Strengths
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the best performer for the week was TRUMP, rising 85%.
- Cantor Fitzgerald, Tether Holdings and SoftBank group are in talks to form a $3 billion vehicle to absorb billions of dollars in cryptocurrency. Tether will contribute $1.5 billion of Bitcoin, while Bitfinex and SoftBank plan to put in $600 million and $900 million of the cryptocurrency, respectively, according to Bloomberg.
- Bitcoin rose about 3% after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had no intention of firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell, easing concerns over the central bank’s autonomy.
Weaknesses
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the worst performer for the week was Dexe, down 4.78%.
- A group of investors in the failed crypto lender Celsius Network are urging a federal judge to impose the highest possible punishment on founder Alex Mashinsky, Bloomberg reports, who admitted to fraud in connection with the company’s 2022 collapse. Over 200 investors submitted statements to the court, with many calling for Mashinsky to spend the rest of his life in prison.
- Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill to block investors from using Puerto Rico as a cryptocurrency tax haven, which is unlikely to advance without Republican support. The bill aims to close a loophole that allows qualified investors living in Puerto Rico to avoid paying local or federal taxes on capital gains, Bloomberg reports.
Opportunities
- President Donald Trump will have dinner with the top 220 holders of the Trump memecoin at his private club in Washington on May 22. The top 25 Trump coin holders will also be invited to a reception before the dinner and will be given a tour of the White House, writes Bloomberg.
- Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance Holdings, has been named an adviser to Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan and met with Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to discuss the country’s potential as a crypto hub, explains Bloomberg. Zhao encourages governments to take a relaxed approach to regulating digital assets and suggests establishing new regulatory agencies.
- Bitcoin has advanced above $90,000 for the first time since early March, fueling optimism that it is breaking free of its tendency to move in the same direction as U.S. tech stocks. Bitcoin has rallied almost 23% from an April 7 low, trading more akin to gold and begun to decouple from U.S. risk assets, writes Bloomberg.
Threats
- Cryptocurrency exchange Meteora, its CEO Bejamin Chow, and venture capital firm Kelsier Labs, are accused of manipulating the trading prices of a newly launched memecoin, reports Bloomberg, causing $69 million in losses to investors.
- North Korean hackers posing as American tech entrepreneurs quietly registered companies in New York and New Mexico as part of a campaign to compromise developers in the crypto industry. Two businesses, Blocknovas and Softglide, were created using fictious identities and addresses and tied with the Lazarus group, writes Bloomberg.
- Shaquille O’Neal has reached a settlement agreement with a group of FTX investors who accused him of enabling the failed crypto exchange’s fraud by acting as a celebrity promoter. Plaintiffs in the case are seeking up to $21 billion in total damages from O’Neal and other promoters, former executives and other insiders, writes Bloomberg.
