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Binance Seeks New Crypto Licenses After MiCA Shift

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Binance Seeks New Crypto Licenses After MiCA Shift

Binance is in talks with regulators that have invited the exchange to apply for crypto licenses following its withdrawal from the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) application in Greece, according to co-CEO Richard Teng.

Teng said at the Reuters NEXT Asia conference in Singapore on Thursday that the discussions are still “premature” and declined to identify the jurisdictions. 

MiCA created a single licensing framework for crypto firms across the European Union. After the bloc’s transition period expired on July 1, the European Securities and Markets Authority said crypto firms must serve EU clients through a MiCA-authorized entity, with limited exceptions for unsolicited cross-border business.

Binance withdrew its application for a MiCA license in Greece on June 24, after reports surfaced that Greek regulators were planning to reject the exchange’s licensing bid.

“It caught us by surprise because we submitted a fully compliant application. The regulators told us as much,” Teng said.

“We are not quite sure why the approval kept being delayed. We withdrew the application because otherwise our users would have faced a very short transition period,” he added.

Related: EU crypto rulebook faces enforcement challenge as MiCA transition ends

EU users withdraw assets to self-custody

Teng argued that many European users opted for self-custody rather than transferring their assets to MiCA-authorized exchanges.

“Of the users in the EU [who] have subsequently withdrawn their funds out of our platform, 70% of those funds went to self-hosted wallets. Only 30% flowed to MiCA-regulated entities,” Teng said.

He questioned whether MiCA is meeting its consumer protection objectives, arguing that self-hosted wallets receive less regulatory oversight than licensed exchanges.

Binance recorded $1.23 billion in net outflows during the week beginning June 29, up 207% from roughly $400 million the previous week, according to DefiLlama data reviewed by Cointelegraph.

The transition has also intensified competition among exchanges holding MiCA licenses. OKX said in a statement that its app downloads rose 158% between June 24 and July 5, citing Sensor Tower data.

Binance questions MiCA’s impact

Beyond Europe, Teng said Binance continues to expand its regulatory footprint in Asia, citing its partnership in the Philippines.

“We have deployed in many places in Asia now, from Japan to Korea to Thailand, Indonesia, Australia. We just announced the Philippines. A few more are coming,” Teng said.

Related: ESMA turns spotlight on crypto custody risks after MiCA transition

Binance reentered the Philippine market through a partnership with BlockShoals Technologies after regulators moved to restrict access to the exchange in 2024. However, neither Binance nor BlockShoals is licensed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to handle peso transfers or other central bank-regulated virtual asset services.

In a June interview with Cointelegraph, BlockShoals’ head of legal, Marie Antonette Quiogue, said the arrangement allows Binance to offer crypto trading because those activities fall under the jurisdiction of the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission, while services regulated by the central bank would require separate authorization.

Magazine: The 5 types of real world assets being tokenized fastest onchain

BOK Doubles Down on Bank-Led Stablecoins as Deposit Token Pilots Advance

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BOK Doubles Down on Bank-Led Stablecoins as Deposit Token Pilots Advance

The Bank of Korea (BOK) has doubled down on its stance that won-denominated stablecoins should first be issued through bank-led consortiums.

According to local reports from Digital Asset and EDaily, the central bank made the comments in materials submitted on Thursday to the National Assembly’s finance committee. Local outlets reported that the BOK called for safeguards, including priority issuance by bank-led consortiums and a statutory policy body involving relevant agencies.

The latest comments reinforce the BOK’s months-long push to keep won stablecoin issuance under bank-led structures. The central bank’s stance has divided policymakers and industry groups and contributed to delays in South Korea’s digital asset bill.

The BOK also said it plans to continue developing deposit-token use cases in the second half of the year, including support for government subsidy payments, vouchers, electric vehicle charging infrastructure and further real-world transactions for the general public. Deposit tokens are digital tokens that represent commercial bank deposits.

In April, BOK Governor Hyun-Song Shin expressed support for deposit tokens and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in his first public address, while South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance announced a pilot to use tokenized deposits for government operational spending. 

