The European Union is preparing to relax its stance on foreign-issued stablecoins, potentially allowing U.S. dollar-backed tokens like USDC and USDT to circulate freely within the bloc, the Financial Times reported on June 25.

According to the report, the European Commission will soon issue formal guidance enabling stablecoins issued outside the EU to be treated as equivalent to their European-registered counterparts.

The move would clear a key regulatory hurdle that has so far limited the reach of dollar-backed stablecoins in Europe’s financial markets.

The shift comes despite repeated warnings from the European Central Bank, which has cautioned that unrestricted access to foreign stablecoins could undermine financial stability.

ECB President Christine Lagarde previously urged policymakers to tighten restrictions on stablecoin issuers, citing the risk of capital flight and reduced monetary sovereignty.

Under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, stablecoin issuers are currently required to maintain most of their reserves in EU-based banks and ensure euro-denominated redemption rights.

The proposed changes would allow global issuers to bypass those limitations for branded versions of their tokens already operating under EU supervision.

The U.S. Senate’s recent passage of the GENIUS Act, which establishes a national framework for stablecoin oversight, has increased pressure on other jurisdictions to keep pace.

The Financial Times cited several unnamed officials familiar with the matter, who indicated that the Commission’s guidance aims to avoid a scenario in which the EU becomes a “flyover zone” for digital assets, left behind by faster-moving markets in the U.S. and Asia.

The ECB has not publicly commented on the upcoming guidance, but sources told the FT that internal opposition remains strong. EU officials are reportedly working on a compromise that would give national regulators more discretion in assessing the risks associated with foreign stablecoins.

If enacted, the new approach could mark a turning point for the role of U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins in Europe, reinforcing the dollar’s dominance in digital asset markets while signaling the EU’s desire to remain a competitive hub for crypto innovation.

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Pro-crypto Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming is pressing the US Treasury to ease crypto tax laws as a means of evening out the playing field with foreign companies.

In a new thread on the social media platform X, Lummis says that the US’s competitive advantage in digital finance is at risk due to US companies being taxed more than their foreign counterparts, a loophole she and Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio are trying to close.

“Our edge in digital finance is at risk if U.S. companies are taxed more than foreign competitors. [Representative Bernie Moreno] and I urged the US Treasury to lift an unintended tax burden on U.S. digital asset companies. To lead the world in digital assets, we need a level playing field.”

In their letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Lummis and Moreno say that when the Biden Administration signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, they created a new tax known as the corporate alternative minimum tax (CAMT), which imposed a 15% tax burden on certain companies, creating a disadvantage for US firms.

“Corporations that own enough appreciated digital assets to be subject to CAMT must now pay taxes on unrealized gains in the value of those digital assets…

Neither Congress nor the Financial Account Standards Board (FASB) planned this outcome – it is the unintended result of a tax liability on decisions by a private organization that is focused on financial statement accounting standards, not principles of taxation.”

According to Lummis, the Treasury should use its power to change the law by either changing the tax burden owed or by excluding unrealized gains from the formula, because, as things stand now, corporations may be discouraged from holding large amounts of crypto assets.

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Last around $0.63, the Cardano price is up a stunning 23% from its Monday lows around $0.50.

The US President announced a 90-day pause on the implementation of new tariffs on some countries on Wednesday.

However, he increased tariffs on Chinese imports to 125% over the “lack of respect that China has shown to the world’s markets.”

With Cardano, other major cryptos and stock markets having become very oversold at lows earlier this week, the market was ripe for a bounce.

And Trump backing off from at least some of his tariff threats was just the catalyst traders needed to close out some shorts, and for dip buyers to flood back into the market.

Could this be the start of a new Cardano price rally back to its December highs in the $1.30 area?

Where Next for the Cardano Price – Back to All-time Highs?

The impressive Wednesday rally has some traders asking if the Cardano price might now have bottomed, and a return to late-2024 highs might be on the cards.

Well, an easing of trade war concerns and the fact that the market got so bearish and oversold earlier this week suggest that a local low is likely in.

A choppy continued recovery could well extend in the coming days, assuming no new trade war escalation headlines rock sentiment once again.

Of course, that’s no guarantee, as the trade war between the US and China continues to heat up, even if things are cooling off with other nations.

