subsided. 

Realized volatility has climbed above implied volatility — 1-month IV near 39% against realized volatility above 42% — meaning recent price swings have outpaced what options markets priced in. A large negative gamma cluster sits near $62,000, where roughly $1.8 billion in short gamma is concentrated.

Options traders continue to pay a premium for downside protection, Bitfinex notes, keeping volatility premium and 25-delta skew metrics elevated even after June’s pullback. 

Bitcoin price sits roughly 50% below its October record of a bitcoin price $126,080, with the next catalysts to watch being any shift in guidance from Warsh or progress on the CLARITY Act through Congress.

This post Bitcoin Price Rises Above $65,000 as ETF Outflows Slow, Iran Deal and Fed Pull in Opposite Directions first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

There is now $15 billion sitting in three securities being marketed to bitcoin holders as the safer, smarter way to access bitcoin exposure: Strategy’s preferred stack, STRC, and SATA. The pitch is identical across all three. Tax-favored. 11.5% income. Backed by bitcoin. Money-market risk. 82.7% of the buyer base is retail. Every word of that pitch is wrong, and the security those buyers actually own is built to fail in exactly the bitcoin environment it claims to harness.

The Pitch Is a Story. The Capital Structure Is the Truth

STRC is an unsecured, subordinated, perpetual preferred equity. No maturity date. No lien on a single satoshi of Strategy’s bitcoin treasury. The dividend is discretionary, which means the board can cut it at any monthly meeting with no notice, no remedy, and no vote. S&P rates the issuer B-, four notches into junk territory. None of that information appears in the marketing.

Stack those features against the words in the pitch. “Backed by bitcoin” describes a security with no claim on a single coin. “Money-market-like” describes an instrument rated four notches below investment grade with no maturity and a discretionary coupon. “Safe income” describes a payment the board controls and the funding source for which is the security itself. Each phrase in the marketing is contradicted by the indenture.

That is not a money market fund. It is speculative-grade credit-like product dressed in safe-income marketing, and 82.7% of it sits on retail balance sheets. Of the $10.7 billion notional outstanding for STRC, roughly $8.8 billion belongs to retail bitcoin holders concentrated in a single junk credit. There is no polite phrase for that exposure. It is a bag, and retail is holding it.

The Funding Mechanism Eats Itself

The structural risk in STRC is not that the dividend is high. It is that the dividend cannot be funded out of the business. Strategy’s underlying software business produces roughly $477 million in annual revenue. Total preferred dividend obligations now exceed $1.2 billion, a ratio of 3.5 to 1. The gap is not closed by earnings. It is closed by issuing new STRC shares at or above par, or diluting common shareholders of MSTR, with the proceeds recycled to pay the existing holders.

That is a reflexive funding loop. It works when STRC trades above par and breaks the moment it doesn’t. Anything that pressures the price, a credit downgrade, a missed dividend, a bitcoin drawdown, a capital markets shutdown, removes the very mechanism the dividend depends on. There is no plan B in the indenture. There is no lien on bitcoin to seize. There is no operating cash flow to redirect. There is only the next share issuance, and the next, until either bitcoin compounds the company out of the problem or the structure jams.

Then there is the dividend ratchet. The coupon has moved monthly from 9% to 11.5%, embedding $268 million in permanent annual obligations into the structure. The rate has only ever moved in one direction. Each monthly increase makes the funding gap wider, the share issuance more dilutive, and the price floor harder to hold. The mechanism designed to keep STRC attractive to new buyers is the same mechanism that compounds the burden on the issuer and accelerates the run on the funding loop when stress arrives.

The Mythical Institutional Buyer and the Math That Buries Him

The standard defense of the Digital Credit category goes like this: surely informed institutional capital is on the other side. Insurance companies need yield. Pension funds need duration. Fixed-income desks need product. Digital Credit is the institutional bridge to bitcoin.

That defense collapses on its own logic. Any institution that allocates to an unsecured, subordinated, perpetual preferred layered on a bitcoin treasury must first underwrite the underlying asset. Any institution that does the work to underwrite bitcoin allocates directly to spot bitcoin, where the credit risk vanishes and the path-dependent fragility goes with it. The institutional buyer who is both informed and rational does not exist in this product. The buyer who does exist, at 82.7% concentration, is retail.

The path-dependency math finishes the argument. Across 5,000 simulated bitcoin paths at a 10% compounding rate, the credit model produces a 12.3% probability of formal default, a 21.9% probability of dividend deferral, and a 50.7% probability of at least one forced bitcoin sale by the issuer during the eight-year cycle. At a 15% compounding rate, STRC has a 44.6% probability of ending below $85 even on paths where bitcoin recovers to new highs.

