Ethereum’s big restructuring continues. After a wave of senior departures from the Ethereum Foundation (EF) last month, the organization this week laid out what comes next:
On paper, that reads like a crisis. It would be, too, if not for what happened two days earlier.
On Monday, a new non-profit popped up. It’s called Ethlabs, sits outside the Foundation and is founded by five high-profile researchers who recently left the EF. Its stated mission is to make Ethereum the settlement layer of the global economy, with a strong focus on real-world/institutional adoption.
“Wait, isn’t that exactly what the Foundation is for?”
Fair question, and the EF answered it this week. The satellites like Ethlabs chase real-world adoption. The Foundation is retreating to core values it summarizes as CROPS: censorship resistance, open source, privacy, security.
A charitable observer would call this a testament to a genuinely decentralized network. We’re not feeling exclusively charitable, so the part that caught our eye is who’s writing the checks.
Alongside the usual Ethereum names, Ethlabs’ two largest backers are Bitmine and SharpLink, the two biggest ETH treasury companies in existence. Together, they sit on 5.4% of all ETH in circulation, roughly $10.6 billion. The firms whose entire balance sheet is a bet on Ethereum’s adoption are now funding the team building toward it.
Which initiatives Ethlabs plans to prioritize first is still unclear, though we hear those may surface as soon as next week. Either way, after a year of debate over whether treasury companies do anything but hoard the asset and inflate their own stock, the ecosystem just handed them a useful job.
In today’s Briefing:
Kraken in talks to buy stake in Aave
MiCA deadline: Are CEXs ready?
HIGH SIGNAL NEWS
Kraken in talks to buy 15% stake in DeFi lender Aave. As exclusively reported by CoinDesk, the potential deal would see Kraken’s parent company Payward invest 35,000 ETH in exchange for 250,000 AAVE tokens and a 15% common equity stake in Aave Group. According to the article, the investment would mark the first in a series of deals aimed at building out Payward Asset Management. 🐙
ICE and OKX announce joint venture. Subject to regulatory approvals, the joint venture is expected to operate as a U.S.-registered broker-dealer and FCM, enabling OKX customers in the U.S. and overseas to access ICE futures and NYSE tokenized equities markets. The announcement follows ICE’s investment in OKX in March. 🤝
Onchain credit protocol Goldfinch winds down. Since 2021, the protocol had focused on generating returns for depositors through undercollateralized real-world loans in emerging markets. Of the roughly $100 million in loans originated since then, $18 million defaulted, while more than $40 million is currently tied up in multi-year restructuring processes. 📉
MoonPay acquires Entendre. The deal expands MoonPay’s infrastructure to support AI accounting agents already used by crypto firms such as Polygon Labs and DoubleZero. It marks MoonPay’s fifth acquisition this year. 💰
TOP STORY
Beyond MiCA’s Grace Period: Are Europe’s Crypto Exchanges Ready?
New era: Next week, MiCA’s transitional period comes to an end. From July 1, any company offering crypto-asset services will need a MiCA CASP license to keep actively serving European users under the EU’s regulatory framework.
Why it matters: This marks the end of the 18-month “grandfathering” phase that began on December 30, 2024, when MiCA first became applicable to CASPs. During this period, firms already registered under national regimes in the EEA could continue operating while preparing for the new licensing requirements.
What changes? With the transition period ending, platforms that have already secured MiCA authorization will be able to continue operating as normal. Those without will have to drastically limit or cease their operations.
“In practice, firms without approval will have to halt their crypto services, stop onboarding clients, end active marketing, and shift into exit mode by allowing their customers to withdraw their funds,” William O’Rorke, co-founder of the French law firm ORWL Avocats, told Blockstories.
A potential grey area: But the situation may not be as binary as it seems. Firms still in the process of securing their MiCA license may fall into a grey area, where regulators could allow limited flexibility, potentially enabling these companies to continue offering certain services while their authorization is being finalized.
“But it will be entirely at the regulator’s discretion, as the legislation provides no guidance for this kind of situation,” a source told Blockstories.
State of the market: For most firms, however, the question is settled either way. Many have managed to secure licenses in recent weeks, just ahead of next week's deadline, including players such as Keyrock and Ripple. Many others have not. Over the transitional period, around 230 licenses have been granted across the European Union, compared with a pre-MiCA base of just over 1,200 registered entities.
