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Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regime fully takes effect on July 1. Fewer than 60 firms hold a license across the bloc, while a backlog leaves many applicants in limbo.

Germany has emerged as the clear outlier. BaFin has authorized roughly 18 Crypto Asset Service Providers (CASPs), accounting for about 36% of all licenses issued. Other national regulators have moved at a fraction of that pace.

Regulatory Bottleneck Mounts as July Deadline Approaches

Industry advisers now describe a realistic MiCA timeline of 8 to 12 months from submission to authorization. Regulators across France, Ireland, and Malta have struggled to clear queues. These queues have built up since the regime took effect on December 30, 2024.

France’s AMF has issued a final warning to firms still operating without a license. The agency said many applications require significant rework, and poor documentation quality is slowing approvals.

Roughly 30% of French crypto firms had still not filed as of late 2025.

Lithuania shows a similar picture. Fewer than 10% of registered firms have applied to Lietuvos Bankas, roughly 30 companies in total. The central bank has signaled fines, website blocks, and possible criminal referrals for stragglers.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) added pressure last summer. It’s peer review of Malta’s MFSA, back in July 2025, found that the regulator fell short in a CASP authorization. The recommendations apply to every national competent authority across the EEA.

ESMA’s findings also flagged business model assessments, conflicts of interest, and ICT architecture as areas of weakness. The regulator urged NCAs to review compliance with the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) during the authorization process.

Germany Sets the Pace

Germany cut its grandfathering window to 12 months, closing on December 31, 2025. The shorter runway forced firms to file earlier with BaFin. The regulator added 16 new MiCA-licensed institutions in the fourth quarter alone.

In January, DZ Bank secured a MiCA license. Germany’s second-largest lender will use it to launch the meinKrypto retail trading platform. The approval reflects how aggressively BaFin processes applications from incumbent banks. The regulator also rejected Ethena’s USDe stablecoin filing last year.

Critics argue that Germany applies MiCA more strictly than the regulation requires. The approach has pushed exchanges, including Bybit, KuCoin, and AMINA, to base operations in Austria. Compliance costs of €250,000 to €500,000 have also weighed on smaller firms.

Despite the criticism, BaFin’s pace gives Germany a passporting advantage. Licensed firms can now serve clients across all 27 member states.

Slower regulators effectively cede that cross-border business to German-supervised competitors. The 36% share far outstrips the Netherlands and Malta, the next-largest issuers.

About two weeks remain before the July 1 transition expires. The gap between Germany and slower NCAs will determine which CASPs can passport services across the EU.

The coming weeks will show how many applicants the laggards can clear before the cliff edge.

The post MiCA Licensing Chaos: Why German Firms Sprint Ahead While the EU Lags Behind appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Intel stock jumped about 10% after President Trump said Apple will make chips with the company. The surge pushed Intel (INTC) past a ceiling it had failed to clear twice.

The breakout looks promising on the chart. But money flow, crypto traders, and the options market each tell a more cautious story underneath.

Why Intel Stock Gapped Up on the Apple News

Intel Corporation (INTC) gapped higher on Thursday. President Trump posted on Truth Social that Apple (AAPL) agreed to design and build chips in the US.

However, neither company has formally confirmed the deal at press time. The caveat matters because Washington owns a piece of Intel. The US government bought about 10% of the company in August 2025.

The move caps a strong run. Intel stock has roughly tripled in 2026, helped by ties with Nvidia (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA). Demand from Agentic AI, software that acts on its own, has also lifted sales of Intel’s chips.

Risks still linger. Intel’s foundry arm stays unprofitable, and the PC market faces headwinds.

The INTC chart tells the first part of that story.

INTC Breaks a Ceiling That Capped It Twice

The rally cleared $132.70, a level that had blocked Intel twice. That kind of pattern is a double top, where price stalls at the same high two times.

