Crypto

Published on
21/08/2026 – 12:42 GMT+2

The world’s largest cryptocurrency touched an intraday high of $79,500 on Friday, its best level in months, before easing to around $77,700 at the time of writing, leaving it up more than 25% since Monday.

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The rally caps one of Bitcoin’s most dramatic weeks in years, following a stretch in which the token had lagged well behind its 2025 highs for much of 2026.

For six straight weeks, Bitcoin had been stuck grinding between $62,000 and $66,000, having fallen over 50% from the all-time high of around $126,000 it reached last year in October, to the low of roughly $57,600 it hit early in July of this year.

That prolonged malaise had encouraged traders to build up bearish positions over the course of the year, betting the token’s underperformance would continue. When the price broke higher this week, those bets unwound violently leading to an episode of forced short covering.

Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, and other digital assets have also surged on the same wave of positioning and momentum was reinforced by signals of extra liquidity from Washington.

The US Treasury doubled the size of its bond buybacks earlier in the week to calm a jittery bond market, and when yields climbed back regardless, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent vowed on Thursday to increase the buybacks even further.

Easier financial conditions and a softer dollar tend to favour riskier assets such as Bitcoin.

Regulatory developments also added further fuel. On Tuesday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a proposal called “Regulation Crypto Assets”, offering crypto issuers lighter registration requirements.

A day later, US President Donald Trump hosted Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong, Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse, Gemini’s Winklevoss twins and other industry leaders at the White House, pushing Congress to pass the long-delayed Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act.

The bill, which would split oversight of digital assets between the SEC and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, cleared the House last year but remains stalled in the Senate, needing 60 votes to clear a procedural hurdle on 15 September that it is not yet assured of overcoming.

Trump’s Hyperliquid remarks send HYPE surging

Among the most striking moments of Wednesday’s summit came when US President Donald Trump said the Commodity Futures Trading Commission was working to bring Hyperliquid, a decentralised derivatives exchange, onshore “in a fully compliant legal fashion”, though the regulator has yet to publish any timeline for doing so.

The comment sent HYPE, Hyperliquid’s native token, surging 25% within 24 hours.

As it stands, HYPE is trading at around $74, up more than 30% since Trump’s remarks.

The decentralized exchange, popular with perpetual futures traders, has become something of a proxy for how far Washington’s warmer stance on crypto could extend.

The SEC announced on Tuesday that it had filed a proposal titled “Regulation Crypto Assets”, giving crypto entrepreneurs a clearer, considerably lighter route to raising capital under federal securities law, according to the press release published by the regulator.

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It is the agency’s first formal rulemaking dedicated to crypto asset offerings, building on broader interpretive guidance the SEC issued in March, and would spare qualifying issuers the costly registration process required of most public offerings.

At the centre of the proposal sit two new exemptions.

The “startup exemption” would let an issuer raise up to $5 million (€4.3mn) over a four year period without registering the offering.

A second, the “fundraising exemption”, would permit raises of up to $75 million (€64.7mn) within any 12 month stretch, though issuers relying on it would still need to publish financial statements and meet ongoing reporting duties.

Both routes ask companies to give investors narrative, principles based disclosures, rather than the dense legal filings typically demanded of public listings.

The proposal also sets out a conditional safe harbour that could eventually place certain tokens outside the legal definition of a security, once an issuer has finished, or permanently abandoned, the managerial efforts it promised investors.

It would also override conflicting state registration rules for offerings made under the exemptions, sparing issuers from having to comply separately with individual state securities regimes.

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins described the package as a “minimum effective dose” of oversight, protecting investors while leaving builders maximum room to innovate.

The reception of the proposal has been largely warm.

Summer Mersinger, CEO of the Blockchain Association, said the move finally delivers the tailored regulatory clarity the sector has sought for years. Cody Carbone, CEO of the Digital Chamber, likewise praised the plan, pledging support in helping the industry expand within the US rather than abroad.

However, the proposal is far from final. It stays open for public comment for 60 days once published in the Federal Register, meaning its provisions could still change, or be scrapped, before any final rule is adopted.

US Senate stalls, regulator steps in

The SEC’s move comes roughly a week and a half after the US Senate left Washington for its summer recess without advancing the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act (H.R. 3633), the industry’s flagship bill, which would split oversight of digital assets between the SEC and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

US Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed a cloture motion on the bill on 7 August, but lawmakers departed before a vote was held. That motion is now due to come up again on 15 September, a procedural hurdle rather than a final vote, once senators return.

