The Rise of Utility-Driven Crypto: How Africa Is Redefining What Digital Assets Are For

The post NEC Signs MOU With Ava Labs to Build Face-Recognition AVAX Payments appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Avalanche News NEC has signed a memorandum of understanding with Ava Labs, the developer behind Avalanche (AVAX), to jointly explore next-generation on-chain services built on the network. Announced on July 10, 2026, the deal pairs NEC’s biometric technology with the Avalanche blockchain to prototype a digital payments platform that uses facial recognition to authorize stablecoin transactions. The company’s official disclosure frames the collaboration around decentralized identity and verifiable credentials (DID/VC), aiming to balance security with user convenience. It marks one of the more concrete enterprise commitments to Avalanche this year, targeting real-world settlement rather than speculative use cases. The accompanying white paper details an initial service aimed at inbound tourists visiting Japan. Under the design, a visitor would receive a digital ID before arriv

The post Binance EU withdrawals reveal MiCA regulation impact appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. When Binance pulled its MiCA license application in Greece and suspended EU services ahead of the July 1 regulatory deadline, European regulators may have expected users to migrate toward licensed, compliant crypto platforms. The data on Binance EU withdrawals tells a different story — and it raises uncomfortable questions about what MiCA is actually achieving on the ground. Key takeaways 70% of EU user funds withdrawn from Binance after the service suspension moved to self-custodied wallets, outside any regulatory oversight. Only 30% of withdrawn funds transferred to licensed, MiCA-regulated crypto platforms. Binance co-CEO Richard Teng argued this pattern raises serious questions about whether MiCA reduces user risk or inadvertently amplifies it. Binance withdrew its MiCA application in Greece due to approval delays, with founder Changpeng Zhao citing “political forces” as a factor. Des

The post Europe’s Crypto Law Is Driving Users Away From Regulation, Not Toward It appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. 70% of EU users who left Binance after MiCA opted for self-custody, not a rival. Teng warned self-hosted wallets amplify risk as AML and KYC controls are absent. Binance pulled its Greek MiCA licence and paused EU deposits on 1 July 2026. Europe’s landmark crypto regulation is producing an outcome its architects did not intend. Rather than driving users toward regulated platforms, MiCA appears to be pushing them in the opposite direction. Binance CEO Richard Teng revealed that of the users who withdrew funds from Binance after MiCA came into effect, 70% moved their assets into self-hosted wallets, while only 30% shifted to other regulated platforms. The data suggests the regulation is consolidating crypto activity outside the supervised financial system rather than within it. “Once it goes into a self-hosted wallet, the risks actually amplify,” Teng said. “You don’t ha

The post Japan’s finance minister plans to legalize crypto ETFs appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. The Japanese government wants to make crypto ETFs legal and reclassify digital assets as financial products under new finance legislation. Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama made the announcement on Thursday. The new plan is expected to open regulated crypto exposure to ordinary Japanese brokerage customers. Katayama believes Japan needs a stronger legal framework and a strong trading ecosystem to boost investor confidence. She made these comments at the Open Quick 2026 seminar in Tokyo, an event hosted by financial data provider QUICK. She also said Japan wants to allow crypto ETFs, just as many countries have done. The key behind the policy change is an amendment to the legislation governing stocks and bonds, to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA), the law that governs stocks and bonds. At the moment, Japan treats crypto as a means of payment and is regulated by

The post Bitcoin A ‘Screaming Buy,’ Analyst Says, Keeps $100K Target appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Standard Chartered maintained its end-2026 Bitcoin price forecast of $100,000 in a note to investors on Friday, arguing that the recent weakness reflects a failure by Strategy to explain a strategic shift rather than any deterioration in the company’s balance sheet. Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank’s global head of digital assets research, wrote that Strategy — the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, with 843,775 coins, more than 4% of the 21 million that will ever exist — “appears to be pivoting from its ‘never sell Bitcoin’ mantra to a more complex approach.”  Clear communication of that pivot, he wrote, will determine how fast the pressure on BTC lifts. Between 2020 and mid-2025, Strategy’s mNAV — enterprise value divided by the value of its Bitcoin — traded above 1.0. That premium lets the company issue shares, buy Bitcoin, and grow its value by more than the value of the new stock

The post Binance CEO: 70% Of EU User Withdrawals Moved To Self-Custodied Wallets After MiCA Exit appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. When a titan of centralized exchanges fully exits a major market, regulators expect an orderly flow into supervised platforms. The European Unionu2019s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework was designed precisely for this u2014 to channel crypto activity into licensed, compliant venues. The actual data from Binanceu2019s EU shutdown suggests reality runs hard in the opposite direction. According to a report citing Binance CEO Richard Teng, approximately 70% of the funds that EU users withdrew after the exchange suspended services moved into self-custodied wallets. Only 30% ended up on MiCA-compliant platforms. For a regulatory regime built on the premise that licensing leads to consumer protection, that number is a quiet indictment of how detached the official playbook is from user behavior. The 70% That Went Outside the Tent Teng did not mince words. He ar

Robinhood Chain hit $100M TVL in week one, with $90M locked in Morpho lending — here's what the data signals about its TradFi-to-DeFi potential. The post Robinhood New Blockchain Hit $100 Million in TVL in 7 Days, But 90% of It Came From One Source appeared first on 99Bitcoins.

The post SWIFT Opens New Chapter in Blockchain Payment Tech appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. SWIFT has concluded its extensive nine-month development phase on a blockchain-centric shared ledger platform and is ready to commence initial rollout. The global leader in financial messaging infrastructure is transitioning to a pilot phase alongside several major banking institutions, poised to revolutionize tokenized international payments across the banking landscape. Continue Reading:SWIFT Opens New Chapter in Blockchain Payment Tech Source: https://en.bitcoinhaber.net/swift-opens-new-chapter-in-blockchain-payment-tech