Michael Saylor's Bitcoin Buying Spree & Hyperliquid Rally Continues

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Saylor’s Strategy Bitcoin Buying Spree Continues

Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, continues to buy lots of Bitcoin (BTC). Last week, it made its biggest weekly BTC buy of the year, purchasing 17,994 BTC, worth $2.21 billion ($1.57 billion USD). In terms of BTC acquired, it was the fifth-largest ever weekly purchase of coins by the company.

This comes after a week in which Strategy bought $1.79 billion ($1.28 billion USD) worth of BTC. The company, co-founded by Michael Saylor, currently holds 761,068 BTC, or 3.62% of the total supply.

Hyperliquid Continues To Standout, HYPE Hits Year-To-Date Highs

Hyperliquid (HYPE) continued to see record levels of open interest (OI), the total dollar value of all open positions, on its permissionless markets. Activity on Hyperliquid has increased notably since the conflict in the Middle East started, particularly in relation to perpetual futures (perps) contracts tied to real-world commodities like oil.

Open interest on HIP-3 markets hit record highs this week (Source: Artemis)

HYPE’s price has climbed alongside this activity growth, with HYPE hitting a year-to-date high this week of $59 ($42 USD). It’s now up more than 60% so far this year. For comparison’s sake, BTC and ETH have fallen by 15% and 21%, respectively, in the same period.

It comes as Hyperliquid aims to roll out multiple new features in 2026. One of these is prediction markets, which will see the platform expand beyond perps and spot markets. These would let users speculate on the outcomes of real-world events, such as elections or economic data. The new feature, called HIP-4, is currently being tested and is expected to launch by year-end.

Mastercard Becomes Latest Payments Giant To Acquire Stablecoin Company

Payments giant Mastercard acquired BVNK, a company specialising in stablecoin infrastructure, to accelerate its integration of stablecoins with its existing systems. The acquisition was worth up to $2.5 billion ($1.8 billion USD), Mastercard said in its press statement, one of the largest-ever in the crypto industry.

The news is the latest example of the world’s biggest financial players competing to integrate stablecoins to deliver faster, borderless, and more cost-effective settlement solutions. In our last report, we covered the ways that Stripe, one of the world’s largest payments companies, is deeper into the stablecoin space in 2026.

In the statement, Mastercard’s chief product officer said that Mastercard expects traditional financial firms and fintech companies to adopt stablecoins and tokenised deposits. Mastercard acquiring BVNK is an attempt to bolster that shift, he said.

Asset Tokenisation Trend Continues

The amount of value tied into tokenised U.S. Treasuries hit record highs this week. U.S. Treasuries are essentially IOUs issued by the U.S. government that pay holders a reliable stream of interest in exchange for borrowing their money.

Tokenised treasuries are one leading example of real-world assets (RWAs), assets that are represented on blockchains. Compared to legacy systems, RWAs can offer cost savings for asset managers and improved market efficiencies, benefiting all parties. (Learn more about RWAs.)

As per the below chart, the two largest offerings in this category are Circle’s USYC and BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL). While both of these are accessible on multiple blockchains, Ethereum (ETH) is the destination for the majority of their supply.

Aggregate value of tokenised treasuries over time (Source: RWA)

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