Sen. Moreno calls crypto bill talks ‘decently frustrating’ as Senate races toward year-end goal posts

The Solana price is entering a decisive phase as its action tightens below the $140 barrier, a level that has repeatedly capped attempts at recovery. After months of sustained selling pressure and increased whale activity, the market is now watching whether Solana can hold its recent gains or slip back toward lower support zones.

Related Reading: What’s Happening With XRP And Why Did Its Spot ETF Crash 20%?

This comes at a time when analysts, on-chain trackers, and market participants are also assessing the broader influence of KOL (Key Opinion Leader) predictions, many of which have dramatically misaligned with Solana’s actual price trajectory over the past two months.

By Stephen Nakrosis

Fintech company Netcapital named Richard Wheeless as the company's next chief executive officer.

He will succeed Martin Kay, who will remain as an adviser to the company.

Netcapital also said it would expand beyond traditional securities into crypto and blockchain-enabled investments.

Prior to joining Netcapital, Wheeless was chief financial officer at Taal Distributed Information Technologies. Before that, he was CFO at Rivetz, LaunchKey and Pilus Energy, Netcapital said.

Wheeless also held managerial positions at Johnson & Johnson and Cardinal Health.

Write to Stephen Nakrosis at stephen.nakrosis@wsj.com

In her latest move to update financial markets, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Acting Chair Caroline Pham debuted a "digital assets pilot program" allowing certain cryptocurrencies to be used as collateral in derivatives markets. 

At the onset, the pilot program will be limited to bitcoin, ETH, and USDC, Pham said on Monday. 

"As I’ve said before, embracing responsible innovation ensures that U.S. markets are the world leader, and drives progress that will unleash U.S. economic growth because market participants can safely put their dollars to work smarter and go further," Pham said in a statement. 

Pham, the agency's lone commissioner, has forged ahead with defining the derivatives regulator's stance on crypto. Last week, Pham announced that Bitnomial had become the first exchange to list regulator-approved spot crypto products. Previously, Pham launched the "Crypto Sprint" program to clarify rules for crypto and floated the idea of piloting a digital asset regulatory sandbox in the U.S.

Monday's announcement builds on a CFTC initiative in September to expand the use of tokenized collateral, particularly stablecoins, in derivatives markets. 

In a letter posted by the CFTC in response to Coinbase, the CFTC said futures commission merchants (FCMs) involved in the crypto collateral program would have to file weekly reports on the total amount of digital assets held in customer accounts, such as futures and cleared swaps. FCMs would also have to report any "significant operation or system issue, disruption, or failure" affecting the digital assets being used as collateral, according to the letter.

"The CFTC's decision confirms what the crypto industry has long known: That stablecoins and digital assets can make payments faster, cheaper, and reduce risk,” Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal said in a statement.

On Monday, the CFTC also withdrew a staff advisory that restricted an FCM's "ability to accept virtual currencies as customer collateral," noting the GENIUS Act regulating stablecoins made it outdated since it passed into law over the summer.

Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.

© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Ethereum is up $61.13 today or 1.98% to $3148.09

• Largest percentage increase since Dec. 3, 2025, when it gained 5.64%
• Up three consecutive days, up 4.28% over this period
• Up 4.21% month-to-date
• Down 5.88% year-to-date
• Down 36.47% from its all-time intraday high of $4955.23 on Aug. 24, 2025
• Down 14.94% from 52 weeks ago (Dec. 9, 2024), when it traded at $3701.03
• Up 118.16% from its 52-week intraday low of $1387.85 on April 9, 2025
• Traded as high as $3176.90
• Up 2.91% at today's intraday high

Note: The Ethereum price is a 5 p.m. ET snapshot from Kraken

Data compiled by Dow Jones Market Data

By Frances Yue

Strategy said on Monday it bought nearly $1 billion of bitcoin last week, its biggest single-time purchase since July. Skeptics were worried the company might struggle to raise additional capital.

Strategy's Executive Chairman Michael Saylor has been pushing forward the company's bitcoin purchase strategy.

Michael Saylor's bitcoin treasury company Strategy on Monday said it bought another roughly $1 billion of bitcoin last week, its biggest single-time purchase since July, defying skeptics who had worried the company might struggle to raise additional capital to expand its crypto holdings.

Analysts said the move could help bolster a beleaguered bitcoin (BTCUSD) market that has fallen 29% from its record peak in October. Yet the purchase also highlights a deeper question about how Strategy (MSTR) sustains its model.

