Bitcoin Holds Below $65K as Strategy Messaging, BIP-110 Debate Weigh on Sentiment

Bitcoin is trading around $64,702 as the market digests a mix of corporate strategy shifts, a simmering protocol-level dispute, and easing sell pressure from long-term holders. Standard Chartered has raised concerns that messaging from Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor is clouding the outlook for the largest cryptocurrency.

StanChart Flags Messaging Risk

Standard Chartered global head of digital assets research Geoff Kendrick said Saylor's recent communications around Strategy's Bitcoin sales are "muddying the waters for BTC near-term." The largest digital asset treasury company sold $216 million worth of Bitcoin earlier this month, reducing its total holdings to 843,775 tokens, according to a July 6 SEC filing. Kendrick argued that effective communication of the company's new strategy using BTC to back its STRC preferred stock is key to reassuring markets that wholesale selling is unlikely.

Strategy recently unveiled a capital framework allowing Bitcoin sales to fund dividends, increased the annual dividend rate on its STRC preferred stock to 12%, and disclosed that its US dollar reserve had grown to $2.55 billion. Kendrick noted that the long-held "never sell" approach limited what the company could do with its bitcoin holdings, but that clearer signaling could support BTC prices and remove the need for further sales. StanChart maintains its $100,000 year-end Bitcoin forecast.

Strategy Shares Under Pressure

The company's common shares, trading under the MSTR ticker, have lost more than 70% of their value since July 2025, closing at $94.64 per share on July 10, down from a 52-week high of $457.22. The STRC preferred shares, formulated to hold a price of $100 apiece, fell to their lowest value since the preferred stock was introduced a year ago. Strategy is expected to report second-quarter earnings on July 30.

Bitcoin Protocol Debate Intensifies

Saylor also took to social media to publish roughly 3,700 words detailing his opposition to Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 110, which aims to limit non-monetary transactions such as Ordinals inscriptions on the Bitcoin network. In a post viewed 879,000 times, Saylor said he shares supporters' concerns about preserving Bitcoin's focus on sound money but disagrees with the proposed temporary fork as a remedy.

Many Bitcoiners I respect support BIP 110. They want to keep validation accessible, protect node operators from unwanted costs and content, preserve affordable payments, and keep Bitcoin focused on sound money rather than general-purpose data storage. Those are serious concerns. I share the objectives. I disagree about the remedy.

The proposal, introduced by pseudonymous developer Dathon Ohm with support from Ocean protocol founder Luke Dashjr, has become one of the most notable protocol-level disputes since the Blocksize Wars. Blockstream CEO Adam Back has also criticized BIP-110, describing it as a "quest to police other people." The dispute comes as Ordinals activity sits at near all-time lows, with fewer than 10,000 inscriptions per day over the last month, down from a peak of more than 400,000 in August 2023.

On-Chain Signals Mixed

On-chain data shows that dormant Bitcoin movement has hit a four-year low, according to Galaxy, suggesting that selling from long-term Bitcoin holders or "OGs" is easing. Meanwhile, an analysis of BTC supply in profit approaching 60% indicates a potential recovery, though the same analysis hints that the recovery may "roll back over." In a separate interview, fund manager Charles Edwards said that a quantum roadmap would push Bitcoin much higher.

Ethereum and Broader Markets

Ethereum is trading at $1,913.47, with the broader crypto market showing tepid momentum alongside Bitcoin. On the tokenization front, Bernstein analysts noted that Figure Technology Solutions' first-quarter results demonstrate the uniqueness of blockchain marketplaces, as the company converts real-world credit assets into blockchain-native instruments. Bernstein has estimated the addressable market for tokenized credit at $4 trillion, though the sector is currently valued at around $5.14 billion, highlighting the gap between today's adoption and long-term growth expectations.