🚨EU BANS CRYPTO VIA ANONYMOUS TRANSACTIONS:WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW!

Welcome back to the Thinking Crypto Podcasts. You're home for cryptocurrency news and interviews. If you are new here, please hit that subscribe button as well as the thumbs up button and leave a common below. If you're listening on a podcast platform such as Spotify or Apple, please leave a five star rating and review. It supports the podcast and it doesn't cost you anything. Well, folks, let's start by taking a look at the price of bitcoin. Bitcoin

currently near sixty five thousand dollars still consolidating. We may see a lot of sideways action bouncing between sixty and sixty six thousand dollars, or Bitcoin could continue going down, maybe to that fifty seven thousand dollars support level before it starts to bounce and go upwards. Nevertheless, we're still on track to go to new all time highs because we are in a bull market. We are any

up trend when in doubt zoom out. Some important things to note is that the fear and greed index for bitcoin is at a greed level at seventy three. This may need to cool down a bit and maybe go to the neutral level. Not necessarily go to fear, but more of neutral. Right in the middle at a fifty, but no guarantee that it has to do that. But I personally think, given my experience being here in the market and seeing different market cycles, I think we need to get to a neutral standpoint

of around fifty to fifty five or even sixty. Just get out of this greed zone. Let things cool down, and we continue to see there's a lot of outflows some GBTC The selling continues, folks here. On Thursday, gbtcs saw three hundred and fifty nine million dollars in outflows, leading to ninety four million dollars in outflows for the entire fund group. Some of the ETFs as well, the spot ETFs from the big Wall Street players saw outflows.

And this is important to note that the ETFs, while they do bring a good amount of capital flowing into the market, many of these ETFs and portfolio managers aren't going to rebalance the portfolios. So you're going to see some sellofs right. I'm not saying they're going to dump everything, obviously, but there will be rebalancing at as you have a larger pool of investors, and especially with rias and these folks, they're going to look to rebalance the entire portfolio.

So something to keep in mind. And this is why you want to have your plan. What prices are you taking profits at? Because the bull market doesn't last forever. We don't keep going up forever. There will be the return of the bear market. Right. I still think we have another year to go. Possibly we could see the blow off top this year or early twenty twenty five. We'll see what happens. But just have your plan and know what your cash out plan will be. Let's take a look at

what are the top trending tokens on social media here. This data is brought to you by Sentiment and if you'd like to get a premium account for Sentiment, sign up with the link in the description. You can get a discount by using the code thinking Crypto. Now. The first coin is Badger Badger dow with high positive sentiment here. Coming in number two is the mean coin doge Coin, although its positive sentiment is not that high compared to its negative.

Positive is at forty seven percent, negative sentiment just at thirty four percent. Now bitcoin cash coming in at number three. Surprisingly, Let's see why is bitcoin cash trending here? Bitcoin cash has been discussed in the context of its performance compared to Bitcoin and light coin, as well as its community dynamics and potential feature development. So it seems folks are a little negative because of

the price action not being up to par. Because here it's positive sentiment is at forty four point seventy two percent, it's negative at forty one point nineteen percent, so not that much of a difference there. Ethereum comes in at number four with high positive sentiment. You get Ample fourth. I don't know what this project is, but it comes in at six. Then you have fracts share which is FXS, and USDT Tether on Avalanche is trading, so

it looks like USDT is doing something on the Avalanche blockchain. Pendle on Ethereum, I don't know what Pendle is, but it's trending at number eight and it has a high positive sentiment. Quant qnt that comes in at number nine with high positive sentiment as well, and then you have tokemac network or the ton token that comes in at number ten. So those are your top trending tokens and their sentiments. Not a big news of the day, which is

the EU committees approve a ban on anonymous crypto transactions via hosted wallets. The recent anti money laundering legislation imposes certain limits for cash transactions and anonymous cryptocurrency payments. So not great news. Let's break this down and you know, world governments, we've been talking about it. World governments are not banning crypto, but they're going to put the guardrails in place, they're going to tax it, and we do have to figure out all the regulation. It is still

early. Look, the EU passed the Mica bill. You also have the UK passed crypto legislation, and we know folks like Elizabeth Warren want to implement things like this in the United States. Now. I think there's a balance here because on one hand, I understand that governments need to protect people. We don't want bad actors using this technology to do nefarious things. But we don't want draconian rules and laws which kills and stifles innovations and our freedoms.

