Crypto Firm Backed by French NBA Star Halts Plan to Buy Bitcoin

The Bitcoin Society, a start-up backed by French NBA star Tony Parker and entrepreneur Éric Larchevêque, has ditched plans to build a crypto treasury, months after announcing the strategy.

Market conditions have turned against the objective of raising capital to accumulate Bitcoin reserves, Larchevêque told Bloomberg News in an interview. The decision was taken in the first quarter, when the cryptocurrency dropped more than 20%.

“The appetite for Bitcoin security companies wasn’t at its peak,” he said. The proposed model at TBSO, as Larchevêque’s firm is known, relied on frequent and significant fund raising, which had become difficult, ...