Welcome to Kaupr Today

Good morning! Today’s newsletter tracks how Bitcoin is grinding through war jitters, leverage‑driven squeezes and deep short‑term losses even as big allocators quietly treat it as a standard portfolio sleeve. We also look at treasury‑level BTC and ETH moves picking up again, how AI agents could reshape payments and IPO pipelines, and wrap with key Nordic crypto company news and event to watch; Diversity in Crypto 2026 on Friday March 6.

Have a good read,
Morten

Kaupr Today is supported by Coinmotion, as one of our Season Partners.

Bitcoin: pain, squeezes and quiet accumulation

Bitcoin pops back near $69K as “digital gold” narrative gets a boost

Bitcoin rebounded about 5% to around 69,000 dollars after dropping toward 63,000 dollars on Iran war headlines, with some analysts saying the quick recovery reinforces its emerging “digital gold” role as oil and safe‑haven metals climb.

Why it matters: The move suggests that, despite war‑driven volatility and a deep drawdown from last year’s highs, Bitcoin is starting to behave more like a resilient store‑of‑value candidate during geopolitical shocks than a pure high‑beta tech trade.

Source: Bitcoin tops $69,000 as analysts point to crypto ‘resilience’ amid Middle East war, Yahoo Finance

Bitcoin’s 5% bounce looks like a short squeeze, not a fresh bull leg

After the Iran‑headline dip, Bitcoin’s roughly 5% rebound toward 70,000 dollars looks more like a short squeeze than new spot demand, with Risk Dimensions’ Mark Connors flagging a “flushing of shorts,” rising open interest and large liquidation clusters around both 65,000 and above 70,000 dollars as signs that leverage, not fresh buying, is doing most of the work.

Why it matters: The move underlines how war‑driven positioning and heavy derivatives leverage are steering near‑term price action, leaving BTC exposed to another sharp swing either way until genuine spot flows return.

Source: Bitcoin’s 5% Spike Higher Monday Driven by Short Covering, Not Fresh Buying, Says Analyst, CoinDesk

Bitcoin’s $66K chop has short-term holders sitting on 25%+ losses, a level tied to late-stage bottoms

With Bitcoin stuck around 66,000 dollars, CryptoQuant data show short‑term holders sitting on roughly 26% unrealized losses, a zone that has often coincided with late bear‑market phases and emerging accumulation windows rather than the start of much deeper slides.

Why it matters: The setup suggests BTC may be closer to the “pain but opportunity” part of the cycle than to the beginning of a deeper drop, although another volatility spike toward 62,000–63,000 dollars cannot be ruled out before any durable bottom forms.

Source: Bloodbath or Buy-Zone? Bitcoin’s $66K Stagnation Hits the 25% Loss Threshold Historically Tied to Market Bottoms, NewsBTC

Bitwise sees bullish setup for Bitcoin even as war jitters rattle markets

Bitwise says Bitcoin remains positioned for upside despite escalating geopolitical “shockwaves,” highlighting a familiar pattern where risk‑event selloffs and extreme fear often precede strong medium‑term returns, supported by renewed spot ETF inflows, ongoing institutional accumulation and still‑cautious positioning in futures and options.

Why it matters: The note frames today’s cautious flows and elevated risk fears as a potential contrarian entry zone, arguing that if liquidity and policy turn more supportive, current pessimism could be the springboard for the next leg higher.

Source: Bitwise Sees Bullish Setup for Bitcoin Despite Escalating Geopolitical Shockwaves, Bitcoin.com

Bitcoin’s $1T drawdown hasn’t scared off big allocators

iConnections CEO Ron Biscardi says that even after Bitcoin lost over a trillion dollars in market value since October’s peak, digital assets are now treated as a standard alternatives sleeve, with more than 75 crypto funds logging around 750 allocator meetings and nearly a quarter of LPs on the platform expressing interest in digital asset strategies, often via bitcoin and ether ETFs rather than direct token bets.

Why it matters: Crypto is increasingly being embedded into mainstream portfolio construction as a high‑beta risk allocation sized carefully alongside other alternatives, rather than dismissed as a fringe fad.

Source: Bitcoin losing trillions in value hasn’t stopped traditional giants’ interest in digital assets sector, CoinDesk​

Treasury companies moving again

Strategy spends another $200M on Bitcoin and hikes STRC dividend again

Michael Saylor’s Strategy has made its third‑largest Bitcoin purchase of the year, buying about 3,000 BTC for roughly 200 million dollars at an average price near 67,700 dollars, lifting its holdings to more than 720,000 BTC. At the same time, the company raised the annual dividend on its STRC preferred shares to 11.5%—the seventh increase since launch—as it leans on “digital credit” funding to keep adding Bitcoin without further diluting common shareholders.

