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Welcome to the Coinstories news block, powered exclusively by LEDN. I'm Natalie Brunel and in about 10 minutes or less I'll provide you with insightful updates on bitcoin financial markets and the global economy. Everything you need to know in one block. Let's go. Last week was the worst week in the short history of digital credit. The new class of bitcoin backed preferred stocks issued by companies like Strategy and Strive. Strategy Stretch fell as low as $71.25. Strive's data dropped to around 79. And for instruments designed to trade at $100, that was a sharp and sudden crack. So the critics piled on. Social media was full of people declaring Stretch dead, strategy broken, and the entire Bitcoin treasury model a house of cards. All eyes were on Michael Saylor and the Strategy team this week. And on Monday, Strategy announced a new digital credit capital framework. Essentially telling the market, we hear you and here's how we're going to address everything. The headline number Strategy has set aside $3.8 billion in liquidity to cover its dividend and interest obligations. Enough to pay every preferred shareholder for more than two years, even if the company never issues another share. That $3.8 billion comes from two sources. First, a $2.55 billion cash reserve earmarked exclusively for dividends and interest, nothing else. The board established a hard floor Management will maintain at least 12 months of coverage at all times, and going below that will require board approval. Second, a new program that gives the company the ability to sell up to $1.25 billion in Bitcoin if needed to top up that reserve. Now, it's worth noting that much of that cash reserve was built by selling MSTR common stock. So the reassurance for preferred shareholders came at a cost to common shareholders in the form of dilution. That's a trade off the company clearly decided was necessary to stabilize the capital structure. And the bitcoin sale option is the part getting a lot of attention and the most pushback. Critics immediately said Saylor is going to sell over a billion in bitcoin. He said he'd never sell. But look, here's the context. The 1.25 billion represents less than 2.5% of Strategy's total Bitcoin holdings of nearly 850,000 Bitcoin. The goal is not to become a seller of bitcoin. The goal is to have enough flexibility to avoid issuing common stock at bad prices, especially when the stock is trading near the value of the bitcoin it holds as CFO Andrew Kang put it bitcoin Bitcoin is capital. This program gives strategy the flexibility to use a portion of its bitcoin reserves to strengthen digital credit. On top of that strategy raise stretches dividend from 11.5% to 12% to make it more attractive to income investors. And they authorized up to 2 billion in buybacks, 1 billion for their preferred securities and 1 billion for MSTR common stock. Now that last part is a big deal and it's a notable shift. Saylor has historically been critical of stock buybacks, so the fact that he's now authorizing them tells you how seriously he's taking the need to defend the capital structure. CEO Fong Li framed it this way. Quote strategy is evolving from one way capital issuance to active capital management. We intend to move between issuing securities when capital is attractive and repurchasing securities when our instruments trade at levels that make buybacks accretive. So that is a very meaningful evolution. Until now, the model has been pretty one directional issue shares raise cash, buy bitcoin. But now they're saying we'll also buy back our own shares when the market misprices them. And if needed, we'll sell a small amount of Bitcoin to fund those buybacks rather than dilute common shareholders. The market responded. Stretch and MSTR Both rallied about 12% on Monday. Stretch climbed back into the mid-80s. So last week the critics had their moment. But this week, strategy answered. You can decide what you think about it. LEDN just introduced their lowest rates ever. The larger the loan, the lower the rate. These new rates apply to all new loans, refinances and renewals. With LEDN's gold standard protection, your Bitcoin stays custodied, never lent out. You can activate auto top ups and alerts so you're never caught off guard and you can repay anytime with zero penalties. Don't choose between a great rate and the safety of your bitcoin. Get both at LEADN and a quarter percentage point off your first loan at Leden IO Natalie all right, now let's zoom out because every bear market comes with the same soundtrack. The price is down, the skeptics get louder and one by one, high profile investors announced they've sold or lost faith. Last month, Mark Cuban sold most of his bitcoin. This week, billionaire Jeremy Grantham went on CNBC and called bitcoin you useless speculative and predicted it would dwindle away with a whimper. Lyn Alden has joked that there are really only two phases in bitcoin cycle Bitcoin is a bubble and bitcoin is dead. Right now, we're in the bitcoin is dead phase. But has anything actually changed about bitcoin itself? The supply is still capped at 21 million and the network keeps producing blocks about every 10 minutes, whether the price is 60,000 or 126,000. None of Bitcoin's properties have changed, just the price. Meanwhile, the world around bitcoin has only become more unstable. Global debt hit a record 348 trillion at the end of 2025. Governments can't realistically grow their way out of it or tax their way out of it, even though a lot of politicians are trying. Which means they'll do what they've always print more money and let the currency absorb the damage. Two pieces of research this week underscored that reality. The IMF warned that stocks and bonds are increasingly falling together during stress because governments keep flooding the market with debt. The old assumption that bonds cushion your portfolio when stocks fall? Well, the IMF says it no longer holds. And UBS's 2026 Global Family Office Report found that 65% of family offices expect confidence in the dollar to weaken and 56% fear a debt crisis within five years. Their response? Increasing allocations to hard assets, including Bitcoin. So when someone tells you Bitcoin has failed because the price is down, ask a different question. Has the need for a scarce, decentralized asset that no government controls gone up or down? And the answer is pretty obvious. Now before we close, two other quick stories. First, our exclusive news block partner Leden announced a partnership with Tether to accept tokenized gold as collateral for loans. Gold holders will be able to borrow against their position without selling using the same custody model led and built for Bitcoin. Collateral held one to one and never rehypothecated. I sat down with Ledden co founder Maurizio DiBartolomeo in Europe to talk about this and so much more. That episode drops tomorrow. And second, a story that hits close to home. We covered it in the newsletter. Last week, Illinois Governor Pritzker signed a law making Illinois the first state in America to tax crypto transactions directly. A 0.2% tax on every exchange, every transfer and custody transaction. That means you putting your Bitcoin into self custody taxable event. This isn't on your profits or capital gains. It's on the full value so you can lose money on a trade and still owe the tax. It was buried in a 1,624 page budget bill with no industry input and brokers who don't register by January 1st can face a massive penalty. The industry is pushing back hard. I know I'm going to do whatever I can since I live in Illinois and legal challenges are already being put forth. This is the sign of the decaying fiat system and why becoming self sovereign with Bitcoin is so important. So if we zoom out, yes, the price of Bitcoin is being tested. We've seen it before, but the thesis has not broken. Until next week. Keep Stacking. That's it for the news block. Your weekly Bitcoin and economic news update. Powered exclusively by Leden. I'm Natalie Brunel. Make sure you're subscribed to Coin Story so you never miss an episode. This show is for educational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice. Until next time. Keep stacking.