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins has argued on more than one occasion that only Congress can deliver a lasting, “future-proofed” framework able to survive changes in political leadership, and the Commission says it still backs the bill’s passage.

Even so, with its timetable slipping into autumn, the regulator appears to have decided not to wait, instead using powers it already holds to offer the industry some certainty while lawmakers prepare to resume the debate next month.

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators have given preliminary approval for a cryptocurrency venture tied to President Trump and his family to operate a digital-asset bank, a decision that has drawn immediate condemnation from Senate Democrats who are now pushing legislation to bar such an action.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, and nine other Senate Democrats introduced a bill Saturday that would bar the president, the vice president, their immediate family members and other senior government officials from owning or controlling banks.

The measure was proposed a day after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — which is part of the Trump administration — granted conditional approval for World Liberty Trust Co. to become a trust bank. The firm was founded in 2024 by two of Trump’s sons and the sons of Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s special envoy to the Middle East.

If the firm gets final approval, it would not act like a conventional bank and take deposits or make loans. Instead, the chartered bank would be able to issue and manage cryptocurrencies and digital assets. But the move would grant new financial powers to the Trump family’s crypto business, which has already shown to be profitable for the president in his first year back in the White House.

Trump’s financial disclosures show the president has earned more than $1.2 billion from crypto-related projects as he has pushed to deregulate the digital-asset industry. He hauled in more than $500 million from his World Liberty Financial business selling new crypto products and is a significant owner of the firm through an entity called DT Marks DEFI LLC, which holds about a 38% stake.

Aside from World Liberty Financial, Trump last year took in more than $600 million from sales of souvenir-type “meme” coins stamped with his likeness.

Trump’s crypto windfall has lately fueled Democrats’ argument that the president stands to personally gain from the same regulatory apparatus he oversees, and has led to acrimonious negotiations in Capitol Hill over how to regulate the industry.

The White House said Tuesday “there are no conflicts of interest.” But the recent decision by federal regulators in relation to World Liberty Financial is now giving more ammunition to Democrats, who have pushed for more ethical guardrails to crack down on the Trump family’s crypto ventures.

“This is the most brazen act of self-dealing our financial system has ever seen — and Congress cannot allow it to stand,” Warren said in a statement. “The Ending Presidential Corruption in Banking Act will close the door on this kind of unprecedented corruption.”

Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) said the decision to allow a Trump-linked crypto firm to charter its own bank is “injecting risk into our financial system and fueling the Trump family’s business endeavors.”

“It is Congress’ responsibility and duty now to rein in this corruption and ensure that bank charters, deposit insurance, and other banking licenses cannot be handed out to entities influenced or controlled by any President’s family,” Alsobrooks said in a statement.

David Wachsman, a spokesperson for World Liberty Financial, disputed the criticism, saying the preliminary approval is “great news for consumer and investor protection advocates and for the American financial services industry.”

“Critics are missing the point: World Liberty Financial is running towards regulation and continuous oversight, not away from it,” Wachsman said in a statement. “World Liberty Trust Company’s national charter will ensure robust and permanent regulatory supervision from the OCC, a federal banking regulator, that will outlast the Trump administration.”

Wachsman said World Liberty will be required to provide weekly reports about its operations that will be subject to independent reviews. He added that federal banking laws such as anti-money-laundering rules and consumer protection statutes will be “directly applicable and enforceable.”

The White House did not comment directly about the administration’s involvement with the World Liberty application to charter a bank. But in a statement, the White House disputed claims that the president’s decisions in office have financially benefited him and his allies.

“All of President Trump’s investment holdings are in held in fully discretionary accounts managed by independent third-party financial institutions,” Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement. “The President only acts in the best interests of the American public — which is why they overwhelmingly re-elected him to this office, despite years of lies and false accusations against him and his businesses from the fake news media.”

Kelly added: “There are no conflicts of interest.”

The Lakers will see a familiar face for its annual Christmas Day game this season.

LeBron James, who signed with the Philadelphia 76ers last month, will be making his return to Los Angeles on Dec. 25 when the Lakers host Philadelphia at Crypto.com Arena, the NBA revealed Tuesday morning in what it called a “sneak peek” of the 2026-27 schedule. The game is scheduled to tip off at 2 p.m. on ESPN and ABC.

The full schedule will be revealed Thursday.

