Pump.fun, the Solana-based token launchpad, introduced a launch mechanism it calls BOOST mode, describing it in a post on X as "the new standard launch mechanism for EVERY new pump fun coin." The company said BOOST reinjects future liquidity into every bonded coin, framing the change as a response… Read the full story at The Defiant

Source link

Movement Labs, the developer behind the Movement Ethereum layer-2 blockchain, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, according to court records.

The petition was filed July 15 under Subchapter V, a streamlined reorganization process for qualifying small businesses. The filing allows the company to continue operating while it restructures under court supervision.

On Monday, the court approved interim requests allowing Movement Labs to maintain its bank accounts and cash management systems and obtain debtor-in-possession financing to fund operations during the bankruptcy process. Creditors have until Sept. 14 to file claims.

Advertisement

Following the filing, Move Industries CEO Torab Torabi wrote on X that the bankruptcy applies only to Movement Labs. Move Industries, which took over development and operations of the Movement ecosystem from Movement Labs in December 2025, continues to operate normally, according to Torabi.

Source: Torab

Market-making scandal rocked Movement before bankruptcy

The filing follows months of turmoil tied to the launch of Movement’s MOVE token and a controversial market-making agreement.

Movement Labs suspended co-founder Rushi Manche in May 2025 over a deal he helped broker with Web3Port. The market maker received 66 million MOVE, about 5% of the token’s supply, and later sold the holdings, reportedly creating roughly $38 million in downward price pressure and prompting an independent investigation.

Coinbase suspended MOVE trading later that month after determining the token no longer met its listing standards, as the review into the market-making arrangement continued.

Advertisement

The bankruptcy follows a prolonged decline of the MOVE token, which has fallen more than 94% over the past year to roughly $0.01.

MOVE token price over the past year. Source: CoinGecko

Source link

Crypto prices climbed on Tuesday after reports that the White House had reached agreement on the ethics provision that had stalled the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act in the Senate, reviving the odds of a floor vote before Congress breaks for its August recess. The ethics language had been the… Read the full story at The Defiant

Source link

Of the more than 3,000 companies that were legally serving crypto clients across the EU as recently as this June, fewer than 300 hold the right to do so today, according to CASP Tracker.

The reason is the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), which took full effect across the European Union on 1 July 2026: from that date, only a company holding Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) authorisation — granted by a regulator in one EU member state and passported across the rest of the bloc — can serve EU clients. Companies that previously operated under national Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) registrations had exactly until that date to convert. Most didn’t.

We talked to Ivan Nevzorov, CEO at SBSB Fintech Lawyers, about what’s actually left for them now — and why the shortcuts most of them reach for first usually aren’t the ones that hold up.

Let’s start with the obvious one. A company still doesn’t have a CASP licence today — what happens to it now?

Ivan Nevzorov: Look, here’s the thing people don’t want to hear: the deadline’s already passed. From July 1st, every day you keep serving EU clients without authorisation is a day you’re in breach of MiCA — a minimum €5 million fine under Article 111, and in France it can mean criminal liability for whoever’s responsible. So the answer everyone expects to hear, “just go get licensed,” isn’t actually on the table anymore for a company operating today. You can’t file an application, keep the lights on for months while it gets reviewed, and call that compliance.

Which really leaves two paths. One, you wind down, because the business can’t meet the new standard. Two, you relocate — move your base to a friendlier jurisdiction. Though that one only keeps you legal if you stop marketing into the EU completely and let clients come to you on their own, what’s called reverse solicitation. Keep advertising to EU users from outside the bloc, and you’re breaking the exact same rule, just from a different address.

We’ll come back to relocating, because it’s genuinely its own conversation. Let’s start with winding down, since that’s where most of these companies actually are right now — and honestly, it’s painful to watch, because most of them didn’t do anything wrong. They just didn’t get there in time, and for a lot of them, the reasons had nothing to do with how good their compliance actually was.

Winding down sounds like the more straightforward path, at least. Is it actually?

