Bitcoin Holds Near $64K as Franklin Templeton Files Dividend-to-BTC ETF, STRC Slumps 17%

Bitcoin News

Strategy's flagship funding vehicle, the Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock known as STRC, has slid to a deep discount that is straining the firm's Bitcoin accumulation engine. The instrument, engineered to trade near its $100 par through an adjustable dividend now set at 11.5% annualized, touched a record low of $82.53 before closing at $88.59. The widening gap has lifted STRC's effective yield above 12.9% and forced a pause in at-the-market share issuance, the channel Strategy uses to fund purchases for a treasury exceeding 846,000 BTC. Critics including Peter Schiff have revived Ponzi accusations, while the company shifted STRC to a semi-monthly dividend schedule to steady demand.

Bitcoin steadied near $64,000 over the weekend, recovering part of Friday's slide as traders weighed competing geopolitical signals. The asset changed hands around $64,200, up roughly 0.9% on the day but essentially flat for the week after dipping below $63,000. The focus shifted to Switzerland, where US and Iranian officials opened negotiations on a permanent ceasefire following a memorandum of understanding that set a 60-day window. Offsetting the optimism, Tehran issued a renewed order to close the Strait of Hormuz, the shipping chokepoint whose reopening had pulled oil prices down about 9% and lifted risk assets. Ether, solana and tron firmed alongside Bitcoin, leaving crypto range-bound and event-driven.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao reignited the quantum debate by floating whether the community should freeze Satoshi Nakamoto's dormant coins and other vulnerable holdings after a future network upgrade. Zhao framed it as a question, not a personal plan, pushing back on reports he would unilaterally lock the address. The concern centers on exposed public keys: research published this year estimated an attack could require fewer than 500,000 qubits, far below earlier projections, and more than a third of all Bitcoin has revealed a public key on-chain. Satoshi's estimated 1.1 million BTC, worth roughly $70 billion, sits among the most exposed. His view aligns loosely with draft proposal BIP-361.

On-chain data shows Bitcoin network activity climbing to levels last seen in 2024, even as the asset trades nearly 50% below its all-time high of $126,080. Transaction counts now sit just 7% beneath their September 2024 peak, marking the first sustained above-trend regime since mid-2024. The economic weight of that activity is thin, however: transfers below 0.01 BTC and 0.001 BTC together account for roughly 80% of daily transactions, up from 44% in 2023. Analysts attribute the surge to protocol-driven uses such as OP_RETURN data inscriptions, time-stamping services and on-chain collectibles, which generate high volumes of dust-value transfers while the price drifts lower, down about 17% over the month.

Bitcoin miner Bitdeer underscored the industry's pivot toward artificial-intelligence infrastructure in its latest operating update. The company's investor-relations disclosure reported 921 BTC mined in May 2026, a 370% year-over-year jump, yet it ended the month holding just 171 BTC, down sharply from 1,351 a year earlier. Self-mining hashrate scaled from 13.6 EH/s to 70.2 EH/s, while AI cloud annualized recurring revenue reached about $69 million. The diverging figures sharpen a sell-pressure question facing ASIC mining firms: rising AI income may serve as a cash buffer that reduces forced coin sales into weak mining economics, but the shrinking balance shows how much liquidity still flows from converting freshly mined Bitcoin.

Institutional appetite showed fresh strain as US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded their largest 30-day net outflow since launching in January 2024. The funds shed roughly $6.35 billion over a trailing 30 trading days and logged a sixth consecutive week of redemptions, trimming cumulative net inflows to $53.4 billion from a $63 billion peak in October 2025. The exodus coincided with a 17% monthly price decline and persistent bear market pressure from firmer US inflation and Middle East tensions. Industry executives cautioned that daily flows can reflect routine reallocation between products rather than a wholesale retreat, maintaining that long-term institutional conviction in Bitcoin remains intact despite the volatility.

COINOTAG's proprietary 42-indicator composite scoring engine (as of 13:32 UTC) rates the $64,274 resistance at 78/100, the strongest near-term ceiling, driven by the confluence of the daily Pivot Point, Fibonacci 0.214 and the prior-day high, with the next barrier at $68,191 scoring 61/100 on EMA 50 and Fibo 0.382. Immediate support at $63,807 carries a 67/100 STRONG rating from HVN 5, SMA 20 and the Bollinger middle band, while $61,834 (66/100) marks the line that would invalidate any recovery thesis. Derivatives positioning reads cautious: funding sits slightly negative at -0.0012%, open interest holds near $11.6 billion and the long/short ratio of 1.70 shows 63% long. With RSI at 40 and Fear & Greed at 23 (Extreme Fear), a reclaim above $64,274 favors bulls, while a break of $61,834 reopens downside.