The league also unveiled its opening week slate, with the Lakers set to host the Golden State Warriors on Oct. 21 in a game scheduled for 7 p.m. on ESPN.

James, entering his 24th season in the NBA, will also figure prominently in the opening week broadcast schedule as the 76ers will take on the New York Knicks on Oct. 20 at Madison Square Garden on NBC and Peacock. The game will be James’ first with his new team and will feature the Knicks raising a banner to mark their first NBA championship since 1973.

Two days later, the 76ers will play their home opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team that drafted James in 2003, in game that will be broadcast on ESPN.

Aug. 7 (UPI) — The Trump administration on Friday sanctioned a multinational network of crypto exchanges that authorities say Iran has been using to launder billions of dollars to fund its military.

The sanctions target United Arab Emirates-based Shelbit Exchange, which authorities say has been laundering money by running it through a large gambling website on behalf of the Iranian government.

The move comes as retaliation for Iranian attacks again commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz this week, State Department officials said.

Treasury officials said Iran uses a sprawling network of corporate entities to obscure the origin of the funds and launder money to benefit the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“The Iranian regime’s reliance on digital assets and shadow banking networks is further evidence that Economic Fury is working,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in a statement, referencing the government’s operations to target Iran’s funding network.

The executive who runs the operations, Iran-born expatriate Siavash Kayvanpour, has also been sanctioned.

Kayvanpour’s network of crypto exchanges allegedly includes operations in the Republic of Georgia and Poland, as well as other outfits in the UAE.

The U.S. is also sanctioning Aban Tether, an Iran-based crypto exchange, for processing Iranian assets through Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex.

“We will continue to increase the economic pressure,” Bessent said in a statement. “Whether in dollars, rials, or crypto, Treasury will hunt down and dismantle the illicit financial networks that keep the regime afloat.”

On Friday, the Senate also passed a bill sanctioning Iran, targeting its energy and weapons manufacturing industries.

President Trump’s $1.4-billion crypto windfall has become the biggest obstacle to passing his sweeping digital-asset legislation as Democrats demand tougher language to prevent the president from profiting off an industry his administration regulates.

Senate Republicans released a proposal this week intended to break a months-long impasse over the bill, known as the Clarity Act. But Democrats and consumer watchdog groups dismissed the terms almost immediately, complaining the bill would not stop Trump or his family from continuing to profit from his meme coin and other crypto ventures.

Trump needs the support of at least seven Senate Democrats to pass the legislation, which would set rules for digital assets. Ethics has emerged as the biggest, though not the only, sticking point.

“It’s the linchpin,” said Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, a Maryland Democrat and key negotiator who has been supportive of the crypto industry.

A spokesperson for the White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House has consistently asserted Trump is not involved in managing the family’s crypto ventures and has denied conflicts of interest.

Democrats have specifically taken issue with a provision that would leave Trump’s Justice Department as the primary enforcer of the new ethics regulations, preventing state attorneys general from acting as an independent check.

Another Democratic negotiator, Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, and Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said they’re working on a compromise ethics proposal to send to the White House but didn’t provide details.

Senators in both parties said they see the negotiations in the coming week as key to whether a bill reaches Trump’s desk this year. But after the chilly initial reception to the latest White House offer, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.C.) said he didn’t think the Clarity Act would pass the chamber before the month-long August recess.

“We’ll see where the votes are,” Thune said.

Alsobrooks, Gallego and other crypto-friendly Democrats are demanding changes to other pieces of the massive bill, including consumer protection and illicit finance measures.

The bill has other issues, including opposition from banks intent on tightening restrictions on stablecoin rewards. Tillis and several other Republicans said they are considering backing changes to reflect banks’ concerns that their deposits could shift to stablecoin accounts, crimping their profits and customers’ access to credit.

Tillis has floated adding “circuit-breaker” language empowering the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. or other regulators to step in if bank deposits drop — an idea opposed by GOP Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, the crypto industry’s biggest backer in the chamber.

Porous provisions

Critics said the draft’s ethics protections are porous. It would let Trump divest a large stake in his crypto venture or move it into a blind trust for the rest of his term, but stops short of requiring him to sell.

“It’s going to allow him to keep making money the way he has in the past,” said Scott Greytak, deputy executive director of Transparency International US, an anti-corruption advocacy group.

The restrictions also hinge on whether an official has a “direct interest” in a crypto asset — a threshold that may not apply to Trump.