BOK’s stablecoin stance keeps bill debate alive 

The BOK’s latest comments add to a policy standoff that has slowed progress on South Korea’s Digital Asset Basic Act. The bill had repeatedly stalled over disagreements on who should be allowed to issue stablecoins, with the BOK pushing for banks to retain majority ownership of stablecoin issuers.

Related: South Korea adds token securities to capital market overhaul

The debate has continued as lawmakers consider how stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) and other digital assets should fit into South Korea’s rulebooks. In April, the ruling Democratic Party proposed to put stablecoins and RWAs under existing financial laws. Despite this, key issues such as whether stablecoin issuers should be bank-led remained unresolved. 

The bill’s timeline, which the government told President Lee Jae-myung in January it aimed to meet by the first quarter of 2026, has since slipped amid the US-Israeli war with Iran that began in late February, local elections, and delays in reorganizing the Assembly’s committee structure.

Magazine: The 5 types of real world assets being tokenized fastest onchain

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Polymarket takes next step in U.S. comeback with margin trading plan

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Polymarket takes next step in U.S. comeback with margin trading plan

Prediction market Polymarket applied for a license to offer U.S. users margin trading, enabling them to place bets with less upfront capital, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

Polymarket’s U.S. affiliate, Coming Home GBA LLC, filed for a futures commission merchant license with the National Futures Association, Bloomberg said, citing a company representative. Polymarket will also require authorization from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for changes to its rulebook that would allow trading without fully collateralized positions.

Prediction market platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi offer yes-or-no wagers on the outcomes of events, such as weather, sports and elections. Margin trading lets investors open positions with less upfront capital, a practice common in traditional markets. Kalshi received clearance to offer margin trading in March.

Polymarket’s application comes as prediction markets continue to grow. Volumes hit $51 billion last year and are on pace to reach about $240 billion in 2026. Wall Street broker Bernstein recently said it expects volume to rise to $1 trillion by 2030 as the sector evolves from niche wagering into wide-based “information markets” spanning sports, crypto, politics and the economy.

Bitcoin (BTC) price challenges Monday’s rejection level as ether (ETH) looks to break its streak of lower highs

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Bitcoin (BTC) price challenges Monday’s rejection level as ether (ETH) looks to break its streak of lower highs

The crypto market took another leg higher on Friday with bitcoin BTC$64,378.49 trading at $64,400, up by 2% since midnight UTC.

The largest cryptocurrency is currently at the price it failed to penetrate on Monday. If it can break past this level, it will likely advance toward the June 15 high of $67,250.

Ether (ETH) outperformed bitcoin, rising 2.6% to $1,790 as it looks to snap a trend of sequential lower highs and lower lows.

There were also notable gains across the altcoin sector ahead of the weekend, typically a period of lower liquidity. Zcash (ZEC) and aave AAVE$96.71 both rose by around 5% as optimism is slowly crept back into more speculative bets after months of waning sentiment.

Crypto diverged from U.S. equities, with S&P 500 index futures and Nasdaq 100 futures falling 0.1% and 0.4%, respectively.

Derivatives positioning

  • Crypto derivatives markets are showing signs of stabilization, with speculation easing and longer-term positioning increasing.
  • Volume over 24 hours fell 7% to $140 billion, while open interest (OI) rose 3% to $110.52 billion. This shift suggests the recovery is being driven more by strategic positioning than by high‑frequency speculative activity.
  • Cumulative OI in bitcoin’s USD- and USDT-denominated futures on major exchanges has picked up slightly, from 262K to 272K, as the spot price topped $64,000. When read alongside positive funding rates and positive 24-hour OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta (CVD), the OI increase indicates a growing bias for bullish bets.
  • Ether has yet to see a meaningful rise in futures OI, a sign that traders are still staying away from leverage.
  • In the broader market, most tokens have positive 24-hour CVDs, a sign that buyers are becoming more aggressive, trading market orders rather than passive limit orders. This set expectations for continued price rises ahead.
  • Confirmatory signals come from options-based implied volatility indexes tied to BTC and ETH, which continue to drop. It’s a sign of traders expecting market calm, a feature of rallies. BTC’s index, BVIV, fell to 38.5 early today, the lowest since June 6.
  • In the options market on Deribit, put skews continue to weaken as the price rally eases downside concerns. Calls at $62,000, $65,000, and $67,000 are among the most-traded instruments, along with the $56,000 put. A call represents a bullish bet on the market.

