The French crypto industry is once again in the spotlight. Reuters reveals that France is once again at the heart of European crypto debate, indicating that it could move to block licensed companies in other EU jurisdictions from operating within the country.

The regulatory warning issued on Monday by Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani, Chairman of the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), highlights the deep fractures already manifested in the European Union’s groundbreaking market in the European Union’s Crypto Asset Regulation (MICA).

MICA, officially enacted by service providers in December 2024, was billed as the world’s first comprehensive digital asset rulebook.

This framework allows crypto companies to obtain permits in one member country and “passport” their licenses in all 27 countries.

The map is clear 246 days after MICA came into effect.

He leads with Areland 123’s Mica white paper.
Germany: 59
RieChtenstein: 36
Malta: 26
Netherlands: 21
France: 7
Spain: 3

246 days after Mica went live, our map shows where the code launches are taking place… pic.twitter.com/1d7y8wf30p

– Storm Partners (@storm_partners) September 2, 2025

However, since the scheme was rolled out, Ireland, for example, has so far received 17.5 times the number of crypto-passports as France.

For businesses, the passport mechanism is an award and an efficient gateway to the block’s single market. However, regulators like the AMF have made fault lines public for the past nine months.

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Barbat-Layani warned that companies are already “shopping” for their weakest jurisdictions, and have secured light touch licenses before expanding to larger markets such as France. “The possibility of denying an EU passport is not ruled out,” she told Reuters, comparing the option to “atomic weapons” that can be deployed if the director gap continues.

This comment is because France, Italy and Austria jointly seek the European Securities and Markets Agency (ESMA) to envisage direct surveillance of major crypto companies.

In a joint paper, three regulators argued that the implementation of the early MICA revealed a “major difference” in the way national supervisors interpret and enforce rules. They argue that the direct ESMA oversight they argue is essential to protect investors and ensure a level playing field.

That push follows stinging criticism of Malta’s licensing regime. In July, in a peer review of the ESMA, the Malta Financial Services Agency found that it “partially met expectations” when approving the crypto provider, highlighting a decline in risk assessments and slow follow-up of supervision.

Additionally, the report has encouraged concerns that smaller jurisdictions could become regulatory gateways for businesses seeking rapid EU access.

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Are there other reasons why crypto companies are escheating France?

The regulatory debate of the high stakes unfolds against the tense background in France’s own crypto ecosystem. Over the past few months, a series of violent intrigues targeting crypto entrepreneurs and their families has rattled the industry. French police have attempted to acquiring at least half a dozen of them to demand ransom for digital assets, including cases in which victims were cut off to put pressure on millions of payments.

Security experts warn that some of the new EU reporting requirements could make it easier for criminals to identify wealthy targets.

This double pressure, fragmentation of regulations at the EU level and rising domestic security concerns have put Paris in a difficult position as the summer season approaches.

AMF has spent years on blockchain startups that brand France as a jurisdiction of clarity and reliability, especially after granting a license to Binance’s French organization in 2022.

The interests are high for investors and businesses. If France unilaterally refuses to recognize licenses from other EU states, the single market promises supporting MICA could break before they become fully established.

However, it is important to understand that risk is not just reputation but structural. The divergence of EU oversight will undermine confidence at the moment Europe is considering whether Trump can provide a reliable alternative to America.

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Memecoins have been under heavy selling pressure since December 2024, with many declaring the sector as good as dead. Prices collapsed across the board, liquidity dried up, and retail enthusiasm that once fueled massive rallies seemed to vanish. For months, memecoins have trended lower, underperforming most of the broader crypto market and leaving investors skeptical about their long-term survival.

Yet, despite the gloom, some analysts argue that dismissing memecoins entirely may be premature. As the market prepares for a new phase driven by shifting liquidity flows, institutional positioning, and macroeconomic catalysts, speculation could once again find fertile ground in this volatile sector. Top analyst Darkfost has gone as far as to suggest that the time to take a fresh look at memecoins may have arrived. According to him, data shows that the market is entering an area where memecoin dominance has historically regained strength, often sparking sharp rebounds.

