Strategy Raises $2B in Cash

Welcome back to The Warmup.

Happy Monday! This is your daily reminder to buy $BTC ( ▲ 3.3% )  

Here’s what we’re watching:

• Market Snapshot

• Strategy Raises $2B in Cash, Skips Bitcoin Buys

• Solana Validators Vote on Burns

• Calendar

Market: Crypto is outperforming equities, with BTC and ETH up nearly 3% while tech stocks pull back and volatility rises.

Strategy Raises $2B in Cash, Skips Bitcoin Buys

What’s going on:

Strategy sold 18.26 million MSTR shares for roughly $2 billion last week and bought zero bitcoin.

The firm lifted its USD Reserve to $5.1 billion, repurchased $136 million of STRC preferred, and parked the rest in a new $1.59 billion "USD Cash" pool.

Holdings stay at 840,447 BTC, now back in paper profit after the weekly rally.

What it means:

Saylor is prioritizing liquidity and preferred-stock flexibility over immediate accumulation.

The move cushions dividend and interest obligations while keeping dry powder for later.

It also signals that even the purest bitcoin treasury is treating cash as a strategic asset again.

Solana Validators Vote on Burns

What’s going on:

Solana validators opened voting on three proposals that would tighten SOL supply.

Two of them accelerate the annual disinflation rate from 15% to 30% and overhaul fees so daily burns could jump from ~650 SOL to as high as 7,500–9,000 SOL (roughly $800k at current prices). Voting runs through Thursday.

What it means:

Less future issuance and more permanent destruction would reduce long-term supply pressure if network activity holds.

Validator rewards would take a hit, so the outcome tests whether stake-weighted governance favors holders or operators.

A pass would be a clear monetary-policy tightening for SOL; a fail keeps the current inflation path intact.

Key Events this Week

Major token unlocks:

• Worldcoin (WLD): $14.3M unlock today (Aug 24, 0.36% of supply)

• AltLayer (ALT) and Pendle (PENDLE): unlocks on Aug 25

Macroeconomic data calendar:

Wed (Aug 26):

• July Core PCE (Fed’s preferred inflation gauge) → expected 0.2% m/m / 3.3% y/y

• Q2 GDP second estimate

• Durable Goods Orders and Personal Spending

Thu–Sat (Aug 27–29):

• Jackson Hole Economic Symposium (“Financial Innovation: Implications for Payments and Policy”)

Fri (Aug 28):

• Fed Chair Kevin Warsh keynote speech (first Jackson Hole appearance as Chair)

• Final University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment

• Preliminary Benchmark Payrolls Revision

• Chicago PMI

Major Earnings Releases:

• Mon (Aug 24): PDD Holdings, Palo Alto Networks

• Wed (Aug 26): Nvidia, Salesforce

• Thu (Aug 27): Marvell Technology

• 'Upside move in ETH was overdue,' Tom Lee says as Bitmine buys another 32,447 ETH

• Strategy sells $2B in MSTR shares, makes no bitcoin purchases, establishes $1.6B 'USD Cash' pool

• Gemini to provide crypto prediction markets venue for Apex's brokerage clients

Bitcoin just posted one of its strongest weeks in years, ripping higher on Treasury buybacks, ETF inflows, and a massive short squeeze. The move was real. Spot demand showed up and leverage got cleaned out.

Yet the same week Strategy chose to raise billions in cash and sit on the sidelines. That is not bearish. It is the difference between conviction and timing. Institutions are still accumulating, but they are also protecting the balance sheet.

The next test is Jackson Hole and the data that follows. Markets that rally this hard rarely move in a straight line. The long-term setup remains intact. Short-term noise will decide who gets shaken out.

— The Warmup Team

Always do your own research. This newsletter is supplemental material to help educate readers as they make their own decisions. Projects mentioned here are provided to give a potential early-mover advantage.