Bitcoin gained some ground early on Monday as U.S. lawmakers reached a debt ceiling deal in principle. Hong Kong confirmed it will allow retail traders to trade certain crypto assets starting June while the Digital Currency Group (DCG) closed its trade execution and prime brokerage units, citing bear market and regulatory uncertainty.

Bitcoin lost some ground this week, down about 2%, as crypto trade volumes slipped to yearly lows. In other industry news, Digital Currency Group missed a $630 million payment owed to crypto exchange Gemini last week, the SEC responded to Coinbase’s lawsuit and Tether announced it would start buying BTC with 15% of its excess profits. In this week’s Debrief we explore:

BTC and ETH erased most gains as the Dollar made a strong comeback. In industry news, the Ethereum network suffered technical issues, U.S.-based Bakkt de-listed 25 tokens under regulatory pressure, and Binance.US is reportedly trying to cut CZ’s dominant stake in the exchange.

Bitcoin closed the week in the red after network congestion led Binance to halt withdrawals twice over the past 48 hours, the U.S. Fed hiked rates but opened the door for a pause amid lingering banking turmoil, Coinbase reported smaller than expected loss in the first quarter while Bittrex filed for bankruptcy.

This week saw continued banking and regulatory fallout as JPMorgan Chase acquired First Republic, Binance.US withdrew from the Voyager deal citing regulatory uncertainty, and Coinbase sued the SEC demanding clear rules for crypto.

A whole bunch happened on the regulatory front last week as BTC dipped below $30k: SEC chair Gary Gensler gave a marathon defense of the crypto crackdown, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Bittrex, and the landmark MiCA European crypto framework became law.

ETH hit 11-month highs following the Shapella upgrade despite expectations of significant sell pressure after more than 1mn staked ETH were withdrawn. BTC also soared past $30k for the first time since last June and is up more than 80% YTD.

BTC hit $30k for the first time since June 2022. Also, peer-to-peer exchange Paxful announced that it would be suspending operations, U.S. job openings hit a two-year low, and the U.S. Treasury released a report on illicit finance risks in DeFi.