Kategorie: Crypto Markets

• SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda said the agency hasn’t provided guidance on securities laws
• His comments come as Crypto.com sues the SEC for overreaching its regulatory authority over crypto after receiving a Wells notice

A US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) commissioner has said that the agency’s approach to crypto has been a “disaster for the whole industry.”

Speaking on Fox Business Mornings with Maria, Mark Uyeda, commissioner of the SEC, said: “I think our policies and our approach over the last several years have been just really a disaster for the whole industry.”

Uyeda added: “What has gone on is part of a broader frustration with the fact that we have not provided interpretive guidance as to what you can and cannot do and if you are involved in some sort of securities offering, how you register, how you get regulated as a broker-dealer, how you get registered as an exchange.”

His comments come after Crypto.com sued the SEC for overreaching its regulatory authority over crypto in response to a Wells notice the exchange received.

More recently, the SEC sued market maker Cumberland for acting as an unregistered securities dealer. Cumberland is reported to have violated securities laws by buying and selling more than $2 billion worth of crypto assets since March 2018.

Crypto exchange Coinbase has also launched its legal offense against the SEC, requesting documents from the agency as to how it determines crypto regulation. However, last month, the regulator sought an extension to February 2025 for it to provide documents in its case against Coinbase.

Ripple Labs is also not backing down against the regulator after filing a notice of cross-appeal in an ongoing battle going back to 2020.

When asked what the SEC could do differently, Uyeda said there is a “need to lay out some clear guidance and interpretations on what exactly falls within and falls outside of the securities laws.”

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban has said he’d be interested in becoming the chair of the SEC if Vice President Kamala Harris becomes the next President of the White House.

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• Ripple Labs filed its cross-appeal in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
• The company is attempting to contest an August 7 judgement made by Judge Analisa Torres
• The SEC v Ripple Labs is a case that dates back to 2020

Ripple Labs has filed a cross-appeal in its ongoing litigation battle against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The filing was submitted to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Ripple is attempting to challenge the judgement made against the company on August 7 where it was ordered to pay $125 million for violating securities laws by Judge Analisa Torres.

“Today, Ripple filed a cross-appeal to ensure nothing’s left on the table, including the argument that there can’t be an “investment contract” without their being essential rights and obligations found in a contract,” said Stuart Alderoty, chief legal officer at Ripple, in a post on X.

An ongoing case

In 2020, the SEC sued Ripple, Christian Larsen, the company’s co-founder and former CEO, and Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple’s current CEO, after alleging that they raised $1.3 billion through the sale of XRP, an unregistered securities offering, according to the regulator.

However, last year, Judge Torres found that XRP wasn’t a security when it came to the sales to the public, its employees, and developers, marking a huge win against the SEC. Yet, direct sales to institutional investors, Torres found that these sales were securities.

Alderoty continued: “Last year, the SEC unsuccessfully tried to take an early appeal of the rulings that Ripple’s XRP sales on exchanges and Ripple’s other XRP distributions, like to employees and developers, weren’t securities. They’ll likely go after these again – and they will lose on both again.”

Speaking on the matter, Garlinghouse said:

“With our cross-appeal today, we’re looking forward to sealing the SEC’s fate and finally putting an end to the SEC’s regulation-by-enforcement agenda. Ripple was the industry leader in the first go-round in court and we look forward to leading the way in this round as well.”

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• SEC has sued market maker Cumberland over offering and sale of unregistered securities.
• The regulator says Cumberland violated the US securities laws by operating as an unregistered dealer.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has sued Cumberland DRW LLC, a Chicago-based crypto market maker, for acting as an unregistered securities dealer.

SEC said in a press release on Oct. 10 that Cumberland had violated the securities laws by buying and selling of over $2 billion worth of crypto assets since March 2018. In terms of crypto regulation, the SEC says the assets in question were “offered and sold as securities.”

Investment securities

According to the press release, Cumberland provided these crypto assets via its own accounts, the SEC added, which meant the company operated as an unregistered dealer.

The agency’s charge against the market maker also notes Cumberland’s description of itself as a “leading liquidity provider”, and traded with counterparties via telephone or its online platform Marea.

“Despite frequent protestations by the industry that sales of crypto assets are all akin to sales of commodities, our complaint alleges that Cumberland, the respective issuers, and objective investors treated the offer and sale of the crypto assets at issue in this case as investments in securities,” Jorge G. Tenreiro, acting chief of the SEC’s crypto assets and cyber unit, said in a statement.