INTC stock broke above it with force. Thursday’s 233.91 million shares topped the volume behind the late-May push to the same area.

Money flow is turning, too. The Chaikin Money Flow (CMF), a gauge of institutional buying and selling pressure, climbed back to zero from negative territory. The recovery suggests selling has eased and larger buyers may be stepping back in.

However, CMF sits at neutral, not clearly positive. So the buying interest is not yet confirmed. That’s one market remaining cautious.

Price and volume lean bullish, yet positioning tells another story, starting with crypto traders.

Crypto Traders Are Still Betting Against Intel

Crypto desks are not buying the breakout yet. On Hyperliquid, an exchange that offers perpetual futures on stocks, smart money stays net short Intel. Perpetual futures are contracts that track a price with no expiry date.

Nansen data shows $7.41 million in shorts against $2.90 million in longs. That leaves a net short of $4.51 million across 21 wallets.

Still, the bet against Intel is smaller than the crowd’s shorts on Nvidia and Micron. Intel’s long-to-short ratio sits at 0.39. That balance of bullish to bearish bets ranks among the least bearish in the group.

It is also rising, which suggests some traders are trimming shorts after the Apple news. Even so, the group has not flipped to net long.

The options market shows the same hesitation, with a twist.

The Options Market Sends a Mixed Message

Intel’s put-call ratio tells a split story. It compares puts, which profit when a stock falls, to calls, which profit when it rises. A reading below one leans bullish, above one leans bearish.

By daily volume, the ratio fell from 0.68 on June 17 to 0.51 on June 18. Traders bought calls hard as the stock gapped up. By open interest, the ratio rose from 1.02 to 1.04 over the same days. Standing positions tilted a little more toward puts.

The split makes sense. Short-term traders chased the move with calls, betting on fast follow-through. Meanwhile, longer-term holders added puts as protection against a failed breakout.

So fresh flow looks bullish, while standing positioning stays defensive. Buying puts while the stock pops is classic hedging, not a vote of confidence. Another sign of caution.

That defensive tilt matters most when the price levels come into view.

Intel Stock Levels That Decide the Price Path

Now the INTC stock levels sharpen the picture. The $132.70 ceiling aligns with a key technical level at $132.63. That overlap makes $132.70 a strong floor while it holds.

On the upside, $140.69 is the 0.618 Fibonacci level, a strong historical marker about 5% away. A clean break there opens $152.16, then $166.76.

The risk is a bull trap, a false breakout that traps buyers before price reverses. If CMF rolls back below zero and market sentiment weakens, the move could fail. A drop would expose $124.58, then $114.62, with $98.51 deeper below. The risk lingers, and that explains why all markets are somewhat cautious.

For now, the breakout is real but thin. Price cleared the level, yet CMF sits at neutral, crypto traders stay net short, and put open interest is rising. The Apple news lifted Intel stock, but it has not turned institutions or crypto traders outright bullish.

Hold above $132.70 with CMF turning positive, and the $140 zone comes into play. Lose $132.70 as CMF fades, and the breakout risks becoming a trap toward the $124 zone.

The post Trump Handed Intel Stock a 10% Pop, but Markets Are Hedging appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Despite some community backlash and doubt over their ability to produce a long-lasting product, the Pi Network team continues to work on improving the broader ecosystem with new updates and features.

The latest, introduced just hours ago, focuses on staking and could simplify and enhance the overall process for users.

Staking Update Deployed

With less than 10 days left until Pi2Day (June 28), the team behind the project published a post on X focusing on the benefits of staking. The project’s Ecosystem Directory Staking, which was originally introduced during last year’s edition of Pi2Day, just got a “new look and improved user experience,” reads the post.

Staking through it allows users to increase their apps’ exposure to the Pi community, which, in theory, should result in more impressions and “potentially more user traffic.” Pioneers who stake their coins can collectively support apps and services. At the same time, developers and creators can promote their apps and take advantage of Pi Network’s engaged community of over 60 million Pioneers to acquire more users.

