Strategy (MSTR) will likely soon be in the market for additional sizable bitcoin purchases after pricing an upsized sale of its latest preferred stock issue.

The company sold 8.5M shares of its 10% Series A Perpetual Strife Preferred Stock at price of $85 each, raising roughly $711.2M. Strategy initially had hoped to raise $500M.

The latest series of preferred stock differs from the original STRK in that it comes with a higher coupon (10% versus 8%) and has no common share conversion provision.

The company at last check owned more than 499,200 bitcoin, so this coming fresh round of purchases should take the Strategy stack well above 500,000 tokens.

MSTR shares are down marginally in premarket action to just under $300. Bitcoin is steady at $84,000.

The Trump administration is preparing to restructure the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and integrate blockchain technology into its procurement system, Wired reported, citing a memo circulating among State Department staff.

The plan proposes rebranding the agency as U.S. International Humanitarian Assistance and moving it directly under the authority of the Secretary of State, Wired said. It would leverage a blockchain to trace aid distributions and enforce payment models based on outcomes rather than inputs.

“All distributions would also be secured and traced via blockchain technology to radically increase security, transparency, and traceability,” the memo reportedly reads, adding that such an approach would encourage innovation and efficiency.

It’s unclear whether the blockchain would involve cryptocurrency or stablecoin usage, or simply act as a digital ledger.

USAID has been under scrutiny from the Trump administration since the establishment of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk. DOGE has in the past proposed the use of blockchain technology to boost efficiency. The president froze USAID payments in a Jan. 20 executive order.

A key gauge of economic sentiment and corporate credit health has receded from its recent multi-month highs in a positive development for risk-taking in stocks and crypto markets. The relief, however, could be short-lived, per some observers.

The indicator in consideration is the ICE/BofA U.S. High Yield Index Option-Adjusted Spread (OAS), which measures the average yield difference (spread) between U.S. dollar-denominated high-yield corporate bonds and U.S. Treasury securities, adjusted for embedded optionality in the bonds.

It’s widely tracked as a credit risk barometer, with the widening spread representing growing investor concern about corporate defaults or economic weakness, often leading to investors lightening their exposure to riskier assets such as technology stocks and cryptocurrencies.

The OAS, representing the premium investors demand for holding high-yielding bonds over the relatively safer Treasury notes, has dropped to 3.2% from the six-month high of 3.4% early this month.

The decline in the spread supports a renewed upswing in bitcoin (BTC) and Nasdaq.

The spread surged by 100 basis points in four weeks to mid-March as President Donald Trump’s tariffs raised the recession spectre. During that time, both BTC and Nasdaq took a beating, with the cryptocurrency falling to lows under $80K.

Temporary relief?

Analysts expect the OAS spread to widen further in the coming weeks as the negative impact of Trump’s tariffs becomes clear, according to Mint and Reuters.

«We think this is just getting started and will get worse before it gets better,» Hans Mikkelsen, managing director of credit strategy at TD Securities, said in a recent client note.

Applying technical analysis principles to the OAS chart suggests the same.

The spread has moved past the three-year descending trendline, warranting high alert from risk asset investors.