PARIS — As French lawmakers voted to topple the government on Wednesday, several thousand people lined up outside a café in northern Paris for a chance to share a brief word, or perhaps even a selfie, with the rising star of the French far right.

Jordan Bardella, the 29-year-old wingman of nationalist leader Marine Le Pen, is a lawmaker in the European Parliament. So he was not at the National Assembly voting to oust Prime Minister Michel Barnier alongside his fellow National Rally (RN) party members on Wednesday.

Instead, he was less than five kilometers (3 miles) away, swarmed by adoring fans, signing copies of his hit debut book, What I’m Looking For.

“It’s the book they don’t want you to read,” Mr. Bardella declared during a whirlwind promotional tour that has coincided with France’s second major political crisis in six months.

Ms. Le Pen was the driving force in toppling Mr. Barnier’s government over a 2025 budget bill the RN and the left deemed too tough on the working classes. That has left Mr. Bardella free to bask in adoration as he promotes his book across France.

“I bought his book on the first day and I read it straight away,” said Pierre Le Camus, a 25-year-old former parliamentary assistant to an RN lawmaker, outside the book-signing venue. “I come to encourage him in everything he does.”

BAD REVIEWS
The reviews have not been kind — “a marketing object… devoid of any introspection or revelation,” Le Monde declared — but sales have been robust, with nearly 60,000 copies sold since its launch on Nov. 9, according to Europe 1.

None of the young crowd queuing round the block in the freezing cold to meet their hero on Wednesday night were concerned about sniffy reviews in Parisien broadsheets.

They were more worried about rising gang violence and immigration, issues Mr. Bardella has made a key part of his political pitch.

“We need things to change and I think Bardella is the man to do it,” said 18-year-old Eric Berthelot, who hails from a rough suburb outside Paris.

He said he grew up surrounded by drugs, weapons and stolen cars in a neighborhood with a large African immigrant population. Cops were rarely present, Mr. Berthelot said, and the cameras they installed were immediately burned down. A few years ago, his friend was stabbed to death, an innocent bystander caught up in gang violence, he said.

“France welcomes all the misery of the world,” he said. “But those who arrive don’t respect our culture and want to destroy our country. That’s not acceptable and must be punished.”

‘I KNOW THE GHETTO’
Louis de Lassagne, a 19-year-old student from a small wealthy town outside Paris, said he, too, was concerned by rising crime. He said he knew Philippine, a 19-year-old middle class girl murdered in September, allegedly by a Moroccan man due to be deported. The RN jumped on her high-profile killing as vindication of its calls for tougher immigration and crime laws.

Mr. Bardella has long cited his upbringing in the poor and multi-ethnic Seine-Saint-Denis department north of Paris as the crucible in which his political views were forged.

Ismael Habri, a 27-year-old janitor with a TRUMP badge on his lapel, said he grew up in a similar environment.

“I know the ghetto well so I understand Bardella,” he said. “France needs hope. France needs to regain its sovereignty.” — Reuters

TOKYO — In early October, Nissan Motor managers dialed in for a regular online meeting with boss Makoto Uchida only to hear a grim message: business was worse than expected and the Japanese car maker had to cut jobs and production.

They listened as the 58-year-old chief executive officer (CEO) described a deteriorating financial situation that he put down largely to weak sales and profitability in North America and China, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

In the Q&A, some of the few hundred managers peppered Mr. Uchida with questions about responsibility for the decline of a company that five years ago had the world’s top electric vehicle (EV) model by lifetime sales. Why didn’t Nissan offer gasoline-electric hybrids in the US, where customers were now clamoring to buy them? Why hadn’t the company hedged its bet on EVs by making hybrids available in the US, its biggest market, as it had done for years in Japan? Who was responsible for the latest crisis?

Those questions loom large as Mr. Uchida scrambles to repair the automaker — and keep his job. Announcing dismal results last month, the former China head pledged to cut 9,000 employees, 20% of global production capacity and $2.6 billion of costs. He also promised to forfeit half his pay.

Mr. Uchida is under pressure to deliver a turnaround, according to three others with knowledge of Nissan’s thinking. The next few months will be critical for him and for Nissan’s future, one said. Activist shareholders have quietly built up stakes in the automaker.

