Binance to Exit European Economic Area; Anthropic to Require User IDs

The cryptocurrency market in the European Economic Area (EEA) is set for a significant shake-up on July 1, with industry observers estimating that over 1,200 providers will exit, leaving only around 200 with the necessary licenses.

Among the most prominent departures is Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. The company withdrew its application for a Greek license after the Hellenic Capital Market Commission indicated it would be denied. Despite Binance's statement that it is not leaving Europe but seeking alternative routes, negotiations with authorities in other EU countries have likely proven unsuccessful due to unified regulatory requirements.

In a related development, AI firm Anthropic has updated its privacy policy, potentially allowing it to verify the age and identity of users of its AI models through identification documents and biometrics. Anthropic states this will affect only a small portion of users and is intended to prevent fraudulent activity. However, critics have raised concerns about the chosen identity verification provider, Persona Identities, whose data handling practices are reportedly problematic and could subject data to government disclosure requests in the U.S.

Meanwhile, OpenAI, a competitor in the AI space, is collaborating with Broadcom to develop a new processor named Jalapeño, optimized for artificial intelligence inference tasks. The chip aims to reduce latency and energy consumption, tailored specifically for OpenAI's inference software. It is not intended for training large language models.