Early Riders | Open Range Weekly | 7.27.25
The capital markets have embraced Bitcoin (and "digital assets") with open arms. Block was added to the S&P 500, Strategy issued the largest preferred IPO of the decade, and Bitgo confidentially filed to go public. With the growing institutional interest in bitcoin and successful recent IPO of Circle, it is clear that companies in the digital assets industry will likely look to take advantage of the open IPO window. At the same time, Galaxy issued one of the largest ever OTC desk sales of Bitcoin, and the price barely budged when considering bitcoin's typical volatility.
Bitcoin Update
Bitcoin ended the week roughly flat, despite a mid-week dip attributable to a large OTC sale of a Satoshi-era investor.
Early Riders Media
Michael, Brian, and Liam discuss the latest in bitcoin adoption amid volatility, public corporate adoption, and capital mismanagement on this week's podcast.
You can find all our episodes on our podcast website as well as listen on YouTube and Spotify.
Industry & Institutional Updates
Block (NYSE: SQ) was added to the S&P 500, the first firm offering Bitcoin-only products and services, and the third with Bitcoin on its balance sheet.
Square simultaneously began onboarding sellers to its new Bitcoin point-of-sale payment service, driving a 14 % weekly move in shares.
PNC Bank and Coinbase announced a strategic partnership to expand digital‑asset services and provide banking rails for Coinbase itself.
Strategy upsized its “Stretch” IPO to almost $2.5B, to compete with which would be the largest preferred IPO of the last decade.
BitGo confidentially filed for an IPO, following Circle’s NYSE debut and highlighting the capital markets interest in crypto infrastructure firms.
JPMorgan is developing a crypto‑backed lending product, allowing clients to pledge digital assets directly for dollar financing, which could be live by next year.
Galaxy Digital executed a single block trade of 80,000 BTC (~$9 B) for a long‑time holder, one of the largest notional Bitcoin transactions ever recorded. PR Newswire
India’s largest exchange CoinDCX disclosed a $44 M exploit, despite offering proof of reserves the previous month reminding holders of custody risk even amid broad adoption.
Regulatory Updates
The American Bankers Association sent a letter to the OCC urging caution on nonbank trust‑charter applications for crypto companies and outlining supervisory considerations.
Senate Republicans released a crypto market‑structure discussion draft intended to build on the House‑passed CLARITY bill ahead of formal introduction.
President Donald Trump posted the "Greatest Bitcoin explanation of all time", a historical clip from Peter Van Valkenburgh.
Chart of the Week
Strategy appears to be building out their preferred stock offerings with different durations with the intent to outcompete the bond market.
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