Ivan Nevzorov: Not as straightforward as people think, and there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it. The wrong way is switching off the app and disappearing — the client assets sitting in those accounts don’t vanish, and holding them is a regulated activity in itself. To the regulator, that company hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s still operating without a licence, only now it’s also stopped answering its clients. The right way is one of two things: an orderly wind-down, or transferring your clients to a CASP that’s already authorised.

ESMA’s actually spelled out what an orderly wind-down has to look like: stop onboarding, stop any marketing into the EU, restrict yourself to settling what’s already open. And transferring clients sounds simpler on paper, but being on the CASP register only tells you a firm’s allowed to take clients — it doesn’t tell you they’re actually set up to onboard a few thousand new ones at once. A lot of the firms that got authorised fastest didn’t build a crypto compliance function from zero — they already held a MiFID or e-money licence and just converted it, lighter scrutiny attached. Good for them, but it also means some of these brand-new CASPs are banks running crypto as a side product, not specialists who can absorb a wave of migrating clients. Every single one of those clients still needs full AML and KYC re-verification before the new CASP can touch their money. That’s months of work for a team that does it every day. Longer for a team that doesn’t.

You’d think the bigger platforms would have this solved by now. Is that actually the case?

Ivan Nevzorov: Less than people think, and Binance is actually a fair example of why. A platform with years of European operating history and enormous legal and compliance resources still ran into real MiCA licensing problems — the same wall a lot of much smaller companies are hitting. That tells you something worth sitting with: this isn’t a gap you close just by throwing money or headcount at it. If a company at that scale couldn’t get it fully sorted before the deadline, a smaller operator shouldn’t assume they’ll just muscle through it either.

Let’s rewind for a second — only a couple hundred companies actually made it through while that was still possible. What was going wrong for the rest?

Ivan Nevzorov: Honestly, it’s rarely the paperwork. A technically correct application just gets you in the room — it doesn’t win you the decision. We saw one filing get rejected over how the share capital was deposited, and that requirement isn’t even written into MiCA, anywhere. The regulator just invented a formality that isn’t in the text. That’s the pattern I keep seeing: whatever reason they put on paper is almost never the real one. The real reason comes to you informally, if it comes at all, and it’s about how they read the company — do you actually understand your own risk model, who’s accountable for what, who your clients really are. A compliance policy copied from a template answers none of that. It’s the first thing I flag when someone walks into SBSB with one.

And the second thing people underestimate completely: where you filed mattered almost as much as what you filed. This wasn’t one process across the EU — it was twenty-seven versions of it, moving at completely different speeds, with completely different appetites for saying no. Germany’s BaFin wasn’t shy about it: its first-ever MiCA enforcement action was rejecting Ethena’s application and then forcing the company to wind down its German operation and redeem its tokens. Italy’s regulator went the other way — it spent most of the transition period without having authorised anyone at all, so filings there just sat. Same regulation, wildly different odds depending on the door you knocked on. A few countries never even built the door — Poland’s the loudest example, it went into the deadline with no authority issuing CASP licences at all — but that’s the extreme end of a spectrum the whole market was sitting on.

Let’s talk about the companies actually going through the licensing process, then — a first application in a market they haven’t touched yet, or a return down the line after an orderly exit. What does a strategy that actually works look like, in practice?

Ivan Nevzorov: Honestly, it starts before you’ve touched a single form. You go talk to the regulator first, find out exactly what they expect from a business like this one, and only then do you build the structure around that answer — the AML policy, the governance, the documentation. MiCA’s a directive, which means every country implements it a little differently, so a compliance package that worked in one member state gets rechecked before you dare reuse it somewhere else. People skip that step constantly, and it costs them.

At SBSB, a full mandate for us looks like this: company formation, the application itself, handling the regulator correspondence, and then the parts most founders genuinely can’t build alone — banking relationships, payment infrastructure, penetration testing through our partners, licensed compliance software. And staffing matters just as much. Regulators check AML certifications early, so get that sorted before the application goes in, not after you’ve already filed.

