Block 1: Essential news

Coinbase wants to launch tokenized shares and is pushing the SEC

The US crypto platform is preparing a new shift: offering 24/7 trading of tokenized stocks. To do so, Coinbase has asked the SEC for a no-action letter, which is essential to launch these products without fear of regulatory sanctions. The goal is to make financial securities (stocks, debt, funds) natively digital, with lower fees and more flexibility for investors. Already licensed through the acquisition of a broker in 2018, Coinbase now hopes to change the regulatory landscape. This ambition is part of a broader trend: Kraken recently unveiled xStocks on Solana, and Nasdaq is aiming to open its markets 24/7 by 2026. If the SEC gives the green light, a financial market revolution could well be underway.

Donald Trump aims for a Bitcoin + Ether ETF via Truth Social

New crypto offensive for Donald Trump: Truth Social, the US president's company, has just filed an S-1 form with the SEC to launch a combined bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) ETF. The assets would be held by Crypto.com via Foris Dax Trust Company, but no official ticker has been announced yet. This initiative is part of the Trump clan's well-oiled crypto strategy: stablecoins, memecoins, Web3 financial companies, a national BTC reserve... and now ETFs. This rise to prominence raises questions: Trump has already made $57 million through his crypto projects, while placing a pro-crypto figurehead at the head of the SEC. Accusations of conflicts of interest and political criticism are mounting, but the president is pushing ahead — and rallying the Web3 electorate more than ever.

Gemini and Coinbase ready to operate across Europe thanks to MiCA

Giants Coinbase and Gemini are preparing to obtain their MiCA licenses, which will open the doors to the 27 countries of the European Union. Coinbase is finalizing its application with Luxembourg, while Gemini is in the process of being approved in Malta. Thanks to the MiCA regulation, which will come into force in 2024, a national license will now suffice to operate on a European scale. These authorizations would allow platforms to offer the purchase, sale, custody, and transfer of cryptocurrencies such as BTC, ETH, and USDT throughout the EU. But these advances are reigniting tensions between regulators. The AMF and ESMA fear a "race to the bottom," accusing certain countries such as Malta of granting licenses too quickly, with few means of supervision. ESMA is already working on an audit of the Maltese process. The challenge is to attract crypto giants without sacrificing investor protection. This is a delicate balance in a global market estimated at $3.3 trillion.

Shopify & Stripe open USDC payments in 34 countries

Shopify is integrating stablecoin payments through Stripe. The e-commerce giant will soon allow merchants in 34 countries to accept USDC, Circle's stablecoin, directly from Shopify Payments and Shop Pay, without any additional plug-ins. These payments will go through Base, Coinbase's layer 2, with near-zero fees and instant transactions. By default, merchants will receive their payments in their local currency, but will be able to choose to receive them directly in USDC to an external wallet. "Stripe handles payments so our merchants don't have to. Now they're doing the same with stablecoins," said Kaz Nejatian, COO of Shopify. Stripe confirms its intention to offer easy access to stablecoins for millions of businesses. With a market capitalization of $228bn, including $61bn for USDC, stablecoins are increasingly appealing to online retailers, while the STABLE and GENIUS bills clarify their status in the United States.

Block 2: Crypto Analysis of the Week

In crypto, everyone talks about "doing your own research." But very few people actually do it.

 The mantra "DYOR" — Do Your Own Research — has become a meaningless slogan, closer to a meme than a method. Used as a disclaimer, it often serves to cover one's ass rather than to learn. In reality, the majority of crypto investors simply follow influencers, ride trends, and pour money into projects they only half understand. Until the warning signs become too obvious to ignore... and it's already too late. Doing your own research isn't just clicking on three X threads and watching a TikTok video of some guy screaming "To the moon." It's getting your hands dirty. Reading between the lines. Coldly evaluating what 95% of the market prefers to ignore.

So, if the cause is simply intellectual laziness, there's unfortunately not much that can be done. But if it's a lack of method that's holding you back, then we can help. Because doing your research isn't that complicated—you just need to know where to start.

