Last week Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, raised $2 billion in a convertible note offering to buy additional bitcoin. Behind the headline figures, there was a reduced conversion premium, which coupled with a discounted pricing on a preferred stock offering in January, raises eyebrows.

Prominent cryptocurrency exchange OKX has reached a settlement with U.S. authorities over its failure to secure the necessary licenses to operate as a money transmitter.

Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade was activated on the Holesky test network on Monday at epoch 115,968 in what was the first major step in stress-testing Pectra before it’s launched on Ethereum’s mainnet.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Market Shows Crypto-Linked Equity Issuance Fatigue
• OKX Reaches $500 Million Settlement with U.S. Department of Justice
• Ethereum Developers Deploy Pectra Upgrade on Holesky Testnet

Market Shows Crypto-Linked Equity Issuance Fatigue

Last week Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, raised $2 billion in a convertible note offering to buy additional bitcoin (BTC). Behind the headline figures, there was a reduced conversion premium, which coupled with a discounted pricing on a preferred stock offering in January, raises eyebrows.

Various publicly-listed companies linked to the sector, including Strategy, MARA Holdings, Core Scientific and Riot Platforms, have resorted to the issuance of debt and/or equity to raise funds to buy additional BTC. 

Activity surrounding these offerings is so large that now accounts for roughly 19% of U.S. equity-linked issuance, according to Bank of America. Manoj Shivdasani, founder and head of research at GSR Research, has said that the recent pricing of these deals “suggests that the market is experiencing MSTR/crypto fatigue.”

Bank of America calculations suggest that since the start of 2024, approximately 17 billion have been raised through equity-linked products by companies directly involved in the cryptocurrency space.  Yan Jin, a senior portfolio manager at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, has warned against potential market saturation.

“You risk saturating the market with crypto paper — at some point the market will get very selective in what they’ll invest in and they’ll only invest in companies that have the lowest cost of Bitcoin acquisition,” Jin said.

OKX Reaches $500 Million Settlement with U.S. Department of Justice

Prominent cryptocurrency exchange OKX has reached a settlement with U.S. authorities over its failure to secure the necessary licenses to operate as a money transmitter.

The OKX affiliate that settled with the U.S. Department of Justice, Aux Cayes Fintech Co. Ltd, is paying $500 million in penalties and forfeited fees, according to a press release. 

The settlement also reportedly resolves allegations of fraudulent and non-compliant activities at the exchange that took place in past years. Per the DOJ, OKX facilitated more than $5 billion in “suspicious transactions and criminal proceeds.”

In February 24 of last year OKcoin, OKX’s American division, received a subpoena issued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which refers to “certain persons engaged in fraud and other unlawful conduct with respect to digital asset transactions.”

Ethereum Developers Deploy Pectra Upgrade on Holesky Testnet

Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade was activated on the Holesky test network on Monday at epoch 115,968 in what was the first major step in stress-testing Pectra before it’s launched on Ethereum’s mainnet.

However, the upgrade wasn’t smooth as developers quickly ran into technical challenges as the network slot from the moment of the activation hasn’t yet been finalized. Ethereum developers are investigating the root cause of the issue.

Holesky is one of Ethereum’s testnets, designed to simulate real-world conditions so developers can test out upgrades before they go live on the mainnet. Pectra, in specific, brings in new changes meant to improve Ethereum’s scalability, security, and usability.

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