How should a company actually choose which EU market to apply in — Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Estonia?

Ivan Nevzorov: I don’t give every client the same answer, honestly, and if anyone tells you there’s one magic jurisdiction, they’re oversimplifying it for you. But the differences between regulators are real, and by now they’re well documented. Germany’s BaFin gives you the heaviest signature in Europe — corporate clients respect it — but you pay for it: a German entity, at least two qualified directors actually present in the country, capital paid up at filing, and a documentation pack that runs to hundreds of pages, with the formal filing in German. France is the opposite story: the AMF had been licensing crypto firms under its own national regime for five years before MiCA existed, so firms already registered there got a genuinely streamlined path, and the regulator’s crypto unit knows what it’s looking at. Luxembourg, Ireland, and Malta became the hubs the big exchanges actually picked: Coinbase went through Luxembourg, Kraken through Ireland, OKX and Crypto.com through Malta. That’s not a coincidence; it’s where the process was mature enough to handle a file that size.

But here’s what I actually tell clients: the regulator’s speed shouldn’t decide it — your own capacity should. Every serious regulator now checks for the same thing: a real office, real staff on the ground, a credible plan for that specific market. Pick the jurisdiction where you can honestly show that, not whoever’s got the shortest queue — a fast process with no substance behind your application just gets you a fast rejection. And yes, Germany leads on raw licence numbers right now, but a good chunk of that is banks and brokers converting a licence they already had, not crypto-native firms getting freshly approved. “Germany has the most CASPs” and “Germany’s the easiest place for a crypto company” are two different claims, and people mix them up constantly. I don’t think any single country’s lead holds for long anyway — regulator capacity is finite everywhere. We’ve watched this movie before, it’s basically what happened with Curaçao’s gaming licence reform. Once the volume outpaces what the regulator can actually process, the process itself becomes the bottleneck.

Let’s come back to relocating, the third path you mentioned earlier. For companies thinking globally, how should they weigh an EU licence against licences elsewhere — Latin America, Asia, offshore?

Ivan Nevzorov: Look, the safest position is full compliance everywhere you operate — better banking terms, full market access, nothing sitting in a grey area. But that takes a budget most startups just don’t have. So in practice, most of them end up running from a business-friendly base — El Salvador, Panama, the UAE, Singapore, Mexico, these come up constantly — and serving EU clients only through reverse solicitation, sometimes with geo-blocks stacked on top for the riskier markets.

But notice what those two options really are: one’s too expensive for most, and the other cuts you off from actively winning EU clients at all. Which is why the question I hear constantly right now is: can’t I just operate under someone else’s licence? And here’s where MiCA catches people off guard. In payments, under the Second Payment Services Directive, PSD2, there’s a proper agent model — an unlicensed company can work the market on behalf of a licensed one, and the industry uses it everywhere. MiCA has nothing like that. Articles 59 and 60 draw a hard line around who’s allowed to provide crypto services at all, so the classic white-label — an unlicensed provider serving clients in its own name under someone else’s licence — formally doesn’t work.

What nobody forbids, though, is supplying a licensed CASP with technology or marketing. That’s fully legal, and the entire market has rushed into the gap between those two points — KvarnX, Bitpanda, Bit2Me are all running their own versions of it, and Spain’s regulator has even given the grey-label approach a cautiously positive read, with real limits attached. The catch is what role you’re actually playing: the licensed partner holds every wallet, every bank account, every client transaction. You’re the technology behind their offer, not the provider in front of the client. For a lot of companies that’s a perfectly good way back into the EU market. Just be honest with yourself about which side of that line your business model actually needs to be on.

Last one — once a company has the CASP licence, what does the ongoing workload actually look like?

Ivan Nevzorov: Getting the licence is honestly the easy part to talk about. Staying licensed is where companies actually get tested. I’ve watched a licence get pulled by an EU regulator within months of being granted, because the business just didn’t follow through on what it promised in the application. What actually matters, once you’re authorised, is exactly what you signed up for on paper — active risk assessment, ongoing AML monitoring, reporting to the regulator on time, every single time.

