EU lawmakers approve world’s first comprehensive framework for crypto regulation
Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) is the first attempt at creating comprehensive regulation for digital assets in the EU.
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Lawmakers in the European Parliament have approved the world’s first comprehensive package of rules aimed at regulating the cryptocurrency industry.
In a vote Thursday, the EU Parliament voted 517 in favor and 38 against to pass the Markets in Crypto Act, or MiCA. The legislation, which seeks to reduce risks for consumers buying crypto assets, will mean providers can become liable if they lose investors’ crypto-assets.
The rules will impose a number of requirements on crypto platforms, token issuers and traders around transparency, disclosure, authorization, and supervision of transactions, the EU Parliament said in a statement Thursday.
Platforms will be required to inform consumers about the risks associated with their operations, while sales of new tokens will also come under regulation.
Stablecoins like tether and Circle’s USDC will be required to maintain ample reserves to meet redemption requests in the event of mass withdrawals. Stablecoins that become too large also face being limited to 200 million euros ($220 million) in transactions per day.
The European Securities and Markets Authority, or ESMA, will be given powers to step in and ban or restrict crypto platforms if they are seen to not properly protect investors, or threaten market integrity or financial stability.
MiCA also addresses environmental concerns surrounding crypto, with firms forced to disclose their energy consumption as well as the impact of digital assets on the environment.
Mairead McGuinness, European commissioner for financial services, lauded the law’s approval Thursday and said she expects the rules to start applying “from next year.”
Andrew Whitworth, EMEA policy director for blockchain firm Ripple, said the parliamentary blessing marked “an important milestone for the crypto industry around the world.”
“Consistency in implementation around the EU will be key in providing crypto companies with the operational clarity to fuel innovation across Europe and guard against unwitting fragmentation of the Single Market,” Whitworth told CNBC via email.
“As part of this, there is a need to ensure that the legislation is applied proportionally with regards to how different companies’ crypto offerings are treated, based on the risk profiles of their activities.”
A step ahead of the U.S.
Parliament also cleared a separate law which aims to reduce the anonymity involved in transfers of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and stablecoins, voting 529 to 29 to pass the Transfer of Funds regulation.
This applies the so-called “travel rule,” which requires financial companies to screen, record and communicate information on both sender and recipient, to crypto transactions to help combat money laundering.
Transfers between exchanges and so-called “self-hosted wallets” owned by individuals will need to be reported if the amount tops the 1,000-euro threshold, a contentious issue for crypto enthusiasts who often trade digital currencies for privacy reasons.
In a tweet, Changpeng Zhao, CEO of the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance, said his company was “ready to make adjustments to our business over the next 12-18 months to be in a position of full compliance.”
Binance is under intense scrutiny from regulators over how it operates. In March, the Commodity Futures and Trading Commission sued Binance, Zhao and Binance’s former chief compliance officer, Samuel Lim, alleging the company actively solicited U.S. users without permission.
Zhao hailed MiCA as a “pragmatic solution to the challenges we collectively face.”
Regulators have sought to rein in the crypto market in the wake of numerous catastrophic industry failures. In May, terraUSD, a controversial stablecoin project, unraveled in a $60 billion flameout after investors lost confidence in its technical underpinning.
The demise of terraUSD caused a chain reaction in the industry, with various other firms, including Three Arrows Capital, BlockFi and Voyager Digital going bust as well. FTX, formerly the fourth-largest crypto exchange, filed for bankruptcy in November in the most high-profile crypto industry failure to date.
The move puts the EU a step ahead of the U.S. and U.K., which are yet to bring in formal rules for the crypto space. A U.K. official on Monday said specific crypto regulation could come into force within a year or so.
Once the EU laws come into effect, crypto companies will be able to use their licenses in one European country to “passport” their services across various member states. Crypto companies have been scrambling to obtain licenses from various European authorities and open new offices in anticipation of the law coming into effect.
Crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken recently got virtual asset service provider licenses in Dublin. Blockchain firm Ripple is seeking a license from the Irish central bank.
U.S. crypto companies have been looking abroad for expansion in response to tough regulatory moves in their home turf. The Securities and Exchange Commission issued Coinbase with a Wells notice, which is often one of the final steps before the regulator formally issues charges, last month.
On Thursday, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong told CNBC at a fintech event the company is prepared for a “years-long” legal battle with the SEC.
He said separately in a talk on stage that the U.S. “has the potential to be an important market in crypto” but right now is not delivering regulatory clarity. If this goes on, he said, then Coinbase would consider options of investing more abroad, including relocating from the U.S. to elsewhere.
– CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report
WATCH: FTX’s collapse is shaking crypto to its core. The pain may not be over
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TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew told employees on Thursday that the company’s U.S. operations will be housed in a new joint venture.
The entity is named TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, according to a memo sent by Chew and obtained by CNBC. As part of the joint venture, Chew said the company has signed agreements with the three managing investors: Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based MGX. He said that the deal’s “closing date” is Jan. 22.
