[FIX] Strategy Ups Stretch Offering to $2B for BTC

FTX $1.9B Creditor Payout | Poseidon's $15M Raise

Marco Manoppo & Karon Pangestu
July 25, 2025

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Good Morning.

Strategy ramped up its BTC war chest with a $2B preferred stock offering, signaling peak institutional conviction. Meanwhile, FTX, still haunted by its collapse, gears up for a $1.9B creditor payout. One is stacking BTC like it’s 2021, the other is finally paying for it.

In Today's Email:

What Matters: Strategy Ups Stretch Offering to $2B for BTC 👀
Founders Highlight: Alex Smirnov of deBridge 👨
Deal Flow: Poseidon Raises $15M for Physical AI Data 🌊

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Narratives: ETF-driven momentum

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WHAT MATTERS

Strategy Ups Stretch Offering to $2B for BTC

Source: The Block

State of play: Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) raised its Stretch preferred stock offering from $500M to $2B, pricing shares at $90 with a 9% annual dividend. The proceeds will fund more BTC buys.

Last week, Strategy spent $739.9M to acquire 6,220 BTC.
The purchase brings Strategy’s holdings to 607,770 BTC worth $72B+, or about 3% of Bitcoin’s 21M total supply.
Strategy’s market cap is $124B with common stock trading at $414. Analysts say its BTC stash could grow to 900,000 BTC by 2027.

What’s next: Strategy may push toward 900,000 BTC by 2027, tightening supply and reinforcing its influence on the market.

For builders and investors: Expect growing demand for Bitcoin-native infrastructure, custody, and ETF products as institutional accumulation accelerates.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Alex Smirnov of deBridge

Intro: Alex Smirnov is the Co-Founder and the Project Lead of deBridge, a cross-chain interoperability and liquidity transfer protocol that allows the truly decentralized transfer of assets between various blockchains.

Previous background: Before deBridge, Alex founded Phenom, a crypto custody startup focused on secure cold storage and key management for institutions. He was Head of R&D at Navigine (2014–2017), developing real-time indoor navigation systems.

Earlier, he worked as a research engineer at Moscow State University and holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics and Physics from MSU.

The big idea: Alex, through deBridge, is aiming to create a universal infrastructure for seamless, decentralized cross-chain communication and asset transfer.

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INSIGHTS

FTX to Begin $1.9B Creditor Payout on Sep 30

State of play: FTX will start its next creditor payout on Sep 30 after a court approved reducing its claims reserve by $1.9B, freeing funds for distribution. So far, $6.2B has been paid out, with the total plan targeting $14.7B to $16.5B in recoveries.

About 98% of creditors are set to receive at least 119% of their original claims.
Payouts will be made via BitGo, Kraken, and Payoneer.
A controversial motion to forfeit claims in restricted countries was revised by the court to allow alternative transfer options.

DEAL FLOWS

Poseidon Raises $15M for Physical AI Data

AI is moving beyond the browser and into the real world. The bottleneck? Data.
Today we’re announcing a $15M seed round led by @a16zcrypto to build infra that collects, curates, and licenses high-quality data for physical AI.
Incubated by and built on @StoryProtocol.
— Poseidon (@psdnai)
4:09 PM • Jul 22, 2025

Deal flows slowed down this week - we saw $91M in deals 💼

Poseidon has raised a $15M seed round led by a16z crypto to build infrastructure for collecting and licensing real-world data used in physical AI, including robotics and autonomous systems.

Incubated by Story Protocol, Poseidon will serve enterprise AI teams needing curated, traceable datasets.
The round supports scaling data pipelines, IP registration, and expansion into video, audio, biometric, and healthcare data.
Founders Sandeep Chinchali and Sarick Shah aim to solve AI’s growing data bottleneck as models move beyond the digital world.

Deal flows in the past week:

Quack AI, $3.6M Seed Round
Questflow, $6.5M Seed Round
ACM+, $12M Seed Round
Poseidon, $15M Seed Round
DSRV, $11.6M Series B Round
Soluna, $20M Equity Round
xTAO, $22.8M Equity Round

QUICK BITES

OG bitcoin wallet moves 3,962 BTC worth over $460M.
BitMine Immersion’s ETH stash doubles to more than $2B.
JPMorgan says crypto inflows have surged to $60B year to date.
GameSquare purchases CryptoPunk as treasury asset for $5.15M.
Christie's offers $1B in luxury real estate to buyers paying with crypto.
FTX to start next creditor payout on Sep. 30 with $1.9B granted by court.
Anchorage to issue first GENIUS‑compliant stablecoin in US with Ethena.
Strategy upsizes preferred 'Stretch' stock offering to $2B to buy more BTC.
Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen sends roughly $140M in XRP to exchanges.
BlackRock’s ETHA becomes third-ever ETF to hit $10B in assets within a year.

NOTEWORTHY READS

Jordan’s read on Sanctum.
Chilla’s read on Most DAOs Don't Work.
Coinmetrics’s read on More on Canton Coin.

This says so much
— Morning Brew ☕️ (@MorningBrew)
3:17 PM • Jul 24, 2025

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