Why it matters: The move shows Saylor doubling down on a leveraged, income‑product‑funded Bitcoin strategy even into macro and war‑driven volatility, cementing Strategy’s role as both a massive corporate BTC holder and an experiment in using high‑yield preferreds to finance a perpetual bitcoin treasury.

Source: Strategy Spends $200 Million on Bitcoin, Raises STRC Dividend Yet Again, Decrypt

Ethereum price and BitMine jump as ETH treasury bet grows

Ethereum ticked higher while BitMine Immersion shares rose after the company disclosed it is now staking more than 3 million ETH, expecting around 170–250 million dollars in annual staking revenue at current rates and full deployment. The stock bounce comes after months of heavy drawdowns that left BMNR trading well below the value of its large Ethereum treasury.​

Why it matters: BitMine is emerging as a MicroStrategy‑style proxy for Ethereum, meaning its stock increasingly offers traditional investors a leveraged way to bet on ETH’s long‑term recovery and the economics of large‑scale staking.

Source: Ethereum Price, BitMine Shares Jump as Tom Lee’s Treasury Bet Grows, Yahoo Finance

AI agent payments and payment IPO

Tether co-founder says AI agents will turn wallets into “conversations” and supercharge stablecoins

Tether co-founder Reeve Collins says AI agents will soon sit on top of crypto wallets so users can just talk to their money while bots route transactions over the fastest, cheapest stablecoin rails, echoing moves like Coinbase’s Agentic Wallets and forecasts of a coming wave of AI‑agent commerce on stablecoins.

Why it matters: Collins frames this as crypto’s possible “web browser moment,” where blockchain complexity disappears and stablecoins become the default payment layer for AI agents moving value online around the clock.

Source: Tether Co-Founder: AI Agents Will Transform Stablecoins and Crypto Wallets, Coinpedia Fintech News

SoftBank-backed PayPay and its backer aim to raise about $1.1 billion in US IPO

SoftBank’s Japanese payments app PayPay and a selling shareholder plan to raise roughly 1.1 billion dollars in a US IPO by offering nearly 55 million American depositary shares at 17–20 dollars each, implying a valuation of up to about 13.4 billion dollars. The deal, coming despite volatile markets after the Iran shock, could be one of the largest US listings by a Japanese firm and adds to SoftBank’s push to monetise assets and recycle capital into AI bets.

Why it matters: A successful PayPay debut would test investor appetite for large fintech IPOs in a choppy, geopolitically tense market and signal how much public markets are willing to pay for mature digital payments franchises outside the US and Europe.

Source: PayPay, backer aim to raise roughly $1.1 billion in US IPO, The Star

Nordic news and events

Founder Frank Schuil returns as Safello CEO with a strong AI focus

Safello founder Frank Schuil is stepping back in as CEO of the Nordic crypto exchange after Emelie Moritz’s tenure, saying the firm will lean hard into artificial intelligence across both operations and products, including its new TAO staking ETP and research via Safello Labs on decentralized AI networks like Bittensor. The move comes as Safello, now MiCA‑licensed and listed on Nasdaq First North, looks to commercialize its exchange and custody platform across the EU and deepen its institutional offering.

Why it matters: Schuil’s return ties Safello’s next phase to the convergence of regulated crypto infrastructure and AI, positioning the company as a Nordic testbed for compliant, AI‑enabled digital asset services in the MiCA era.

Source: Founder Frank Schuil returns as CEO of Safello with a strong AI focus, Kaupr

Diversity in Crypto in the Nordics 2026 – live event 6.3.2026

Diversity in Crypto in the Nordics 2026 is a virtual live event taking place on 06.03.2026 from 15:00 to 17:00 CET, bringing together voices from across the Nordic crypto ecosystem to discuss how to build a more inclusive and representative space. The session will be streamed simultaneously on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Kaupr.io, and organizers invite Nordic associations, communities, and brands to get involved as supporters or partners by reaching out to the team behind the initiative.

Source: Diversity in Crypto in the Nordics 2026, LinkedIn Events

What to watch for

Watch whether Bitcoin can start carving out a base after the latest war‑driven swings, as futures remain defensive and positioning cautious even while banks, corporates and brokers quietly ramp up real crypto and stablecoin usage.

Why it matters: If geopolitical nerves and defensive trades linger while onchain rails and institutional adoption keep compounding, the growing gap between sentiment and fundamentals could set up the next sharp turn in the cycle.

Share Kaupr Today

Thank you for reading Kaupr Today. If you find this briefing useful, please share it with a colleague or friend who should be following Nordic and European digital‑finance news more closely. Wishing you a great Wednesday — and welcome back on Wednesday morning for the next edition of Kaupr Today.

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Best regards
Morten Myrstad
Founder & Editor