Bitcoin Tries for New July Highs Amid Falling Oil, Dollar Strength

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Bitcoin Tries for New July Highs Amid Falling Oil, Dollar Strength

Bitcoin (BTC) eyed new July highs on Friday as US-Iran peace momentum kept oil lower.

Key points:

  • Bitcoin bulls keep upside momentum going as BTC/USD seeks a new multi-week record.
  • Declining oil prices and US dollar strength contrast with crypto market rebound.
  • $65,000 is now “crucial resistance” to be tackled, says analysis.

Bitcoin reaches $64,350 as dollar strength, oil drop

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD climbing above $64,000, coming within $400 of new three-week highs.

BTC/USD four-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Amid ongoing hopes that the US-Iran peace deal could be salvaged, US WTI crude oil stayed lower after rejecting from $76 per barrel.

CFDs on US WTI crude oil one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

US dollar strength fell for a third straight day, with the US dollar index (DXY) approaching its lowest figures since mid-June.

US dollar index (DXY) one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Commenting on the current macro landscape, trading company QCP Capital warned that risks to economies were still growing. It specifically highlighted the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

“With no monetary cushion coming, the physical buffers matter more. In oil, Doha talks ended with no shipping deal and missiles struck two tankers on 7 July, with Hormuz flows still well below normal,” it wrote about recent Iran events. 

“The reserve looks thinner still: the SPR is at 319.5mb, its lowest since 1983, leaving just 19.5mb before the 300mb stress zone.” 

US SPR one-week chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

QCP added that recent BTC sales by business intelligence company Strategy showed that the instability had spread to crypto.

“It’s clearest in private credit, where redemption requests have blown through the 5% quarterly gates across several funds,” it added.

Crypto markets looking “better day after day”

More optimistic on the longer-term outlook, trading resource The Kobeissi Letter noted that the odds of US inflation passing 4.5% in 2026 had fallen below 20%.

Related: Bitcoin ETFs end ‘most overwhelming’ $2.7B sell-off amid new $85M net outflow

“Just 7 weeks ago, there was an 85% chance of inflation rising above 4.5% this year,” it wrote in an X post on Thursday alongside data from prediction service Polymarket. 

“Inflation expectations are coming down again.”

Source: The Kobeissi Letter/X

Continuing, crypto trader and analyst Michaël van de Poppe noted the oil-price trend as one key factor for “a lot of upside” across markets.

“The markets look better day after day,” he told X followers on Friday. 

“Bitcoin attacking the crucial resistance of $65,000 again. If this breaks, then we’re flipping many downtrends on many Altcoins into uptrends.”

Strong in USD, lagging in yen

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Strong in USD, lagging in yen

Early today, traders received Japan’s producer price index for June, which came in at 7.1%, the fastest annual increase since March 2023. The spike in wholesale inflation reinforced expectations for further Bank of Japan rate hikes. A former central bank official said Thursday that the BOJ may hike rates faster, potentially pushing them above 2%.

Note that the Japanese yen and Bitcoin have developed an unusually strong positive correlation, often moving in lockstep against the U.S. dollar. If that correlation holds, yen upswings may ultimately prove positive for bitcoin in general, even as BTC/JPY (and other crypto/JPY) pairs continue to lag in relative terms.

The GPIF Risk

The Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) of Japan manages roughly ¥277 trillion ($1.87 trillion) in assets, making it the world’s largest retirement fund. It invests heavily in global stocks and bonds.

Now the Japanese government wants the GPIF and other pension funds to invest more in local assets. Such a rotation could trigger volatility in global financial markets.

“The fund, one of the largest pension pools in the world, held 293.4 trillion yen, or roughly 1.81 trillion dollars, in assets at the end of December, maintaining roughly equal allocations across domestic equities, foreign equities, domestic bonds and foreign bonds,” analysts at InvestingLive said in a market update.

Bitcoin ETFs bleed again while ether funds snap a five-day inflow streak

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Bitcoin ETFs bleed again while ether funds snap a five-day inflow streak

U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs lost a net $95 million on Thursday, per SoSoValue data, while ether ETFs shed about $52 million, ending a five-day inflow run that had been the steadier side of the market.