Tenreiro added that Cumberland profited from these activities but did not provide investors and the broader market the crucial protections that registration with the regulator offers.

SEC seeks permanent injuction against Cumberland

In a complaint filed at the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, SEC alleges violation of Section 15(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

In its argument, it wants a permanent injunction against Cumberland. The crypto platform should also forfeit all ill-gotten gains, and be slapped with a civil penalty.

SEC’s lawsuit against Cumberland come a day after US prosecutors charged 14 people and four crypto companies over market manipulation and fraud. Oct. 10 also saw Ripple file a cross-appeal following the regulators decision to appeal its case against Ripple.

Earlier this week, Crypto.com sued the SEC after the regulator issued a Wells Notice to the crypto exchange.

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• Uniswap has launched its own layer-2 network called Unichain.
• The OP Stack-powered L2 is in testnet and is designed to improve transaction speed, lower costs and boost liquidity.
• UNI token’s price surged to $8.14, its highest level in over two months

Uniswap, a leading decentralized exchange platform, has announced a major development for its network and ecosystem. The news helped Uniswap’s native token UNI to soar double digits on Thursday.

On Oct. 10, the Uniswap team revealed that the DEX platform was looking to launch its own layer-2 network on Ethereum. The L2, dubbed Unichain, is earmarked for DeFi.

Per the Uniswap Labs announcement, its a solution to transaction speed and costs for the exchange’s users. Also key to the launch is the question of liquidity.

Introducing @unichain — a new L2 designed for DeFi ✨

Fast blocks (250ms), cross-chain interoperability, and a decentralized validator network

Built to be the home for liquidity across chains pic.twitter.com/lqfJh6Ltio

— Uniswap Labs 🦄 (@Uniswap) October 10, 2024

Unichain is powered by Optimism’s OP stack and offers 1 second block times. Sub-block times of 200-250 milliseconds is also part of the development.

“This type of speed isn’t just great for UX, it also improves market efficiency and lowers value lost to MEV,” Uniswap Labs wrote on X.

Uniswap has partnered with OP Labs for native interoperability, with this enabling implementation of cross-chain messaging and cross-chain liquidity. The platforms plan to bolster the ecosystem’s connectivity with cross-chain swapping across the Uniswap interface and wallet.

According to details in today’s announcement, the Unichain testnet is live, while the mainnet will go live later in Q4, 2024.

UNI price soars 11%

Native Uniswap DEX token UNI is among the top gainers in the crypto market. This follows a price explosion for the cryptocurrency after the news emerged.

With most altcoins down on the day or struggling for upside, UNI spiked more than 11% to hit highs last seen in July 2024. The token’s surge to the multi-month high of $8.14 saw Uniswap rank as the top performing coin among top 100 coins by market cap.

UNI traded around $8.05 at the time of writing, still up by more than 9%.

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• Ripple has unveiled new features for its custody solution for banks and fintechs.
• The company is looking to tap into the growing tokenization and RWA market.

Ripple has launched new features that bring digital asset custody to banks and fintechs, the blockchain company announced on Oct. 10.

According to the announcement, the company’s Ripple Custody platform now supports bank-grade custody technology. Customers will be able to tokenize a wide range of assets, including crypto, fiat, and RWAs, all while leveraging Ripple’s XRP Ledger integration.

Other notable features include transaction screening with Elliptic integration and hardware security via AWS Cloud HSM. In this case, Ripple Custody brings banks and other financial technology companies the capacity to build and scale their businesses, tapping into software infrastructure that adds key layers of security for transfers and settlements.

“Ripple’s custody technology offers a single platform for safeguarding and managing digital assets, designed with the security and compliance standards that top global banks and financial institutions have come to rely on, ” said Aaron Slettehaugh, SVP of product at Ripple.

Ripple eyes rapidly growing crypto custody market

The new move aims at helping Ripple make inroads in a global digital asset custody market expected to hit $16 trillion by 2030. The company also targets the tokenization trajectory that will see 10% of the world’s gross domestic product on-chain by 2030.

Currently, Ripple Custody offers its services to major banks across the globe, including in the US, Switzerland, Germany, France, the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong. Industry players utilizing Ripple Custody include DBS, BBVA Switzerland, Societe Generale-FORGE, and Archax.

Ripple acquired Swiss-based custody firm Metaco in May 2023, taking steps that have seen it grow its crypto custody business. Standard Chartered’s Zodia Custody integrated Metaco’s digital assets custody solution in December 2023.

Earlier this month, the company secured an in-principle approval to expand its services in the United Arab Emirates.

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