Crypto Vesting

The European Union’s insurance authority has proposed a blanket rule that would mandate insurance firms to maintain capital equal to the value of their crypto holdings as part of a measure to mitigate risks for policyholders.

The new proposal — made by the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority in a Technical Advice report to the European Commission on March 27 — would set a far stricter standard than other asset classes, such as stocks and real estate, which don’t even need to be half-backed.

“EIOPA considers a 100% haircut in the standard formula prudent and appropriate for these assets in view of their inherent risks and high volatility,” it said in a separate statement.

Such a measure would fill a regulatory gap between the Capital Requirements Regulation and Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), EIOPA said, noting that

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France’s state-owned bank says it will spend 25 million euros ($27 million) buying cryptocurrencies that support local crypto and blockchain projects.

Bpifrance said in a March 27 press release that it would back newly formed projects “with a strong French footprint” where it will receive tokens in return for its investment and will look to fund decentralized finance (DeFi), staking, tokenization and artificial intelligence.

It added that the plan, supported by the French Ministry of Economy and Finance, was to “promote emerging technologies and strengthen the French blockchain ecosystem.”

The global blockchain ecosystem is “currently booming” but the number of French funds taking part is still very limited, it said.

French digital and AI minister Clara Chappaz said public and private financing was “one of the keys to the sustainable positioning of our ecosystem on the international stage.”

Bpifrance

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ChatGPT creators OpenAI have introduced rate limits after a viral social media trend that saw nearly everything “Ghiblifyied” — turned into AI art in the style of the famous Japanese animation studio. 

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was one of the first to take part in the trend, posting a portrait of himself generated by the model on March 25 but said in a subsequent post two days later that all image requests have started to tax the firm’s infrastructure.

“It’s super fun seeing people love images in ChatGPT but our GPUs are melting. We are going to temporarily introduce some rate limits while we work on making it more efficient,” he said.

Source: Sam Altman

“Also, we are refusing some generations that should be allowed; we are fixing these as fast we can,” he added.

OpenAI <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://openai.com/index/introducing-4o-image-generation/" rel="null"

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The US Securities and Exchange Commission has officially closed its investigation into Crypto.com, with no action taken against the crypto exchange, according to the firm’s CEO Kris Marszalek.

It comes around seven months after the SEC issued a Wells notice to the crypto platform in August 2024, signaling its intention to take legal action against the firm.

”They used every tool available to attempt to stifle us, restricting access to banking, auditors, investors, and beyond. It was a calculated attempt to put an end to the industry,” Marszalek said in a March 27 X post.

The SEC’s investigation into https://t.co/pFc4Pz9nFR has been closed with no action being taken against https://t.co/pFc4Pz9nFR.

— Kris | Crypto.com (@kris) March 27, 2025

”The fact that we not only persevered but became stronger is a testament to our vision and the community supporting it. Onwards!”

Crypto.com filed a lawsuit

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The US Justice Department (DOJ) seized more than $200,000 in cryptocurrency intended to benefit the militant group Hamas it said in a statement on March 27.

The cryptocurrency with a total value of $201,400 was traced to fundraising addresses allegedly controlled by Hamas and used to launder more than $1.5 million in digital assets since October 2024.

The laundering occurred through a series of “virtual currency exchanges and transactions by leveraging suspected financiers and over-the-counter brokers,” the DOJ said. The funds are currently held in a combination of at least 17 wallets.

Affidavit to seize the Hamas-linked cryptocurrency. Source: US DOJ

In January 2024, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, along with corresponding organizations in the United Kingdom and Australia, announced sanctions against networks and facilitators of crypto transactions linked to Hamas. Those sanctions

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The current state of crypto is akin to the internet’s “America Online” (AOL) era during the late 1990s, when the user experience was clunky, technical, featured limited use cases, and moved at dial-up speeds, according to Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Nailwal identified several key areas of development to improve user experience, including seamless fiat on- and off-ramps, custody solutions that feature key recovery, and hardware wallets built into mobile devices.

“We are in the dial-up era of the internet where even connecting to the Internet was a tedious task, like you had to be a mini-engineer to be able to connect to the Internet — we are still there in crypto.” —Sandeep Nailwal

“We are probably still in 1998, and it is going to take at least 10 to 15 years to see crypto in its full glory,” the Polygon founder added.

While considered revolutionary at the time, the

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The foundation behind the layer-1 blockchain, Sei, announced it was exploring the acquisition of the genetic testing company 23andMe after the firm filed for bankruptcy.

In a March 27 X post, the Sei network said its foundation was considering purchasing 23andMe “to defend the genetic privacy of 15 million Americans” by putting the company’s data on the blockchain. According to the foundation, if it acquires the biotechnology company, it plans to deploy all the genetic information on the blockchain and “return data ownership to users through encrypted, confidential transfers.” 

March 27 X announcing a potential acquisition of 23andMe. Source: Sei Network

“We believe user data sovereignty is a matter of national security,” said the Sei network. “When an American biotech pioneer faces bankruptcy, personal genomic data of millions becomes vulnerable to parties that may not share the same values of transparency and

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Solana’s native token, SOL (SOL), faced a sharp 8% rejection after briefly touching $147 on March 25. For the past three weeks, SOL has struggled to reclaim the $150 level, which is leading traders to question whether the bullish momentum that was originally driven by memecoin speculation and the rise of artificial intelligence sectors has come to an end.

Some analysts argue that SOL price could significantly benefit from the eventual approval of a Solana spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States, as well as the expansion of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) on the Solana network, including stablecoins and money market funds. 

Others, like Nikita Bier, co-founder of TBH and Gas startups, believe Solana has “the fundamental building blocks for something to break out on mobile.”

Source: nikitabier

Bier highlighted the constructive regulatory environment from US President Donald

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Bitcoin (BTC) investors are preparing for the record-breaking $16.5 billion monthly options expiry on March 28. However, the actual market impact is expected to be more limited, as BTC’s drop below $90,000 caught investors off guard and invalidated many bullish positions. 

This shift gives Bitcoin bears a crucial opportunity to escape a potential $3 billion loss, a factor that could significantly influence market dynamics in the coming weeks.

Bitcoin options open interest for March 28, USD. Source: Laevitas.ch

Currently, the total open interest for call (buy) options stands at $10.5 billion, while put (sell) options lag at $6 billion. However, $7.6 billion of these calls are set at $92,000 or higher, meaning Bitcoin would need a 6.4% gain from its current price to make them viable by the March 28 expiry. As a result, the advantage for bullish bets has significantly weakened.

Bitcoin bulls pray for a “decoupling” if

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GameStop shed nearly $3 billion in market capitalization on March 27 as investors second-guessed the videogame retailer’s plans to stockpile Bitcoin (BTC), according to data from Google Finance. 

On March 26, GameStop tipped plans to use proceeds from a $1.3 billion convertible debt offering to buy Bitcoin — an increasingly popular strategy for public companies looking to boost share performance. 

GameStop’s announcement came a day after it proposed building a stockpile of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and US dollar-pegged stablecoins. 

Investors initially celebrated the news, sending shares up 12% on March 26. Shareholders’ sentiment reversed on March 27, pushing GameStop’s stock, GME, down by nearly 24%, according to Google Finance. 

GameStop’s stock reversed gains on March 27. Source: Google Finance

Related: GameStop buying Bitcoin would

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