Has that gap between paperwork and practice actually cost one of your clients?

Ivan Nevzorov: This one’s a bit different — no regulator pulled anything here, and it’s actually from outside crypto. But it’s the same underlying lesson, so it’s worth telling. We had a client at SBSB who did everything right on paper: MSB registration, their API — Authorised Payment Institution — licence, connected to a banking-as-a-service partner, targeting the European market. Business plan solid, AML policy solid, source-of-funds checks all cleared. Where it fell apart was the economics nobody had stress-tested. The marketing spend needed to actually hit their projected client volume ran well above what they’d budgeted. The partner bank’s own compliance screening filtered out a chunk of the high-risk client segment their whole model was built around. And the tariffs the bank actually offered were thinner than what they’d planned for. Nothing illegal happened anywhere in that chain. The business just didn’t survive contact with the market it was built for. They made the call to sell, and we’ve already found a buyer — sold it, more or less, at this point.

One thing that’s genuinely changed the economics here is AI in compliance monitoring. Transaction monitoring that used to eat up a whole team can run with a fraction of the people now — cheaper for the company, and from what regulators have signalled, easier for them to work with too. None of that replaces the basic requirement, though. The licence is the easy part. Staying licensed — that’s the job.

If you had to give one piece of advice to a company still sitting on this decision — wind down or relocate, transfer or hold — what would it be?

Ivan Nevzorov: Pick your strategy and start moving — this week, not this quarter. The window between now and the first wave of regulatory checks is the only asset these companies have left, and it’s shrinking: we flagged back in May that the first checks would land around the third quarter of this year, and the Netherlands has already shown how this plays out — their central bank fined Kraken €4 million and Crypto.com €2.85 million under the old registration regime, and OKX €2.25 million just last year, for something that happened two years earlier.

A company that uses these months to actually execute — transfer the clients, close out the obligations, or get the relocation structure in place — walks into that first check with a story of action behind it. A company that’s still weighing its options in September walks in with an explanation for why it did nothing. Given the choice, I know which conversation I’d rather have with a regulator.

Disclaimer: The above article is sponsored content; it’s written by a third party. CryptoPotato doesn’t endorse or assume responsibility for the content, advertising, products, quality, accuracy, or other materials on this page. Nothing in it should be construed as financial advice. Readers are strongly advised to verify the information independently and carefully before engaging with any company or project mentioned and to do their own research. Investing in cryptocurrencies carries a risk of capital loss, and readers are also advised to consult a professional before making any decisions that may or may not be based on the above-sponsored content.

Readers are also advised to read CryptoPotato’s full disclaimer.

The post Fewer Than 300 Made the Cut: Ivan Nevzorov on MiCA, CASP Licensing, and What’s Next for Crypto Firms appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Source link

Source link

MVMT Labs, Inc., the developer behind the Movement blockchain, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on July 15, according to the court docket. The voluntary petition, docketed as case number 26-11113 and assigned to Judge Thomas M. Horan, lists… Read the full story at The Defiant

Source link

The team behind the popular meme coin tried to settle an interesting competition, but instead became the subject of criticism from its community.

SHIB’s price has finally rebounded, while several bullish factors suggest a much more substantial rally could be on the horizon.

The SHIB Army Demands Action

Inspired by Spain’s victory in the FIFA World Cup, Shiba Inu’s official X account tried to settle “the real competition,” asking where on Earth the meme coin has the strongest presence.

Some of the answers included Brazil, Japan, the USA, and Turkey, yet the vast majority of users found the question totally inappropriate, suggesting that SHIB’s team should focus on more pressing matters instead.

Many showed their frustration at the recent inactivity of the entire ecosystem, urging the developers to act fast before they lose even more traction. One X user, named Mehmet, said Shiba Inu’s team has been “mocking” people who trusted the project, adding that he regrets the moment when he learned about SHIB.

“People trusted you and invested. I really regret the day I learned about Shib. Leash has turned to trash. The value of Treat and Bone keeps dropping every day. Shame on you.”

