MicroStrategy eases Bitcoin fears; $500M AI bill and stock slump

MicroStrategy deposited 411.5 BTC to Coinbase Prime and withdrew the same amount hours later, reducing market concern that the company planned to liquidate holdings. After the round‑trip transaction, MicroStrategy’s reported bitcoin balance stood at 843,738 BTC. The firm has not recorded any purchases since May 18. Prediction‑market odds that the company would sell bitcoin in 2026 declined after the withdrawal but remained elevated.

Bitcoin traded near $73,600 after the transaction, with buyers stepping in when prices weakened. The cryptocurrency’s 200‑week moving average rose above $61,000, placing the spot price roughly $12,600 higher than that long‑term average. Traders noted the moving average smooths nearly four years of weekly closes and has coincided with prior cycle lows.

An unnamed enterprise client incurred roughly $500 million in charges on Anthropic’s Claude AI in a single month after administrators did not set usage limits or spending caps for thousands of employees. Companies reported internal reactions: one large software firm cut internal Claude Code licenses after per‑engineer costs reached $500 to $2,000 a month; a ride‑hailing company said it exhausted its 2026 AI budget by April; and a retailer disabled an internal AI leaderboard after employees began optimizing prompts that produced high usage but low value. “A client accidentally spent $500,000,000 in one month on Claude after forgetting to set usage limits for employees,” wrote commentator Mario Nawfal. Consultants and IT teams reported that the billing incident pushed some companies to add stricter quotas and cost‑monitoring for AI tools.

Enhanced Group, a company backed by Peter Thiel that recently listed publicly, saw its shares fall about 50% after a six‑hour Las Vegas debut on May 24. The company paid a $25 million purse for the event. Enhanced Group reported one unofficial world record by swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev and said its data showed 91% of participating athletes used testosterone. The stock’s drop erased roughly $800 million in market value from an initial valuation close to $1.2 billion.

Other market activity included a purchase of 25,000 ether by a Tom Lee‑associated firm for about $50.6 million. Defense and space stocks rose after a contractor secured a $2.29 billion U.S. Space Force contract to build a Space Data Network Backbone, with a prototype due by the end of 2027. The award was part of a broader Pentagon effort to move secure military data over low‑orbit satellites.

Market participants and corporate advisers described the week as a mix of trading driven by large holders and rapid corrections in speculative areas such as enterprise AI spending and newly listed entertainment ventures. The developments prompted firms and consultants to review controls on large cloud and AI accounts and to monitor corporate on‑chain transfers more closely.