France backs down on immediate threats to ban British boats from French ports
France has backed down on immediate threats to ban British vessels from French ports as the two nations continue to feud over post-Brexit licences to fish in UK waters.
French President Emmanuel Macron had warned that Paris could block UK boats from landing their catches and impose physical checks on lorries travelling to and from the UK – which had led to fears of long queues on either side of the Channel resulting in delayed shipments ahead of Christmas.
But on Monday evening, Downing Street said it welcomed an announcement from Paris that it would “not go ahead with implementing their proposed measures as planned tomorrow”, adding that the UK is “ready” to continue talks.
Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron came face to face at the COP26 climate summit on Monday
The statement from a UK government spokesperson continued: “The UK has set out its position clearly on these measures in recent days.
“As we have said consistently, we are ready to continue intensive discussions on fisheries, including considering any new evidence to support the remaining license applications.
“We welcome France’s acknowledgement that in-depth discussions are needed to resolve the range of difficulties in the UK/EU relationship. Lord Frost has accepted Clement Beaune’s invitation and looks forward to the discussions in Paris on Thursday.”
Mr Macron allegedly told reporters at the COP26 climate conference earlier on Monday that “discussions have resumed” on the basis of a proposal he made to Boris Johnson.
He is reported to have said that the UK government agreed to come back to the French government on Tuesday “with other proposals”.
Officials from the two nations have been involved in talks convened by the European Commission in Brussels.
Meanwhile Mr Johnson and Mr Macron came face-to-face once more on Monday after both arriving in Glasgow.
Earlier on Monday, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told Sky News she was setting a 48-hour deadline for the fishing dispute with France to be resolved.
After this point, the UK government would begin taking legal action, Ms Truss said, hitting out at the French for behaving “unfairly” and making “completely unreasonable” threats.
Shortly after her comments, Downing Street added that it had “robust” contingency plans in place if Mr Macron’s government carried out threats to disrupt trade from midnight.
Last week, French authorities detained a British scallop trawler in the port of Le Havre as fresh tensions over post-Brexit fishing rights broke out.
The UK has granted licences to 98% of EU vessels which have requested permission to operate in British waters.
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PM ‘worried’ that treaty may have been broken on fishing
But the dispute centres on access for small boats, under 12 metres, wishing to fish in the UK six to 12 nautical mile zone.
The government in Paris detained the British scallop trawler as it was angry that the UK originally granted only 12 licences out of 47 bids for smaller vessels.
A total of 18 licences have now been granted.
Paris had previously said if the rules did not chance by midnight on Tuesday, retaliatory measures would be launched.
Jersey‘s government, which is responsible for managing licences for French vessels to fish in the island’s waters, has since accused France of seeking to “bully” with the “completely unprecedented” threat to the island’s energy supply.
A UK government spokesperson said discussions continue
And the Crown Dependency called for an end to the “silliness” of “political rhetoric” and to “deal with the technical issues”.
Meanwhile, Labour’s shadow business secretary Ed Miliband also expressed his fears that French threats were being made “for domestic political reasons”.
“I don’t like the way French have behaved in this at all – I actually agree with Liz Truss on this,” he told Sky News at the COP26 summit.
PayPal says the US Securities and Exchange Commission has abandoned its investigation into the payment giant’s US-dollar stablecoin.
PayPal said in an April 29 regulatory filing that the SEC concluded its investigation into PayPal USD (PYUSD) and wouldn’t be taking any action.
The company said it received a subpoena from the SEC’s Division of Enforcement over its stablecoin in November 2023.
“The subpoena requests the production of documents. We are cooperating with the SEC in connection with this request,” PayPal stated at the time.
In its latest filing, the firm said the SEC notified it in February that the agency “was closing this inquiry without enforcement action.”
PayPal has said its stablecoin is 100% redeemable for US dollars and “fully backed” by dollar deposits, including short-term treasuries and cash equivalents.
However, the stablecoin has struggled to gain momentum in a crowded market dominated by rivals Tether and Circle. PYUSD has a market capitalization of just $880 million, less than 1% of Tether’s (USDT) $148.5 billion.
PayPal’s stablecoin has seen better growth this year with a 75% increase in PYUSD circulating supply since the beginning of 2025, according to CoinGecko. It remains down 14% from its peak supply of just over $1 billion in August 2024.
Earnings on PYUSD, Coinbase partnership
That growth could be bolstered by a company announcement on April 23 introducing rewards for PYUSD in a new loyalty offering that will enable US users to earn 3.7% annually for holding the asset on the platform.
