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Empery Digital sells 1,400 BTC to back $20M AI data center play
Edgen Crypto·Jul 24 2026, 02:40Share to
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[1] Bitcoin Treasury Firm Empery Digital Makes $20M AI Data Center Bet (https://crypto-economy.com/bitcoin-treasury-f ...)[2] BTC treasury firm Empery Digital invests $20M in AI data center developer Cardinal Data Power (https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-treasu ...)[3] Empery Digital Announces $20 Million Strategic Investment in Cardinal Data Power (https://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2026/07/23/104 ...)[4] West Texas data campus is designed to ramp to ~1 GW gross capacity by 2029 - Stock Titan (https://www.stocktitan.net/news/EMPD/empery-d ...)[5] Empery Digital announces $20M purchase of ~8% stake in Cardinal Data Power to back West Texas data campus - TradingView (https://www.tradingview.com/news/tradingview: ...)
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Jul 24 2026, 02:47
Bitcoin slips below $65,000 as Trump's new global tariffs rattle markets
**The Trump administration's sweeping new tariff regime, covering 60 countries and more than 99% of US trade, pushed Bitcoin below the $65,000 threshold for the first time in a week.** Bitcoin fell 1.2% to $64,900 after the Trump administration unveiled tariffs of 10% to 12.5% on imports from 60 countries, effective July 24 at midnight Eastern Time. "The new Section 301 duties replace the temporary 10% global tariff that expires this week and target alleged forced-labor concerns across a broad range of imports," a senior US trade official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The selloff extended a fragile recovery that had lifted Bitcoin roughly 13% from its late-June low near $58,000. On-chain data from Glassnode shows unrealized profit across the network collapsed from about $1.4 trillion at the October 2025 peak to roughly $400 billion by late June — the lowest reading of the cycle. While July brought some relief, with unrealized profit recovering to about $500 billion, the metric remains well below its spring high near $580 billion. The 30-day options delta skew on Deribit stood at 13% as of Monday, meaning put options continued to trade at a premium relative to calls as whales and market makers hedged for further downside. The $69,500 level — the short-term holder cost basis tracked by Glassnode — now represents the first major resistance for bulls to reclaim. A break above that threshold would return most recent buyers to profit, a shift that has historically marked the start of recovery phases. On the downside, the realized price of $52,900 serves as the last major on-chain support; losing it would signal a deeper bear market, with one projection pointing to a potential fourth-quarter bottom near $44,000. **$420 million in leverage unwound as funding rates turn neutral** The tariff announcement triggered a wave of liquidations across major exchanges. Open interest across Bitcoin futures fell as long positions were forced to unwind, with the perpetual futures annualized funding rate dropping to a neutral 8% — flat from a week earlier and well below the 12% threshold that indicates excessive demand for bullish leverage, according to Coinglass data. The muted funding rate suggests traders are reluctant to add directional bets while trade policy uncertainty persists. Spot demand tells a more concerning story. The 30-day sum of spot demand has remained negative all year and is now contracting by about 200,000 BTC per month, according to CryptoQuant. Total demand collapsed to nearly minus 550,000 BTC in early June, the worst reading of 2026. Rallies built on leverage without spot absorption have historically proven fragile. **Strategy and institutional players feel the pinch** Shares of Strategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, fell 4% in Thursday morning trading even as the company announced it had raised $263 million in cash through an at-the-market stock offering, easing near-term concerns about its ability to service its $1.76 billion annual dividend payout. The company also joined a consortium including BlackRock, Coinbase and Fidelity that committed $15 million over three years to fund Bitcoin developer research and post-quantum cryptography. The broader crypto market tracked Bitcoin lower. Ethereum fell 1.8% to $3,412, while the CoinDesk 20 Index declined 1.5%. Bitcoin's dominance rate edged up to 54.3%, reflecting the typical flight to relative safety during macro shocks. *This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.*
Jul 24 2026, 02:41
Bitcoin BIP-110 garners 1% miner support as Back rejects fork fears
**Blockstream CEO Adam Back dismissed the BIP-110 soft fork as a failed attempt, predicting the proposal will collapse within weeks of its August lock-in deadline as miner support remains below 1%.** Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 110, which would temporarily cap arbitrary data embedded in Bitcoin transactions to target Ordinals-style inscriptions, has secured backing from just 0.86% of blocks in the current difficulty period — far below the 55% threshold required for activation, according to signaling data. The proposal faces a mandatory signaling window beginning around block 961,632 in early August 2026, after which miners must formally indicate support or rejection. "Or don't flip the bit => nothing happens, repel idiocracy," Back said on X on July 22, responding to a "flip the bit" activation plan proposed by Bitcoin infrastructure firm Start9. The firm had argued that flipping the bit costs roughly 0.1% of a miner's annual revenue and that refusing risks a chain split, stranded Lightning Network counterparties and lost fee-paying users. Back rejected the framing outright, calling the pushback circular and citing what he termed an IETF-like consensus process that weighs only valid technical objections. The debate has split Bitcoin's developer community for months. MicroStrategy co-founder Michael Saylor warned that the change could sacrifice protocol neutrality, while other developers frame the fight as part of a broader anti-spam debate over what the blockchain should carry. Back predicted the fork would stall almost immediately after mandatory signaling begins, comparing the abandoned chain to a "Pompeii chain" — frozen as a monument to the attempt's failure. Bitcoin traded near $65,495 on July 23, holding within a narrowing range with support at $63,800 and resistance at $67,433, according to CoinGecko data. ## The 'Flip the Bit' Plan and Its Critics Start9 framed the activation as risk-free reconnaissance, arguing that miners could test the proposal without permanent consequences. Back dismissed the premise, saying the signal simply expires without broad backing. The exchange extended an earlier debate over whether Satoshi Nakamoto would have supported BIP-110, with Back rejecting that premise as well and questioning whether anyone can speak for Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator. Major mining pools have largely stayed out of the effort so far. Exchanges and node operators are watching the deadline closely, wary that a contentious activation could split the chain they must support. Back has previously downplayed related claims that the network would forcibly exclude noncompliant miners, pointing critics toward his own fork risk warning for further context. ## What Happens Next The mandatory signaling window opens in early August 2026. If miner support remains below the 55% threshold, BIP-110 will fail to lock in, and the proposal effectively dies. Back predicted the fork attempt would collapse "within weeks" of that deadline, with miners having little economic incentive to continue mining a chain that falls behind in cumulative work. The outcome will determine whether Bitcoin's governance process can absorb contentious proposals without fracturing — a test the network has faced before and will face again. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
Jul 24 2026, 02:37
Stripe's $53B PayPal bid reshapes stablecoin market for crypto
**Stripe's proposed $53 billion acquisition of PayPal would create the largest stablecoin distribution network in crypto.** Stripe and Advent International's $53.4 billion bid for PayPal would combine Stripe's 4 million merchants with PayPal's 439 million active accounts, creating a stablecoin distribution network that could reshape how digital dollars flow through the global economy. "The combination would give Stripe something it cannot buy outright — consumers," Alex Carchidi, a crypto analyst at The Motley Fool, said. "PayPal's 439 million accounts represent the largest non-crypto-native stablecoin distribution channel ever built." Stripe generated $3.2 billion in free cash flow last year, up 52%, on revenue of $6.8 billion. Its Tempo blockchain, launched March 18, processes stablecoin transactions with minimal fees and carries no native token. PayPal's PYUSD stablecoin has a $2.7 billion market cap, with Solana as its default payment network since February. The combined entity would control roughly 60% of the $400 billion in annual B2B stablecoin transaction volume, according to Stripe's disclosures. The deal's outcome will determine which blockchain networks capture the next wave of institutional stablecoin flows. A merged Stripe-PayPal could steer capital toward its own Tempo rail, starving chains like Tron of new volume, while Solana's position remains hedged through its existing PYUSD integration. ## Tempo, PYUSD, and the Race for Stablecoin Rails Stripe's acquisition of Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure provider, for $1.1 billion and its partnership with Paradigm on Tempo signal a deliberate strategy to own the payment stack for digital dollars. On June 30, more than 140 organizations including Stripe, Visa, and Coinbase announced Open USD, a consortium-backed stablecoin launching natively on Solana that shares reserve yield with partners rather than pocketing it. PayPal's board rejected the $60.50-per-share offer on July 20, calling it too low. Stripe and Advent are weighing whether to raise their bid or walk away, according to The Wall Street Journal. PYPL stock slipped about 2% in after-hours trading following the rejection. ## Winners and Losers Among Blockchain Networks The merger would carry immediate consequences for specific tokens. XRP's original use case — efficient cross-border transfers — faces direct competition from Tempo's stablecoin rail, which targets the same enterprise customers with orders-of-magnitude greater consumer reach. Ripple's own Ripple USD is already cannibalizing XRP's institutional pitch. Solana faces a more nuanced outcome. If the merged entity steers stablecoin flows away from Solana toward Tempo, the network loses share of a fast-growing category. But if Stripe uses Solana as the rail to reach PayPal's consumers, capital stays on the chain. Solana's diversified ecosystem, including tokenized stocks and DeFi, provides a buffer either way. Tron, which depends heavily on stablecoin transfer volume, faces the most existential threat. A Stripe-PayPal entity with Tempo as its primary settlement rail could permanently divert new capital away from the network. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.