Strengths
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the best performer for the week was Cronos, rising 89.32%.
- BitMine Immersion Technologies increased its crypto and cash holdings by $2.2 billion to $8.8 billion over the past week, adding more than 190,500 tokens—growing from 1.52 million to 1.71 million—according to Bloomberg.
- The CFTC has issued guidance allowing offshore crypto exchanges to legally reenter the U.S. market by registering as foreign boards of trade, provided their home regulators meet U.S. standards. This could pave the way for firms like Binance to compete directly with Coinbase and Kraken, potentially shaking up the U.S. crypto landscape.
Weaknesses
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the worst performer for the week was SPX6900, down 22.15%.
- Bitcoin traded near its lowest level in nearly seven weeks after retreating from the record high set in mid-August. The decline comes as Ether is gaining momentum, with the token hitting an all time high of $4,955 on Sunday, writes Bloomberg.
- Australia just ordered Binance’s local arm to bring in an outside auditor after regulators flagged “serious concerns” about money-laundering and terrorism-financing controls, pointing to high staff turnover, weak oversight and potentially poor resourcing at the exchange.
Opportunities
- Galaxy Digital, Multicoin Capital, and Jump Crypto are in talks with potential backers to raise approximately $1 billion to accumulate Solana. The firms plan to form a digital asset treasury company by acquiring an undisclosed publicly traded entity, with Cantor Fitzgerald LP serving as lead banker, according to Bloomberg.
- Trump Media & Technology Group Corp and Crypto.com have reached a deal with Yorkville Acquisition Corp to establish a crypto treasury company focused on acquiring and holding CRO tokens. The company will raise capital to purchase cryptocurrencies, and shares held by Trump Media, Crypto.com, and Yorkville will be subject to a mandatory one-year lock-up period, Bloomberg reports.
- The Commerce Department will begin publishing its economic statistics on the blockchain, Secretary Howard Lutnick announced. “We are going to put out GDP on the blockchain so people can use the blockchain for data distribution,” Lutnick said during President Trump’s cabinet meeting, according to Bloomberg.
Threats
- Bitpanda has ruled out a London listing due to low share-trading liquidity, according to the Financial Times. Co-founder Eric Demuth also cited the UK’s relative market immaturity and the company’s stronger revenue base in Europe, Bloomberg reports.
- France’s finance ministry has asked Électricité de France to pause bitcoin miner MARA’s planned majority acquisition of its Exaion unit over sovereignty concerns, Agence France-Presse reports. While Exaion isn’t classified as strategic, it develops technologies that could be highly important in the future, Bloomberg notes.
- A coalition of 112 crypto firms, investors, and advocacy groups, led by the DeFi Education Fund, warned Senate committees that they won’t back new market-structure legislation unless it clearly protects developers and non-custodial services from being labeled intermediaries. Signers include Coinbase, Kraken, Ripple, a16z, Uniswap Labs, and major U.S. crypto lobbies.
