POLAND – 2023/08/01: In this photo illustration, a Coinbase logo displayed on a smartphone with stock server lights in the background. (Photo Illustration by Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase secured registration with the French markets regulator, a company spokesperson confirmed Thursday, paving the way for the firm to expand its services in another key European market.
France’s AMF watchdog gave Coinbase a virtual asset service provider (VASP) approval, which is effectively a green light for the company to operate digital currency services in France.
The VASP registration will allow Coinbase to offer custody of digital assets, buying or selling digital assets in legal tender, trading of digital assets against other digital assets, and operating a digital asset trading platform, the company said in a statement Thursday.
French regulators, like others in Europe, have been playing catch-up with the emergence of new technologies like crypto and blockchain, balancing their potential in improving payment systems and trading while also looking to ensure consumers are protected.
The European Union has been working to introduce its Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation, which would create a harmonized framework for crypto companies to operate in a regulated way in the bloc.
Under MiCA, rather than having to secure registration in every EU market, crypto companies will eventually be able to use their VASP license in one country and “passport” into other countries to offer their services across the EU.
The VASP registration represents a big move from U.S.-based Coinbase to expand in Europe, which comes at a crucial time with the exchange facing a more uncertain regulatory environment in its home country.
U.S. regulators have taken harsh actions against crypto companies lately. In November, the U.S. Department of Justice reached a settlement with crypto giant Binance which saw the company pay more than $4 billion while its CEO stepped down, pleading guilty to a felony charge that he failed to take steps to prevent money laundering at the firm.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, meanwhile, has led an aggressive campaign against the sector, targeting crypto companies with strict enforcement actions, including lawsuits against both Coinbase and rival Binance that allege the firms are engaged in illegal dealings of securities.
The SEC views several crypto tokens as being securities, a classification which would require them to seek registration with the watchdog. That would require copious transparency from companies and token issuers themselves, including financial disclosures and other paperwork.
Coinbase has fired back at the SEC, saying it has worked to ensure it is in compliance with financial regulations. The company is calling for new rules specifically for crypto in the U.S. to end what it has called “regulation by enforcement,” where the regulator is hitting companies with penalties in individual cases rather than setting clear rules for the road.
France has been positioning itself as a leader in technology lately, touting its prowess in technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing, as part of President Emmanuel Macron’s bid to make the country a global tech hub.
The country has committed 34 billion euros ($36.5 billion) of investments, including subsidies and state funding, over five years as part of its “France 2030” plan, which aims to make the country a leader in and so-called “Web3,” among other things.
The country is home to Ledger, one of the biggest providers of crypto custody services, last valued at $1.4 billion. Separately, the likes of Circle, Binance and Crypto.com have all made Paris their European base. Only recently, Circle, which issues the popular stablecoin USD Coin, received its own French VASP license by the AMF.
France is seeing increased crypto adoption even as prices have taken a tumble in the wake of multiple bankruptcies and collapses.
According to data firm Toluna, 10% of French adults currently own crypto assets while 24% plan to buy, sell, or trade crypto in the next 12 months.
The logo of Japanese company SoftBank Group is seen outside the company’s headquarters in Tokyo on January 22, 2025.
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Shares of SoftBank Group plunged as much as 9.17% Wednesday, as technology stocks in Asia declined, tracking losses in U.S. peers overnight.
The Japanese tech-focused investment firm saw shares drop for a second consecutive session, following its announcement of a $2 billion investment in Intel. Intel shares rose 6.97% to close at $25.31 Tuesday stateside.
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Other Japanese tech stocks also declined, with semiconductor giant Advantest falling as much as 6.27%. Meanwhile, shares in Renesas Electronics and Tokyo Electron were last seen trading 2.46% and 0.75% lower, respectively.
Technology companies in South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, also fell after U.S. tech stocks dropped overnight spurred by declines in artificial intelligence darling Nvidia‘s shares.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is considering the federal government taking equity stakes in semiconductor companies that get funding under the CHIPS Act for building plants in the U.S, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The U.S. CHIPS and Science Act seeks to boost the country’s semiconductor industry, scientific research and innovation.
Shares of Taiwanese chip company TSMC and manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry — known globally as Foxconn — declined 1.69% and 2.16%, respectively. TSMC manufactures Nvidia’s high-performance graphics processing units that help power large language models, while Foxconn has a strategic partnership with Nvidia to build “AI factories.”
Meanwhile, South Korean tech stocks mostly fell with shares of chipmaker SK Hynix down 3.33%. Samsung Electronics, however, rose 0.75%.
TSMC, Samsung and SK Hynix are among companies that have received funding under the CHIPS Act.
Over in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Tech index lost 0.87% in early trade.
CEO of Palantir Technologies Alex Karp attends the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 15, 2025.
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Palantir‘s stock slumped more than 9% on Tuesday, falling for a fifth straight day to continue its pullback from all-time highs.
The artificial intelligence software provider’s stock has slid more than 15% over the last five trading sessions, after a stellar earnings report earlier this month propelled shares to all-time highs. The report was Palantir’s first-ever $1 billion revenue quarter.
Tuesday’s dip coincided with a broader market pullback.
Palantir is the most significant gainer to date in the S&P 500 in 2025, up more than 100%.
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Shares have more than doubled as the company benefits from ongoing AI enthusiasm, scooping up government contracts with President Donald Trump pushing to overhaul agencies.
Palantir’s ascent has pushed the company into a list of top 10 U.S. tech firms and 20 most valuable U.S. companies, while also making shares incredibly expensive to own. Its forward price-to-earnings ratio, which tracks future earnings relative to share price, has soared past 245 times.
By comparison, technology giants such as Microsoft and Apple carry a P/E of nearly 30 times and rake in significantly greater quarterly revenues. Meta‘s and Alphabet‘s P/E ratios hover in the 20s.
The data analytics software vendor said Tuesday that it’s raising a funding round that values the company at over $100 billion. That would make Databricks just the fourth private company to eclipse the $100 billion mark, following SpaceX, ByteDance and OpenAI, according to data from CB Insights.
Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi told CNBC’s Brian Sullivan that the total round will exceed $1 billion. The company was last valued by private investors at $62 billion in a $10 billion financing round late last year.
In June, Databricks executives told investors the company was forecasting $3.7 billion in annualized revenue by July, with 50% year-over-year growth.
Snowflake, one of Databricks’ top rivals, is expected to generate $4.5 billion in revenue for the fiscal year that ends in January, representing annual growth of 25%, according to LSEG. Snowflake currently has a market cap of about $65 billion. Other competitors include cloud providers such as Amazon and Microsoft, which are also Databricks partners.
Ghodsi said he heard from a lot of interested investors following Figma’s IPO late last month. Shares of the design software company more than tripled in their New York Stock Exchange debut, a sign that public investors are seeking out tech offerings after in extended lull in the IPO market.
“My phone was blowing up,” Ghodsi said on Tuesday. “So yes, there’s definitely been a big push from outside.”
Figma shares have since retreated from their initial $115.50 closing price. The stock is trading at about $70, still more than double the $33 IPO price.
Ghodsi said the round will help Databricks invest in products that clients can tap when using artificial intelligence models.
Founded in 2013 and based in San Francisco, Databricks ranked third on CNBC’s 2025 Disruptor 50 list. As of June, the company employed 8,000 people. Existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Insight Partners Thrive Capital and WCM Investment Management are buying shares, a spokesperson said.