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Restrictive EU rules on stablecoins come into force on June 30, issuers have little time left
Tether, Circle and other greats stable currency Issuers will soon be put on a leash in the European Union.
With the new rules coming into force on June 30, they will not only require proper authorization to operate in the 27-nation trading bloc, but will also face strict limits on transaction numbers and values set out in the Markets in Crypto Asset (MiCA ) legislation.
Such regulations mean that some of the largest stablecoin issuers, including Tether, whose dollar-pegged USDT is the world’s largest by market capitalization, and Circle, responsible for the second-largest USDC, may not be able to operate in the EU, said Robert Kopitsch, secretary general of Blockchain for Europe.
“Non-EU euro-denominated stablecoins, if they cross a certain threshold, they have to stop issuing them and using them, and that creates a problem because 99% of the stablecoin market is in USD,” Kopitsch said on the sidelines of the Consensus 2024 conference in CoinDesk held in Austin, Texas last month.
MiCA is the complete package of EU rules for the cryptocurrency sector. It was passed into law last year and allows companies authorised by one member state to operate across the bloc.
According to the law Article 23companies must stop issuing asset-backed stablecoins that are used as a medium of exchange for more than 1 million transactions or a value of more than €200 million ($215 million) per day. The stablecoin rules will come into force at the end of the month, with the other provisions due to come into force in December.
Blockchain for Europe and the Digital Euro Association – a think tank – have tried to fight the measures in a 2022 letter claiming to have effectively banned large stablecoin issuers.
An EBA spokesperson told CoinDesk that the provisions do not prevent companies from issuing stablecoins denominated in assets other than the euro. The key is whether they are used as a medium of exchange, to pay for goods or services. In that case, specific limits apply.
Issuers can serve Europeans without limitations when tokens are not a medium of exchange, Jón Egilsson, co-founder of Monerio he said in a statement. This includes transactions between currency areas, peer-to-peer transactions and where a cryptocurrency is exchanged for an electronic money token, she said.
While the EBA has not yet clearly defined how it will measure these values, a the consultation document suggests that transactions with both parties based outside the EU may be excluded, but any transaction with at least one party in the EU may be counted.
According to the consultation, a transaction includes both on-chain and off-chain transfers. Movements between addresses or accounts of the same person are not considered a transaction.
A spokesperson told CoinDesk that a final report on how the EBA will measure transactions is likely to be released by the end of the month.
Companies that have had to suspend issuance will have to submit a plan showing they can meet the limits before they can be reinstated. That could be tough: USDT’s daily global trading volume is around 27 billion dollars according to data from CoinGecko. USDC is $5 billion.
Another obstacle is obtaining the necessary certification.
“When you are a stablecoin issuer at the European level you have to have an electronic money institution license or a banking license, which is a long and very expensive process,” Kopitsch said.
So Tether, Circle and other issuers have just three days to obtain an e-money license to operate legally.
Circle that has been conditionally registered as a Digital Asset Service Provider with the French Financial Markets Authority in April, aims to obtain an e-money license by the deadline, a company spokesperson said.
“Circle is committed to ensuring full compliance with EU MiCA regulations. We intend to transfer the EURC to the EU and issue it by Circle France in a MiCA compliant manner,” the spokesperson said. “Furthermore, we intend to issue USDC to our EU-based clients from the same entity in compliance with MiCA and subject to regulatory approval.”
EURC is the company’s euro-backed stablecoin. Tether’s equivalent is EURT. Earlier this week cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp has delisted Tether tokenquoting MiCA. OKX has delisted USDT in March, saying it wanted to focus on euro-denominated liquidity in the region.
“Tether has engaged extensively with its European exchange counterparties regarding requirements, including those related to the ongoing listing of USDT and other Tether tokens, and interpretation of key regulatory provisions,” said Paolo Ardoino, Tether CEO, in a statement. “While Tether is optimistic about the implementation of MiCA, it remains critical that any stablecoin regulatory policies enacted are balanced, protect consumers, and foster growth in our emerging industry.”
“The question is what happens next because there is a growing awareness that a solution is needed,” Kopitsch said of the restrictive nature of stablecoin rules.