Others went even further, labeling Shiba Inu as a scam and a dead project.

Good Days Ahead?

Besides the stalled ecosystem developments, SHIB’s holders are perhaps even more frustrated by the meme coin’s price collapse. It currently trades at around $0.000004272, representing a 72% decline on a yearly scale. On the bright side, this is a 4% increase over the past week, while certain elements signal that the bulls may stage a more decisive comeback in the short term.

The first is the resurgence of Shiba Inu’s burning mechanism. The burn rate has soared by nearly 280% over the last month, indicating that many tokens have been effectively removed from circulation. Still, SHIB’s supply remains extremely large, meaning that both the team and the community will need to ramp up their efforts in that field to support a stronger rally.

Next on the list is the meme coin’s declining amount on exchanges. According to CryptoQuant, the figure has dropped to a fresh five-year low, signaling that numerous investors have abandoned centralized platforms in favor of self-custody wallets, thereby reducing immediate selling pressure.

The post Shiba Inu (SHIB) Team Faces Backlash Over Controversial Social Media Campaign: Details appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Source link

S&P Dow Jones Indices and Pantera Capital have launched the S&P Pantera Digital Asset Index, a benchmark for institutional investors seeking a more disciplined and structured approach to digital asset allocation, the index provider said in a press release published Tuesday. The index screens for… Read the full story at The Defiant

Source link

Bitcoin’s move above $66,000 has lifted CRCL, BMNR and MSTR by as much as 8.6% as investors position for the Federal Reserve’s July meeting.

Summary

• Bitcoin’s move above $66,000 lifted CRCL, BMNR and MSTR during Tuesday’s trading.
• CRCL and BMNR broke descending resistance, while MSTR reclaimed the key $100 level.
• The Federal Reserve’s July decision could determine whether the three stock rallies continue.

According to data from crypto.news, Bitcoin climbed past $66,000 on July 21, while Ethereum traded above $1,900 and XRP recovered beyond $1.14. The combined value of all cryptocurrencies increased 2.08% within 24 hours to reach $2.26 trillion.

Stocks tied to digital assets followed the market higher during Tuesday’s session. Circle Internet Group gained 8.6%, BitMine Immersion Technologies advanced 3.61%, and Strategy rose 4.22%, according to the daily TradingView charts supplied with the report.

Advertisement

Investor interest also increased as U.S. lawmakers moved closer to establishing clearer rules for digital assets. As such, expectations surrounding the CLARITY Act supported companies with direct exposure to cryptocurrency prices, stablecoin activity and corporate crypto holdings.

Crypto strength has lifted all three stocks

Circle Internet Group recorded the largest gain among the three companies, with CRCL closing at $71.08 after opening at $68.94. TradingView data showed that the stock reached an intraday high of $72.68 and a low of $68.65 before ending the session 8.6% higher.

CRCL also moved above the upper boundary of a descending channel that had controlled its price since early June. The supplied daily chart places the former channel resistance near $65, making that level the first area buyers may need to defend if the breakout faces a retest.

Advertisement

Momentum indicators support the recovery, although money flow remains a concern. CRCL’s Aroon Up reading reached 85.71%, while Aroon Down fell to zero, which the TradingView chart identifies as stronger upward momentum; however, the Chaikin Money Flow reading remained negative at -0.25, showing that buying pressure has not yet produced sustained capital inflows.

Based on the visible chart structure, the next resistance range sits between $75 and $80. A move back below the broken channel boundary near $65 would weaken the breakout, while the recent base around $60 provides the next visible support area.

BitMine Immersion Technologies closed at $17.23, rising 3.61% after trading between $16.69 and $17.24. The advance came as investors assessed BitMine’s latest Ethereum purchases and its share-repurchase program ahead of the Fed meeting.

According to the company figures cited in the report, BitMine acquired another 7,430 ETH during the week, raising its holdings to 5.78 million tokens. The company has staked 4.92 million ETH, equal to about 85% of its Ethereum treasury, while its combined crypto assets, cash, and investments stood at $11.5 billion.

