France’s state-owned bank says it will spend 25 million euros ($27 million) buying cryptocurrencies that support local crypto and blockchain projects.

Bpifrance said in a March 27 press release that it would back newly formed projects “with a strong French footprint” where it will receive tokens in return for its investment and will look to fund decentralized finance (DeFi), staking, tokenization and artificial intelligence.

It added that the plan, supported by the French Ministry of Economy and Finance, was to “promote emerging technologies and strengthen the French blockchain ecosystem.”

The global blockchain ecosystem is “currently booming” but the number of French funds taking part is still very limited, it said.

French digital and AI minister Clara Chappaz said public and private financing was “one of the keys to the sustainable positioning of our ecosystem on the international stage.”

Bpifrance deputy CEO Arnaud Caudoux said that it was convinced of the growing importance that blockchain companies “will take on in the years to come and want to increase French competitiveness and presence in the digital assets field.”

“The US is really accelerating its own crypto strategy, so this is all the more important,” Caudoux said at a press conference, as reported by Reuters. He added that Bpifrance had started to support crypto before the US started its own pro-crypto moves.

Bpifrance’s headquarters in Paris. Source: Google

The bank said it had backed the blockchain sector for a decade and had invested over 150 million euros ($162 million), notably helping to finance the crypto hardware wallet company Ledger in 2014.

Bpifrance said it began testing limited investments through tokens in 2022, including a deal with the DeFi lending platform Morpho to buy its token — which has grown to be the 12th largest protocol by value at $3.24 billion, according to DefiLlama.

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Venture capitalists often take part in investments paid in tokens. PitchBook expects crypto VC deals to top $18 billion this year, a marked increase from the $13.6 billion raised in 2024.

Typically, a crypto platform that launches a token will allocate a portion of its supply to financiers subject to varying lockup periods where the tokens can’t be sold.

A portion of the token supply is usually immediately given to select public users in order to drum up liquidity, which can cause token values to slide if they cash out.

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The European Union’s insurance authority has proposed a blanket rule that would mandate insurance firms to maintain capital equal to the value of their crypto holdings as part of a measure to mitigate risks for policyholders.

The new proposal — made by the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority in a Technical Advice report to the European Commission on March 27 — would set a far stricter standard than other asset classes, such as stocks and real estate, which don’t even need to be half-backed.

“EIOPA considers a 100% haircut in the standard formula prudent and appropriate for these assets in view of their inherent risks and high volatility,” it said in a separate statement.

Such a measure would fill a regulatory gap between the Capital Requirements Regulation and Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), EIOPA said, noting that the European Union’s regulatory framework for insurers currently lacks specific provisions on crypto assets.

Circle argued in January that a blanket 100% stress factor on crypto assets didn’t account for lower-risk stablecoins. Source: Circle

EIOPA outlined four options for the European Commission to consider — one: make no changes; two: mandate an 80% “stress level” to crypto assets; and three: mandate a 100% stress level to crypto asset.

The stress level percentages determine how much capital firms need to hold to stay solvent.

The fourth option called on the European Commission to consider the risks of tokenized assets more broadly.

EIOPA said option three would be the most appropriate option.

“An 80% stress to the value of crypto-asset exposures does not appear sufficiently prudent,” whereas “a 100% stress is more appropriate and aligns with one of the approaches to the transitional treatment of crypto-assets under CRR,” EIOPA said.

The 100% stress refers to the assumption that the crypto asset prices could fall by 100% and that diversification — spreading the risk across different assets — wouldn’t not reduce this stress. EIOPA pointed out that Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) have fallen 82% and 91%, respectively, in the past.

A 100% capital charge for crypto assets would reflect a far stricter approach compared to stocks, which range between 39% and 49%, and real estate, which incurs a 25% capital charge, according to solvency capital requirements laid out in the Commission Delegated Regulation 2015/35.

EIOPA said a 100% capital charge for crypto asset-related (re)insurance undertakings shouldn’t be “overly burdensome” and that there would be no material costs for policyholders.

“The capital requirements would fully capture the risk of crypto-asset with a positive impact on policyholder protection in case there are material exposures in the future.”

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EIOPA acknowledged that the share of crypto-asset (re)insurance undertakings accounts for just 655 million euros or 0.0068% of all undertakings in Europe — even referring to it as “immaterial.”

“At the same time crypto assets are high risk investments which may result in total loss of value,” EIOPA said, explaining why it recommends option three.

Luxembourg and Sweden could be hit hardest by the proposed rule

Insurers in Luxembourg and Sweden are likely to be the most affected, according to a Q4 2023 report cited by EIOPA, which found that these two countries accounted for 69% and 21% of all crypto asset-related exposures among (re)insurance undertakings.

Ireland, Denmark and Liechtenstein also accounted for 3.4%, 1.4% and 1.2% of the undertakings. 

Most of these undertakings are structured within funds, such as exchange-traded funds, and held on behalf of unit-linked policyholders, EIOPA noted.

Split of crypto-asset exposure proxy per European country in Q4 2023. Source: EIOPA

EIOPA, however, acknowledged that a broader adoption of crypto assets in the future may require a more “differentiated approach.”

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ChatGPT creators OpenAI have introduced rate limits after a viral social media trend that saw nearly everything “Ghiblifyied” — turned into AI art in the style of the famous Japanese animation studio. 

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was one of the first to take part in the trend, posting a portrait of himself generated by the model on March 25 but said in a subsequent post two days later that all image requests have started to tax the firm’s infrastructure.

“It’s super fun seeing people love images in ChatGPT but our GPUs are melting. We are going to temporarily introduce some rate limits while we work on making it more efficient,” he said.

Source: Sam Altman

“Also, we are refusing some generations that should be allowed; we are fixing these as fast we can,” he added.

OpenAI launched the upgraded image generation offering in ChatGPT-4o on March 25, resulting in users splashing images across social media in the art style of Studio Ghibli — known for its anime films Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro.

Altman didn’t give a definitive timeline on how long the rate limits would last but said, “Hopefully, it won’t be long! ChatGPT free tier will get three generations per day soon.”

Rate limits are generally applied to help OpenAI manage the aggregate load on its infrastructure, according to OpenAI. 

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“If requests to the API increase dramatically, it could tax the servers and cause performance issues. By setting rate limits, OpenAI can help maintain a smooth and consistent experience for all users,” OpenAI says on its rate limit explanation page.

Along with the legions of others getting in on the trend, X and Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared an image mimicking King Mufasa from Disney’s The Lion King holding up a Shiba Inu. 

White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks also joined in, using the Studio Ghibli-art style on an image of himself at an event.

Source: David Sacks

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported on March 26 that OpenAI expects to more than triple its revenue this year to $12.7 billion, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Altman said on Feb. 12 his firm wants to ship GPT-4.5 and GPT-5 in the coming weeks or months.

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