News
Cryptocurrency Price August 1: Bitcoin Dips Below $65K; Solana, XRP Down Up To 8%
Major cryptocurrencies fell in Thursday trading following the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep its key interest rate unchanged. Overnight, the U.S. Federal Reserve kept its key interest rate at 5.25-5.5% for the eighth consecutive time, as expected, while also signaling the possibility of a rate cut at its next meeting in September. The unanimous decision by the Federal Open Market Committee reflects a continued wait-and-see approach as it monitors inflation trends.
CoinSwitch Markets Desk said: “Bitcoin has fallen below $65,000 after the US Federal Reserve announced it would keep interest rates unchanged. However, with markets now anticipating rate cuts at the next Federal Reserve meeting in September, the outlook for a Bitcoin rally by the end of the year has strengthened.”
Meanwhile, CoinDCX research team said: “The crypto market has plunged after the Fed decision. Tomorrow’s US unemployment rate announcement is expected to induce more volatility, with the ‘actual’ figure coming in higher than the ‘expected’ one, which is positive for cryptocurrencies.”
At 12:21 pm IST, Bitcoin (BTC) was down 3.2% at $64,285, while Ethereum was down nearly 4.5% at $3,313. Meanwhile, the global market cryptocurrency The market capitalization fell 3.6% to around $2.3 trillion in the last 24 hours.
“Bitcoin needs to clear its 200-day EMA at $64,510 to consolidate further. Otherwise, a retest of $62,000 could be in the cards,” said Vikram Subburaj, CEO of Giottus.
Altcoins and meme coins, such as BNB (3%), Solana (8%), XRP (5.7%), Dogecoin (5%), Cardano (4.6%), Avalanche (4.3%), Shiba Inu (3.8%), Polkadot (3.4%), and Chainlink (4%) also saw declines.
The volume of all stablecoins is now $71.64 billion, which is 92.19% of the total cryptocurrency market volume in 24 hours, according to data available on CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin’s dominance is currently 54.99%. BTC volume in the last 24 hours increased by 23.3% to $35.7 billion.
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, opinions and views provided by experts are personal. They do not represent the views of the Economic Times)
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Altcoins WIF, BONK, RUNE, JUP Down 10% While Bitcoin Drops 4%
Altcoins dogwifhat, Bonk, THORChain, and Jupiter have suffered losses of more than 10%, while Bitcoin is down 4% in the last 24 hours.
After a period of relative calm yesterday, July 31, Bitcoin (BTC) price action has seen a drastic change as the cryptocurrency dropped by more than $3,500, bringing its value to $63,300. At the same time, altcoins mirrored this trend, with the total value of liquidated positions rising to nearly $225 million over the course of the day.
Initially, the week started on a positive note for Bitcoin, which reached its highest point since early June, hitting $70,000. However, this peak was short-lived, as it was quickly rejected, leading to a substantial decline, with Bitcoin falling below $65,500.
The cryptocurrency managed to regain some stability, trading comfortably at around $66,800. However, following a Press conference According to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, the value of Bitcoin has fallen again to $64,300, down more than 3% in 24 hours.
BTC Price Chart 24 Hours | Source: crypto.news
The recession coincided with a relationship from the New York Times stating that Iran had called for retaliatory measures against Israel following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, increasing the risk of further conflict in the region.
Meanwhile, on the economic front, the Federal Reserve decided to keep its benchmark interest rates in place, offering little information on a planned September rate cut. Powell also hinted that while no concrete decisions have been made on the September adjustment, there is growing consensus that a rate cut is likely.
Amid Bitcoin’s decline, altcoins have suffered even more significant losses. For example, dogwifhat (Wife) saw a 12.4% drop and (DISGUST) has suffered a 10% drop. Other altcoins such as THORChain (RUNE) also fell by 10%, while Jupiter (JUPITER) and the Ethereum naming service (ENS) decreased by 8% and 9% respectively.
Among the largest-cap cryptocurrencies, the biggest losers are Solana (SOL) with a decrease of 8%, (Exchange rate risk) down 6%, Cardano (ADA) down 4%, and both Ethereum (ETH) and Dogecoin (DOGE) recording a decrease of 4.4%.
Data from CoinGlass indicates that approximately 67,000 traders have been negatively impacted by this increased volatility. BTC positions have seen $61.85 million in liquidations, while ETH positions have faced $61 million. In total, the value of liquidated positions stands at $225.4 million at the time of writing.
News
Riot Platforms Sees 52% Drop in Bitcoin Production in Q2
Bitcoin mining firm Riot Platforms has released its second-quarter financial results, highlighting a decline in cryptocurrency mined due to the recent halving.
Colorado-based Bitcoin (BTC) mining company Riot platforms revealed its second quarter financial results, highlighting a significant reduction in mined cryptocurrencies attributed to the recent halving event that took place in early April.
The company reported total revenue of $70 million for the quarter ended July 31, a decline of 8.7% compared to the same period in 2023. Riot Platforms attributed the revenue decline primarily to a $9.7 million decrease in engineering revenue, which was partially mitigated by a $6 million increase in Bitcoin extraction income.
During the quarter, the company mined 844 BTC, representing a decline of over 50% from Q2 2023, citing the halving event and increasing network difficulty as major factors behind the decline. Riot Platforms reported a net loss of $84.4 million, or $0.32 per share, missing Zacks Research forecast a loss of $0.16 per share.
Halving increases competitive pressure
The Colorado-based firm said the average cost of mining one BTC in the second quarter, including energy credits, rose to $25,327, a remarkable 341% increase from $5,734 per BTC in the same quarter of 2023. Despite this significant increase in production costs, the firm remains optimistic about maintaining competitiveness through recent deals.
For example, following the Recent acquisition Cryptocurrency firm Block Mining, Riot has increased its distributed hash rate forecast from 31 EH/s to 36 EH/s by the end of 2024, while also increasing its 2025 forecast from 40 EH/s to 56 EH/s.
Riot Platforms Hashrate Growth Projections by 2027 | Source: Riot Platforms
Commenting on the company’s financials, Riot CEO Jason Les said that despite the halving, the mining company still managed to achieve “significant operational growth and execution of our long-term strategy.”
“Despite this reduction in production available to all Bitcoin miners, Riot reported $70 million in revenue for the quarter and maintained strong gross margins in our core Bitcoin mining business.”
Jason Les
Following its Q2 financial report, Riot Platforms shares fell 1.74% to $10.19, according to Google Finance data. Meanwhile, the American miner continues to chase Canadian rival Bitfarms, recently acquiring an additional 10.2 million BITF shares, increasing its stake in Bitfarms to 15.9%.
As previously reported by crypto.news, Riot was the first announced a $950 million takeover bid for Bitfarms in late May, arguing that Bitfarms’ founders were not acting in the best interests of all shareholders. They said their proposal was rejected by Bitfarms’ board without substantive engagement.
In response, Bitfarms She said that Riot’s offer “significantly understates” its growth prospects. Bitfarms subsequently implemented a shareholder rights plan, also known as a “poison pill,” to protect its strategic review process from hostile takeover attempts.
News
Aave Price Increases Following Whales Accumulation and V3.1 Launch
Decentralized finance protocol Aave is seeing a significant spike in whale activity as the market looks to recover from the recent crash that pushed most altcoins into key support areas earlier this week.
July 31, Lookonchain shared details indicating that the whales had aggressively accumulated Aave (AAVE) over the past two days. According to the data, whales have withdrawn over 58,848 AAVE worth $6.47 million from exchanges during this period.
In one instance, whale address 0x9af4 withdrew 11,185 AAVE worth $1.23 million from Binance. Meanwhile, another address moved 21,619 AAVE worth over $2.38 million from the exchange and deposited the tokens into Aave.
These withdrawals follow a previous transfer of 26,044 AAVE from whale address 0xd7c5, amounting to over $2.83 million withdrawn from Binance.
AAVE price has surged over 7% in the past 24 hours amid buy-side pressure from these whales. The DeFi token is currently trading around $111 after jumping over 18% in the past week.
Recently, the price of AAVE increased by over 8% after Aave founder Marc Zeller announced a proposed fee change aimed at adopting a buyback program for AAVE tokens.
Aave v3.1 is available
The total value locked in the Aave protocol currently stands at around $22 billion. According to DeFiLlamaApproximately $19.9 billion is on Aave V3, while the V2 chain still holds approximately $1.9 billion in TVL and V1 approximately $14.6 million.
Aave Labs announced Previously, Aave V3.1 was made available on all networks with active Aave V3 instances.
V3.1 features improvements that are intended to improve the overall security of the DeFi protocol. The Aave DAO governance has approved the v3.1 improvements, which also include operational efficiency and usability for the network.
Meanwhile, Aave Labs recently outlined a ambitious roadmap for the projectwith a 2030 vision for Aave V4, among other developments.
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