Strategy Posts $12.5 Billion Q1 Loss as Saylor Floats Selling Bitcoin for Dividends

Hi! In today’s edition:

• 📉 The man who said he'd never sell just opened the door; Saylor floats bitcoin sales to cover Strategy's $1.5 billion dividend tab after a record $12.54 billion Q1 loss 

• 🔴 Coinbase cuts roughly 700 jobs and restructures around "AI-native pods" as CEO Armstrong pushes to flatten the company ahead of Thursday's earnings 

• 🤝 Kraken partners with MoneyGram for crypto-to-cash withdrawals across 500,000 locations in 100+ countries; co-CEO says exchange is "80% ready" for an IPO

• ⚔️ Kelp DAO publishes evidence that LayerZero approved the single-verifier bridge setup behind the $292 million exploit, then dumps LayerZero for Chainlink

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Strategy Posts $12.54 Billion Q1 Loss as Saylor Floats Selling Bitcoin to Fund Dividends

Strategy reported a $12.54 billion net loss for Q1 2026 on Tuesday, driven by $14.46 billion in unrealized losses on its bitcoin holdings as the price fell from roughly $87,000 to $68,000 during the quarter. The company now holds 818,334 BTC at an average cost of $75,537 per coin, with a market value of approximately $64.14 billion as of May 3.

The bigger headline came after the numbers, with Executive Chairman Michael Saylor suggesting for the first time that Strategy could sell bitcoin to meet its $1.5 billion in annual dividend obligations across preferred stock classes. 

MSTR dropped 4% in after-hours trading, and bitcoin slipped below $81,000 on the remarks.

Despite the loss, Strategy raised $11.68 billion year to date through equity issuances, the largest U.S. equity raise of 2026. The company paused its weekly bitcoin purchases ahead of earnings, marking only the second such pause this year.

Coinbase Cuts 14% of Staff, Citing Crypto Downturn and AI Reshaping Operations

Coinbase laid off roughly 700 employees, or 14% of its 4,700-person workforce, CEO Brian Armstrong announced Tuesday in a memo posted to X. The cuts come two days before the exchange reports Q1 2026 earnings.

Armstrong blamed two forces: a crypto market downturn that has compressed revenue, and AI tools that are allowing engineers to "ship in days what used to take a team weeks." The company is restructuring around what Armstrong called "AI-native pods," some consisting of a single person handling engineering, design, and product responsibilities. Management will be capped at five layers below the CEO and COO.

The layoffs join a broader 2026 wave across the crypto and tech industries. Block cut "nearly half" its workforce earlier this year, Crypto.com trimmed 12%, and Algorand cut 25%. Coinbase expects $50 million to $60 million in restructuring charges, mostly in Q2.

Kraken Partners With MoneyGram for Crypto-to-Cash in 100+ Countries as IPO Inches Closer

Kraken and MoneyGram announced a global partnership that will let Kraken customers withdraw crypto as cash in hundreds of fiat currencies across more than 100 countries, using MoneyGram's network of nearly 500,000 retail locations. The service will roll out in phases across the U.S., Europe, Latin America, Africa, and parts of the Asia Pacific.

Separately, Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi said the exchange is "80% ready" to go public. The company filed confidentially with the SEC in November but paused plans in March when market conditions deteriorated. CoinDesk reported that Kraken may revisit a listing when the environment improves.

The MoneyGram deal is structured as the first phase of a broader partnership that will expand to include local bank deposits and cross-border remittance flows through Kraken's Krak global money app.

Kelp DAO Drops LayerZero for Chainlink, Says Bridge Config Behind $292 Million Hack Was Approved

Kelp DAO published a memo on Wednesday claiming that LayerZero personnel approved the single-verifier bridge configuration that LayerZero later blamed for the $292 million rsETH exploit. The accusation contradicts LayerZero's April 19 postmortem, which said Kelp's setup "directly contradicts" its recommended security model.

Kelp said the 1-of-1 DVN (decentralized verifier network) setup was reviewed across eight integration meetings over roughly two and a half years without any warnings that it posed a serious security risk. Data from Dune Analytics shows 47% of active LayerZero OApp contracts used a similar configuration within the past 90 days, putting an estimated $4.5 billion at risk.