According to the team, the new update “prepares the feature for further utilization by developers, creators, vibe coders, and Pioneers as more apps onboard to the ecosystem.”

It’s worth noting that, unlike other typical staking within the cryptocurrency industry, Pi Network’s alternative provides no rewards at the protocol level. However, the post reassured that the original staked amount will be “returned once the staked duration has ended.”

PI Fights for $0.13

No matter the significance of the ecosystem updates announced by the team or in which niche of the project they are, the underlying asset just doesn’t seem to be able to catch a break. The token exploded to $0.30 in mid-March as hype around the Kraken listing built up. However, it was quickly and violently rejected, plunging below $0.20 within days.

The subsequent market correction in June resulted in fresh declines, and PI ultimately dumped below $0.12 to mark a new all-time low. Although it tried to succeed at recovering to an extent, it was still stopped at $0.14 earlier this week and now sits inches above $0.13.

The token unlock schedule for the next month is not as painful, with the average daily number of coins to be released sitting below 4.3 million. This could alleviate some of the immediate selling pressure and help PI recover, especially if the broader market halts its free-fall.

The post This New Pi Network Update Makes Life Easier for Pioneers appeared first on CryptoPotato.

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Former Ethereum Foundation contributor Trenton Van Epps warned that Ethereum is facing a core development funding crisis that will highlight the need for new funding sources in the next three to nine months.

The former contributor wrote in a blog post on Thursday that the Ethereum Foundation’s spending reduction and the expiration of the Client Incentive Program in April left the network’s core development ecosystem requiring about $30 million in annual funding.

Citing recent conversations with core development contributors, Epps said Ethereum risks entering a “slow-burning funding crisis.”

Van Epps’ article follows a wave of departures from the Ethereum Foundation, including co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang’s announcement on Thursday that she would step down from her role, bringing the estimated number of layoffs and departures at the organization to 19 so far this year.

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Related: Ethereum can quantum-proof accounts for just 7 cents, says Ethereum’s Kohaku lead

Cointelegraph was unable to independently verify the estimated $30 million annual funding requirement and reached out to the Ethereum Foundation for comment.

Ethereum Foundation shifts treasury policy

In a May 24 X post, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the Ethereum Foundation’s resources were limited, noting that the organization held only about 0.16% of Ether’s (ETH) total supply, far below the share controlled by foundations associated with some other blockchain networks.

Buterin said the Ethereum Foundation was originally designed to fulfill a limited scope of work, including developing Ethereum’s core software and helping the network progress through its major roadmap milestones, which he said were largely completed by 2022.

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“And so today, the EF is choosing to use its remaining resources to pursue longevity over breadth (yes, this means we sell less ETH),” Buterin wrote.

Source: Vitalik Buterin

The Ethereum Foundation unstaked 17,000 ETH in late April and another 21,270 ETH (then worth $50 million) in early May, shortly after nearly surpassing 70,000 ETH staked earlier this year. The foundation also sold 10,000 ETH to the largest corporate ETH holder, Bitmine, in an OTC deal on May 1.  

Blockchain analytics platform Arkham said the unstaking may have occurred due to the foundation’s need for funds to further develop the network.

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The transactions marked another adjustment to the Ethereum Foundation’s treasury strategy. The foundation said in a June 2025 policy update that increasing its staking participation would help fund protocol development while limiting future ETH sales after community backlash over earlier disposals.

Magazine: Why is Ethereum Foundation selling? BTC futures warning signs: Market Moves

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Crypto traders are spending more time looking outside crypto for returns. They still want to stay inside crypto platforms.

Because of this gap, most exchanges pushing into tokenized global equities. Zoomex is one of them. Its ZoomexStocks product lets users trade exposure to major stocks and indices without moving funds away from the crypto exchange environment.