Donald Trump’s election adds to the uncertainty. The incoming US president has promised to impose 25% across-the-board tariffs on Mexico, a vital, low-cost production hub for Nissan and others. For Mr. Uchida, Mr. Trump represents a wild card at the worst possible time, as hefty tariffs could force Nissan to cut output in Mexico, two people said.

Mr. Uchida’s tenure has coincided with a tectonic shift in the automotive landscape, as new EV makers challenge decades-old manufacturers. The industry’s biggest names aren’t immune.

Volkswagen is threatening to close German plants for the first time and Stellantis Chief Executive Carlos Tavares resigned abruptly on Sunday. The Jeep maker lost market share as Tavares focused on margins — making its cars too expensive for some.

Mr. Uchida, meanwhile, bet on an EV future. When post-pandemic revenge spending cooled, Nissan had no hybrids in the US and had to offer incentives to move cars off lots.

“What we have today at Nissan is a man-made disaster. While it’s true that there has been a tremendous amount of uncertainty and disruption in the industry itself, this is basically a case of a failure of management strategy,” said Seiji Sugiura, senior analyst at Tokai Tokyo Intelligence Laboratory.

“What Mr. Uchida has to do now is hand the baton over to a new management team.”

This account of Nissan’s missteps and the tough choices now facing Mr. Uchida includes previously unreported information, such as the October call, details of the missed hybrid opportunity and Nissan’s reasoning on output cuts. It is based on interviews with a dozen people with knowledge of Nissan’s thinking, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk publicly.

Nissan told Reuters it wouldn’t comment on internal meetings or on speculation about its recovery plan or Mr. Uchida’s future. It said it was premature to comment on tariffs, but was monitoring the situation.

“The CEO has acknowledged management responsibility for our current situation,” it said, adding Mr. Uchida was working to make Nissan leaner and more resilient while bolstering competitiveness.

It said the global industry faced unparalleled challenges, including Chinese competition and shifting customer demand.

DECLINE AND FALL
After five years and a series of business plans, Mr. Uchida hasn’t been able to reverse the decline sparked by the 2018 arrest of Nissan’s former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, on allegations of financial misconduct. Mr. Ghosn, who fled Japan a year later, remains a fugitive in his native Lebanon and denies the charges.

Nissan has been rocked by turmoil since: Mr. Ghosn’s successor, Hiroto Saikawa, stepped down in 2019 after admitting he received excess pay; Chief Operations Officer Ashwani Gupta left last year, as did two outside directors. Nissan later investigated claims Mr. Uchida put Mr. Gupta under surveillance. Nissan declined to comment on the investigation’s outcome.

Chief Financial Officer Stephen Ma is expected to step down, Bloomberg News reported over the weekend. Nissan declined to comment on the report.

As Tesla and China’s BYD gobbled up market share, Nissan was bogged down in talks to restructure an alliance with France’s Renault. A new EV, the Ariya, was supposed to challenge Tesla’s Model Y but was hampered by production problems. It also doesn’t qualify for a $7,500 US tax credit because it is made in Japan, not North America.

Nissan sold 3.3 million vehicles last year, down around 40% from 2017. The stock has plunged 70% in under a decade, wiping out around $30 billion in value.

Nissan, which introduced the first mass-market EV with the Leaf in 2010, is today better known for discounts than eye-catching cars, said Christopher Richter, of brokerage CLSA.

It lost a once-enviable position in China because it couldn’t keep up with the fast-changing market, a problem rivals also faced. One model, the e-Power Sylphy hybrid, fell flat because it looked like the gasoline version and Chinese consumers prefer edgy, futuristic-looking hybrids, one of the people said.

Nissan wanted to go “all in” on EVs in the US and didn’t see the need for hybrids there, two of the people told Reuters. That proved a misstep when demand for hybrids surged due to high EV prices and limited charging networks.

Even after Nissan became aware of the demand for hybrids, it didn’t think the trend would last long enough to warrant a strategy change, one of them said.

“It’s an excuse, but up until this time last year, we weren’t able to foresee the rapid rise in demand for hybrids,” Mr. Uchida said at the earnings press conference in November.

Nissan has sold e-Power hybrids in Japan since 2016 and says it will have a plug-in hybrid in the US by March 2026. Overall, it plans to launch 34 hybrid and EV models by 2030, it said.