The Binance case: Among the most consequential names missing from that licensed 230 is Binance. Despite holding around 40% market share globally and serving millions of European users, the world’s largest exchange has yet to obtain a MiCA license. On Wednesday, the firm announced it would withdraw its pending application with the Greek regulator, days after Reuters reported that the regulator was likely to reject it following more than a year of review.
Reverse solicitation as plan B? Even without authorization, however, an immediate exit may not be necessary. According to some legal experts, firms like Binance could try to rely on reverse solicitation, a principle that allows users to access a service only when they initiate the relationship themselves, without being targeted, marketed to, or solicited by the provider. Other experts question whether this can serve as a viable fallback.
“A few platforms still leaned on that principle during the transition, but it will be marginal after July 1, because they now carry a strict obligation to onboard clients through KYC and to block unauthorized users,” O’Rorke said. “You can never stop someone from going to an unregulated player on their own. But that is at their own risk.”
All eyes on Binance: Binance, for its part, is pursuing the formal path. The exchange has said it will seek authorization in another member state to continue serving EU clients in a compliant way, and some observers have pointed to France, where Binance received its pre-MiCA authorization in May 2022. But sources close to the matter told Blockstories that the process is expected to be challenging, given the French regulator's strict approach to MiCA licensing and its tougher stance toward Binance, which remains under investigation in France over allegations of aggravated money laundering.
“Since then, France has taken part in lobbying efforts across Europe, alongside the ECB, to discourage other regulators from agreeing to supervise Binance, after the exchange had already been turned away by several other jurisdictions,” a source close to the French authorities told Blockstories.
Reshuffling ahead? While Binance works through that resistance, its European market share is already becoming a target. With the deadline approaching, many exchanges have activated their marketing machinery to attract customers from competitors that have not yet secured MiCA authorization.
Marc Ripault is an auditor at PwC, one of the Big Four global audit firms. Since 2018, he has helped in shaping France’s accounting framework for crypto-assets.
What challenges will crypto platforms, users, and regulators face after July 1?
One of the main issues in this transition is the custody of crypto-assets. In European countries such as France, custody providers that preceded MiCA generally had to register with the regulator, but this registration rarely required firms to segregate client assets from their own. Many never did, and once that kind of setup is not built in from the outset, it becomes very difficult to unwind.
That legacy is about to be tested. As the firms that cannot clear the MiCA bar wind down, some will have trouble returning the crypto they hold for their clients, notably for financial reasons. And there is no safety net: no deposit guarantee scheme covers crypto, and many providers were never audited by regulators, either on the services they actually provide, but only on governance and anti-money laundering. This is also true for financial statements by audit firms.
The market will sort this out the hard way. When the tide goes out, we will find out who has been swimming without a proper setup.
That is why I expect several, although quieter, failures scattered across the continent, with clients potentially left with nowhere to turn. It will be a real challenge for authorities across Europe to handle.
Aave Labs: Director, Capital Markets Growth, London 🇬🇧
Binance: Global Regulatory Legal Lead, Dublin 🇮🇪
Bullish: Director, European Sales, Frankfurt 🇩🇪
Chainlink Labs: Product Manager, Banking and Capital Markets, Switzerland 🇨🇭
Crossmint: Compliance Operations Manager, Madrid 🇪🇸
Kraken: Product Manager - Payments, Europe 🇪🇺
Particula: Director Digital Asset Ratings (EMEA), Germany 🇩🇪
Securitize: Director of Sales, EU, Spain 🇪🇸
The time has come. After two incredible Summits in Madrid and Amsterdam, we are heading to Paris next week for the final stop of the Blockstories Horizon 2026 Summer Series.
Join us on July 1 for an exclusive evening with Visa, Bitwise, Steakhouse Financial, and other leading voices in digital assets as we explore the key trends shaping the market over the next 12 to 18 months.
Fomo | $75 million | Series B : Crypto trading app.
Allium | $40 million | Series B : Enterprise-focused blockchain data platform.
EarnOS | $18.5 million | Seed + strategic : A platform that rewards users with stablecoins for completing “missions” and engaging directly with brands.
Cambrian | $6 million | Seed : Provides financial institutions and AI agents with blockchain data through an API.
Ground | $3.6 million | Pre-seed : Helps fintechs and asset managers add onchain yield products to their existing apps through an API.
What do you think of today's briefing?
Disclaimer: The information provided in the Crypto Briefing by Blockstories does not constitute investment advice. Accordingly, we assume no liability for any investment decisions made based on the content presented herein.