Fidelity’s FBTC drove the bitcoin outflow with roughly $63 million, followed by ARKB at about $40 million. BlackRock’s IBIT was flat, neither adding nor losing money, and VanEck’s HODL and Morgan Stanley’s MSBT were the only funds in the green. Total bitcoin ETF assets sit near $77 billion.

Ether’s reversal was broader. Fidelity’s FETH lost about $34 million and BlackRock’s ETHA roughly $13 million, with Bitwise and BlackRock’s second fund also negative. No ether fund posted an inflow, and net assets held at about $9 billion.

The flows are lagging the tape. Bitcoin rose 3.5% on Friday to nearly $64,000 and is up 4.2% on the week, recovering everything it lost when Trump warned that strikes on Iran could intensify.

Ether added 2.6% to $1,760. The rally came out of Asia, where South Korea’s Kospi jumped 4% on renewed AI-demand optimism and SK Hynix priced $26.5 billion of American depositary shares.

Institutional money has now sat out most of a month in which bitcoin has traded between roughly $59,000 and $66,000 without breaking either way.

EU Parliament Passes Message-Scanning ‘Chat Control’

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EU Parliament Passes Message-Scanning ‘Chat Control’

The European Parliament has passed legislation allowing tech firms to scan messages for child sexual abuse material until 2028, a controversial law dubbed “chat control” by critics.

EU lawmakers on Thursday largely voted against extending the regulation, dubbed “Chat Control 1.0,” but stopping it required 361 lawmakers to reject it. Only 314 voted to stop the law, and 276 supported it.

The vote advances reviving the “chat control” rules that expired in April, and has been a controversial topic among privacy and cryptography advocates, as the originally designed law breaks the principle behind encrypting messages.

Parliament, however, passed an exemption to exclude “communications to which end-to-end encryption is, has been or will be applied,” handing a small win to cypherpunks.

Pirate Party MEP Markéta Gregorová, whose party put forward the amendment to exempt end-to-end encrypted messages, said its success was “a bittersweet victory.” 

“Protecting encryption was one of our priorities, and I am therefore glad that we managed to secure an absolute majority for an amendment that at least preserves encryption. At the same time, however, voluntary mass scanning unfortunately passed,” she said.

The law’s supporters argue it is vital to protect children and combat the spread of abusive material.

The parliament’s laws with amendments will be sent back to the Council of the EU, a body of ministers from the bloc’s member nations who will approve or reject the legislation.

Chat Control battle “just getting started”

The vote on Thursday comes after the European Parliament voted through a rarely used urgent procedure on Tuesday that brought lawmakers back to vote on whether to extend a legal framework for the laws that expired in April.

Since the framework expired, messaging platforms such as WhatsApp have been allowed to take their own voluntary measures to seek out those sharing abusive material.

In March, Parliament had rejected a temporary extension of the scheme while a new permanent version of the law, dubbed “Chat Control 2.0,” was under discussion, before the European People’s Party, the largest group in Parliament, revived the extension in the urgent procedure vote on Tuesday.

The party had largely voted against extending the laws in March because of amendments that restricted the scope of scans, but its leader, Manfred Weber, has been looking for ways to push through the extension without changes.

Related: EU committee advances digital euro bill after key vote

Breyer, the former MEP, said the “political battle over the permanent ‘Chat Control 2.0’ is just getting started.”

“The resistance we saw in Parliament today was so strong that finding a majority for permanent, suspicionless mass scanning in future negotiations is a complete pipe dream,” he said.

Negotiations for the permanent law, or “Chat Control 2.0,” will resume in September, with lawmakers disputing whether message scanning should be targeted or applied broadly.

Features: Crypto industry looks to stablecoins and DeFi revisions in MiCA 2.0

Bitcoin’s gets bullish signal from MACD. Next stop above $70,000?

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Bitcoin’s gets bullish signal from MACD. Next stop above $70,000?

Traders typically do not rely on a single indicator to determine market trends. But this particular MACD has proved reliable as a standalone gauge through the price crash from the record high of $126,000. Since October, negative crossovers have reliably marked the start of steeper declines, while positive crossovers have preceded meaningful recovery rallies – including the December–January bounce and the February–May bounce.