FACTORY CUTS
Nissan has set up a dedicated project team to execute its recovery plan, with members hunkered down looking for areas to cut, Mr. Ma told analysts and investors at a closed-door briefing last month, according to two of the people.

Some 1,000 US employees have accepted early retirement, Nissan said last month. It is also considering job cuts in Thailand, Reuters has reported.

Chinese capacity, already reduced, will need further cuts, three people said. Two more factories in China may need to be shut, said one of the people, adding that Britain’s Sunderland plant won’t face cuts because it was recently upgraded.

In response to questions on China, Nissan said it would cut costs by closing plants and reducing lines. Sunderland was a strategic plant, it said.

One option is to idle older assembly lines in North America and concentrate production on newer lines, two of the people said. Nissan is considering reducing the number of shifts on some lines, they added.

A likely target is the COMPAS joint-venture plant in Mexico with Mercedes-Benz.

After years of slow sales of the small cars it produces for both Nissan and Mercedes, the plant makes around 50,000 vehicles annually compared with its capacity of 230,000, according to Sam Fiorani of AutoForecast Solutions. Its closure is “almost a foregone conclusion,” Mr. Fiorani said.

Mercedes said it continually reviewed its products and portfolio given changing customer requirements. Nissan said it, too, was constantly “reviewing and adapting” to ensure the COMPAS plant remained competitive.

Weakness in the yen has made Japan a lower-cost manufacturing base and therefore a lower priority for cuts, three of the people said. Nevertheless, Japanese managers were examining factory workloads for potential cuts, two of the people said.

‘FULFILL MY DUTY’
Activist investors are circling. Singapore-based Effissimo Capital Management took a 2.5% stake in Nissan by the end of September, a filing showed. Hong Kong’s Oasis Management has also taken a stake, two people said, although the timing wasn’t clear. Oasis held around 1.5%, one said.

Effissimo declined to comment beyond confirming its stake. Oasis didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Nissan is no longer Japan’s second-largest automaker behind Toyota, a position now held by Honda. Nissan and Honda have agreed to cooperate on batteries and research.

Nissan is looking for a long-term investor and wouldn’t rule out Honda, the Financial Times recently reported.

Both automakers declined to comment on the report. Honda added there was no change in its agreement to work with Nissan.

So far, Mr. Uchida has given every sign he intends to stay.

“I am determined and committed to fulfill my duty as CEO,” he said at the earnings press conference.

The October meeting with managers was not the first time Mr. Uchida has faced questions about Nissan’s direction. Analysts had been asking if the strategy was sound for more than a year, Mr. Sugiura said.

“We’d ask ‘Are you going to be ok in the US and China?’ and ‘What about the lack of hybrids?’ And they’d say ‘Yeah, we’re fine,’” he said.

“They completely misread the business environment and didn’t do what they needed to.” — Reuters

Bitcoin rose above $100,000 for the first time on Thursday as the election of Republican Donald Trump as president of the United States spurred expectations that his administration will create a friendly regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin has more than doubled in value this year and is up about 45% in the four weeks since Trump’s sweeping election victory, which also saw a slew of pro-crypto lawmakers being elected to Congress.

It last traded at $100,027 as of 0240 GMT, up 2.2% on the previous session, after earlier rising as high as $100,277.

“We’re witnessing a paradigm shift. After four years of political purgatory, bitcoin and the entire digital asset ecosystem are on the brink of entering the financial mainstream,” said Mike Novogratz, founder and CEO of U.S. crypto firm Galaxy Digital.

“This momentum is fueled by institutional adoption, advancements in tokenization and payments, and a clearer regulatory path.”

More than 16 years after its creation, bitcoin appears on the cusp of mainstream acceptance, despite naysayers and a history of controversies.

“Bitcoin crossing $100,000 is more than just a milestone; it’s a testament to shifting tides in finance, technology, and geopolitics,” said Justin D’Anethan, a Hong Kong-based independent crypto analyst.

“The figure not that long ago dismissed as fantasy, stands as a reality.”

Trump embraced digital assets during his campaign, promising to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet” and to accumulate a national stockpile of bitcoin.

Crypto investors see an end to increased scrutiny under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, who said last week he would step down in January when Trump takes office.

