Strategy has authorized the issuance of up to $44 billion in new equity to continue funding its Bitcoin acquisition program. The authorization is divided across three instruments: $21 billion in common stock under the ticker MSTR, $21 billion in STRC preferred shares, and $2.1 billion in STRK preferred shares. The move is intended to sustain the company’s ongoing Bitcoin-buying strategy even as the pace of purchases had briefly slowed. Bitcoin showed little reaction to the announcement, holding steady at $70,500 on the day.
STRC accounts for nearly half of the total equity authorization and has emerged as a key fundraising vehicle for the company. Strategy recently raised the monthly dividend on STRC to 11.5%, which triggered a surge in demand and helped support significant Bitcoin purchases earlier in the month. Through STRC alone, the company has raised more than $1.5 billion this month. The expanded authorization signals that Strategy intends to keep scaling its Bitcoin holdings through continued capital market activity.
On the regulatory front, The Wall Street Journal reported that lawmakers are preparing a bipartisan bill that would ban sports betting on prediction market platforms. The legislation would specifically target sports-related markets rather than the broader prediction market category. The bill would directly affect platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket, both of which have expanded aggressively into sports markets. Sports betting represents 70 to 85 percent of Kalshi’s total weekly volume and 35 to 40 percent of Polymarket’s total volume, making the stakes significant for both companies.
The timing of the proposed legislation is notable, arriving just as Kalshi completed a $22 billion fundraising round and the prediction market sector has been experiencing rising volumes and new partnerships. State gaming regulators contend that sports-related prediction market contracts constitute gambling and should be regulated accordingly. The platforms counter that their products are federally regulated event contracts subject to derivatives oversight. Congress now appears prepared to resolve that dispute through direct legislation.
Separately, Polymarket unveiled several updates on the same day the WSJ report emerged. The platform launched a new referral program open to traders with more than $10,000 in volume, offering rewards of up to 30 percent. It also introduced a revised fee structure that varies by market type and probability, with fees peaking at 1.8 percent for crypto markets. Polymarket additionally updated its insider-trading policies and highlighted a multi-layered monitoring system designed to flag suspicious activity. The company has also disclosed a partnership with Palantir to build surveillance infrastructure for sports-focused prediction markets. Kalshi, meanwhile, announced a ban on athletes, coaches, and politicians from trading on markets related to their own activities.
Coinbase faced user backlash after sending repeated push notifications promoting March Madness sports predictions. The complaints spread widely on X, becoming a trending topic, with many users arguing the notifications resembled sports-gambling advertisements rather than typical crypto exchange communications. The platform’s app homepage was also prominently displaying a March Madness promotion. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong acknowledged the criticism publicly, calling it a fair point, and committed to adding more notification customization options for users.
In a separate development, Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a 12-page letter to Beast Industries raising concerns about the potential introduction of crypto features on Step, a teen-focused banking app associated with the online personality MrBeast. Warren’s letter focused on Step’s prior crypto activity, noting that the platform had previously marketed itself as the first U.S. service to allow teenagers, with parental consent, to purchase digital assets including Bitcoin, and had later expanded access to dozens of cryptocurrencies and NFTs. The senator raised concerns about the potential exposure of a large youth audience if crypto features were reintroduced. Beast Industries recently received a $200 million investment from BitMine.
Originally reported by Decrypt.
