Crypto Currents: Strategy taps new funds as UBS, Chainlink advance tokenization

Strategy is tapping European markets with a new stock offering to fund its ongoing bitcoin accumulation, while analysts are aggressively raising price targets on bitcoin miner Iren after its massive AI deal with Microsoft. Elsewhere, UBS and Chainlink are advancing tokenization, even as the broader crypto market faces a sharp sell-off. Join us at 2 PM ET for your essential briefing on the fast-moving world of cryptocurrency on FlyCast radio, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for the “Crypto Fly By” weekly recap.

STRATEGY TO ISSUE EURO-DENOMINATED STOCK TO BUY BITCOIN: Strategy (MSTR) has announced an initial public offering for a new euro-denominated perpetual preferred stock to fund more bitcoin (BTC-USD) purchases. According to a company announcement, Strategy will offer 3.5M shares of the new security, which will trade under the ticker symbol “STRE”. The offering, which targets European institutional investors, will be managed by a consortium of book-runners including Barclays (BCS), Morgan Stanley (MS), Moelis (MC), and TD Securities (TD). The move comes just after the company announced its latest purchase of 397 BTC for $45.6M, bringing its total holdings to 641,205 bitcoin.

IREN TARGETS RAISED FOLLOWING MICROSOFT AI DEAL: Wall Street is re-rating Iren (IREN) following its $9.7B agreement to supply AI data center capacity to Microsoft (MSFT). Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target to $142, while Bernstein raised their target to $125 and Roth Capital analyst Darren Aftahi increased their target to $94. Bernstein’s analyst noted the deal “cements IREN’s position as one of the few infrastructure players owning its own power assets,” distinguishing it from competitors like CoreWeave (CRWV). The Microsoft deal utilizes only about 10% of Iren’s total power capacity, leaving significant room for scaling.

TRADFI ADVANCES TOKENIZATION AS MARKETS PULL BACK: The aggressive integration of traditional finance and the world of blockchains continues, with UBS (UBS) and Chainlink (LINK-USD) executing the first on-chain redemption of a tokenized fund on the Ethereum (ETH-USD) network. In a separate move, global index provider FTSE Russell is also partnering with Chainlink to bring its benchmark equity and digital asset data on-chain.

Elsewhere, Ripple announced its fourth acquisition of the year, buying crypto wallet and custody firm Palisade to bolster its institutional services. These developments come amid a broad market downturn. According to market data from Yahoo Finance, crypto-linked stocks fell in pre-market trading, including Coinbase (COIN), Robinhood Markets (HOOD), SharpLink Gaming (SBET), and Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR). The drop mirrors weakness in digital assets, with solana (SOL-USD) falling over 16% for the week and BNB (BNB-USD) dropping over 14%.

PRICE ACTION: As of time of writing, bitcoin was trading at $103,178.09, while ether was trading at $3,499.59, according to price data from CoinDesk.