On Wednesday, Trump said he would nominate Paul Atkins to run the Securities and Exchange Commission. Atkins, a former SEC commissioner, has been involved in crypto policy as co-chair of the Token Alliance, which works to “develop best practices for digital asset issuances and trading platforms,” and the Chamber of Digital Commerce.

A slew of crypto companies including Ripple, Kraken and Circle are jostling for a seat on Trump’s promised crypto advisory council, seeking a say in his planned overhaul of U.S. policy, according to several digital asset industry executives.

Trump’s businesses may also have a stake in the sector. He unveiled a new crypto business, World Liberty Financial, in September. Although details about the business have been scarce, investors have taken his personal interest in the sector as a bullish signal.

Trump’s social media company is in advanced talks to buy crypto trading firm Bakkt, the Financial Times reported last week, citing two people with knowledge of the talks.
Trump Media and Technology Group, which operates Truth Social, is close to an all-stock acquisition of Bakkt, according to the FT report.

Billionaire Elon Musk, a major Trump ally, is also a proponent of cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin’s rebound from a slide below $16,000 in late 2022 has been rapid, boosted by the approval of U.S.-listed bitcoin exchange-traded funds in January this year.

The Securities and Exchange Commission had long attempted to block ETFs from investing in bitcoin, citing investor protection concerns, but the products have allowed more investors, including institutional investors, to gain exposure to bitcoin.

More than $4 billion has streamed into U.S.-listed bitcoin exchange-traded funds since the election.

“We were trading basically sideways for about seven months, then immediately after November 5, U.S. investors resumed buying hand-over-fist,” said Joe McCann, CEO and founder of Asymmetric, a Miami digital assets hedge fund.

There was a strong debut for options on BlackRock’s ETF IBIT.Oin November with call options – bets on the price going up – substantially more popular than puts. McCann calculated the put to call ratio at about 22 to one.

Crypto-related stocks have soared along with the bitcoin price, with shares in bitcoin miner MARA Holdings around 65% in November.

Yet the rise is not without critics.

Two years ago, the industry was wracked by scandal with the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange and the jailing of its founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

The cryptocurrency industry also has been criticized for its massive energy usage, while crypto crime remains a concern, too.

Market participants are keeping a close eye on what happens now that bitcoin has broken above $100,000, with investors and speculators possibly looking to pocket some of their recent gains.

“But once we flush out those sell orders, this could go higher still, and very rapidly,” said Steven McClurg, founder of Canary Capital, a digital assets investment firm. He said he expects bitcoin’s price to hit $120,000 by Christmas. — Reuters

SEOUL – At his confirmation hearing three months ago, South Korea’s defence minister Kim Yong-hyun rejected accusations from the opposition that he wanted to impose martial law. It was, the conservative hardliner said, political propaganda.

But when tensions between President Yoon Suk Yeol and his political opponents reached a boiling point this week, it was Kim, a longtime confidant of Yoon, who recommended imposing martial law, according to a senior military official and impeachment filings by opposition figures on Wednesday.

Kim proposed the idea because he believed the liberal opposition had pushed Yoon to the edge, said the military source, who denied that planning for martial law had been in the works since before the confirmation hearing.

Yoon’s shock move on Tuesday divided his ministers and his ruling People Power Party and unleashed six hours of political chaos in South Korea. His televised late-night declaration of martial law plunged one of Asia’s largest economies into crisis and blemished the reputation of a U.S. ally that transitioned from dictatorship to a democratic success story in the 1980s.

By the time Yoon, 63, rescinded martial law early Wednesday following a vote by the opposition-dominated parliament to reject it, his political fortunes and his grip on the country had imploded spectacularly.

As the day wore on, many of Yoon’s allies deserted him and support grew across the political spectrum for his impeachment and removal from office. He now faces an impeachment vote that the opposition is seeking to push through this week.

This account of the moments leading up to the martial law declaration and its aftermath is based on Reuters interviews with more than a dozen officials, lawmakers and staffers. Some spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue.

Four of these people highlighted the pivotal role played by Kim, a high-school buddy of Yoon, in supporting and facilitating a botched power grab that the president said was necessary to eradicate unspecified “pro-North Korean and anti-state forces” arrayed against him and the country.

The defence ministry said it had no comment on detailed questions posed by Reuters about Kim’s involvement in planning the decree. In a statement released through the ministry on Wednesday, Kim took responsibility for the orders given to the troops who stormed the parliament building, and offered to resign.

