26th October 2025 > > MiCA, Warren, & Zhao.

tl;dr

The EU’s flagship crypto compliance regime, MiCA, is helping bring cryptos to everyone in the EU. Warren and Zhao have conspired to spoil my day.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

This week gives the Fed another chance to manipulate the yield curve with futures prices giving a 98% probability of a quarter-point rate cut on Wednesday, loosening monetary conditions. Remember we are now only six months away from the Fed pivoting to an official policy of total yield curve control. You want to be holding hard assets long before then, but if your choice is gold, I suspect you are going to be sorely disappointed.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – MiCA is motoring

The number and breadth of firms being registered under the new MiCA regime accelerates by the day. Hot on the heels of Revolut (https://www.curiouscryptos.com/post/24th-october-2025-man-child-zhao-revolut) comes news that Relai, a bitcoin only app, is now licensed to sell its wares across the whole of the EU. Relai provides the infrastructure for retail investors to invest in BTC only. Relai co-founder and CEO Julian Liniger explains:

“We’re incredibly proud to be one of the first Bitcoin companies to get the MiCA license and are eager to expand to France first and Europe in a second step.”

Co-founder Adem Billican elaborates on their very fine vision:

“Our goal is clear: Bringing Bitcoin to as many people as possible. Simple, secure, regulated.”

Just one more step on the road to crypto adoption for literally everyone.

…

For early adopters of the crypto revolution, Blockchain.com is a familiar name. It was one of the first providers of online wallets to store initially just BTC. Though it has had problems competing with hardware wallets, and browser plug-ins such as MetaMask and Phantom, the company is intent on not repeating the mistakes of some earlier trailblazers in the internet world, such as CompuServe and Netscape Navigator, both of which showed early promise but faded into obscurity.

The company will continue to offer its custody and wallet services to both retail and institutional clients, its original core business, plus broking, treasury and advisory services.

More than sixty crypto companies have now received their MiCA license, including familiar names such as Coinbase, Kraken, and OKX. From the TradFi world, SocGen and BBVA have approval to, respectively, issue stablecoins and provide trading services. We should expect many more TradFi firms to follow the same path which will lead to an explosion in retail adoption, boosting the value of all our bags.

Notably absent is Tether whose product USDT fails the tests set by the GENIUS Act in the US and MiCA. The CCC has been telling everyone for the longest time that USDT is a weak link in the crypto ecosystem. The day it is usurped by USDC cannot come soon enough.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Senator Elizabeth Warren & Changpeng Zhao

Warren and I have never got along well. Her personal campaign against freedom and liberty can only be motivated by dark and dangerous desires, beyond the ken of any reasonable human being.

But – and this is most unlikely to ever happen again – she has got something right. I know, shocking, but true.

The CCC team was not overly pleased about Trump pardoning Zhao (https://www.curiouscryptos.com/post/24th-october-2025-man-child-zhao-revolut). Nor was Warren who wrote on X:

“CZ pleaded guilty to a criminal money laundering charge and was sentenced to prison. But then he financed President Trump’s stablecoin and lobbied for a pardon. Today, he got it. If Congress does not stop this kind of corruption, it owns it.”

She is right – Zhao should not have had a pardon. The whole situation stinks, giving Warren the exceedingly rare opportunity to attack the crypto industry from the moral high ground, something we could do without.

…

In his defence, Zhao made this very relevant point:

“The same Senator (Warren) declared "war on crypto", on public TV, 5 days before my sentencing, during the Biden Admin. Need a better example of weaponization of "Biden's DOJ" against crypto?”

So, I find myself in agreement with both Warren and Zhao, which is making me feel very uncomfortable if truth be told.