Ripple secures a ‘huge win’ against SEC as U.S. Judge rules XRP is ‘not’ a security

  • Judge Analisa Torres rules XRP token is a not a security.
  • Coinbase will resume trading in XRP in the next few minutes.
  • XRP nearly doubled in value following the ruling today.

“XRP” – the native token of Ripple Labs nearly doubled in value on Thursday after the crypto company secured a “huge win” against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

U.S. judge rules XRP is not a security

Judge Analisa Torres of a U.S. District Court concluded the case today that has been dragged for three years now with a ruling that XRP is “not” a security.

Defendants’ motion for summary judgement is GRANTED as to the Programmatic Sales, the Other Distributions, and Larsen’s and Garlinghouse’s sales, and DENIED as to Institutional Sales.

The decision is a victory not just for Ripple but the crypto market at large that surpassed $1.20 trillion just hours after the ruling.

Bitcoin was seen trading above $31,500 and Ethereum topped the $2,000 level.

Coinbase to resume trading in XRP

Reacting to the ruling, Coinbase – the largest U.S. crypto exchange also confirmed on Twitter that trading will resume in XRP later today.

Note that the win Ripple has secured against the SEC on Thursday bodes well for other crypto companies as well that are currently facing intense regulatory scrutiny. That includes Coinbase itself.

Also this morning, the Financial Times confirmed that Jacobi Asset Management is all set to debut the Europe’s first Spot Bitcoin ETF on the Euronext Amsterdam before the end of 2023. That also helped buoy the cryptocurrencies today.

In the U.S., heavy weights including BlackRock are awaiting approval for a similar exchange-traded fund.

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EU regulator opens consultation on first MiCA standards

  • ESMA has released a consultation paper on MiCA implementation requirements.
  • Industry players are requested to provide feedback by September 20.
  • The EU regulator will present the final proposals to the European Parliament by June 30, 2024.

The European and Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a consultation paper on the first requirements as outlined in the recently adopted Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation.

ESMA’s “Technical standards specifying certain requirements of the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA),” seeks industry feedback on the proposals set to be presented before the EU parliament latest by June 30, 2024.

According to the regulator’s timeline, the consultation will be open for crypto industry’s responses and comments up to September 20, 2023. 

Verena Ross, Chair of ESMA, stated:

“This first consultation package is an important milestone for ESMA in the implementation of the MiCA framework. It translates our ambition to set high regulatory standards in the EU for crypto-asset related activities into concrete requirements. We are determined to ensure entities involved in crypto-asset related activities understand that the EU is not a place for forum-shopping.  We also want to remind consumers that, even with the implementation of MiCA, there will be no such thing as a safe crypto-asset.”

Draft proposals include rules on conflict of interest

According to ESMA, MiCA regulation requires that the regulator develops both regulating technical standards (RTS) and implementing technical standards (ITS).

This is the first consultation paper the regulator has released for MiCA and details seven proposals – five are draft RTSs while two are ITS.

Specifically, the RTSs requirements include notification by financial providers if they plan to offer crypto-asset services; regulatory approval for digital assets service providers; and crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) handling of customer complaints. The draft also covers disclosures of conflict of interest.

On requirements for segregation of client funds and assets, the regulator points to Article 62(2)(k) of MiCA. According to it, CASP applicants are obliged to ensure this is the case, with a description of how this is done.

“Some of the recent collapses in the crypto world have shown a misuse of clients’ funds and crypto-assets. This seems to have been permitted by a lack of governance and internal controls,” ESMA noted in the paper.

The ESMA proposals are a collaboration between the regulator and the European Banking Authority (EBA), which also released its first standards package on Wednesday, July 12.

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Bitcoin maintains price above $30k as more investors hold their assets

Key takeaways

  • Bitcoin has maintained its value above $30k as more investors hold their cryptocurrency assets.

  • AltSignals’ stage-2 presale has now surpassed 50%, with more than $1.1 million raised so far.

The cryptocurrency market has been stagnant for the last two weeks, with the prices of most coins and tokens trading within specific ranges.

Bitcoin, the world’s leading cryptocurrency by market cap, has maintained its value around the $30k region over the past few weeks.

Inflation figures come out lower than expected

Rising inflation figures in the United States and other parts of the world have led to the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates in recent months.

However, the Fed didn’t increase interest rates last month, and investors are now optimistic that the US apex bank might decrease interest rates later this month.

The SU Consumer Price Index for June was 0.2%, lower than what market analysts had expected. With inflation declining in the US, the Fed might reduce its interest rates in the near term.

If that happens, the cryptocurrency market could experience a positive performance. At press time, the price of Bitcoin stands at $30,566, up by less than 1% in the last 24 hours. 

Data obtained from Glassnode revealed that the number of wallets holding at least one BTC had reached an all-time high of 1,008,737 million.

As more people are holding Bitcoin, investment in other cryptocurrencies could increase in the near term. Investors could be looking to enter new projects and make excellent returns.

One of the projects investors could consider is AltSignals. AltSignals is still in its presale stage and has already raised more than $1 million in its second presale round. 

What is AltSignals?

Before investing in AltSignals, it is advisable to know what the project is and the problem the developers intend to solve in the market. 

