This week, Bitcoin climbed steadily to reach nearly $100K, amid hopes for a potential China-U.S. trade agreement and an optimistic outlook on macroeconomic conditions.
Institutions like Mastercard and BlackRock made significant announcements about their ventures in the digital asset space, leading to increased institutional confidence.
A historic stablecoin bill is also nearing completion in U.S. Congress, with a former key player suggesting a “wicked hot summer” of legislative activity ahead.
In the political arena, the Trump Family continues to capture attention in the crypto news cycle, raising important conflict-of-interest questions.
However, the most significant development at CoinDesk involved Movement, a once-promising startup that now grapples with turmoil. Deputy managing editor Sam Kessler published an eye-opening scoop revealing that Movement Labs may have been misled into a market-making agreement, granting a middleman control over 66 million MOVE tokens. This arrangement purportedly sparked a $38 million sell-off, affecting retail investors who had remained loyal to the project. This news resonates particularly given Movement’s backing by World Liberty Financial, closely associated with the Trump Family.
Following Kessler’s report, Coinbase suspended trading of MOVE, while Nik De confirmed that Binance banned the market maker Web3Port. By Thursday evening, Movement Labs had suspended flamboyant co-founder Rushi Manche amidst growing investigations into the project’s governance.
This marks a stark decline for a startup that had recently garnered significant attention and interest.
In other noteworthy news, Sam Altman’s blockchain initiative, World announced plans to deploy 7,500 eye-scanning orbs across U.S. cities by year’s end, alongside introducing crypto-backed loans and a Visa debit card for WLD token spending. This development adds an innovative twist to the digital asset landscape. Cheyenne Ligon and Margaux Nijkerk contributed to this report.
Meanwhile, Ligon also covered the trial of Avraham Eisenberg, convicted of wire and commodities fraud related to the $110 million hack of Mango Markets. He faces new charges tied to possessing child sexual abuse material in 2024.
Earnings season has borne mixed results for major exchanges and facilitators. Robinhood has projected a Q1 decline in crypto-related revenue, as reported by Helene Braun. In contrast, Kraken disclosed a 29% revenue increase to $472 million in the same period, while Strategy reported a $4.2 billion loss owing to declining Bitcoin prices yet plans to position itself for future investment with aims to raise $50 billion for Bitcoin purchases over the next 32 months, as detailed by James Van Straten.
As we look to the future, market signals appear promising, particularly if tariff concerns diminish. However, Movement may need to engage in significant crisis management to restore confidence.