A spokesperson for Yoon’s office told Reuters that the martial law decree was done in accordance with the constitution and was necessary to protect democracy.

There have been more than a dozen declarations of martial law since the foundation of the South Korean republic in 1948, the last in 1979-1980 following the assassination of former President Park Chung-hee.

CABINET MEETING
The speed with which long-simmering disputes between the conservative government and its opponents over budgets, investigations and scandals spiralled stunned South Korea and its allies.

It also blindsided the ruling party, whose leader Han Dong-hoon told reporters the presidential office had not consulted with him about the move. He joined calls for Yoon to rescind the order.

About four hours before his 10:23 p.m. announcement of martial law, Yoon’s office first told the national police chief to be on standby, a police official told Reuters. At 9 p.m. Yoon convened a cabinet meeting.

At that meeting “most” members were against the plan, according to three government officials. Yoon forged ahead regardless.

Among those opposed were Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, a Yoon appointee who would become acting president if Yoon is removed from office, as well as Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, and Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok, one of the sources said.

A spokesperson for the prime minister’s office said they had no comment. A foreign ministry official confirmed Cho attended cabinet meetings before and after the martial law announcement but did not elaborate. A finance ministry spokesperson could not be reached outside business hours on Wednesday.

Yoon, who was narrowly elected in 2022, has battled record low approval ratings as scandals engulfed him and his wife, and has expressed increasing frustration over opposition moves to control government budgets.

“The so-called Chungam faction, those who went to the same school as the president, these people have been assigned to positions with authority over martial law and those able to carry out martial law for several months already,” said Kim Min-seok, a lawmaker from the opposition Democratic Party, who questioned Kim Yong-hyun at the September hearing.

Chungam is the name of the high school that Yoon attended alongside Kim Yong-hyun, who would become a key confidant of Yoon and his head of presidential security.

While the defence minister played an influential role, Kim Min-seok said he believes the president was ultimately calling the shots.

Yoon sought to use the military as a tool to prevent investigations into him and his wife over influence peddling allegations, among other scandals, and to maintain power, Kim Min-seok told Reuters in an interview at his office on Wednesday. Yoon and his wife have denied wrongdoing.

Outside the office, the halls of the parliament building bore the damage and debris from clashes with special forces troops the night before.

SCRAMBLE FOR PARLIAMENT
Kim Min-seok was among 190 lawmakers who rushed back to the domed National Assembly building on the south bank of the Han River after Yoon’s TV address.

Central to the failure of Yoon’s gambit was the swift and unanimous vote by lawmakers who defied police and special forces troops to gather in the legislature to block the martial law decree.

The main opposition parties summoned members of parliament and their staffers back to the building when they heard Yoon’s speech. A short time later came a military decree banning activity by parliament and political parties and calling for government control of the media.

Confusion reigned as elected representatives, journalists, and others grappled with what the order meant for them. On YTN, a major broadcaster, a male anchor was visibly shaken, his voice trembling after Yoon’s address.

By 10:50 p.m., just 25 minutes after Yoon’s speech, police were blocking access to the parliament, Kim Min-gi, the Secretary-General of the National Assembly, said at a briefing on Wednesday.

An “uncountable” number of police surrounded the main doors of the national assembly hall building, said Jeon Ki-eun, with the office of the parliamentary leader of the Democratic Party of Korea.

“Police were at all of the doors blocking lawmakers and citizens from going in and out,” he said.

Lee Jun-seok, New Reform Party lawmaker and ousted former leader of Yoon’s People Power Party, said it appeared that some police did not know what to do.

“I overheard some of them communicating over walkie-talkies, some saying ‘let lawmakers in’ and at other times ‘don’t let them in’,” he said.

Some lawmakers, including Kim Min-seok and senior Democratic Party leaders, scaled the walls to enter the complex.

At about 11:40 p.m. the military began deploying 230 soldiers in 24 helicopter flights into the national assembly compound, and another 50 entered over a fence.

The American-designed UH-60P Black Hawk helicopters landed on a sports field inside the complex and disgorged masked soldiers.

