Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.

What's going on, guys? It is Tuesday, July 2nd, and today we are talking about Circle in Europe,

Silvergate settling, and much, much more. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying

the breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to

dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit.ly slash breakdown pod.

Hello, friends. We have a bit of a mishmash of stories today, and this is what I would kind

of expect for the rest of the week. With the July 4th holiday coming up in America,

obviously news is going to be a little bit lighter. And while that might be a bummer for

us news junkies and content producers, it's kind of nice for everyone else, right? In any

case, there are still some things that are worth discussing, starting with the fact that Circle

has become the first global stablecoin issuer to secure a license in Europe under new regulations.

The EU's markets and crypto assets or MECA framework has now begun its implementation phase.

The first regulatory measure came into force at the beginning of this week, requiring exchanges to deal only in licensed stablecoins. Regulators had cut it very close.

Until Circle's announcement, it seemed that no major stablecoin had been able to obtain licensing.

There were fears this would cause chaos in European markets if exchanges were forced to delist

major stablecoin pairs. Under their new license, Circle will be able to continue offering both dollar and Eurobacked stablecoins in the EU.

The license was issued by the French banking regulator and will be held by Circle's

domestic subsidiary Circle Mint France. The entity will issue and redeem tokens directly,

effectively on-shoring stablecoin operations for Europe.

USDA will move to a dual issuance model based on region,

while the Euro-Stable coin will be exclusively issued and redeemed by the French entity.

...