The president is a significant owner of World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto venture, through an entity called DT Marks DEFI LLC, which holds about a 38% stake. Whether that counts as a direct interest “isn’t clear,” said Zach Everson, research director for Public Citizen’s Trump Accountability Project. “Does direct interest describe how he holds the crypto?”

Because the bill wouldn’t apply to the children of government officials, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump could continue their own crypto business interests. And much of the family’s fortune has already been made: Trump and his affiliates have earned a huge windfall from meme coin and token ventures, income the legislation would not claw back.

Critics also decried a provision that would sunset the ethics requirements on Jan. 20, 2029, the day Trump’s successor would be inaugurated. That could prevent the next administration from holding Trump accountable.

The White House and Republicans argued that Trump had gone further in backing ethics restrictions in law than any previous president.

“History will remember this as the moment a president chose a higher standard of ethics than the law required of him,” Lummis, a key architect of the bill, said on X.

Democrats were skeptical even before the language was released. “Any meaningful ethics provision would be shot down by the White House,” Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said.

The politics of crypto have long divided Democrats, and a bipartisan deal on the legislation risks provoking a backlash from progressives. Failure to reach a deal, however, could make the party the target of a torrent of crypto campaign cash.

Crypto group Fairshake and its two affiliated super PACs have raised $164 million for the midterm elections, Federal Election Commission filings show, and have spent $66.6 million so far.

It’s the kind of political arsenal that Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York can ill afford to have aimed at his candidates as the party seeks to regain Senate control.

But others, like Murphy, have warned that blessing Trump’s big crypto bill would undermine Democrats’ midterm message.

A potential presidential candidate, Murphy said Wednesday while addressing the left-leaning Center for American Progress that the bill is before the Senate “because the industry paid for it” and urged Democrats to instead turn fighting crypto corruption into a potent campaign issue this fall.

Markets have grown less convinced a deal gets done. On Polymarket, the odds of the Clarity Act passing this year fell to about 1 chance in 3 earlier this week after Republicans released the new draft.

That’s about half the odds the prediction market gave passage after the Senate Banking Committee backed an earlier version of the bill on May 14.

Dennis and Patterson write for Bloomberg. Bloomberg writers Yash Roy, Lydia Beyoud, Aidan Williams, Bill Allison and Olga Kharif contributed to this report.

The White House submitted a 927-page financial disclosure to the US Office of Government Ethics on Tuesday, offering the fullest picture yet of how US President Donald Trump’s fortune has grown since he returned to office in January 2025.

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Barely established when he was sworn in, Trump’s crypto businesses now generate more revenue than large parts of the property empire he spent decades assembling with his family, earning the US president more than $1.2 billion (€1.05bn) last year.

Two ventures account for the bulk of the crypto windfall.

World Liberty Financial, the firm launched in 2024 by Trump’s sons and business partners, brought in more than $500 million (€438mn) from selling new crypto products, among them so-called governance tokens, which grant holders voting rights in certain company decisions but no ownership stake.

A separate business tied to the $TRUMP “meme” coin, a cryptocurrency bearing the US president’s face and name, generated a further $635 million (€557mn) from token sales.

Trump’s crypto activities appear to be a major driver of the near tripling of his personal fortune, which Forbes estimates rose from $2.3 billion (€2bn) to $6.5 billion (€5.7bn) between 2024 and 2026.

For many buyers, the story has been far less lucrative.

The $TRUMP coin, which briefly traded above $74 in the days after its launch, has since collapsed to under $2, while World Liberty’s tokens have shed around 80% of their value since they began trading last September.

Since the disclosure lists only revenue and not profit, the true scale of Trump’s personal gains cannot be known. However, the filing shows that the US president and his family collected fees and royalties up front, while many investors have seen the value of their holdings fall sharply.

Among those investors was Chinese-born crypto billionaire Justin Sun, who poured $75 million (€65.7mn) into the governance tokens and $200 million (€175.3mn) into both $TRUMP and $MELANIA meme coins.

A US fraud case against him was later paused before being resolved with a $10 million (€8.7mn) settlement. Sun has denied any connection between his spending and the outcome of his legal troubles.

After the release of the filing, the White House also rejected suggestions of any ethical concerns.

“Neither the President nor his family has ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest,” Principal Deputy US Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to AFP.

Kelly said US President Donald Trump had “proudly made the United States the crypto capital of the world.”

“All actions by President Trump and his administration are taken in the best interest of the American people, and any so-called ‘reporters’ pushing otherwise are recycling the same, tired, false narrative that Democrats and the legacy media have been pushing for a decade,” Kelly added.