BTC’s daily chart. (TradingView)

The latest bullish crossover therefore points to a notable bounce ahead, though not necessarily the start of a full-blown new uptrend. That bigger move would need more confirmation, which is why the key resistance levels below are now in focus.

Key levels ahead

The first level to watch is the 50-day simple moving average, currently around $65,434. This is simply the average bitcoin price over the past 50 days (roughly two months).

Traders in both crypto and traditional markets watch this line closely to gauge near-term momentum. A clear move above it is often seen as a sign that upside strength is building.

The second key level is $67,292, which was the mid-June high. This is where bitcoin staged a brief recovery from early June lows near $60,000, only for sellers to step in aggressively. That resistance turned the price lower again. Breaking above $67,292 would be another win for buyers, showing they have overcome the previous area of strong selling pressure.

Ether Bridged To Robinhood Chain Tops $70M in First Week

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Ether Bridged To Robinhood Chain Tops $70M in First Week

The amount of Ether bridged to Robinhood’s new layer-2 blockchain exceeded $70 million in just the first week, according to Token Terminal. 

Robinhood Chain, an EVM-compatible Arbitrum-based layer-2 network that uses ETH as its native gas token, launched on July 1 with the company describing it as “AI-native and purpose-built for real-world assets.” 

“If adoption continues, the chain could become a meaningful new source of demand for ETH,” said Token Terminal on Thursday. 

Robinhood has also offered tokenized stocks to customers in more than 120 countries, responding to a surging demand for tokenized US equities. Ethereum and its layer-2 scaling networks have been a popular choice for tokenized real-world assets (RWA) with more than 50% market share, according to RWA.xyz, and this move could cement that position even further. 

Turning liquidity into economic activity

“Robinhood Chain is rapidly turning liquidity into economic activity,” said Token Terminal in a separate post on X. 

Robinhood Chain’s daily active users reached 194,000 while daily revenue has grown to $39,000, equivalent to a $14 million annualized revenue run rate, within the chain’s first week, it said. 

DefiLlama, a decentralized finance data platform, shows similar figures, showing Robinhood Chain has a total value locked of 46,748 ETH, worth around $83 million at current market prices. Thursday’s inflows alone totaled 31,855 ETH, or around $55 million.  

Uniswap founder Hayden Adams said Friday that most of what is happening on the Robinhood Chain is ETH-denominated. 

“It’s the base pair for trading, the highest volume asset, and the gas token to pay for blockspace. It also burns ETH on L1 to pay data storage fees,” he added. 

ETH bridged to Robinhood Chain tops $70 million. Source: Token Terminal 

Andri Fauzan Adziima, research lead at Bitrue Research Institute, told Cointelegraph that it was “strongly bullish” and early volume “validates the L2 flywheel,” as a “meaningful new demand sink.”

“By using ETH as the native gas token on this high-velocity Arbitrum L2, every transaction I track creates direct, recurring demand while locking capital and onboarding Robinhood’s massive user base.” 

Related: L1s face decentralization ‘tug-of-war’ as adoption grows: Injective CEO

Tim Sun, HashKey Group senior researcher, said it was “a clear, structural positive for ETH.”

“For Ethereum, the most direct benefit is that Robinhood Chain uses ETH for gas,” he said. “As bridged assets, wallet addresses, and on-chain transactions grow, new demand for ETH is generated.”

“However, the deeper significance lies not just in how much gas is consumed, but in Robinhood’s choice to build its own on-chain financial ecosystem within the Ethereum network. This further solidifies the Ethereum mainnet’s position as the ultimate settlement layer and liquidity foundation for tokenized assets.”

Bulls argue Ethereum’s long-term growth thesis comes from RWA tokenization, agentic AI payments, institutional adoption and network upgrades, such as Glamsterdam, expected before the end of 2026, which is expected to increase layer 1 capacity. 

ETH prices ticked up on Friday to reach $1,775 but remain at multi-year bear market lows, down 64% from their August 2025 peak. 

Features: The biggest blockchain upgrades still to come in 2026

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