Kelp announced it is migrating rsETH from LayerZero's OFT standard to Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP). Chainlink CBO Johann Eid confirmed the company is supporting the migration.

Unchained on Air live at 3 PM ET today!

Catch DEX in the City at 3 PM ET, where the crew tackles a big AI lawsuit that raises questions about AI (and DeFi) liability, the Musk/Altman drama, and yet more hacks including compromised wallets you thought were ancient history.

Then stay tuned for Uneasy Money at 4 PM ET, as Kain, Taylor, Luca, and special guest Kelsie Nabben dig into Aave's $71M courtroom crisis over recovered North Korean hack funds, an AI agent that got prompt-injected via Morse code and lost $175K, Coinbase's AI-driven 14% layoff, and MegaETH's messy token launch.

Don't miss it. Tune in live on X, YouTube or PumpFun.

• 🏋️ Solana exchange Drift plans to repay users after $295 million hack by issuing recovery tokens representing proportional claims on the recovery pool, with Tether committing up to $127.5 million and partners pledging $20 million more. The April hack was attributed to North Korean hackers, with most stolen funds still traceable across monitored wallets.

• ⚡ Solana's Alpenglow upgrade could arrive next quarter, co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko said at Consensus Miami, describing it as an "exciting step" in protocol evolution. The upgrade aims to bring transaction confirmation closer to the "speed of light" and strengthen Solana's positioning as infrastructure for high-performance applications.

• ⚖️ CFTC looks to cement non-custodial software developer protections into formal rulemaking following its Phantom no-action letter, Chairman Selig said at Consensus. The March letter confirmed wallet developers meeting certain conditions don't need to register as brokers when connecting users to regulated derivatives.

• 🏛️ Crypto whale sues Coinbase for allegedly refusing to return stolen DAI traced to a frozen account, after losing $55 million in an August 2024 phishing attack. Coinbase confirmed holding the funds but requires a court order before releasing them, despite the victim providing sworn proof of ownership.

• 🌐 Hedera launched CLPR (Cross-Ledger Protocol) at HederaCon 2026, bridging assets between private HashSphere instances and the public Hedera network without centralized custodians. The protocol aims to connect enterprise blockchain deployments with public infrastructure.

• 🔗 Ledger integrated Hyperliquid perps trading in its hardware wallets via Yield.xyz, bringing DeFi derivatives directly to cold storage users. The integration maintains security while enabling advanced trading from Ledger devices.

• 🏭 French chipmaker Sequans sold half its bitcoin holdings as "treasury hype meets reality," reflecting a shift in corporate sentiment for non-crypto native firms. The move signals cooling enthusiasm among traditional companies that adopted BTC as a treasury asset during the previous bull market.

• 🗳️ Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse says clarity is better than chaos as the Senate approaches a key moment for crypto legislation, warning the next two weeks are critical for industry progress. The comments come as lawmakers debate comprehensive digital asset regulatory frameworks.

• 👩‍🎤 Iggy Azalea faces a lawsuit over Solana meme coin MOTHER, with investors claiming deceptive marketing and failure to deliver promised real-world utility like MOTHERLAND casino integrations. The class-action suit is based on consumer protection laws rather than securities violations.

  

• 📈 CME will launch cash-settled bitcoin volatility futures on June 1, pending regulatory approval, allowing institutions to trade volatility directly without directional price bets. The BVI contracts settle to the CME CF Bitcoin Volatility Index derived from bitcoin options order books.

• 🤝 RockawayX and Forward Industries co-led a $5 million Series A funding round in OnRe, targeting insurance and risk management infrastructure for digital assets.

• 🏢 Bullish will acquire UK transfer agent Equiniti for $4.2 billion, creating what CEO Tom Farley calls "the global transfer agent for tokenized securities." The deal signals crypto exchange expansion into traditional financial services infrastructure.

• 💳 MoonPay acquired Solana execution layer firm DFlow in a $100 million all-stock deal, adding high-performance trading infrastructure that processes $50 billion in cumulative volume. DFlow powers major platforms, including Coinbase, Phantom, and became the first aggregator to surpass Jupiter in daily Solana volume.

1. Charles Edwards: Institutions are Guzzling Bitcoin

2. Fidelity: Q2 2026 Signals Report