Strategy's latest acquisition does not simply reflect Saylor's personal conviction in bitcoin, but shows a structural need for the company, according to Louis LaValle, co-founder and chief executive at crypto investment-management company Frontier Investments. "Michael Saylor having conviction in bitcoin and buying it is not what's happening here. He needs to [raise money to buy bitcoin] to keep the engine running," LaValle said. "He almost has to keep buying at this point." LaValle does not have any Strategy exposure.

Strategy did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Originally a software business, Strategy pivoted to a different playbook in 2020 by raising equity and debt to buy bitcoin, making the crypto the core of its balance sheet. Some investors have been drawn to Strategy's shares as a way to gain bitcoin exposure without holding the cryptocurrency directly. Strategy also acts as a leveraged bitcoin vehicle, meaning that gains and losses can be magnified.

Strategy disclosed on Monday it bought 10,624 bitcoins from Dec. 1 to Dec. 7 for $962.7 million, bringing its total holdings to 660,624 bitcoins, or roughly 3.3% of the crypto's current supply, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The purchase was funded by proceeds from sales of the company's common shares and perpetual preferred stock.

LaValle at Frontier said the company's sizeable financial obligations were likely a key driver. Notably, in addition to its debt payments, Strategy now faces roughly $800 million in total annualized dividend obligations across its outstanding perpetual preferred shares, based on the company's investor presentation as of Dec. 1.

In LaValle's view, Strategy does not generate enough sustainable cash flow to repay the dividends each year, and therefore must rely on selling stock to meet those obligations. Strategy moved to establish a $1.44 billion U.S.-dollar reserve last week to support dividend payments on its preferred stock and interest. That reserve was funded through proceeds from the sale of common shares.

But that also makes ongoing investor demand for Strategy's shares critical to the company's survival.

"To sell stock at a high enough price to pay that bill without obviously destroying the company, Saylor has to keep hyping up that he would buy more bitcoin," LaValle said. Saylor has built a narrative that Strategy could be a perpetual bitcoin-accumulation vehicle, and maintaining that narrative is essential to keep its stock appealing, he added.

"If Saylor goes [to investors] and says, 'I'm no longer buying bitcoin,' he completely flips the narrative. You can almost think about it like a shark, and if he stops swimming, he dies," LaValle said. However, LaValle also thinks that there's a good chance that Strategy could face liquidity issues at some point, if bitcoin price keeps going south.

Strategy's shares rose 2.6% to $183.69 on Monday, but were 61.2% off their record high at $455.90 reached on Nov. 20, 2024.

The appeal of Strategy's shares has been fading lately, with the stock trading below the value of the bitcoin it holds since November, reversing the premium it previously enjoyed, according to data provider BitcoinTreasuries.net. The company's shares are trading at a 12% discount to the value of the bitcoin it holds as of Monday, compared with a premium of as much as 700% in 2020.

Yet Mark Palmer, senior research analyst at the Benchmark Company, said Strategy's latest bitcoin acquisition signals the company remains committed to its crypto accumulation strategy.

Palmer added that the move also helps restore confidence in Strategy's ability to raise capital. "The fact that Strategy was able to sell both common equity and preferred means that there's a market for its securities," he said in a phone interview.

Meanwhile, "Strategy making a purchase of this size is a bullish signal" for a sluggish bitcoin market, he added. Bitcoin rose 1.2% on Monday afternoon to trade at around $91,310, according to MarketWatch data.

-Frances Yue

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

Over the past two weeks, Bitcoin price repeatedly revisited the $90,000 range as retail investor sentiment improved, fund managers restated their bullish expectations for a potential end-of-year rally, and Strategy announced a sizable BTC purchase. 

According to VanEck head of digital asset research, Matthew Sigel, Bernstein wrote that “the Bitcoin cycle has broken the 4-year pattern (cycle peaking every 4 years) and is now in an elongated bull-cycle with more sticky institutional buying offsetting any retail panic selling.” 

Bernstein’s comments follow BlackRock chair and CEO Larry Fink mentioning that sovereign wealth funds are “incrementally” buying Bitcoin as it “has fallen from its $126,000 peak.” 

Fink said, 

Mirroring Fink’s and Bernstein’s view, on Monday Strategy announced a fresh 10,624 ($962.7 million) purchase of Bitcoin at an average $90,615 per coin. Bitwise European head of research Andre Dragosch noted that Strategy’s purchase “was the biggest amount since July 2025.”