Macro could also throw spanners in the works. Still too hot inflation, which could rise further as tariff affects creep through, and a robust labor market are preventing the Fed from being able to ease to support falling markets and a slower economy.

CPI data out later this week could further highlight strengthen the case for the Fed to sit on its hands.

With money markets currently pricing 100bps of easing by the year’s end, per the CME’s Fed Watch Tool, there is a risk that hot inflation data disappoints the market and risk appetite is hurt.

And US treasury markets continue to send disturbing signals, with the US 10-year yield having jumped 45bps from earlier weekly lows to around 4.30% as of early Thursday overnight trade.

With US long-dated yields still well above 4.0%, investors will be disappointed by the lack of downside in US bond yields despite the meaningful correction in US stock markets in recent weeks.

All said, it remains a complicated backdrop for risk assets. Investors, retail or institutional, are unlikely to feel confident enough to pile back into crypto’s like Cardano anytime soon.

Cardano Back to $0.30?

Bearish technicals and a lack of any notable Cardano specific narratives further increase the risk of further price downside in the near-future.

Cardano has seen a decent bounce from recent weekly lows, but remains in an overall downtrend, and remains substantially below all of its major moving averages.

Meanwhile, all of the hype that Cardano would somehow be one of the major beneficiaries of the arrival of a pro-crypto Trump administration hasn’t come to anything yet.

Cardano hasn’t been selected as the blockchain to run Treasury payments on top of. Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson didn’t make it into Trump’s inner circle of crypto advisors.

Yet the Cardano price still remains around 2x above its pre-Trump election victory levels.

A worsening backdrop in the months ahead coupled with a continued deflation of retail hype, suggests the Cardano price could continue to ebb lower back to its mid-2024 range in the $0.20s-40s.

One theme to watch: Ripple and Cardano appear to be cooking up some sort of collaboration. It remains to be seen whether this will yield any bullish results for either crypto.

The post Cardano Price Analysis: ADA Bounces as Trade Wars Ease, But $0.30 ADA Remains Likely appeared first on Cryptonews.

World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the decentralized finance project aligned with US President Donald Trump, has now unveiled details of its plan to release USD1, a US dollar-pegged stablecoin.

According to a March 25 announcement, USD1 will launch first on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain, with further blockchain integrations planned.

The digital asset is designed to maintain a fixed $1 value and will be supported by a reserve of US Treasury bills, fiat currency deposits, and other short-term cash equivalents.

WLFI said the stablecoin’s backing will be independently verified through regular audits conducted by a third-party accounting firm.

Meanwhile, WLFI confirmed that BitGo, a regulated and independent custodian, will hold and manage USD1’s reserves. This setup would ensure institutional clients receive secure, insured, and regulated access to the stablecoin.

This development comes on the heels of a warning issued by WLFI about counterfeit versions of the USD1 token circulating online. At the time, the protocol emphasized that the stablecoin had not yet launched on trading platforms.

However, it was unclear if the stablecoin has become publicly available following this latest announcement.

Challenging USDT and USDC dominance

Stablecoins allow users to shield funds from volatility, transfer value across borders, and access dollar-like assets in regions with currency restrictions.

According to DeFiLlama data, the stablecoin sector’s combined market cap exceeds $233 billion as of press time, and market observers expect industryctor to continue thriving.

So, USD1 enters a competitive market dominated by established players like Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC.

However, WLFI co-founder Zach Witkoff believes USD1 offers a distinct advantage over these rivals. He highlights its hybrid foundation, which combines decentralized finance with the oversight and credibility of traditional financial institutions.

According to him:

“USD1 provides what algorithmic and anonymous crypto projects cannot…we’re offering a digital dollar stablecoin that sovereign investors and major institutions can confidently integrate into their strategies for seamless, secure cross-border transactions.”

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I am not always what one would call the perfect state of calm. I have a lot of anxiety about the present and the future.

Also, my family, like anyone’s family, can be hectic. I could go for a walk, but I don’t often get around to it, instead getting stuck in my day-to-day routine. Being that I live in such a small place, there isn’t really anywhere all that quiet. And even if I were in a quiet place, then that wouldn’t stop the anxieties and ruminations in my head.

