Down Goes It

5. Stablecoin Spotlight

Friday’s first-ever White House Crypto Summit offered one clear takeaway: stablecoins are front and center. “We are going to keep the U.S. the dominant reserve currency in the world, and we will use stablecoins to do that," Treasury secretary Scott Bessent told attendees. President Trump wants stablecoin legislation on his desk by August and pledged to end Operation Choke Point 2.0, capping a week of ambitious announcements that also included the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve.

4. Down Goes It

We ended last week on a very high note given the announcement of a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve. Crypto asset prices, however, didn’t budge following the news and that momentum carried over into the weekend with BTC prices briefly retracting below $80k. Was it a sell the news event? Sure, whatever. What’s comical though was the amount of reports blaming slumping prices on traders being “disappointed” that the bill did not trigger a wave of large-scale government purchases – as if that was ever on the table. No. How about we all just admit that markets everywhere suck right now and zoom out a bit.

3. Kraken Eyes 2026 IPO

According to Bloomberg, Kraken plans to go public as soon as the first quarter of next year – taking advantage of a more crypto-friendly Trump administration. The exchange has been eyeing an IPO for years but was delayed by Biden-era enforcement cases (which are now dropped). Considering the market’s current funk – maybe the Kraken team is onto something by opting to wait yet another year instead of forcing an IPO in these murky waters.

2. U.S. Housing Agency Considers Launching Crypto Experiment

Leaked discussions show HUD floating the idea of using stablecoins and blockchains to distribute federal housing grants – and boy, staffers appear to be having a fit about it. As pro-crypto folks, we look at this story and say "great, sounds like more transparency and efficiency." But on the other side of the table are insane comments like this claiming its all part of Trump and Musk's agenda to weaponize the system. Immutable ledgers aka blockchains? Appalling! Stablecoins? Too volatile! We’ll tell you what: Sounds like America’s new marriage to crypto still has a long way to go…

1. Saylor Buys the Dip

Well, it looks like one person left the White House Summit excited. Michael Saylor, the CEO of Strategy $MSTR ( ▲ 3.3% ) says the company is looking to raise up to $21 billion to buy more BTC. And please note, this announcement is in addition to the company's previously announced "21/21 plan," targeting a total capital raise of $42 billion. As of right now, Strategy holds 499,096 BTC, worth ~$40 billion. But if Saylor has his way, that number will be rising very soon.