First step? Always look at the market cap.

Before even looking at the team, the hype, or the use case for a token, we look at how much it is already worth on the market. It's basic information, but it can tell you a lot. It's like buying a company: before judging its potential, you need to know how much it is worth today. And in crypto, this metric is often overlooked.

Mentally rank projects according to their capitalization rank:

Cryptos ranked by capitalization
MarketScreener

  • Top 10: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, etc. These are the so-called "safe" values (as safe as possible in crypto). Strong adoption, high liquidity, institutional interest... but beware: nothing is untouchable (Terra was also in the top 10 before collapsing).

  • Rankings 11–25: solid projects with real products, active communities, and a track record of several years. Less robust than the top 10, but sometimes with more growth potential. The downside: more sensitive to regulations and changing narratives.

  • Rankings 26–50: Here we enter mid-cap territory. A mix of promising protocols and hype-driven projects. Less liquid, more volatile. There is potential, but also a lot of noise and risk.

  • Rankings 51–100+: Speculative projects with some initial traction: a community, a partnership, a well-told story. But their survival into the next cycle is anything but guaranteed. They exist, they shine sometimes... then many disappear.

Step two: tokenomics.

This is a crucial aspect that is often underestimated. Understanding how a token works economically means understanding its viability. Let's take a simple example: Solana. Digging around on Marketscreener, CoinMarketCap, or CoinGecko, we discover that the supply of SOL is not fixed. There is inflation—used to compensate validators. Annual inflation was 8%, decreasing by 15% each year until reaching a long-term target of 1.5%. This detail alone speaks volumes about the protocol's monetary policy.

Solana Tokenomics
CoinMarketCap

The majority of tokens are already in circulation, the core supply belongs to the community, and the founding team does not control the entire pie.

Conversely, let's look at ICP (Internet Computer) — taken at random. It doesn't matter whether you believe in it: objectively, the token raises questions. Too many shares were allocated to the pre-sale and the foundation, and less than 50% of the tokens are actually in circulation. This is a warning sign.

ICP tokenomics
CoinMarketCap

Next, scrutinize the team and the roadmap. Do they have a questionable track record? Have they ever abandoned projects in the middle of a bear market? Run away. Is their roadmap vague, full of buzzwords, and lacking concrete deliverables? Same thing. Go back through their old posts, interviews, and LinkedIn profiles. We want to know if they've survived a bear market, if they've delivered, and how they interact with the community. This isn't paranoia, it's analysis.

Once you've done that, it's time for the most complex part: positioning the project in the global ecosystem. Where does it fit in? Who is the competition? Does it have a real use? Can it survive the next cycle? And not just "hold on": resist a crash, a wave of regulation, or sector contagion. Because even a solid project can sink if the whole ecosystem is rocking.

In a bear market, everything collapses together. That's when you realize whether altcoins are rockets or mirages. And the truth is, few projects stand the test of time. To survive, you need more than passion: you need real utility, surgical execution, and an obsessed community. The X factor, the one that separates the survivors from the sacrificed.

The most ironic part? When you really do your own research, the strongest projects often become... the most obvious ones. We come back to Bitcoin. To Ether. To these assets that have proven themselves year after year — not just pretty promises. Conversely, not doing your homework means risking convincing yourself that a shitcoin is "the future" simply because an influencer sold it well. As an example, the image below compares the ranking of cryptocurrencies by market capitalization on January 1, 2020 (left table) to that of 2025 (right table). Only six cryptocurrencies (excluding stablecoins) remained in the top 20. The finding is even more striking if we expand the analysis to the top 50.

Top 20 cryptocurrencies in 2020 and 2025

So next time someone tells us to "DYOR," we need to ask ourselves: is this real advice, or just a disclaimer to avoid taking responsibility for a dubious recommendation? In a market saturated with noise, the advantage lies elsewhere: close the tabs, turn off the noise, read the documents, analyze the figures — and above all, really understand what you own.

cryptocurrency rankings (Click to enlarge)