Listening to music and whale sounds has helped me calm down a little in the past, but what I need is to be able to keep myself from spiraling too far into my thoughts.

Thankfully, with advancements in technology, many tools are available to help me retain my sanity, even when an actual therapist is not within reach.

A couple tools that have supported me are Tripp’s virtual reality meditation program and their free mobile app. Tripp’s VR app made sense for me, being that I have found video games to be a sanctuary to tune out the anxieties in my head and get lost in another realm. This has also been the case for Tripp’s co-founder and CEO, Nanea Reeves.

“I realized throughout my journey that video games have been kind of a retreat for me at times in my life,” said Reeves. “Even the casual ones on my phone, if I am kind of just ruminating on a lot of negative internal talk, I can play something and it sort of clears my head.”

I tried out the free VR app demo a handful of occasions, when I have felt particularly at a loss. It gave me a private space, even if it was a virtual space, where I could ease my tension a little, and just be. This was thanks to an immersive, multi-sensory experience, with a serene audio track and vibrant visuals, like something out of a kaleidoscope.

The immersive nature of virtual reality is another aspect of what inspired the genesis of Tripp as a concept.

“I was an investor in the Oculus early stage of their company, and that gave me access to devices,” said Reeves. “And a lot of the early experiences were designed to make you feel afraid, you know, you felt like you were on a cliff . . . And that was really interesting to me. I thought, if you could make someone feel fear that easily what else could you make them feel?

I got treated to a surreal fireworks display on launch, then the Tripp hummingbird, who is coincidentally also named Terrence, came and visited. I then performed a short exercise where, by tilting my head, I navigated a spherical object through a path of obstacles where I had to collect coins as they went by. The voice of the application suggested seeing the gaps between obstacles as the gaps between thoughts, which is “where the joy lies,” as the narrator puts it.

The best way to explain this, as author Pema Chödrön puts it, is seeing rays of sunshine that peek through the clouds. Having this kind of visual metaphor for my mental activity was something novel to me, imagining my thoughts as physical objects, and looking between them to see the sunshine. Especially for those who tend to think in terms of images, this can be a powerful metaphor.

Another of Tripp’s tools that I have relied on is its AI assistant, Kōkua, which has recently hit the VR application.

Kokua is fairly straightforward: I type my current mood in the prompt, and the AI voice assistant, based on CEO Nanea Reeves’ voice, offers words of comfort. It then creates a short reflection – some words to guide me through dealing with the stressors I am experiencing, lasting just over two minutes. At the end, I am welcome to provide feedback on whether the meditation helped at all.

I found that, the majority of the time, the app was quite helpful. There was one occasion where the app mistakenly thought I had children, but most of the time it could understand what I was trying to say. I think that is what I needed most, to know that it was okay to feel what I felt, and to have that legitimized.

One of the reasons that Kōkua was released to mobile initially, according to Reeves, was to receive feedback from users before releasing the app through Tripp’s subscription-based VR app.

“We have a smaller audience on mobile,” continued Reeves. “We wanted to learn and see where we might have gotten certain things wrong, based on how people are interacting with it for support.”

While Tripp’s VR and mobile applications are helpful, Reeves hopes to avoid the tools being used in the place of trained professional therapists.

“We do have some connections to different support lines,” she added.

If the AI detects that someone might need real support, if they’re in a crisis, there’s a connection to real professional support.

Tripp’s tools are not therapy in themselves, but from my experience, they have helped in times of distress. If I can’t change what is happening around me, the VR app and mobile app at least help me to feel like I can deal with the challenges, that there is a calm within the middle of the storm. Life has its share of conflicts and arguments. Even if things aren’t okay, Tripp allowed me, even for a moment, to be okay.

Tripp VR is a colorful, calming experience, and while Kōkua is not a licensed counselor, it does make a big difference to at least have the feeling that someone was hearing my struggles and being empathetic, even if that empathy was coming from a computer program.

VR and AI have immense potential for improving people’s psychological well-being, and the advances in the technology could become useful as another tool set for mental health professionals.

Terrence J. Smith has contributed his writing to nonprofits and both print and digital publications. He enjoys all things technology, but remembers to meditate and appreciate the outside world.

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