In this issue:
Crypto Companies Launch New Products, Expand Partnerships
By Robert
A recent statutory instrument aims to remove legal uncertainty surrounding crypto staking and ease blockchain operations.
By Stuart Davis, Gabriel Lakeman, and Emma Trankeenan
On 9 January 2025, the UK Government published the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Collective Investment Schemes) (Amendment) Order 2025 (SI 2025/17) (the Staking SI) and the accompanying
The Trump Administration and the new Republican-led Congress are expected to create a friendlier governmental approach to crypto assets. Among other things, key nominees to serve as senior administration officials are known to favor a friendlier approach, including Paul Atkins, who has been tapped to become Chairman of the Securities & Exchange Commission. In Congress,
In this issue:
Bitcoin has breached $100K.
One inadvertent consequence of these run ups is revival of long lost friendships.
With peaking retail interest in crypto, one such friend happened to share this meme with me.
After a series of awkward exchange and a bit of introspection, I realized this is where we digress from the common narrative
Arguably the strongest meta in crypto right now is AI agents, which are semi-autonomous LLMs designed to operate independently. In the crypto and memecoin space, they’re most prominent on X, where they exist as self-governing accounts posting generative content, interacting with users, and even engaging with other AI agents.
What makes AI agent memecoins compelling
The FinmadiG introduces material implementation measures for the European Digital Finance Package.
By Axel Schiemann and Lasse Winzer
On 18 December 2024, the German Parliament (Deutscher Bundestag) has passed the Financial Market Digitisation Act (Finanzmarktdigitalisierungsgesetz — FinmadiG). The FinmadiG serves as the German implementation of several European rules, inter alia, Regulation (EU)
The guidelines aim to ensure the consistent application of MiCA across the EU, including a standardised classification of cryptoassets.
By Axel Schiemann, Lasse Winzer, Thomas Vogel, Stuart Davis, and Gabriel Lakeman
On 10 December 2024, the European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) (together, ESAs) have published new joint guidelines on explanations and opinions, and the standardised test for cryptoassets, under Article 97(1) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 on the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA).
Article 97(1) of MiCA mandated the ESAs to jointly issue guidelines by 30 December 2024 that specify the content and form of the explanation accompanying the cryptoasset white paper referred to in Article 8(4), and the legal opinions on the qualification of ARTs as per Article 17(1), point (b)(ii), and Article 18(2), point (e) of MiCA.
In this issue:
The court ruled OFAC overstepped its authority in sanctioning Tornado Cash, holding that its smart contracts are not “property” under the governing statutes.
By Eric Volkman, Jenny Cieplak, Stephen P. Wink, and Deric Behar
On November 26, 2024, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed