BTC hit an intraday high of $82,800, even as Strategy’s chairman opened the door to selling Bitcoin to fund preferred dividends.
Crypto markets rallied for a third day as Middle East de-escalation and accelerating ETF inflows pushed Bitcoin to its highest level in three months.
Bitcoin is changing hands at $81,696, up 6.4% for the week, while the total crypto market capitalization is 0.6% higher at $2.79 trillion, according to CoinGecko.
Among large caps, Solana (SOL) is the standout at $89, up 4% over 24 hours. BNB added 2.7% to $648.5, and XRP is 1.3% higher at $1.43. Ether (ETH) is the sole laggard among the top six, slipping 0.9% to $2,358.
Hyperliquid’s HYPE token, trading at $43.52, leads the seven-day tape among majors with a 9.6% rally.
ETF Flows
Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds added another $467 million on Tuesday, extending a three-session streak that has pulled in roughly $1.63 billion, per SoSoValue data. Cumulative net inflows since the January 2024 launch now stand at $59.72 billion, with total net assets across the 11 funds at $109 billion.
Spot Ether ETFs have joined in after a stretch of outflows through late April, taking in $260 million across the same three trading days and lifting cumulative net inflows to $12.17 billion.
Saylor Curveball
The rally’s most notable speed bump arrived from the company that built its identity on never selling a satoshi. On Monday’s Q1 earnings call, Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor told investors the firm will probably sell a portion of its Bitcoin to fund preferred dividends, framing the move as designed to “inoculate the market.”
Strategy reported a $12.54 billion net loss for the quarter, driven entirely by mark-to-market accounting on its 818,334 BTC stack. The company faces roughly $1.5 billion in annual preferred-dividend obligations across its STRK and STRC instruments and has about 18 months of dividend coverage from existing USD reserves.
