Strategy Raises $334M, Buys No Bitcoin for Seventh Week

Bitcoin confirmed a weekly candle close below its 200-week moving average, mirroring patterns from the bear market. Bitcoin ETFs recorded $390 million in outflows during the week, keeping pressure on the market despite a brief equity market bounce. Bitcoin options pricing remained elevated despite summer calm, suggesting market participants are pricing in future volatility.

Ethereum developers advanced preparations for the next major network upgrade, with 66 proposals under consideration including a significant privacy-focused enhancement. The upgrade planning comes as BitMine Immersion Technologies disclosed holdings of 4.976 million ETH tokens, with total crypto and cash holdings valued at $12.9 billion.

Strategy Inc ($MSTR) raised $334 million through stock sales but purchased no Bitcoin for a seventh consecutive week, marking the longest acquisition drought since the company began its Bitcoin treasury strategy. The proceeds funded STRC dividends and share repurchases, while $149.1 million was added to Strategy's US dollar reserve, which reached $4.8 billion. Strategy hosted a discussion on the digital asset monetary spectrum and Bitcoin's role as money, emphasizing a long-term mathematical framework rather than short-term price action.

Hedge fund manager Dan Loeb added a major position in Riot Platforms ($RIOT) while exiting positions in Meta, Nvidia, and Broadcom. JPMorgan reported that Anthropic is paying approximately 33% above industry rates for AI data center capacity at $RIOT, highlighting tight infrastructure supply in the sector.

Austrian regulators fined crypto exchange Bitpanda €70,000 in the first published enforcement case under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework, marking a significant milestone in European crypto regulation. The enforcement action signals that regulators are actively implementing MiCA compliance requirements across the bloc.

Reuters reported that Binance supplied transaction records and identity documents to Russian authorities that were later used in a terrorism-financing case against an individual named Yuri Belenkiy. The disclosure raises questions about crypto exchange cooperation with government requests and user data privacy. In Israel, crypto broker Bits of Gold suffered a data breach affecting 200,000 customers.

Harmony announced plans for a blockchain rollback that would wipe 109,000 transactions following an exploit of the ONE token. The protocol stated that selectively restoring transactions could create an inconsistent chain state, prompting the decision for a full rollback. Ravencoin is facing a separate rollback dispute after experiencing its own exploit, highlighting ongoing security challenges across layer-1 networks.

Market participants are closely monitoring whether Strategy will resume Bitcoin purchases after seven weeks of inactivity, particularly given the company's $4.8 billion cash reserve and ongoing discussions about Bitcoin's monetary properties. The trajectory of Bitcoin ETF flows will be critical, following the $390 million outflow week that kept pressure on the market.

Ethereum's next major upgrade remains in focus with 66 proposals under consideration, including privacy enhancements that could address longstanding concerns about transaction visibility on the network. Regulatory enforcement under MiCA is expected to increase following the Bitpanda fine, potentially reshaping compliance standards across European crypto platforms.