Michael Saylor's MicroStrategy Buys Bitcoin for $786M

Michael Saylor's MicroStrategy Buys 11.9K Bitcoin for $786M

MicroStrategy has purchased an additional 11,931 BTC for approximately $786 million, at an average price of $65,883 per bitcoin, increasing its total holdings to 226,331 BTC, valued at nearly $15 billion. The company's founder, Michael Saylor, stated that the overall average purchase price for their holdings is $36,798 per bitcoin, costing around $8.33 billion in total.

This acquisition, following a March purchase of 9,245 BTC for $623 million, solidifies MicroStrategy's holdings at over 1% of the total 21 million Bitcoin supply. The latest acquisition was financed through an $800 million convertible senior note offering, which was increased from an initial $500 million due to strong market interest.

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LayerZero Users Must Donate 10 Cents per ZRO Airdrop

LayerZero has introduced a new mechanism called “Proof-of-Donation” for claiming its ZRO token airdrop, requiring eligible users to donate $0.10 per ZRO in USDC, USDT, or ETH, aiming to raise up to $18.5 million for the Protocol Guild. The claims are open from June 20 to September 20, with the LayerZero Foundation matching donations up to $10 million.

Protocol Guild, a non-profit for Ethereum core researchers and developers, will vest the donations over four years. While LayerZero emphasizes the alignment with Ethereum’s growth and the crypto ecosystem, the mandatory donation has faced criticism from the community, with some comparing it to a glorified ICO and suggesting support for smaller initiatives instead.

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BNB Chain Activates BEP 336, Reducing Fees by 90%

BNB Chain activated its Haber hard fork, implementing BNB Evolution Proposal (BEP)-336 to optimize data storage and processing. Announced on June 20, the hard fork aims to reduce blockchain fees by 90%, inspired by the Ethereum EIP-4844 update, and introduces blob-carrying transactions to streamline the verification process.

BEP-336 is expected to slash Layer 2 costs on the BNB Smart Chain by 90%, with opBNB network fees dropping to around $0.0001. Unlike Ethereum’s burning mechanism, BSC’s pricing mechanism is tailored for its network without burning base fees within blobs. Additionally, the update will enhance BNB Greenfield, a decentralized storage solution.

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US CFTC Probes Trading Firm Jump's Crypto Operations

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is investigating Jump Trading's cryptocurrency activities, including trading and investing, as reported by Fortune. Jump Trading, previously linked to supporting the TerraUSD stablecoin during its 2021 de-pegging, has not commented on the investigation, and the CFTC has also not responded to requests for comment.

This inquiry is part of a broader effort by both the CFTC and the US Securities and Exchange Commission to increase enforcement actions against crypto-related entities, which has included charges against major platforms like Binance and FTX. Neither the CFTC nor Jump has responded to requests for comments on the case yet.

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Data of the day

According to data by Artemis, sector performance in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space over the past month shows a predominantly negative trend, with an average decline of 21.1%. AI, NFT Applications, and Bridge sectors experienced the steepest drops, with AI plummeting by 38.1%.

In contrast, the RWA (Real-World Assets) sector saw a hefty increase of 33.3%, and Staking Services rose by 7.8%. Bitcoin and Ethereum also faced declines, with losses of 7.3% and 7.0%, respectively. Overall, most sectors underperformed, while a few showed notable gains.

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More breaking news

• Midas has launched mBASIS, a yield-bearing token that generates returns through a delta-neutral basis trading strategy, aiming to compete with Ethena's sUSDe.
• Blast said its token airdrop activity will start in a week with users having Gold or points in EOA having to to log in to the Blast dashboard at least once to be eligible.
• Winklevoss twins donated $1 million each in BTC to Donald Trump's presidential campaign, while their Gemini exchange will now facilitate crypto contributions.
• Italy is set to ramp up surveillance of the crypto markets as part of its compliance with the Europe's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulatory framework.
• Kraken confirmed the return of the stolen digital assets worth nearly $3 million, putting an end to the Kraken-CertiK saga that started on June 9.

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