While risks remain high—memecoins are still among the most speculative assets in crypto—the potential for explosive gains continues to attract attention.

Memecoin Dominance Signals Possible Rebound

Darkfost highlights the importance of monitoring the Memecoin Dominance in Altcoin Markets chart, which compares the market capitalization of key memecoins against that of established altcoins. This ratio offers valuable insight into whether memecoins are gaining or losing influence relative to the broader altcoin sector.

Since the massive rush that peaked at the end of 2024, memecoins have been in a prolonged decline, steadily losing both valuation and investor interest. The frenzy that once drove parabolic gains gave way to exhaustion, with most of the sector retracing sharply.

Investors in memecoins understand the unique challenge of this asset class. Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, memecoins often lack fundamental backing, making them highly speculative. As a result, timing entries and, more importantly, exiting positions quickly to secure profits are essential strategies. Hesitation can easily turn short-term gains into significant losses.

Despite this, Darkfost observes that the memecoin dominance chart is signaling a potential turning point. The ratio has entered an area where memecoins have historically regained strength, marking the beginning of sharp rebounds. Early signs of reaction suggest that market sentiment may be shifting, with speculative capital slowly re-entering the space.

If the trend persists, the conditions could align for a renewed memecoin mania. While it may not replicate the extreme fervor of late 2024, a resurgence in speculative appetite could drive significant rallies. For traders watching closely, the data implies that memecoins may once again become a hot narrative in the crypto cycle, though managing risk remains paramount.

Market Cap Growth Analysis

The chart of the Memecoin Market Cap (Daily) shows how the sector remains highly volatile, reflecting speculative behavior that defines this corner of the crypto market. After rebounding strongly from the July lows near $64B, the market surged to a local peak above $88B in early September. However, that momentum quickly faded, with the cap now retracing toward $75B, down nearly 5% in the latest session.

The 50-day moving average at $68.7B has acted as a strong dynamic support throughout this recovery, showing that buyers continue to step in when valuations approach this level. Meanwhile, the sector’s ability to push above $80B and briefly test the $88B resistance highlights that speculative capital is still present, even if profit-taking remains aggressive.

For now, memecoins are consolidating after a sharp upswing, and the market appears to be searching for balance. If capitalization holds above the $72–74B range, a renewed attempt to reclaim $80B could follow, reigniting bullish sentiment. On the other hand, a breakdown below the 50-day average would suggest fading momentum and open the door for a deeper retracement. Ultimately, memecoins remain sensitive to liquidity flows and broader risk sentiment, making timing critical.

Featured image from Dall-E, chart from TradingView

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Polkadot’s DOT token slid nearly 5% in the past 24 hours, despite the network’s community approving a landmark governance proposal that reshapes its tokenomics.

On Sept. 14, the team confirmed via X that the community had passed the “Wish for Change” proposal, which sets a hard cap of 2.1 billion DOT.

The move ends Polkadot’s open-ended issuance model, which generated roughly 120 million new tokens yearly.

Currently, around 1.6 billion tokens are in circulation, meaning more than three-quarters, or 76%, of the eventual supply has already been minted.

Polkadot said it aims to stabilize its long-term economic design by introducing scarcity and winding down inflation as a funding mechanism. The change highlights a broader effort to reduce dependence on perpetual issuance and push the ecosystem toward alternative revenue streams.

DOT’s new inflation schedule

The new framework introduces a stepped-down inflation schedule beginning March 14, 2026. Under the revised model, token issuance will taper over a two-year adjustment period.

Polkadot estimates that about 1.91 billion DOT will be in circulation by 2040, which is far below the 3.4 billion projected under the old system. The final cap is expected to be reached around the year 2160.

To manage this process, the proposal outlines three schedules for reducing inflationary pressure. One option immediately cuts emissions by more than half before easing off, while another applies sharper early reductions followed by a gradual decline through the next century.

Polkadot’s ecosystem changes

The governance overhaul arrives as Polkadot works to strengthen its position against rivals like Ethereum through initiatives such as Polkadot Capital Group, which seeks to bridge traditional finance.

