Links
Useful information may be found, among other places, at the following links [non-binding information, for research purposes, only]:
- CoinMarketCap: provides a list of the 100 leading cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation, including real-time prices and market data.
- CoinGecko: provides an overview of all cryptocurrencies, sortable by various metrics such as market capitalisation and trading volume.
- CoinLore: lists all active cryptocurrencies with detailed statistics.
- Crypto.com: provides real-time prices and market capitalisation for almost 3,000 coins.
- TradingView: provides a complete list of cryptocurrencies with key metrics such as price and market capitalisation.
Crypto-assets / EU regulatory law
In the digital financial world, too, you are in the right hands with us: we accompany your investments in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and other crypto-assets, as well as in stablecoins – such as Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) – and other international crypto-assets.
MiCA, the German Financial Market Digitalisation Act (FinmadiG) and the Crypto Markets Supervision Act (KMAG) contained within it, as at 31 December 2025.
No area of the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (‘MiCA’) has shifted the market in 2026 as strongly as the stablecoin regime.
MiCA requires every issuer of a stablecoin offered in the EU to hold authorisation as an e-money institution or credit institution, and to maintain fully backed, liquid reserves. Dollar-pegged stablecoins – above all Tether (USDT), the world’s largest – have to date been unable to demonstrate MiCA-compliant authorisation in the EU. Several European platforms have restricted or removed USDT trading pairs[1] for retail customers within the EU in order to comply with the Regulation. Thus, by 31 August 2026, investors holding USDT with one provider must withdraw their Tether assets from the trading platform – a process comparable, by way of analogy, to a custodian bank requiring the securities-account holder to dispose of portfolio positions or to transfer them abroad, outside the EU, where such rules do not apply.
We likewise advise you on Security Token Offerings (STOs) – the token-based issuance of securities and investment products – whether as issuer, on legally sound structuring and prospectus preparation, or as investor, on the review and enforcement of your rights. Crypto-assets, FinTech services and the regulatory questions associated with them – in particular under the European MiCA Regulation, securities prospectus law and the German Electronic Securities Act (eWpG) – are among the focal points of our firm. FF FinanzRecht® has advised in the FinTech field since 2021, well into the second decade of the firm’s history, serving corporate clients, private clients and foreign investors, in particular on regulatory questions as well as compliance and anti-money laundering matters.
Continueously, new questions arise concerning distributed-ledger-technology (DLT) based business models and the regulatory issues surrounding the issuance, trading, staking, lending and custody of crypto-assets – including questions as to the opportunities and risks of Security Token Offerings (STOs), stablecoins and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
DeFi, NFTs and meme coins
Crypto-assets, FinTech services and the associated regulatory questions, in particular under the European MiCA Regulation, are among our advisory focuses. Solana (SOL) enjoys considerable market recognition, is known for its low transaction costs, and is a popular platform for decentralised financial services – in a word: DeFi and NFTs. NFT stands for non-fungible token. How might you make use of NFTs? We shall advise you.
And what is a meme? A meme coin is a novelty currency offering no concrete utility. The performance of meme coins rests on pure speculation; their prices are often driven by posts on social media. There was a period of astronomical prices – does it persist? What happens if one receives an offer to acquire a product one does not know?
And what happens if, as an heir, one finds a meme coin in the executor’s estate inventory – what does one do with it? Keep it, collect it, give it away, sell it, or ignore it?
(1) Trading pairs
are a fundamental concept of cryptocurrency trading which can at first be confusing for newcomers. A trading pair denotes the two currencies that can be bought and sold against one another on an exchange – these may be two cryptocurrencies, or a cryptocurrency and a fiat currency (USD/CHF/EUR/GBP/CAD/etc.). The trading pair BTC/USD, for example, means that Bitcoin can be traded against US dollars; the trading pair ETH/BTC, that Ethereum can be traded against Bitcoin. The first currency of the pair (the base currency) is priced in units of the second (the quote currency).
Trading pairs enable investors to express the value of one currency directly in another – and thereby to identify price differences between different routes of trade. An investor who wishes to buy Ethereum and holds both US dollars and Bitcoin, for instance, can compare the direct ETH/BTC rate with the implied cross-rate derived from ETH/USD and BTC/USD: if the direct ETH/BTC rate lies below the cross-rate, purchasing with Bitcoin is the cheaper route; if it lies above it, purchasing with US dollars is to be preferred.
It should be noted that not every cryptocurrency can be traded against every other. Which trading pairs are available is determined by the respective exchange, and the range varies considerably from platform to platform – from a handful of standard pairs to a broad selection.
When trading, investors should therefore always pay attention to the trading pairs on offer and understand the value of both currencies within a pair – this is the foundation of well-informed trading decisions. Equally important is a glance at the exchange’s trading fees, which may differ from pair to pair. Those wishing to reduce the price risk of the quote currency may further consider trading against stablecoins, whose value is pegged to a fiat currency (USD/CHF/EUR/GBP/CAD/etc.).
