Last week, the European Union began crafting a new cryptocurrency regulatory framework that could impose stricter requirements on global stablecoin projects, such as Facebook's (FB  ) Libra. At Digital Finance Outreach 2020 last week, E.U. Lead Economics Minister Valdis Dombrovskis said Europe needs to seize the opportunity to become a major rule-maker for digital finance. He stated a new regulatory regime for cryptocurrency will not only cover unregulated digital assets, but also consolidate and homogenize existing standards across the bloc. While Dombrovskis' speech contained few specifics, he noted the E.U. is keen to bring stricter rules on any project considered a "global stablecoin." Dombrovskis warned stablecoins that operate globally could "raise additional challenges" and risk disrupting financial and monetary stability.

Here is the rest of the week in review:

Vanguard completed another blockchain pilot that aims to change the risk profile of foreign exchange transactions. The Pennsylvania-based investment management giant ran the pilot on Symbiont's Assembly blockchain with participation from State Street (STT  ), BNY Mellon (BK  ), and investment firm Franklin Templeton. Vanguard and Franklin Templeton served as dealer banks, and State Street and BNY Mellon acted as counterparty banks and custodians. Joe Ziccarelli, Symbiont's foreign exchange lead, said the firm believes the foreign exchange platform will go into production in the third quarter. He added the forex pilot's completion shows the Assembly blockchain can quickly become a viable option for many large enterprises engaged in forex. Ziccarelli argued the pilot proves a use case that applies to all forex contracts like swaps and outrights, which buy- and sell-side firms use for hedging and speculative bets.

Telegram agreed to pay $18.5 million to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (S.E.C.) and notify the regulator if it plans to issue a digital token or cryptocurrency in the next 3 years, according to a court filing revealed Thursday. In an approved settlement with the S.E.C., the communications firm has 30 days to pay the penalty and up to 4 years to pay back funds to investors. Also, Telegram must notify the S.E.C. if it wants to issue "cryptocurrencies," "digital coins," "digital tokens," or any similar digital asset issued or transferred using distributed ledger technology at any point over the next 3 years. The S.E.C. sued Telegram in October 2019 after the firm raised $1.7 billion to fund the development of its TON blockchain project. If fulfilled, the settlement would conclude a six-month court battle and officially terminate Telegram's blockchain ambitions.

Crypto prices slipped to $261 billion this week. For the majors, all coins but Tether (USDT) and Crypto.com Coin (CRO) dipped into the red, with Bitcoin SV (BSV), EOS, and Binance Coin (BNB), and Ripple (XRP) posting the worst losses. The biggest losers were SwissBorg (CHSB), down 32%, Compound (COMP), down 30%, and Flexacoin (FXC), down 22%. The biggest gainers were Celsius (CEL), up a whopping 56%, Quant (QNT), up 40%, and Ren (REN), up 30%. Next week traders will again be watching for more market volatility amid a calm summer so far.

The author does not hold any positions on any of the securities above.