Right, So there is a balance, and I think there's a lot of dialogue that's needed. The industry needs to work closely with the government. So a majority of the European Parliament's lead committees have approved a ban on cryptocurrency transactions of any value made through hosted crypto wallets. This comes amid the European Council and Parliament provisionally agreeing to expand parts of the European Union's Anti Money Laundering AML

and counter Terrorists Financing laws to cover the cryptocurrency market. According to an ex host by Patrick Bryer, a member of the European Parliament Pirate Party of Germany, a majority of the EU Parliament's led committees approve the new AML laws on March nineteenth. Breyer is one of only two members who voted against the ban on anonymous crypto payments. Gunnar Beck of Alternative Fear Dushlin or Alternative for Germany

also voted against the band. The ban applies specifically to hosted or custodial crypto wallets offered by third party service providers such as centralized exchanges. The new AML legislation applies certain limits for cash transactions and anonymous cryptocurrency payments. Under the new rules, anonymous cash payments over three thousand euros will be banned in commercial transactions, and cash payments over ten thousand euros will be completely banned in business transactions.

So it seems this is primarily for centralized exchanges. You don't know how they reinforce this or defy and decentralized exchanges. Let's continue here to see if you can get more details. The new legislation is expected to be fully operational within three years from its entry into force. However, Dylan used this an

Ireland based law firm expects the legislation to become fully operational earlier. Many cryptocurrency networks function without permission lest environments, allowing anyone to create a cryptographic private key and granting unrestricted anonymous entry into the system a fundamental principle of crypto. In a press release after the lead committees approve the legislation, Briyer outline why he opposed the bill, saying it compromises economic independence and financial privacy. He said

he considers the ability to transact anonymously a fundamental right. The crypto community has had a mixed response to the euse regulatory measures. Some believe the new AML laws are necessary, while others fear they may infringe on privacy and restrict economic activity. Daniel Lodi Truster, host of the Sound Money Bitcoin podcast, underscored

the practical hurdles and consequences of their recent legislation. He outlined the impact on donations and broader implications for cryptocurrency use within the EU, and express concerns over the stifling effects the rules have. So this is not fully in place entirely right, there's a three year window, but it has some legs here, so we have to push back on this. We'll see what some of the industry advocacy groups and lawyers and legal experts come in and say. But I

think we have to find a balance. I understand the concern from the governments, right. Look, I don't want some terrorists or somebody doing something that they shouldn't. But also, like I said, we don't want to stifle innovation and trample people's rights. And look, I know here in the United States, this would be something very hard for them to implement in the EU.

I'm not sure if many people are paying attention to. You know, here in the United States, we got the US Constitution, so and there's three aspects of the government where there's checks and balances. So we'll have to wait and see. But this is not a good sign that they're coming out and doing this. I don't know if they spoke to the crypto industry and folks who are in the EU about this, So we'll have to wait till

we get more details. I would love to hear companies in the EU if they weigh in on this, if they spoke to the industry, but probably not. All right, let's move ahead. We got some funding news for

the crypto market. I love to see this news because it shows who's investing money, where they're putting that money, whether it's coins and projects or companies building the infrastructure of the market. So we've been seeing a ton of etheroreum Layer twos popping up, right, There's so many now, you know, Coinbase has its own called Base and it's actually doing well. There's Polygon,

Arbitram, many others well. The Layer two infrastructure startup Expresso announce a twenty eight million dollars in Series B funding led by a sixteen Z crypto on Thursday. Various Layer two related firms participated, including Polygons, Starkware, and Arbitrum developer off Chain Labs. Espresso is largely known for building a shared sequencer for layer twos, where rollups can order and process transactions via a shared marketplace rather

than in their own execution environments. This could theoretically make Layer twos more interoperable, though the program is still in test net, so that's interesting. The funding follows thirty two million dollars Espresso rais led by Graylock Partners and Electric Capital. In twenty twenty two. Now Morph raised twenty million dollars in seed funding led by Dragonfly, co founded by Cecilia Shoosh. I'm saying that right.