In a recent episode of the BeInCrypto Podcast, Zoomex Chief Marketing Officer Fernando Lillo Aranda said the move reflects how traders are behaving in a slower, range-bound market. Crypto remains the platform’s core market, but traders are looking for more places to rotate capital when volatility dries up.

The Real Test Is Whether the Platform Holds

For derivatives exchanges, speed has long been a selling point. Platforms compete on latency, matching engines, and execution times.

Aranda said that misses the bigger issue. Speed matters only if the platform keeps working when traders need it most.

“When we talk about ‘speed you can trust,’ we are trying to refer to the entire execution of the experience of the trader on a platform,” Aranda explained. “It’s not only the matching of the order, but it’s more how the engine, the infrastructure that we have, match everything when the trader launched the order on the market.”

That concern becomes sharper during sudden market moves. Traders may care about low latency in normal conditions, but crashes expose whether order books, engines, and execution systems can handle stress.

Aranda pointed to last year’s October crash as an example.

“We saw in October last year with this crash, a lot of centralized exchanges they were like having a lot of issues to match the order… on Zoomex on our side, we didn’t have any issue on that point, and that’s our goal: build this solid infrastructure for them.”

Why Order Books Can Be Misleading

Aranda also warned that traders often look at the wrong signals when judging an exchange.

Order book depth can look healthy on the surface. The real question is whether that liquidity is executable when the market moves. 

If traders cannot enter or exit positions at the expected price, the numbers on the screen become less useful.

That is where trust becomes part of the product. Aranda said traders need to feel confident that the exchange can process orders cleanly and that the platform is not working against them.

This is also where ZoomexStocks fits into the company’s wider strategy. The product gives crypto traders a way to move into traditional market exposure without leaving the platform.

“I don’t see the Zoomex stock or TradFi as if we are trying to pivot away from crypto,” Aranda stated. “What we see from Zoomex is like the traders who are looking for opportunities. And right now, the opportunities we can see on the crypto market, as well as in the traditional markets. And what the trader is looking for is a platform that can offer you everything simple, that you don’t need to move your funds from one crypto platform to another.”

The All-in-One Exchange Bet

That idea points to a wider shift in exchange design. Crypto platforms are no longer competing only on coin listings or leverage. They are trying to become broader trading hubs.

When asked how he would build an exchange from scratch in today’s market, Aranda said he would focus on coverage. Traders want access to crypto, traditional markets, and new tools in one place.

“I would try to build a platform that covers most of the services that right now the traders are looking for,” Aranda said. “So I would try to cover the services from the crypto traders, but also from the traditional markets, but also I will try to build these new tools to help them to make more profit.”

AI is part of that picture, though Aranda sees its main role in data analysis rather than replacing traders. 

As the current market is increasingly shaped by macro shocks, geopolitical risk, and sudden liquidity changes, better data may become one of the key tools traders use to manage risk.

His advice for 2026 is rather simple. Spread exposure and avoid relying on one market.

“You need to diversify… I will do like a split, thirty percent, twenty-five percent on different things, TradFi. You need to be smart on that weight.”

The post Why Crypto Exchanges are Starting to Look Like Stock Brokers appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Hsiao-Wei Wang resigned as co-executive director and board member of the Ethereum Foundation on Thursday, the second co-ED exit at the Switzerland-based nonprofit in four months. Her departure deepens a leadership turnover that has been running through the organization since the spring. Wang… Read the full story at The Defiant

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PremiumBlock brings leveraged prediction markets, liquid 24/7 FX perpetuals and Web3 poker together in one wallet-native platform via premiumblock.org

PremiumBlock today announced the launch of its non-custodial risk hub for decentralized prediction markets, perpetual futures and Web3 poker, giving crypto users one wallet-native destination to create markets, trade outcomes, access perps and participate in on-chain poker without relying on a centralized custodian.

