It's not even been 2 weeks that we launched EURC on @base and the growth trajectory couldn't look better:
• €7.3 million EURC issued on Base
• leading to +20% growth of EURC market cap overall to ~€40 million today
• liquidity on @AerodromeFi, the top DEX on base, approaches ~5 million EURC very quickly, trading volume ~$6.5 million --> onchain FX is coming!
• EURC on base is already supported by @coinbase @AerodromeFi @mavprotocol @Uniswap @tokenterminal @crossmint
The base momentum is real. The traction for the onchain euro and onchain FX (EURC<>USDC) is organic.
If this growth trajectory continues, it's only a matter of weeks until EURC, the largest MICA-compliant euro stablecoin, also becomes the largest euro stablecoin overall. More to come!
1/ Yesterday was a prime example of why crypto Twitter (and often crypto media) should not be trusted when it comes to crypto policy. Let's debunk claims that the EU is banning anonymous crypto transactions or self-custodial wallets.
Here is what’s actually in the EU Anti Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR) and what in means for crypto in the EU 🧵
2/ First things first: The AMLR is not a crypto regulation.
It’s a broad AML/CFT framework that applies to institutions, so called “obliged entities” (OEs). All financial institutions, including CASPs (crypto-asset service providers), are OEs. But also non-financial institutions like football clubs or gambling services that might be prone to AML/CFT risk will be treated as OEs under the AMLR.
3/ As such, the AMLR applies only to OEs/service providers and explicitly excludes obligations for providers of hardware and software or providers of self-custody wallets that don’t have access/control over the crypto-assets (e.g. Metamask, ledger).
The EU MiCA regulation is without any doubt the most comprehensive, already adopted crypto framework in the world.
Nonetheless, there are assets & activities that aren't covered by its broad scope. A thread about who/what will not need regulatory approval under MiCA 🧵
1/12
• Utility tokens only used and usable in a certain limited network
• Crypto-asset offerings to <150 people per EU member state or only to qualified investors. Offerings <1M EUR in a 12months period
• Digital assets that cannot be transferred
2/12
• Lending & Borrowing of crypto-assets, incl. of e-money tokens are explicitly out of scope
MiCA, the landmark EU crypto regulation, officially passed the plenary of the EU Parliament 🇪🇺
-517 MEPs voted in favor
-38 against
-18 abstentions
Next steps
-final formal vote in the Council of the EU (EU member states) on May 16
-MiCA publication in the Official journal of… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
1/ Wonder how a central bank issued digital euro could look like?
The ECB has published its second progress report.
It sheds more light on the role of intermediaries, the settlement model, funding/defunding model, distribution model & next steps.
Some highlights in the 🧵
2/ Role of intermediaries
• Supervised intermediaries would be the direct counterparts for individuals, merchants and businesses.
• They would be responsible for transaction management tasks, incl. initiation, authentication, validation & post-settlement activities.
3/ Settlement
• For an online digital euro, Eurosystem central banks would perform the settlement tasks, incl. the recording & verification.
• The Eurosystem would not be able to infer how many digital euro any individual end user held nor to infer end users’ payment patterns.
1/ The BIS has published a study on retail crypto trading (2015-22) incl. some remarkable charts.
TL/DR: When the price of #Bitcoin rises, more people download & actively use crypto exchange apps.
73-81% of retail investors have likely lost money on their initial investment. 👇
2/ Key findings:
A rise in BTC price is associated with a significant increase in new users. The price explains the lion’s share of the variation of new users, other variables (policy uncertainty etc.) are less important, contradicting explanations based on BTC as a safe haven.
3/
40% of users are men under 35, the most “risk-seeking” segment of the population. They are more price sensitive vs. female users or older men. Android users are also more price sensitive vs. iOS.