AltSignals is a project that primarily targets traders. It is a trading platform that provides trading signals for stocks, forex, indices, cryptocurrencies, and CFDs. 

Although AltSignals is still in its presale stage, the team has raised more than $1 million and will use the funds to develop its platform.

The stage-2 presale has raised more than $1 million so far, with the team targeting around $2 million in this round. 

ASI, the native token of the AltSignals ecosystem, is currently sold for 0.01875 USDT. The token price could increase in the near term once the project officially launches and gets listed on cryptocurrency exchanges. 

In their whitepaper, the AltSignals team revealed that they would use the funds to develop ActualizeAI, a solution that could make it easier for more people to enter the cryptocurrency trading scene. 

ActualizeAI will be AltSignals’ fully automated solution that would make it easier for people to trade cryptocurrencies. 

Visit the official AltSignals website to learn more about their presale.

Should you invest in AltSignals now?

Bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency market have performed well since the start of the year. Year-to-date, Bitcoin is up by nearly 50%, outperforming the other major financial markets.

Market analysts predict that Bitcoin’s price could surge higher in the medium to long term. If that happens, other cryptocurrencies could record massive gains too.

One of the projects to look out for is AltSignals. Although it is still in its presale stage, AltSignals could be a project that changes the way traders approach the market. 

If the development team delivers on its promise of a platform dedicated to traders, AltSignals could see an influx of traders on its platform, and that would result in ASI’s price soaring higher over the next few months and years. 

The launch of ActualizeAI could be a huge boost for AltSignals as the project seeks to attract more traders to the cryptocurrency ecosystem. 

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US Federal Trade Commission slaps Celsius Network with $4.7B fine

  • The FTC said Celsius “squandered billions in user deposits” after “duping” customers into depositing funds.
  • Celsius and its former CEO have also been sued by the US SEC today.
  • Last week, the CFTC found the former CEO and Celsius Network guilty of violating several laws while operating in the country.

In what appears as a double tragedy for the bankrupt crypto lending platform Celsius Network, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued the company with a $4.7 billion fine.

The judgment will, however, be suspended to “permit Celsius to return its remaining assets to consumers in bankruptcy proceedings.”

According to the July 13 FTC judgment, Celsius and its affiliate firms will be permanently barred from “offering, marketing, or promoting any product or service that could be used to deposit, exchange, invest, or withdraw any assets.”

FTC’s fine was announced just hours after the United States SEC filed a lawsuit against Celsius Network and its former CEO Alex Mashinsky.

Why is Celsius under siege by US regulators?

The crypto lending company, which had its headquarters in New Jersey, offered customers a range of cryptocurrency services including interest-bearing accounts, personal loans backed by customers’ bitcoin deposits, and a cryptocurrency exchange before its collapse.

The FTC has stated that the platform co-founders Alex Mashinsky, Shlomi Leon, and Hanoch Goldstein misappropriated more than $4 billion in consumer assets while marketing the platform as a “safe place” for users to deposit their cryptocurrencies.

The FTC also charged Celsius with making $1.2 billion in unsecured loans, lying about having a user insurance policy worth $750 million, and without having any way to track its assets and liabilities until late 2021. According to the FTC, officials reportedly lied about the state of the company even as the 2022 cryptocurrency bear market was beginning.

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BNB Chain to undergo major hard fork to address blockchain exploit risks

Key takeaways

  • BNB Chain is set to undergo its ZhangHeng upgrade later this month.

  • The upgrade will address blockchain exploit risks, and no new BNB tokens will be issued. 

BNB Chain to undergo a major hard fork later this month

BNB Chain, the blockchain of the Binance ecosystem, is set to undergo its “ZhangHeng” upgrade later this month.

According to the development team, the upgrade will massively improve security features for users.

The BNB team believes that network security remains a cause for concern within the cryptocurrency industry. The hard fork is set to take place on 19th July 2023. at 6:00 UTC.

In the Web3 ecosystem, hard forks are permanent changes in the way networks operate, and they are carried out via software upgrades. 

The hard fork will not result in the issuance of new BNB tokens. Furthermore, two-thirds of all BNB Chain validators will need to upgrade their nodes to process blocks once the upgrade is complete.

The hard fork will protect BNB Chain and its users

The network developers revealed in the BEP-255 proposal that user balance changes will be tracked in each block and reconciled to pinpoint issues. If there is a reconciliation error, the BNB Chain will enter a panic mode, and the blockchain will stop producing new blocks. 

The developers added that;

“If a reconciliation error occurs, the blockchain will stop producing new blocks, impacting downstream services such as bridges, deposits, and withdrawals on exchanges. This drastic action is necessary to protect the chain and its users, so core developers and community members should investigate the issue as soon as possible.”

This latest cryptocurrency news comes following an interesting couple of months for BNB, the native coin of the Binance ecosystem. BNB’s performance has been erratic since the start of the year, with Binance facing multiple regulatory pressure globally.

BNB began the year trading at $245 per coin and rallied to its 2023 high of $354. However, BNB has lost more than 30% of its value over the past 30 days, thanks to its regulatory challenges in the United States and Europe.

At press time, the price of BNB stands at $246 per coin, down by less than 1% over the last 24 hours.

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