It also coincides with the return of co-founder Gavin Wood as CEO of Parity Technologies, the blockchain network’s development arm.

Yet these moves have failed to halt the token’s slide.

At press time, DOT trades at roughly $4.20, according to CryptoSlate data, marking a fresh 24-hour decline of nearly 5%.

The drop compounds a broader downturn, with the asset losing about 34% of its value since the start of the year.

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$7.5 trillion is now parked in U.S. money market funds. This vast amount of capital marks a new all-time high that risk asset traders are closely watching. Why? Because as yields trend lower and the Fed prepares to cut rates, this colossal dry powder could be primed to flood into risk assets, including tech stocks and Bitcoin.

Money market funds and the dry powder dilemma

Money market funds have soared by almost $100 billion in just days. Bar Chart posted the figure at $7.4 trillion on September 9, only to be updated on September 13 to $7.5 trillion.

Semantics? Maybe, either way, it’s a huge wave of liquidity that could soon be looking for a new home.

Traditionally, this much cash on the sidelines signals huge pent-up appetite for risk, especially as interest rates fall and safe returns shrink. Every rate cut makes holding cash less attractive. So once the Fed slashes rates, investors will seek out higher-yielding, risk-on opportunities, such as Bitcoin and growth stocks.

The Fed’s upcoming rate cut is a hot topic. Most crypto traders and institutional analysts expect fresh liquidity to flow into markets after the cut, catalyzing new bull runs for volatile assets. Lower rates mean easy capital, looser financial conditions, and less incentive to stay parked in money market funds.

Voices of caution: not everyone wants a rate cut

It’s not a unanimous party, as CryptoSlate reported yesterday. Vocal critics, such as economist and goldbug Peter Schiff, call the Fed’s rate cut a “huge mistake,” warning it could reignite inflation and put the dollar at risk as a reserve currency.

Schiff argues that constantly easier money is fueling dangerous bubbles and eroding long-term economic stability, pointing to gold’s rally as a forward signal of policy error.

The scale of money market funds today is unprecedented, and it’s drawing new scrutiny to America’s fiscal health. 23 cents of every tax dollar now goes strictly to paying interest on U.S. federal debt, an eyewatering figure that has investors and policymakers sounding the alarm.

The S&P 500 is at record highs as unemployment rises and the national debt balloons. This dichotomy has some analysts concerned about the misstep between Wall Street and Main Street. Typically, a stock market correction comes after a weaker labor market and signs of a sluggish economy.

$7.5 trillion: keep watching the numbers

With a rate cut on the horizon, historic money market liquidity, and mounting fiscal worries, all eyes are on how the dry powder gets deployed. If investors rotate even a fraction of this $7.5 trillion into riskier assets, crypto markets could benefit dramatically.

Keep watching the numbers. Every move in rates, every inflation print, and every fiscal headline is rewriting the risk landscape. For Bitcoin and risk assets, opportunity and volatility have never looked bigger.

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The stablecoin market is once again in the spotlight after Tether minted another $1 billion USDT just a few hours ago. This fresh injection of liquidity comes at a time when the crypto market is entering a volatile phase, with uncertainty surrounding both macroeconomic conditions and investor sentiment. Bitcoin and altcoins are beginning to show shifting dynamics, and stablecoin issuers like Tether and Circle are emerging as critical players in shaping these movements.

Large mints from Tether have historically coincided with aggressive price swings across the crypto market, as the arrival of new liquidity often fuels increased trading activity. Whether this supply is immediately deployed or gradually filters into exchanges, the effect on market psychology is significant. Traders and investors frequently view such events as early signals of potential inflows into risk assets.

With Bitcoin consolidating near key levels and altcoins attempting to recover from recent corrections, the timing of this mint underscores the importance of stablecoins in the broader ecosystem. As liquidity expands, the coming days could see heightened volatility, with the possibility of strong directional moves. For now, all eyes are on how this $1 billion issuance will ripple across the crypto landscape.