Under a national security law, which the Supreme Court upheld in January, China-based ByteDance was required to divest TikTok’s U.S. operations or face an effective ban in the country. In September, President Donald Trump signed an executive order approving a proposed deal that would keep TikTok operational in the U.S. by meeting the requirements of a law originally signed by former President Joe Biden.
Chew noted that the new TikTok joint venture would be “majority owned by American investors, governed by a new seven-member majority-American board of directors, and subject to terms that protect Americans’ data and U.S. national security.”
The U.S. joint venture will be 50% held by a consortium of new investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX with 15% each. Just over 30% will be held by affiliates of certain existing investors of ByteDance, and 19.9% will be retained by ByteDance, the memo said.
The TikTok chief said the entity will be responsible for protecting U.S. data, ensuring the security of its prized algorithm, content moderation and “software assurance.” He added that the joint venture will “have the exclusive right and authority to provide assurances that content, software, and data for American users is secure.”
In addition to being an investor, Oracle will serve as the “trusted security partner” in charge of auditing and validating that it complies with “agreed upon National Security Terms,” the memo said. Sensitive U.S. data will be stored in Oracle’s U.S.-based cloud computing data centers, Chew wrote.
The new TikTok entity will also be tasked with retraining the video app’s core content recommendation algorithm “on U.S. user data to ensure the content feed is free from outside manipulation,” the memo said.
Chew noted that TikTok global U.S. entities “will manage global product interoperability and certain commercial activities, including e-commerce, advertising, and marketing.”
Under Trump’s executive order in September, the attorney general was blocked from enforcing the national security law for a 120-day period in order to “permit the contemplated divestiture to be completed,” allowing the deal to finalize by Jan 23.
WATCH: TikTok signs deal for sale of U.S. unit to joint venture
The VC arms of Google and Nvidia have invested in Swedish vibe coding startup Lovable’s $330 million Series B at a $6.6 billion valuation, the company announced on Thursday.
The news confirms an earlier story from CNBC, which reported on Tuesday that Lovable had raised at that valuation, trebling its valuation from its previous round in July, and that the investors included U.S. VC firms Accel and Khosla Ventures.
CapitalG, one of Google’s VC divisions, and Menlo Ventures led the round. Alongside Accel and Khosla, Nvidia venture arm NVentures, actor Gwyneth Paltrow’s VC firm Kinship Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Databricks Ventures, Atlassian Ventures, T.Capital, Hubspot Ventures, DST Global, EQT Global, Creandum and Evantic also participated.
The fresh funds take Lovable’s total raised in 2025 to over $500 million.
“Lovable has done something rare: built a product that enterprises and founders both love,” said Laela Sturdy, managing partner at CapitalG in a statement accompanying the announcement.
“The demand we’re seeing from Fortune 500 companies signals a fundamental shift in how software gets built.”
Lovable’s platform uses AI models from providers like OpenAI and Anthropic to help users build apps and websites using text prompts, without technical knowledge of coding.
The startup reported $200 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in November, just under a year after achieving $1 million in ARR for the first time. It was founded in 2023 by Anton Osika and Fabian Hedin.
Vibe coding startups have seen big interest from VCs in recent times, as investors bet on their promise of drastically reducing the time it takes to create software and apps.
In the U.S., Anysphere, which created coding tool Cursor, raised $2.3 billion at a $29.3 billion valuation in November. In September, Replit hit a $3 billion price tag after picking up $250 million and Vercel closed a $300 million round at a $9.3 billion valuation.
The Micron logo is seen displayed at the 8th China International Import Expo.
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Micron Technology‘s stock jumped 15% after the company signaled robust demand for its memory chips and blew away fiscal first-quarter estimates.
During an earnings call with analysts, Micron, which makes memory storage used for computers and artificial intelligence servers, said data center needs have fueled greater demand for its products.
Micron said it expects the total addressable market for high-bandwidth memory to hit $100 billion by 2028, growing at a 40% compounded annual growth rate. Management also upped its capital expenditures guidance to $20 billion from $18 billion.
“We are more than sold out,” said business chief Sumit Sadana. “We have a significant amount of unmet demand in our models and this is just consistent with an environment where the demand is substantially higher than supply for the foreseeable future.
Micron topped Wall Street estimates for the fiscal first quarter and issued blowout guidance.
The company reported adjusted earnings of $4.78 per share on $13.64 billion in revenue, surpassing LSEG estimates for earnings of $3.95 per share and $12.84 billion in sales.
Revenues in the current quarter are expected to hit about $18.70 billion, blowing past the $14.20 billion expected by LSEG. Adjusted earnings are forecast to reach $8.42, versus expectations of $4.78 per share.
JPMorgan upped its price target on the stock following the results, citing the favorable pricing setup, while Bank of America upgraded shares to a buy rating.
Morgan Stanley called the results the best revenue and net income upside in the “history of the U.S. semis industry” outside of Nvidia.
“If AI keeps growing as we expect, we believe that the next 12 months are going to have broader coat tails to the AI trade than just the processor names and memory would be the biggest beneficiary,” analysts wrote.
WATCH: Micron shares spike on better-than-expected quarterly results
Micron year-to-date stock chart.
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