Park Sun-won, a member of parliament who previously worked for the National Intelligence Service, provided Reuters with his analysis that concluded the troops included members of the 707th Special Missions Group, which is tasked with anti-terrorism and top-secret missions, and the 1st Airborne Special Forces Brigade, which had a history of involvement with a coup in 1979.

The military contingent also included the Special Duty Team (SDT) of the Army Capital Defense Command, another anti-terrorism unit.

Kim Tae-hyung, a member of boy band BTS who is known professionally as V, is serving his mandatory national service with the SDT in Seoul, though Reuters could not determine whether he participated in the operation.

When asked about the units deployed and whether the K-pop star was involved, the defense ministry said it could not comment on specific units or agents. BTS’s agency, HYBE, was not immediately available for comment.

Another Democratic Party lawmaker, Kim Nam-geun, said he and 10 others were blocked by troops from entering a side door and resorted to climbing a wall.

“It was very intense,” he said.

The troops tried to enter the main building, breaking windows, raising fears that they would block a vote, but lawmakers’ aides and citizens helped build a barricade to block access.

Jeon said he and other staffers stacked chairs, tables, flower pots and other furniture against the doors, hoping that any lawmakers who had yet to arrive could make their way in through hidden corridors.

Footage showed some staffers using fire extinguishers to keep troops at bay. Lee Jun-seok said the troops were armed with non-lethal projectiles.

While scuffles broke out at the gates, there was no serious violence. And despite the order for media censorship, no such control was exerted.

“The generation that experienced real martial laws in Korea see this as child’s play and an amateurish show because of what appeared to be the soldiers’ inability to lock down the National Assembly, or perhaps even lack of communication from the command,” said Duyeon Kim, a Seoul-based analyst with the Center for a New American Security.

HISTORIC VOTE
Shortly before 1 a.m., National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik convened a session. Within 10 minutes the gathered lawmakers unanimously passed a resolution calling for Yoon to lift the state of martial law.

Under South Korea’s constitution the president must rescind a martial law decree if the parliament votes to oppose it.

“Inside the voting room, Democrats were pretty vocal and were absolutely unified on stopping this situation,” Lee Jun-seok said. “It was obvious that the Democrats were in the driving seat, leading up to the vote.”

Some members of Yoon’s ruling party showed up for the vote, which passed 190-0.

Around 1:10 a.m., troops started leaving the parliament building. The last were gone by 2 a.m.

Finally, at 4:30 a.m., Yoon backed down and said he would lift the martial law, sparking joyous celebrations among the thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the parliament. — Reuters

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s pro-crypto stance is prompting small businesses to allocate portions of their cash to bitcoin, challenging the dominance of traditional assets as companies look for more robust inflation hedges.

Over the past month, biotech firms Enlivex Therapeutics, Acurx Pharmaceuticals and Hoth Therapeutics have set a target of purchasing up to $1 million of bitcoin to hold as a treasury reserve asset.

The moves underscore the growing appeal of bitcoin as a legitimate tool for corporate treasurers, who see it as a better alternative in a landscape fraught with economic uncertainty, geopolitical risks and fiscal concerns that have complicated the outlook for conventional assets like Treasuries and cash.

“The benefits of bitcoin being used as a treasury reserve asset are obviously apparent. Inject bitcoin into a company and now it’s on its way into the top 100 company (by market value) rankings,” said Samson Mow, CEO of crypto infrastructure firm JAN3.

Corporations held around 3.3% of the total supply of bitcoin as of August, up 30% year over year, according to a report by bitcoin-focused financial services firm River.

“The things that we’ve been going through in the last three or four years were such that evaluating bitcoin as an additional tool became a must,” Enlivex CEO Oren Hershkovitz said.

“We were considering this regardless of Trump’s election, but it was definitely another argument in favor of executing this strategy.”

Once confined to the fringes, bitcoin has soared in popularity in the last few years after endorsements from major institutions. Trump’s promise of a crypto-friendly administration has grown its clout further.

“The next four years should be pretty good for crypto,” Acurx CEO David Luci said.

The incoming president has said he wants to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet” and has promised a council to advise on industry-related policy.

Still, skeptics say the volatility risks associated with bitcoin, given its notorious price fluctuations, make it unfit as an inflation hedge.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler has called the asset speculative and volatile, even as the regulator approved spot bitcoin exchange traded funds earlier this year.

