Stocks

Michael Saylor said on May 24, 2026 that Strategy is temporarily putting Bitcoin purchases on hold while it redirects capital toward debt instruments. The company reported holdings of 84,738 BTC worth about $64.45 billion and said it is also working on balance-sheet actions including a $1.5 billion convertible bond buyback tied to notes due in 2029.

Michael Burry said this week that the U.S. could drift toward a “Snow Crash cyber-punk future” as the SEC prepares rules that may allow crypto platforms to trade tokenized versions of U.S. stocks. He published the warning in a May 19 post on his Substack “Cassandra Unchained,” and later added that regulators should avoid “opening scary doors.” The SEC proposal was reported May 18 and was later paused on May 22, 2026.

BitMine purchased an additional 60,000 ETH worth about $126 million while Ethereum traded near $2,000, taking its holdings to more than 5.2 million ETH valued at roughly $11.1 billion. The buy came as BitMine appeared on a preliminary list for the 2026 Russell 3000 reconstitution, with FTSE Russell's initial data dated May 22 and changes set to take effect at the end of June.

On May 21, Asia-Pacific equities climbed after Nvidia’s record quarterly results lifted regional tech shares, with Japan and South Korea leading while China and India lagged. Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed at 61,684.14 (+3.14%) and South Korea’s Kospi finished at 7,815.59 (+8.42%), as SoftBank rose nearly 20% and Samsung gained 8.5% following a labor dispute resolution.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies increased its Ethereum position by buying $125.9 million in ETH (60K tokens) as ETH traded around $2K after a nearly 15% May decline. LSEG also confirmed Bitmine will appear on the preliminary Russell 3000 Index list ahead of the June rebalancing, a step that could place the stock into Russell 3000-tracking ETFs if it is accepted at the end of June.

Bitcoin fell below $77,000 over the past 24 hours, pressuring treasury-linked stocks such as MicroStrategy (MSTR), which dropped about 3% as risk-off sentiment spread. Peter Schiff criticized MSTR on X over its roughly $64 billion Bitcoin exposure, while the BTC/gold backdrop and Bitcoin ETP flows continued to show relative strength versus gold.

In Q1 2026, Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital opened a major Microsoft (MSFT) position, buying 5,654,078 shares for $2.092 billion. Over the same period, the fund reduced exposure to Uber and Alphabet, and by March 31 it listed Brookfield (BN) and Amazon (AMZN) as its two biggest portfolio holdings.

US spot Bitcoin ETFs saw six consecutive trading days of net outflows totaling $1.26 billion from May 15 through May 22. Santiment argues the pattern has historically acted as a contrarian signal, with heavy outflows often aligning with potential buying opportunities. Bitcoin was around $75,400 when Santiment published its report on May 22.

SoftBank Group shares rose nearly 20% on May 21 and gained another 12% on May 22, lifting its market value by more than $61 billion across the two sessions. The move followed NVIDIA’s May 20 results and was amplified by SoftBank’s exposure to Arm Holdings and its roughly 13% stake in OpenAI, though analysts highlighted holding-company NAV discounts and leverage risk.

WTI crude futures are edging toward $100 per barrel as doubts around a U.S.–Iran diplomatic breakthrough bring back a geopolitical risk premium estimated at $3 to $5 per barrel. Friday's rebound was not enough to prevent WTI and Brent from finishing the week lower, with markets also weighing expected OPEC+ supply increases in July.