Bitcoin Climbs Toward $82K as STRC Tops $1B, Strive Unveils Daily Dividends, CLARITY Act Advances

Bitcoin News

Bitcoin extended its rebound on Thursday, climbing toward $82,000 with intraday volume above $1 billion as a major U.S. crypto framework cleared a critical Senate Banking Committee vote. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act advanced 15-9, splitting trading and stablecoin oversight between the SEC and CFTC while establishing registration and disclosure rules for exchanges, brokers, and custodians. Chair Tim Scott framed the markup as the end of a prolonged regulatory gray zone, while Senator Cynthia Lummis described it as the most technically demanding bill of her career. Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren countered that the framework dilutes consumer protections and revives pre-2008 risk patterns inside the banking system.

Strive Inc. disclosed a structural shift for its SATA preferred stock, which will become the first U.S.-listed security to pay cash dividends every business day starting June 16. The annual coupon stays at 13%, but daily compounding lifts the effective yield to roughly 13.88%, according to investor materials. The firm reported a first-quarter net loss of $265.9 million tied to a $295.8 million markdown on its 15,009 BTC treasury, currently valued near $1.2 billion. Strive also confirmed it has eliminated outstanding long-term notes, repositioning a debt-free balance sheet around a yield-design experiment modeled on Strategy's STRC instrument.

Strategy's STRC preferred stock pushed past a notable threshold, with the live issuance tracker showing more than $1.24 billion in cumulative volume and an estimated 11,709 BTC acquired through the program. The structure targets issuance equal to roughly 26 times daily Bitcoin supply, an effective yield near 11.5%, and proceeds capture close to 80%. Delphi Digital researchers separately warned that STRC is approaching its $28.3 billion authorized issuance cap, which could throttle accumulation unless the company expands capacity or leans harder on common-stock sales. Strategy's market net asset value ratio sat at 1.25x, down from 2.11x a year earlier.

On exchange microstructure, BTC/USD on Coinbase traded at a 0.03% discount to BTC/USDT pairs on Binance, OKX, and Bybit over the past week, reversing the 0.04% premium logged in April. The signal frequently gets read as fading institutional bid, but stablecoin dynamics offer a cleaner explanation: USD-pegged stablecoins are quoted at a 0.6% discount to the official USD/CNY rate, pointing to outsized demand to exit crypto positions into fiat. Coinbase net deposits averaged just $58 million per day, insufficient to confirm material spot selling pressure from U.S. wallets.

Kraken confirmed it will migrate its kBTC wrapped Bitcoin product from LayerZero's messaging stack to Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol, citing enterprise-grade security and risk requirements. The kBTC token, backed 1:1 by Bitcoin in Kraken custody, carries a market capitalization near $266 million, and the exchange said all future wrapped assets will run on CCIP. The move extends a steady migration following last month's $292 million Kelp DAO exploit, with Solv Protocol previously committing to shift roughly $700 million in Bitcoin-linked assets onto Chainlink rails. LayerZero publicly acknowledged a configuration error tied to the Kelp setup.

JPMorgan analysts argued that ether and broader altcoin underperformance versus Bitcoin is unlikely to reverse without a measurable lift in on-chain activity, DeFi usage, and real-world adoption. Spot Bitcoin ETF products have clawed back roughly two-thirds of their prior outflows, while spot ether ETFs have recovered only about a third. CME futures positioning shows institutional Bitcoin exposure nearly fully restored, with ether structurally lighter. Separately, Onramp closed a $12.5 million Series A at a $135 million valuation to scale its Multi-Institution Custody model, now holding over $1 billion in assets with partners including BitGo, Coincover, and Tetra Trust.

BTC trades near $81,391, up 2.55% on the day with a $1.63 trillion market cap and $22.5 billion in turnover. Immediate candlestick structure puts first support at $80,793, with deeper buyers expected near $79,335 and $77,580. Resistance sits at $82,562, then $83,910, with the $89,065 zone marking the macro pivot. RSI at 60.73 leaves headroom before overbought territory, though the MACD remains bearish and trend reads sideways, suggesting price action is mean-reverting inside a range. A daily close above $82,562 would invalidate the bearish momentum read; a break below $79,335 would reopen $77,580 as the next demand shelf.