Formerly of Derivatives Exchange, femax and azeem Con previously at geit coin, Morph brands itself as a consumer centric blockchain. Pantera, Foresight Ventures and the Spartan Group are among those investors in the Layer two, which is also in testnet. The developer behind privacy focused Layer two ten ten short for the Encrypted Network, raised nine million dollars led by R three. The block reported Rails came out of stealth with a six point two million dollars in seed funding this week

for a self custody focused perpetuals exchange. The round saw participation from Slow Ventures, Round three Capital, CMCC Global, and quant Stamp. Two of the project's three co founders previously held leadership positions at the LGBTQ dating app Grinder, interesting institution focused derivatives infrastructures startup Keemet also announced five million dollars in funding led

by Further Ventures. Other notable fundraises included zero knowledge infrastructure developer Sectynth announced a fifty five million dollars Series A led by Paradigm Limited Partners at a sixteen Z will be available to invest in the VC's crypto seed and venture verticals through a

general fund and recent is raising called Multiplexer Railrole Asset tokenizations. Startup Mantro raised eleven million dollars led by Mina based Showrook Partners and finally, sonar Verse secured seven million dollars in funding led by block Tower Capital for an on chain data platform aimed at institutional investors. So, folks, the capital keeps coming in.

So if you've got a great idea, you're an entrepreneur and innovator, this is the time put that pitch deck together and go out there to these investors and see what you can get done. Now, we've got some interesting news here around Swift. So that's the current banking messaging system which has been

around for a long time, outdated, slow, no instant settlement, but they have been embracing blockchain since you know, crypto has been the rise. Companies like Ripple have called them out right that payments are too slow and the future of payments is on the blockchain. They have done work with chain link and so forth while we got news here. SWIFT proposes a role for itself in a tokenized feature on a unified ledger. But the technology you already have

to new use. Swift advised the world it had itself in mind. So it's trying to stay relevant clearly right and embrace payments on the blockchain as well as tokenization. But will they be able to do it, I'm not sure because it's SWIFT is made up of banks, and like many of these banks are very scared of being disrupted. And this is why you see Jamie Diamond

and these guys coming out and fighting it. So the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication SWIFT has been watching the development of fintech carefully with a focus on its own future. After a variety of projects using new technologies, the pillar of the current international payments system has thrown its weight behind and a unified ledger

payment model. SWIFT looked in particular at tokenization and the shared Ledger model According to a post on its website, common infrastructure could provide real time balance to all participants in the shared ledger. It's said, that's not to say messaging is unneeded. Swift was quick to add shared ledgers are not well suited to carrying and storing high volumes of data due to the way data is synchronized across parties and the computing power is required. This is where a messaging layer fits

in for transactions to be frictionless. Additional types of data also need to be transferred to enable value added services such as AML compliance, sanctioned screening, trade and accounts receivable reconciliation. It reconciliation, it continued. So, guys, if you're wondering if crypto and blockchain, if you are still on the fence,

is legit, and this technology is legit. Swift, right, this banking payments messaging system that's been around for years, they now have to jump on board and say, hey, yeah, we got to build this unified ledger, right, we gotta look at tokenization. It's amazing to see them capitulate. And like I said, they've been working with chain link and doing much much more. So there's not really any details on if it's a specific

blockchainer using and what it is. But let me continue here. Unified ledger technology has been embraced by the International Monetary Fund and it's XC platform, and by financial institutions participating in the regulated liability network. The Bank for International Settlements has also endorsed this model, So you can definitely assume there's going to be

cbdc's part of this and how it's all going to run. But in twenty two to two it teamed up with fintech firm sym Beyond in a pilot project to upgrade its information delivery to corporate clients through sym Beyond's block chain driven assembly platform. So argued against the use of a unified ledger in a twenty twenty three report in favor of Swift as a single point of access to different blockchain networks. Interesting, so maybe, just maybe we may see Swift capitulate partner

with all these different blockchains have interoperability. Where CBDCs are jumping across different blockchains, right because we're gonna be in a multichain world, So maybe they can save themselves here by integrating blockchain and cryptotech as well. So fascinating. What's happening. And when I see things like this, it makes me even more

bullish on this market. I see the old guard who was, you know, years ago poo pooing this crypto and blockchain now is like, yeah, we gotta test, We've got to pilot, we got to tokenize, we gotta we got to bring different blockchains together. Amazing, what's happening, folks. Super bullish on this asset class. All right, folks, that's the news. Don't forget to check out our sponsor, which is v chain, which is one of the top layer one smart contract platforms for enterprises and vchain

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description or go to vchain dot org. Thank you for watching and listening, and I'll talk to you all later.