Tether and Circle Add Liquidity Into The Market

According to data from Lookonchain, Tether and Circle have minted a combined $12.75 billion in stablecoins over the past month, marking one of the most significant liquidity injections in recent cycles. This expansion underscores the crucial role stablecoins play in the crypto ecosystem, acting as the backbone of trading activity and serving as a bridge for capital flowing into risk assets.

The timing of this surge is notable. Bitcoin and Ethereum are consolidating near critical levels, and altcoins are beginning to show signs of renewed momentum. Historically, large stablecoin mints have preceded uptrends in crypto markets, as fresh liquidity provides the fuel for traders and institutions to deploy capital more aggressively. The $12.75B increase, therefore, reflects more than just stablecoin supply growth—it signals a market preparing for potential expansion.

Still, risks remain elevated. Some analysts caution that the broader economic environment is highly unpredictable, with lingering concerns over global growth, inflationary pressures, and liquidity conditions. The volatility of traditional markets often bleeds into crypto, making sudden swings a persistent threat.

All eyes are now on the US Federal Reserve, with investors widely anticipating a rate cut at next week’s meeting. Such a move would reinforce the bullish implications of the stablecoin surge, further boosting liquidity and supporting higher valuations across digital assets. Conversely, any hesitation or unexpected policy shift could magnify uncertainty, creating sharp volatility.

USDT Dominance Suggests Risk Appetite

Tether (USDT) dominance currently stands at 4.29%, showing a modest decline after testing resistance near 4.5%. The weekly chart reveals that USDT’s market share has been in a gradual downtrend since peaking above 9% in mid-2022. This decline reflects a healthier appetite for risk assets, as capital shifts out of stablecoins and into Bitcoin, Ethereum, and altcoins.

The 50-week SMA at 4.67% and the 100-week SMA at 5.02% are both trending lower, confirming persistent weakness in dominance. Meanwhile, the 200-week SMA at 5.78% sits well above current levels, acting as a ceiling that reinforces the longer-term bearish structure for USDT’s market share. As long as USDT dominance remains below the 5% threshold, the market backdrop favors capital rotation into risk assets.

However, short-term support has emerged around the 4.2%–4.3% zone, where dominance has stabilized multiple times this year. A breakdown below this range would likely signal further risk-taking by investors, potentially fueling stronger rallies in crypto. Conversely, a bounce back toward 5% would indicate rising caution and renewed demand for stablecoins.

Featured image from Dall-E, chart from TradingView

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Is the increase in OP_Return demand bias an estimate of Mempool-based fees for normal payments (e.g., different elasticity/arrival patterns and currency TXS)?

No, op_return transactions are not specifically treated (positive or negative) in terms of fees. All transactions are treated equally, and the only distinctive factor is how willing you to pay for the fee. Whether a transaction has an OP_RETURN, an inscription, or a payment, all transactions compete for the same resource, that is, space within the block. Rate estimates should take into account all demands of block space equally.

Can a maintained op_return request crowds to pay less monetary, reducing their viability in the chain, even if the total fees rise?

Certainly, we have seen similar behavior happen before in the inscription. It’s all about supply and demand. As the supply of block space is limited, when demand increases, the price of that block space will also rise, whether it be payments, op_returns, inscriptions, etc. Ultimately, it comes down to someone who is willing to pay a higher price. Maybe the person paying is willing to pay more than create Op_returns. Probably the opposite.

However, it should be noted that payment transactions are often small and there are many coin selection strategies that can be optimized to create small transactions. Given that, even if Feerate is higher, a transaction that is simply a payment could potentially pay less absolute fees than a transaction that includes OP_Return.

Is there an analysis or simulation that shows that the higher OP_Return usage does not reduce the reliability of the settlement or lead to volatile fee dynamics than it would damage adoption?

Past actions on the network show that even when there is significant demand for block space, where adoption is still increasing, it is still increasing. See if more people are using Bitcoin as something like an inscription is happening. In general, adoptions tended to rise regardless of what was happening in the chain.