The currency has also mirrored declines in the S&P 500 index <.SPX> during periods of economic slowdown in the past, calling into question its effectiveness.

But such criticism is “unfair,” said Henry Robinson, co-founder of crypto mining firm Decimal Digital Currency, adding that “bitcoin is not uniquely volatile.”

BALANCING HYPE WITH FOCUS
MicroStrategy, the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, pioneered the approach of integrating bitcoin into its treasury in 2020. Since then, the token’s influence on the company’s stock price has been significant, with shares often moving in lockstep with the overall crypto sentiment.

But recent adopters of bitcoin have emphasized that they do not plan on becoming a proxy for the currency and will continue focusing on their core business.

“We’re a biotech company. We focus on developing our clinical assets. What I know how to do at the end of the day is to take a drug from pre-clinical to clinical to approval,” Enlivex’s Hershkovitz said, referring to the different stages of testing an experimental treatment.

Analysts say companies could explore ways to monetize their bitcoin holdings without selling them, should they need capital, by using the currency reserves as collateral to secure loans, either from banks or investors.

“Lending against crypto is totally normal and the collateral is safe,” Decimal Digital’s Robinson said.

The hype around bitcoin may also drive stock valuations higher, giving such companies added leverage to sell shares for their capital needs. MicroStrategy shares have jumped over 31-fold since it made bitcoin its primary treasury reserve asset.

“The balance sheets of these companies will be more attractive to the public,” said Brandon Mintz, CEO of Bitcoin Depot, which began investing a portion of its cash into the crypto in June.
MicroStrategy and Hoth did not immediately respond to a request for comment. — Reuters

PARIS – French lawmakers passed a no-confidence vote against the government on Wednesday, throwing the European Union’s second-biggest economic power deeper into a crisis that threatens its capacity to legislate and tame a massive budget deficit.

Far-right and left-wing lawmakers joined forces to back a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Michel Barnier, with a majority 331 votes in support of the motion.

Barnier now has to tender his resignation and that of his government to President Emmanuel Macron, making his minority government’s three-month tenure the shortest lived in France’s Fifth Republic beginning in 1958. He is expected to do so on Thursday morning, French media reported.

The hard left and far right punished Barnier for using special constitutional powers to adopt part of an unpopular budget without a final vote in parliament, where it lacked majority support. The draft budget had sought 60 billion euros ($63.07 billion) in savings in a drive to shrink a gaping deficit.

“This (deficit) reality will not disappear by the magic of a motion of censure,” Barnier told lawmakers ahead of the vote, adding the budget deficit would come back to haunt whichever government comes next.

No French government had lost a confidence vote since Georges Pompidou’s in 1962. Macron ushered in the crisis by calling a snap election in June that delivered a polarised parliament.

With its president diminished, France now risks ending the year without a stable government or a 2025 budget, although the constitution allows special measures that would avert a U.S.-style government shutdown.

France’s political turmoil will further weaken a European Union already reeling from the implosion of Germany’s coalition government, and weeks before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.

The country’s outgoing defence minister Sebastien Lecornu warned the turmoil could impact French support for Ukraine.

The hard left France Unbowed (LFI) party demanded Macron’s resignation.

Barnier’s demise was cheered by far-right chief Marine Le Pen, who has sought for years to portray her National Rally party as a government in waiting.

“I’m not pushing for Macron’s resignation,” she said. “The pressure on the president will get greater and greater. Only he will make that decision.”

NO EASY EXIT FROM FRENCH POLITICAL CRISIS
France now faces a period of deep political uncertainty that is already unnerving investors in French sovereign bonds and stocks. Earlier this week, France’s borrowing costs briefly exceeded those of Greece, generally considered far more risky.

Macron must now make a choice. The Elysee Palace said the president would address the nation on Thursday evening.

Three sources told Reuters that Macron aimed to install a new prime minister swiftly, with one saying he wanted to name a premier before a ceremony to reopen the Notre-Dame Cathedral on Saturday, which Trump is due to attend.

Any new prime minister would face the same challenges as Barnier in getting bills, including the 2025 budget, adopted by a divided parliament. There can be no new parliamentary election before July.

Macron could alternatively ask Barnier and his ministers to stay on in a caretaker capacity while he takes time to identify a prime minister able to attract sufficient cross-party support to pass legislation.