BitMine also repurchased 5.5 million shares at an average price of $15.62, according to the same company update. Its daily chart showed BMNR breaking above a descending trendline that had capped the stock since May, while the price also crossed the Supertrend level at $16.53.

BMNR’s Relative Strength Index rose to 58.71, compared with its signal average of 47.17, according to TradingView. Since the RSI remains below the 70 overbought threshold, the indicator leaves room for an advance toward the visible $18 resistance, followed by the previous consolidation area near $20; a close below $16.53 would weaken the reversal setup, with additional support shown at $13.83.

Advertisement

Strategy shares ended Tuesday at $101.95 after rising 4.22%, TradingView data showed. MSTR traded as high as $104.60 and briefly fell to $99.95, but buyers returned around the psychologically important $100 level before the close.

Michael Saylor disclosed that Strategy increased its U.S. dollar reserves by $225 million, bringing the company’s cash reserve to $3.2 billion. The report also placed Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings at 843,775 BTC, keeping MSTR closely exposed to changes in the cryptocurrency’s market value.

Fed guidance will test the new breakouts

MSTR has reclaimed the Bollinger Bands midpoint at $94.79 and is approaching the upper band at $105.36, according to the supplied daily chart. A confirmed move above that upper boundary could open the area around $110, while a rejection would keep $100 and the middle band near $95 as the first support levels.

Despite Tuesday’s recovery, MSTR’s Average Directional Index stood at 18.77. TradingView’s indicator reading shows that the stock does not yet have a strong directional trend, leaving the breakout vulnerable if Bitcoin loses momentum or the Fed delivers a more restrictive policy message.

The Federal Reserve is scheduled to meet on July 28 and 29, with markets expecting policymakers to leave interest rates unchanged, according to the report. Investors will instead examine Chair Kevin Warsh’s comments for clues about inflation, economic growth and the timing of future policy changes.

Advertisement

A balanced policy message could help Bitcoin and crypto-linked equities preserve Tuesday’s gains. More hawkish guidance could encourage profit-taking, placing CRCL’s channel breakout, BMNR’s Supertrend reversal and MSTR’s recovery above $100 under immediate pressure.

Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.

Advertisement

Source link

Interactive Brokers (IBKR) posted second-quarter revenue of $1.90 billion and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.69. Both figures beat Wall Street estimates of $1.80 billion and $0.64, and the stock climbed about 4% in after-hours trading.

The automated global brokerage, which offers stocks, options, futures, crypto, and prediction markets, lifted profits on booming customer activity. Its pretax profit margin reached 77%, up from 75% a year earlier.

Trading Boom Powers Interactive Brokers Earnings Beat

Commission revenue rose 30% year-over-year to $673 million. Customer trading volumes in options and stocks increased 17% and 14%, respectively.

Meanwhile, net interest income climbed 23% to $1.06 billion, ahead of the $994 million FactSet consensus. Customer margin loans jumped 67% to $108.5 billion, while customer credits rose 27% to $182.4 billion.

The results cap a strong week for brokerages after Charles Schwab’s record quarter on Monday. Retail engagement has also picked up since the pattern day trader rule ended in June.

Client Growth Keeps the Bar High for IBKR Stock

Customer accounts grew 34% to 5.19 million, and customer equity expanded 40% to $930.3 billion. Daily average revenue trades (DARTs), a measure of customer orders that generate commissions, rose 36% to 4.82 million.

Beyond equities, the firm keeps widening its reach among brokers integrating crypto trading. It also became the first venue for Cboe’s new prediction markets products in June.

The board declared a quarterly dividend of $0.0875 per share, payable September 14. However, the stock entered the report near the top of its historical valuation range.

Management’s earnings call commentary may decide whether the after-hours gains hold into the second half.

The post Interactive Brokers Earnings Reveal $1.90B Revenue, How Will IBKR Stock React? appeared first on BeInCrypto.

Source link