We also know that it is difficult to predict how much we will pay to enter a block from previous instances of a high transaction volume. This is probably true whether that volume is from op_returns, inscription, payment, or something else. This could affect the “reliability of the settlement” if what it means is to guess how long it will take for the transaction to be mined.

However, there is no reason to assume that increasing the OP_RETURN limit will increase the amount of transactions. The main way of data insertion on blockchain over the past few years is through inscriptions. The method of inserting data is inexpensive and allows for more data than OP_RETURN. Increasing the OP_RETURN limit does not change it, so anyone trying to insert a lot of data will rarely switch to OP_RETURN. There are very small users whose bigger OP_returns are interesting, but they don’t have a high (or actually a significant amount of) transaction volume.

The Ripple-linked XRP cryptocurrency has re-entered the 100 assets by market capitalization. 

The popular token is currently in 98th place (above American computer networking company Arista Networks and Indian banking and financial services company HDFC Bank). 

XRP’s market capitalization currently stands at $180.5 billion following the cryptocurrency’s latest price spike. Earlier today, XRP peaked at an intraday high of $3.07. 

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The token’s price recovery comes amid growing chatter about looming ETF approval, which is widely expected to happen in the fourth quarter of the year. 

XRP surpassing McDonald’s 

Earlier this year, the Ripple-linked token managed to break into the top 80 by market capitalization. 

The token briefly even briefly topped McDonald’s, which was seen as a rather symbolic milestone. 

Back then, XRP also surged above PetroChina, China’s biggest oil and gas producer, AT&T, a major U.S. telecom and media company, Siemens, a German tech giant, Shell, one of the biggest oil and gas companies, Uber, the leading ride-hailing company, Verizon, one of the top telecom providers in the US, as well as Xiomi, one of the leading consumer electronics manufacturers in China. 

On July 18, the token reached a new record peak of $3.66, but it has since declined by a whopping 16%. 

WisdomTree has unveiled a tokenized investment vehicle to bring private credit directly onto blockchain rails.

The WisdomTree Private Credit and Alternative Income Digital Fund (CRDT) launched Sept. 12 on Ethereum and Stellar blockchains. It will be available to investors through the company’s Prime and Connect platforms.

WisdomTree’s CRDT

According to the statement, the fund’s performance mirrors the Gapstow Private Credit and Alternative Income Index (GLACI). Subscriptions settle instantly (T+0), redemptions finalize in two days (T+2), and the minimum investment threshold is set at $25.

Will Peck, Head of Digital Assets at WisdomTree, said:

“CRDT unlocks access to one of the most coveted asset classes – alternatives – directly onchain. By expanding the breadth of our tokenized funds, we’re giving crypto native investors the chance to diversify via exposures that were once reserved for institutions, all within the digital ecosystem.”

The move highlights how asset managers are accelerating the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA). According to RWA.xyz, this trend has already pushed the total value of tokenized instruments on-chain to nearly $30 billion.

By turning private credit into a digital product, WisdomTree aims to shorten settlement cycles, offer greater transparency, and keep markets accessible around the clock.

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Bringing Private Credit on-chain

Private credit, a form of debt financing provided outside traditional banks and public bond markets, has become one of the fastest-expanding areas in global finance.

Over the past years, companies have increasingly relied on it for tailored loans and flexible repayment schedules, fueling a market now valued at more than $1 trillion.

According to RWA.xyz data, the sector already dominates tokenized assets, accounting for over half of the $29 billion total. Provenance blockchain’s Figure platform controls the largest share at about $17 billion.

With CRDT, WisdomTree seeks to carve out space in this growing segment by offering a transparent, blockchain-based structure for investors who want exposure to private credit without the hurdles of institutional gatekeeping.

Jeremy Schwartz, Global Chief Investment Officer at WisdomTree, said:

““Private credit has become one of the most talked-about opportunities in today’s market. For four years, we’ve been proud to make this space more accessible to the individual investor through our ETF, and now CRDT is able to deliver yield potential in a modern, tokenized fund.”

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