PremiumBlock is built around a simple idea: the next generation of crypto speculation will not be limited to order books or one-directional prediction markets. Users want to price real-world events, express conviction with leverage, trade crypto volatility, and control their bankroll from the same wallet. PremiumBlock brings those use cases together in a single interface designed for speed, maximal liquidity and instant withdrawals.

The platform’s prediction market layer allows users to create and participate in markets around crypto, sports, politics, culture, macro events and world news. Unlike platforms where market creation is tightly curated, PremiumBlock is designed for user-created markets, giving communities the ability to surface the questions they believe deserve liquidity.

PremiumBlock also supports leveraged prediction-market positions, with up to 2.5x leverage available on selected markets. The feature gives experienced users a way to express stronger conviction on event outcomes while operating inside a defined collateral framework. As with any leveraged product, participants should understand volatility, liquidation risk, and market-resolution rules before entering a position.

Alongside prediction markets, PremiumBlock offers crypto perpetual futures for traders who want long or short exposure without traditional expiry dates. The perps layer brings a familiar derivatives format into the same wallet-native environment as the platform’s event markets, reducing the need for users to move capital between separate prediction-market, exchange and gaming applications.

PremiumBlock’s Web3 poker product adds a third pillar to the platform’s risk ecosystem. Built for crypto-native users who value bankroll control, the poker experience is designed around fast deposits, instant withdrawals and non-custodial fund management. The goal is to offer a transparent alternative to legacy poker rooms where withdrawal delays, account controls and operator custody can create unnecessary friction.

“PremiumBlock was built for users who want direct market access without waiting on approvals, custodians or withdrawal queues,” said Baqir Hussain at PremiumBlock. “Prediction markets, perps and poker all revolve around information, timing and risk. Bringing them together in one non-custodial environment gives users a more flexible way to participate in the markets they understand.”

PremiumBlock enters the market as prediction platforms continue to move further into mainstream crypto conversation. Polymarket helped popularize event markets for crypto-native users, while Kalshi brought regulated event contracts into broader public discussion. PremiumBlock expands the category with a model focused on user-created leveraged markets, perpetual futures and wallet-based bankroll control.

The platform is available now for users seeking a crypto-native environment where event markets, leverage, perps and poker can exist side by side. PremiumBlock does not provide investment advice. Users are responsible for understanding applicable laws, smart contract risk, market volatility and the rules of any market or game before participating.

About PremiumBlock

PremiumBlock is a non-custodial risk hub for decentralized prediction markets, perpetual futures and Web3 poker. The platform combines user-created event markets, up to 2.5x leverage, crypto perps and instant withdrawals in a wallet-native experience designed for crypto users who want direct control over funds.

The post PremiumBlock Launches Non-Custodial Risk Hub for User-Created Prediction Markets, Perps and Web3 Poker appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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XRP has spent years losing ground against NVIDIA, one of the strongest assets in global markets. Now, a widely shared analyst chart suggests a break above a long-running resistance line could mark the start of XRP’s next major move.

The setup sounds bullish, but the history is less convincing. BeInCrypto rebuilt the XRP-to-NVIDIA comparison and tested past breakouts. Since 2021, those breaks have usually marked exhaustion, with XRP falling sharply afterward.

XRP Bleeds Against NVIDIA on a Long Falling Line

The following chart shows XRP’s relative strength, which means XRP’s price divided by NVIDIA’s price. When the line rises, XRP is winning. When it falls, XRP is losing.

Want more token insights like this? Sign up for Editor Harsh Notariya’s Daily Crypto Newsletter here.

For years, that line has dropped. Cryptollica marks a long descending resistance and argues that a break starts XRP’s real move. The 2018, 2021, and 2025 peaks all stalled there. It wasn’t until 2017 that a break occurred, pushing XRP higher.

A real breakout should also hold on a slower chart. So, BeInCrypto tested the idea on weekly closes, not the analyst’s five-day chart. A weekly relative strength move is harder to fake.