Beyond crypto: Trump’s wider business empire

The filing also details an aggressive international expansion, with new hotel, resort and condominium agreements generating millions of dollars in countries that were negotiating with Washington over trade and security at the same time.

A development in the United Arab Emirates earned the Trump business around $10.4 million (€9.1mn) last year, one in Saudi Arabia roughly $9 million (€7.9mn), and projects in Qatar, Romania and Vietnam were $5 million (€4.3mn) apiece.

Closer to home, the US president’s established businesses boomed alongside all the new ventures.

Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Florida, generated around $77 million (€67.5mn), a jump of roughly 50% on the previous year, as heads of state and executives flocked to the property during his new term.

The disclosure also reveals the wide range of ways the Trump brand is now monetised.

The US president earned millions from a sprawling range of branded goods, from sneakers and watches to bumper stickers, with Trump-branded watches alone bringing in $4.7 million (€4.1mn), and more than $200,000 (€175,300) coming from the “God Bless the USA” Bible, a branded edition promoted with country singer Lee Greenwood.

Branded merchandise of this kind, sold by a sitting US president, has no precedent.

A 1978 law requires the president and vice president of the United States to declare their income as well as their assets.

First Lady Melania Trump’s income is also set out in her husband’s financial disclosure, including more than $10 million (€8.7mn) tied to a biographical Amazon documentary and over $500,000 (€438,250) from her memoir.

For comparison, US Vice President JD Vance reported between $1 million (€876,500) and $5 million (€4.4mn) in royalties from his 2016 book “Hillbilly Elegy”.

Critics have long argued that such arrangements blur the line between public office and private profit. The White House rejects the charge outright.

Trump has launched a slate of crypto-friendly policies since returning to the White House for a second term.

A new government report has shown that United States President Donald Trump made millions from cryptocurrency and settlements with media companies last year, raising questions about possible conflicts of interest.

On Tuesday, the US Office of Government Ethics released annual financial disclosure forms for both Trump and his vice president, JD Vance.

One 927-page document itemises all of Trump’s reported assets and income for 2025. They include more than $1.4bn from his family’s cryptocurrency ventures.

Trump received more than $500m from World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture he and his sons co-founded. The president also reported another $635m from the sale of his $TRUMP meme coins.

The report suggests that investments in digital assets now generate one of the largest tranches of Trump’s income, overtaking even the real estate empire he inherited from his father.

The revelation is likely to intensify scrutiny of Trump’s policies.

Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump has launched a slate of crypto-friendly policies as he seeks to make the US the “crypto capital of the world”.

Early in his second term, for instance, the president announced that his government would create a national strategic cryptocurrency reserve to help ensure the stability of certain digital assets.

He also hosted the first-ever White House cryptocurrency summit.

The forum included several technology leaders that had been under investigation during the administration of Trump’s predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.

But Trump reversed those actions. In February 2025, for instance, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced it would drop charges against Coinbase, the largest US-based cryptocurrency exchange, after it was accused of acting as an unregistered broker.

Other digital currency firms came under suspicion for fraudulent transactions.

Trump has coupled the shift away from government oversight with efforts to champion new legislation, including the GENIUS Act.

The law, passed in Congress in July 2025, created a general regulatory framework that required stablecoin, a type of cryptocurrency, to be backed one-to-one by US dollars. Advocates said the law would help to make cryptocurrency more mainstream.

“The entire crypto community: For years, you were mocked and dismissed and counted out,” Trump said during the law’s signing ceremony. “You were counted out as little as a year and a half ago, but this signing is a massive validation.”

But Trump’s increasingly close ties to the cryptocurrency industry have drawn criticism for its potential for corruption.

Last week, five Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal, called on their Republican colleagues to join them in forcing Trump administration officials to testify under oath about their cryptocurrency dealings.

They pointed to investments from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in World Liberty Financial, the company the Trump family co-owns with government envoy Steve Witkoff’s sons.

Those investments, they argued, “raise questions about what more the UAE may receive — or may have already received – at the expense of U.S. national security after investing in the Trump family crypto company”.

The five Democrats urged immediate hearings on the matter.

The clock is running down on the most consequential deadline the crypto sector has faced in Europe.

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From the start of July, the transitional window under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) closes for good, and companies that have not secured authorisation must either stop serving European customers or wind down altogether.

MiCA is the EU’s first comprehensive law for the crypto industry, bringing exchanges, brokers and digital wallet providers under the kind of formal oversight that has long applied to banks and other financial firms.

It replaces a fragmented mix of national rules with a single rulebook spanning all 27 member states: a company licensed in one EU country earns a “passport” to operate across the bloc, but in return it must meet standards on how much capital it holds, how it is run, how it safeguards customers’ funds and how it prevents money laundering.

“What emerges is a genuine single market replacing the old patchwork of 27 national regimes,” Yamal Kalaf, co-founder of MiCAR Whitepapers Europe, which advises crypto businesses on MiCA authorisation, told Euronews.

Since the core rules took effect at the end of 2024, existing operators have been allowed to keep operating under older national registrations, but that concession was temporary.

Crypto firms need European licences but many are behind

The scale of the looming shake-out is striking.

According to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), which confirmed in April that there would be no extension, only around 210 firms had obtained full authorisation by May, out of more than 1,200 that previously held national crypto registrations across the EU.

That points to a conversion rate of well under a fifth, leaving the vast majority of the old market without a licence as the cut-off arrives in a few days.

Speaking to Euronews, Roshan Dharia, CEO of distressed-investment firm Echo Base, explained that “the low conversion rate suggests that a meaningful portion of the market has concluded that obtaining and maintaining a MiCA licence is not economically viable within its current operating model.”

National regulators have warned that firms operating beyond the deadline without the new licence face enforcement action. France’s markets watchdog has also cautioned that continuing without authorisation could expose companies to criminal prosecution.

ESMA has told unlicensed providers to prepare orderly wind-downs, including transferring customer assets to authorised platforms or self-custody wallets, and to notify clients in advance so they can move funds safely.

“What we will see after 1 July is a smaller, more institutional market with real passporting. That is not a market in retreat. That is a market growing up,” Miguel Zapatero, Head Counsel at Crossmint, told Euronews.

Crossmint is a crypto infrastructure provider whose licensed rails let developers build wallets, custody and payment products.

A market reshaped around licensed rails

Plenty of familiar names have already cleared the bar.

Coinbase has been authorised in Ireland and Kraken in Ireland and Luxembourg. At the same time, the banking app Revolut secured its licence from Cyprus’s regulator late last year, allowing it to offer crypto services across the EU.

For these firms, the new rules promise a reward as unlicensed rivals retreat, the survivors stand to absorb their departing customers.

“MiCA is a genuine regulatory identity shift, not a registration exercise,” Gal Arad Cohen, partner at law firm S. Horowitz & Co, told Euronews.

The most prominent casualty so far may be Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange.

According to Reuters, which cited two people familiar with the matter, Binance is set to lose permission to serve EU clients because its licence application to Greece’s market regulator, the Hellenic Capital Market Commission, is poised to be rejected.

Without approval in any member state, the exchange would be unable to operate across the bloc from July onwards.

Speaking to Euronews, Patrick Mollard, CEO at Fipto, a blockchain-based payments company for businesses, referred to the Binance case by stating that “scale earns you no shortcut to a licence, and that is precisely the point.”

Binance has pushed back, saying it has worked constructively with regulators for 18 months and believes its application met MiCA’s requirements. The company added that it understood the Greek authority had completed its review and found the filing compliant.

The company has promised a further update before 30 June.

The episode has also reputedly taken on a political dimension.

French crypto publication The Big Whale reported, citing unnamed sources, that ECB President Christine Lagarde had opposed Binance’s bid for a Greek MiCA licence.

Euronews could not independently verify the report, and neither the ECB nor the Greek government has publicly commented on the allegations.

The Big Whale also reported that Binance is exploring a potential MiCA application in France after the setback in Greece, a claim that neither Binance nor French regulators have publicly confirmed.

Binance did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Euronews.

A shake-out for smaller crypto firms

Beyond the biggest names, the deadline is expected to push smaller crypto apps and brokers towards licensed custody providers. Rather than building their own MiCA-compliant systems, many are likely to rely on authorised firms to hold customer assets.

“We will see consolidation and transfer of clients as the deadline will not be met by all currently operating entries,” Floortje Nagelkerke, partner at law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, explained to Euronews.

The result, analysts suggest, will be a smaller, more concentrated European market, with fewer players, higher barriers to entry and a clear advantage for those holding a licence, but stronger consumer protections.

“People who hold crypto in the EU after 1 July will, on balance, hold it on safer rails,” Miguel Zapatero, Head Counsel at Crossmint, concluded.