A bitcoin holder’s terminal wealth depends only on where bitcoin ends. An STRC holder’s outcome depends on every drawdown in between, because the same mechanisms that pretend to protect the dividend in calm conditions become the mechanisms that consume the holder’s principal in stress. The product is most fragile in exactly the bitcoin scenarios the underlying asset absorbs without consequence.

Bitcoin Was Built to Kill This Exact Trade

Bitcoin’s entire reason for existing is the removal of counterparty risk, custody risk, and opacity from monetary holdings. STRC, Strategy’s preferred stack, and similar instruments reintroduce all three under a marketing layer the underlying instrument cannot support. The alternative does not require any of that machinery: bitcoin in self-custody alongside a U.S. Treasury income ladder produces the same cash profile, with more terminal wealth and no corporate issuer in between.

The market will eventually clear the difference between the security retail thinks it bought and the security it actually owns. Anyone reading the cap table and allocating anyway is willingly underwriting Saylor’s funding plan with capital that thinks it bought a money market fund.

This is a guest post by Glenn Cameron, Global Head of Onramp Institutional. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

This post STRC Is Junk Credit in a Bitcoin Costume, and Retail Is Holding $8.8 Billion of It first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Glenn Cameron.

Bitcoin price slipped below key support near $64,000 after a hawkish shift from the Federal Reserve erased gains tied to easing geopolitical tensions, placing the market at risk of a deeper pullback toward the $60,000 range.

The bitcoin price fell from a June 17 high of $66,315 to an intraday low near $62,000 during early June 18 trading, marking a 4% decline. Price action stabilized near $62,500, though momentum remains fragile as macro pressure builds.

The Federal Reserve held its benchmark rate steady at 3.50% to 3.75% but signaled a tighter policy path through updated projections. Policymakers reduced expectations for rate cuts and left open the possibility of further hikes. Chair Kevin Warsh also indicated a shift away from forward guidance, adding uncertainty across financial markets.

The reaction triggered a broad risk-off move. Crypto markets declined alongside equities tied to growth and liquidity, while the U.S. dollar index climbed to its highest level in over a year. Rising yields and a stronger dollar tend to weigh on assets such as Bitcoin that rely on abundant liquidity.

The decline came despite a supportive geopolitical development. The United States and Iran implemented an interim agreement that reopened the Strait of Hormuz and allowed Iranian oil exports to resume. Oil prices fell toward $75 per barrel, a move that would usually support risk assets. 

Bitcoin failed to respond, underscoring the dominance of monetary policy in shaping near-term sentiment.

According to Bitcoin Magazine Pro data, attention has also turned to the upcoming June 26 Bitcoin options expiry, which carries roughly $10.5 billion in open interest. Call options cluster near the $80,000 strike, while put demand has built near $60,000. The current “max pain” level sits near $74,000, far above spot prices, leaving many bullish positions under pressure and increasing the likelihood of hedging flows.

Bitcoin price levels

Bitcoin price momentum has cooled. The relative strength index has moved toward neutral territory, while money flow indicators show reduced buying pressure. 

On the daily chart, Bitcoin price remains below key resistance levels, including the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement near $65,000 and a broader trend resistance near $68,400. Trend indicators continue to favor sellers, reflecting the continuation of the downtrend that began after May highs.

Liquidity data highlights clear battleground levels. Significant clusters of liquidation interest sit above price near $65,000 to $67,000, while downside liquidity concentrates around $63,500 and $62,000. These zones may act as magnets for price as leverage builds.

Market participants are watching whether the $62,000 level can hold. A sustained move below this range could open a path toward $60,000 and the June low below $60,000. A deeper retracement remains possible if macro conditions tighten further, with extreme scenarios pointing toward the $50,000 region based on past cycle behavior.

Institutional flows present another challenge. U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs have recorded outflows in recent sessions, signaling reduced demand from large investors. At the same time, the Coinbase Premium Index remains negative, suggesting weaker buying activity from U.S.-based participants.

There are, however, mixed signals beneath the surface. Large Bitcoin holders have increased accumulation, with wallets holding at least 1,000 BTC reaching their highest levels since March. 

Exchange reserves have also declined, pointing to continued long-term holding behavior.

For now, Bitcoin price appears range-bound between $60,000 and $70,000 as markets search for direction. A reclaim of $65,000 followed by a move above $67,000 could restore bullish momentum and shift focus toward $70,000. 

Failure to hold current support, however, would reinforce downside risks as macro headwinds remain in control.

This post Bitcoin Price Falls to $62,000 as Hawkish Fed Shift Raises Risk of Deeper Pullback first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.