Early Riders | Open Range Weekly | 06.08.26
Bitcoin was down (10.9%) this week to a market capitalization of $1.27T
Early Riders Media
On this week's Final Settlement, the team broke down Strategy's first Bitcoin sale since 2022 and what it means for the treasury company trade, Jamie Dimon's fight against the Clarity Act, the trillion dollar Anthropic and OpenAI IPO wave, and stablecoins reaching the mainstream through Cash App and SoFi.
You can find all our episodes on our podcast website as well as listen on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify.
Industry & Institutional Updates
CME Group launched 24/7 digital asset futures and options trading, alongside the first regulated Bitcoin volatility contracts.
Strategy sold 32 Bitcoin for $2.5 million to fund preferred stock distributions, its first Bitcoin sale since 2022, sending shares down over 5%.
Charles Schwab launched near 24/7 Bitcoin futures trading on thinkorswim, the firm's first round-the-clock product across its $12.6 trillion in client assets.
Morgan Stanley partnered with Galaxy Digital to let wealth clients lend digital assets in exchange for spot ETF shares.
Charles Schwab set a mid-2027 target for spot Bitcoin trading and custody across its $10 trillion advisor channel.
Better and Coinbase closed the first Fannie Mae-backed mortgage collateralized by Bitcoin, letting a homebuyer fund their down payment without selling their holdings.
Variant raised $222 million for its fourth fund, targeting AI and digital asset investments under an "autonomy" thesis.
Mastercard expanded its settlement network to support regulated stablecoins including USDC, PYUSD, and RLUSD.
Stripe, Visa, and Mastercard backed a soon-to-debut stablecoin platform, alongside Coinbase.
Revolut announced plans for its U.S. bank to offer stablecoin services alongside FDIC-insured accounts.
JPMorgan, Citi, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo confirmed plans for a shared tokenized deposit network targeting a 2027 launch.
Binance added zero-commission trading of over 7,000 U.S. stocks and plans tokenized shares on its BNB blockchain.
Anthropic filed confidentially for an IPO, days after raising $65 billion at a $965 billion valuation.
Regulatory & Sovereign Updates
The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Nobitex, Iran's largest digital asset exchange, over ties to the IRGC.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent backed the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and urged the Senate to pass the Clarity Act this summer.
Japan's ruling party panel urged the government to promote yen stablecoins across Asia and formalize rules for digital asset ETFs.
Fed Governor Christopher Waller said global stablecoin adoption broadens the reach of U.S. monetary policy, calling CBDCs a solution in search of a problem.
What We're Watching: Bitcoin Enters Deep Value Territory
Bitcoin has fallen 50%+ from its all time high, its seventh time in history thus far. While we are unsure when and where bitcoin will ultimately bottom, every past dip to this one has yielded very strong results.
Buying Bitcoin 6-12 months after an all time high, and while the price is 50%+ off the highs has generated positive returns 2 years after any acquisition, and has generated phenomenal median returns.
Chart of the Week
The cost of getting real work done with AI is collapsing. A task that takes a person one hour cost $301 to complete with AI in 2023 and costs $3.57 today, an 84x decline, while a full day of work fell from roughly $15,600 to $51. Vendors keep undercutting each other on price as the amount of work models can finish on their own doubles every 4 to 7 months, meaning doing more with less has never been easier.
Early Riders is the first bitcoin-denominated venture firm, raising, holding, investing, and returning capital in bitcoin. Learn more about how to get involved www.earlyriders.com.
Make sure to keep up with all our research at earlyriders.com/research.