Disclaimer: The analyst who co-wrote this piece owns shares of Strategy (MSTR).

Strategy (MSTR) reported a first-quarter 2025 loss of $16.49 after posting a $5.9 billion writedown on its bitcoin stack thanks to a sizable decline in the price of BTC during the year’s first three months.

Led by Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, the company, though, shows no signs of slowing its pace of bitcoin acquisitions. Having used up nearly all of its previous $21 billion common stock offering with its most recent BTC buys last week, the company alongside earnings announced a fresh $21 billion at-the-market offering.

Turning to its software business, revenue for the quarter fell 3.6% to $111.1 million from $115.2 million the year before. Subscription services revenue for the quarter came in at $37.1 million, compared with $23.0 million in the year prior.

During the quarter, Strategy achieved an 11.0% «BTC Yield», reflecting growth in bitcoin (BTC) holdings relative to diluted shares outstanding. The «BTC $ Gain» for the quarter was around $4.1 billion, moving the company closer toward its target of a $10 billion gain for the year.

The company lifted its long-term target for BTC Yield to 25% from 15% and for BTC $ Gain to $15 billion from $10 billion.

Shares of the company are trading 27% higher year-to-date. Bitcoin is trading around $96,547, about 2.5% higher over the past 24 hours.

Including April purchases, the company holds 553,555 bitcoin acquired for $37.9 billion or $68,459 each. That stack is worth roughly $53 billion at the current price.

“Our capital markets strategy continues to grow our Bitcoin holdings while delivering superior shareholder value. With over 70 public companies worldwide now adopting a Bitcoin treasury standard, we are proud to be at the forefront in pioneering this space.” Phong Le, president and CEO of Strategy, said in a statement.

Shares are marginally higher in after hours trading.

What may or may not have been a blow-off top last week in the price of gold appears to have benefitted bitcoin (BTC) and that trend could be set to continue.

Already among the best-performing global assets in recent months, gold’s rally powered to new heights in the weeks following President Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs in early April.

The price ultimately peaked above $3,500 per ounce on April 21, with bitcoin at the time changing hands at $87,000 — roughly flat from Liberation Day, but lower by about 20% from its record high hit in January.

Since, though, gold has tumbled nearly 10% to its current price just above $3,200 per ounce. At the same time, bitcoin has rallied about 10% to a two month high of $97,000.

«I think bitcoin is a better hedge than gold against strategic asset reallocation out of the U.S.,» said Standard Chartered’s Geoff Kendrick.

Kendrick took note that the ETF inflow situation has flipped along with the price, with money headed into bitcoin funds surging past that headed into gold funds.

Further, said Kendrick, the last time bitcoin ETF inflows had such a wide margin over gold was the week of the U.S. presidential election. Two months later, the price of bitcoin had risen more than 40% to above $100,000.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has closed its investigation into PayPal’s dollar-backed stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), without taking enforcement action, ending a regulatory chapter that began more than a year ago, the company said.

«In November 2023, we received a subpoena from the U.S. SEC Division of Enforcement relating to PayPal USD stablecoin. The subpoena requested the production of documents. In February 2025, the SEC communicated it was closing this inquiry without enforcement action,» PayPal disclosed this week in a filing.

Wednesday’s filing marks the latest SEC move to drop investigations and lawsuits against crypto companies. The regulator has informed more than a dozen firms that it would drop investigations and cases.

Read more: PayPal Faces SEC Subpoena Over Its PYUSD Stablecoin

Stablecoins — digital tokens pegged to fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar — have become a focal point in the debate over how crypto should be regulated. Regulators have questioned whether these instruments resemble securities or money market funds, which could draw in issuers such as Circle and Tether to greater scrutiny. PayPal’s involvement attracted added attention due to its size, brand recognition and reach across traditional and digital finance.

For PayPal, the resolution of the SEC’s probe removes a key regulatory overhang as it continues to push deeper into blockchain-based payments. The company launched PYUSD on Ethereum in August 2023 as a dollar-pegged stablecoin backed by short-term U.S. Treasury bills and dollar deposits, designed for use in peer-to-peer payments, commerce and decentralized applications.

The news also comes at a time when stablecoins are becoming the hottest trend among crypto and TradFi firms. Companies such as Ripple, Mastercard, Visa, Dutch bank ING and Stripe are all joining the stablecoin industry. Ripple even reportedly offered $4 billion or $5 billion to buy stablecoin issuer Circle. Meanwhile, venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) said that stablecoins are in a «WhatsApp Moment» for money transfers, with the potential to disrupt the payments industry like instant messaging did for cross-border phone calls and texts.

Amid intensifying competition, PayPal recently said it’s set to begin offering U.S. users a 3.7% yield on balances of its PYUSD to up the ante in the stablecoin wars. The payment giant’s stablecoin has a market cap of $887 million, putting it in sixth place among stablecoin issuers, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Read more: Stablecoin Market Could Grow to $2T by End-2028: Standard Chartered

Disclaimer: This article was generated with AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy. This article may include information from external sources, which are listed below when applicable.