Meanwhile, on April 24, PayPal announced a partnership with Coinbase to increase the adoption of PYUSD.
“We are excited to drive new, exciting, and innovative use cases together with Coinbase and the entire cryptocurrency community, putting PYUSD at the center,” said Alex Chriss, PayPal President and CEO.
Related: PayPal to offer 3.7% yield on stablecoin balances: Report
The payments giant also reported robust first-quarter earnings and the completion of significant share repurchase activities.
The firm beat Wall Street estimates, earning $1.33 per share in the first quarter, topping analyst expectations of $1.16. Revenue rose 1% from a year before to $7.8 billion.
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Asset manager BlackRock has filed to create digital ledger technology shares from one of the firm’s money market funds, which will leverage blockchain technology to maintain a mirror record of share ownership for investors.
The DLT shares will track BlackRock’s BLF Treasury Trust Fund (TTTXX), which may only be purchased from BlackRock Advisors and The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY), the firm said in its April 29 Form N-1A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The money market fund holds over $150 million worth of assets, invested almost entirely in US Treasury bills and cash.
BlackRock said that the shares “are expected to be purchased and held through BNY, which intends to use blockchain technology to maintain a mirror record of share ownership for its customers.”
Unlike the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), DLT shares won’t be tokenized but will instead be used as a transparency tool to verify ownership.
BlackRock will continue to maintain traditional book-entry records as the official ownership ledger.
BlackRock didn’t propose a ticker or set a management fee for the DLT shares in its filing.
A minimum initial investment of $3 million worth of DLT is required for institutions seeking to purchase the digital shares.
BlackRock follows Fidelity’s March 21 filing to list an Ethereum-based OnChain share class, which seeks to track the Fidelity Treasury Digital Fund (FYHXX) — an $80 million fund consisting almost entirely of US Treasury bills.
While the OnChain share class filing is pending regulatory approval, Fidelity expects it to take effect on May 30.
Wall Street heavyweights continue to explore blockchain use cases
Asset managers have increasingly turned to blockchain to tokenize Treasury bills, bonds and private credit over the past few years.
Related: BlackRock Bitcoin ETF buys $970M in BTC as inflows surge, boost market
The treasury tokenization market is currently valued at $6.16 billion, led by BlackRock’s BUIDL at $2.55 billion, while the Franklin Templeton-issued Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund (BENJI) secures over $700 million worth of real-world assets, according to rwa.xyz.
Ethereum remains the chain of choice for tokenizing treasury assets, and currently houses over $4.55 billion worth, while the Stellar network and Solana round out the top three at $474.9 million and $274.5 million, respectively.
The potential of RWA tokenization has also been championed by BlackRock’s CEO, Larry Fink, who believes the technology could revolutionize investing.
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The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control can’t restore or reimpose sanctions against the crypto mixing service Tornado Cash, a US federal court has ruled.
Austin federal court judge Robert Pitman said in an April 28 judgment that OFAC’s sanctions on Tornado Cash were unlawful and that the agency was “permanently enjoined from enforcing” sanctions.
Tornado Cash users led by Joseph Van Loon had sued the Treasury, arguing that OFAC’s addition of the platform’s smart contract addresses to its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) list was “not in accordance with law.”
OFAC had sanctioned Tornado Cash in August 2022, accusing the protocol of helping launder crypto stolen by the North Korean hacking collective, the Lazarus Group.
The agency dropped the platform from the sanctions list on March 21 and argued that the matter was “moot” after a court ruled in favor of Tornado Cash in January.
This latest amended ruling prevents OFAC from re-sanctioning Tornado Cash or putting it back on the blacklist.
Initially, the court denied a motion for partial summary judgment and granted in favour of the Treasury. However, the Fifth Circuit reversed the decision and instructed the lower court to grant partial summary judgment to the plaintiffs, which led to the sanctions being revoked.
In March, the Treasury argued there was no need for a final court judgment in the lawsuit.
Crypto body petitions White House over Tornado Cash
On April 28, the DeFi Education Fund petitioned White House crypto czar David Sacks to have prosecutors drop charges against Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm.
Related: Samourai Wallet, feds ask for time to mull dropping crypto mixer case
Storm was charged in August 2023 with helping launder over $1 billion in crypto through the protocol, and his trial is still set for July.
The group said that the Department of Justice was attempting to hold software developers criminally liable for how others use their code, which they argued was “not only absurd in principle, but it sets a precedent that potentially chills all crypto development in the United States.”
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