A caretaker government could either propose emergency legislation to roll the tax-and-spend provisions in the 2024 budget into next year, or invoke special powers to pass the draft 2025 budget by decree – though jurists say this is a legal grey area and the political cost would be huge.

Macron’s opponents also could vote down one prime minister after the next.

ECONOMIC PAIN
The upheaval is not without risk for Le Pen.

Macron allies sought to present her as an agent of chaos after her party joined forces with the left to down Barnier.

“The French will harshly judge the choice you are going to make,” Laurent Wauquiez, a lawmaker from the conservative Les Republicains party who backs Macron, told Le Pen in parliament.

Since Macron called the summer snap election, France’s CAC 40 .FCHI benchmark stock market index has dropped nearly 10% and is the heaviest loser among top EU economies.

The euro showed little immediate reaction versus the dollar, trading for around $1.05 per euro, but dipping against other European currencies, such as the Swiss franc and the pound.

“I’m amazed the euro hasn’t moved much,” said Nick Rees, senior foreign exchange market analyst at Monex Europe. “There are two major powers in Europe, France and Germany, both of which right now are emasculated.”

Barnier’s draft budget had sought to cut the fiscal deficit from a projected 6% of national output this year to 5% in 2025. Voting down his government would be catastrophic for state finances, he had said.

Le Pen shrugged off the warning. She said her party would support any eventual emergency law that rolls over the 2024 budget’s tax-and-spend provisions into next year to ensure there is stopgap financing. — Reuters

WASHINGTON/LONDON – The U.S. and Britain announced on Wednesday they had disrupted what they described as a global money laundering ring used by rich Russians to evade sanctions, and which London said laundered cash for drug traffickers, criminals and spies.

Britain’s National Crime Agency said the internationally coordinated law enforcement effort codenamed ‘Operation Destabilise’ had disrupted the network spanning 30 countries.

The operation also involved authorities in France, Ireland and United Arab Emirates, the NCA said. It had so far led to 84 arrests, and the seizure of over 20 million pounds ($25 million) in cash and cryptocurrency.

The network’s reach spanned Britain and mainland Europe to the Middle East and South America, supporting serious and organised crime around the world, the NCA said.

The U.S. Department of Treasury said it had imposed sanctions on members of the group, which it said helped elite Russians use cryptocurrency to evade sanctions imposed after the Feb. 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Five individuals and four entities tied to “a sprawling international network of businesses and employees that have facilitated significant sanctions circumvention”, known as the TGR Group, were hit with Treasury sanctions.

“Through the TGR Group, Russian elites sought to exploit digital assets — in particular U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins — to evade U.S. and international sanctions, further enriching themselves and the Kremlin,” Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley Smith said in a statement.

Britain’s NCA said the TGR group operated alongside another network known as “Smart”, helping Russians under sanctions access the financial system.

“For the first time, we have been able to map out a link between Russian elites, crypto-rich cyber criminals, and drugs gangs on the streets of the UK,” said Rob Jones, Director General of Operations at the NCA.

“The thread that tied them together – the combined force of Smart and TGR – was invisible until now.”

CASH EXCHANGE
The U.S. Treasury statement said Smart was headed by Ekaterina Zhdanova, already previously sanctioned by the U.S. Office for Foreign Assets Control for helping a Russian client transfer cash into western Europe through a fraudulently opened investment account and real estate purchases. Her whereabouts were not known, it said.

The Treasury said it was also targeting George Rossi, a Ukrainian national born in Russia, who it said was believed to control the TGR Group.

Britain’s NCA said the Smart network was used to fund Russian espionage operations in the past.

Both Smart and TGR were heavily enabled by the use of cryptocurrency, the NCA said. As an example, it said criminal groups in Russia with cryptocurrency would connect with drugs gangs with the same amount of money in cash elsewhere.

The networks would then arrange for the gangs to be paid in virtual currency in exchange for their cash, which would then be laundered out of the country through cash-rich businesses, such as construction companies.

After the exchange, the gangs could use the crypto to buy more drugs or firearms without the need to move any physical money across borders, the NCA said.

U.S. Treasury sanctions generally prohibit any U.S. persons or entities from conducting any transactions with sanctioned targets and freeze any U.S.-held assets belonging to the sanctioned individuals or entities. — Reuters