The rule was simple. BeInCrypto drew one descending line across the same relative-strength highs the analyst marks. His chart runs back to 2018, but this weekly view starts in 2021 and includes all the breaks. Price then sits above or below the line on its own.

A break counts when a weekly close finishes above that line. After each break, BeInCrypto measured XRP’s return over the next twelve weeks. That left four breaks since 2021, and each now needs a verdict.

Every Break Has Marked a Top, Not a Launch

So far, the pattern lacks conviction. All four breaks led to sharp drops from the peak rather than fresh rallies. Twelve weeks after a break, XRP fell a median 39%.

Two numbers show how reliable that was. The hit rate is the share of breaks that ended higher, and each window is measured separately. So one break can be up at one mark and down at the next.

That is why the readings differ. One of four breaks was up at four weeks. None were up at twelve weeks. One had recovered by twenty-six weeks. Twelve weeks is the washout low, where every break was underwater, so the piece uses that mark.

The base rate is the other number. A normal twelve-week stretch, any random period with no break, returned about negative 2%. Because the breaks did far worse, the break behaves like exhaustion rather than ignition.

Next, BeInCrypto checked whether NVIDIA is special. The test looks for a falling relative-strength line, meaning years of XRP steadily losing to an asset. XRP shows that falling line against only NVIDIA and Bitcoin. The S&P 500, the Nasdaq, and gold do not.

So only NVIDIA and Bitcoin match the analyst’s setup. A break against the S&P 500 preceded a 35% gain, yet the S&P has no falling line. Therefore, that number is not a fair comparison here.

Among the two that qualify, the gap is stark. A Bitcoin break preceded a small 5% rise. However, the NVIDIA break preceded a 39% drop. So the damage is unique to NVIDIA, even versus the only other asset with the same setup.

That record raises one question. Why did the most recent break fail so cleanly?

On-Chain Data Shows Why One of the Breaks Failed

The answer sits on the XRP Ledger. Around early July 2025, the XRP exchange net position change turned sharply positive. That metric tracks coins moving in and out of exchanges, and rising inflows often signal selling pressure.

This shift happened near XRP’s mid-2025 peak above $3. So holders appear to have moved coins onto exchanges to sell into the strength.

The next metric tells the same story. The XRP hodler net position change turned negative around July 17. It tracks whether long-term holders are adding or reducing coins, and it stayed red through August.

That timing matters. Because even high-conviction holders sold during the correction, the break appears to have lacked underlying demand.

On-chain weakness explained the last failure. So the next break needs the opposite signal.

What XRP Price Needs Before the Next Break Counts

Here is the catch for bulls. XRP must rise by about 459% against NVIDIA just to reach the line again, per the 7-day chart calculations. So, a break is nowhere close today.

Even a clean break alone would not be enough.

Instead, it would need continuous on-chain support, such as steady exchange outflows and holder accumulation.

Encouragingly, recent flows have turned more constructive. Coins have left exchanges lately, and long-term holders have started adding again. Still, XRP price near $1.16 sits far below its old highs.

History offers one caution, too. On the analyst’s chart, 2017 was the only break that truly worked. However, XRP was a micro-cap then, and NVIDIA was a fraction of today’s size. That single win came from a market that no longer exists.

So, What Do All of These Mean? Is XRP Bullish?

XRP has been losing badly against NVIDIA for years. Some analysts say XRP could finally rally if it breaks above a long-term comparison line, but BeInCrypto’s test shows the opposite has happened since 2021.

Every time XRP broke that line against NVIDIA, it usually marked a short-term top, followed by a sharp drop. The last failed breakout was likely because holders moved XRP to exchanges and sold.

For a real bullish signal, XRP would need much stronger demand, fewer coins moving to exchanges, and long-term holders buying again. Right now, the breakout is still far away.

The post XRP Has an NVIDIA Connection, But is It Strong Enough This Cycle? appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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