According to a company representative at the BTC Prague conference, German-based telecommunications firm Deutsche Telekom has announced plans to enter the Bitcoin mining space.

Nasdaq-listed business intelligence firm MicroStrategy announced the pricing of a $700 million debt offering due in 2032 to fuel further Bitcoin purchases after initially planning to raise $500 million.

The cryptocurrency industry has witnessed a decade of venture capital pouring in, with estimates placing the total funding north of $100 billion after a recent pick-up in investment amid a cryptocurrency market rally.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• T-Mobile US Owner Deutsche Telekom Ventures Into Bitcoin Mining
• MicroStrategy Raises Debt Offering to $700M to Expand Bitcoin Holdings
• Crypto Startup Funding Surpasses $100 Billion Over a Decade

T-Mobile US Owner Deutsche Telekom Ventures Into Bitcoin Mining

According to a company representative at the BTC Prague conference, German-based telecommunications firm Deutsche Telekom has announced plans to enter the Bitcoin mining space.

Dirk Röder, head of Web3 infrastructure and solutions at Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Systems MMS, revealed the company's foray into BTC mining stating the firm has been operating a Bitcoin node since 2023, alongside Bitcoin Lightning nodes, and adding that with a “heart full of pride” he was sharing it will “engage in ‘digital monetary photosynthesis’ soon.”

Following Röder's remarks, Bitcoin influencer Joe Nakamoto sought clarification, asking directly, "So, is T-Mobile mining Bitcoin?" Röder responded definitively, "We will."

In the past, Deutsche Telekom has established partnerships with other blockchain projects including Polkadot, Flow, and Celo. In 2022 it announced support for for Ethereum by running a validator node and cooperating with the liquid staking protocol StakeWise, joining the project’s governance DAO.

The company has also made direct investments in tokens associated with the Polkadot and Celo networks, while operating nodes on both. It has also run a validation node for Polygon and supported the Q and Chainlink blockchain protocols.

MicroStrategy Raises Debt Offering to $700M to Expand Bitcoin Holdings

Nasdaq-listed business intelligence firm MicroStrategy announced the pricing of a $700 million debt offering due in 2032 to fuel further Bitcoin purchases after initially planning to raise $500 million.

In a press release, the company detailed that convertible senior notes will be sold in a private offering to qualified institutional investors, and that high investor demand prompted the increase in offering size.

MicroStrategy plans to allocate a portion of the net proceeds, estimated at $687.8 million after deducting initial purchasers’ discounts, to acquiring more Bitcoin for its treasury.

The company has already amassed a significant amount of Bitcoin and is now the world’s largest corporate holder of BTC with roughly 214,400 coins valued at approximately $14 billion as of the latest filings.

The notes will carry a 2.25% annual interest rate and mature in June 2032, with MicroStrategy retaining the option to redeem them early under specific circumstances after June 2029.

Crypto Startup Funding Surpasses $100 Billion Over a Decade

The cryptocurrency industry has witnessed a decade of venture capital pouring in, with estimates placing the total funding north of $100 billion after a recent pick-up in investment amid a cryptocurrency market rally.

Data from DeFiLlama suggests the total raised could be as high as $101 billion since 2014, while The Block Research puts the figure closer to $95 billion starting from 2017. Venture capital and token sales have been crucial fuel for the crypto sector's growth, but the billions invested haven’t always translated into success stories.

Traditional exits, like major acquisitions or public listings, have been scarce and, according to Pantera Capital’s Paul Veradittakit have “taken longer than I think you normally expect from traditional VC. Coinbase's 2021 direct listing stands as a rare exception.

Adding to investor scars are high-profile failures like FTX and BlockFi, which have led some big players like Tiger Global and Temasek to retreat from the space, with the latter writing down a hefty stake in FTX after its collapse, and saying last year it had no plans to invest in crypto exchanges.

Looking at dealmaking, Coinbase Ventures leads the pack with the most investments since 2017, with the most recent quarter seeing a rise in crypto venture funding to $2.5 billion, coinciding with a broader crypto market rally.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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