A 44-page report commissioned by CPA Australia delves into the status of central bank digital currency development worldwide, while exploring viable blockchain candidates for hosting CBDCs in the coming years. The report offers up evaluations of the three most transacted cryptocurrencies — Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and XRP — and analyses their suitability (or lack thereof) for use by central banks. Bitcoin’s decentralized network and lack of oversight by banks or governments make it generally unsuitable for use in a national CBDC network, notes the report. Although Bitcoin is still accepted as a medium of exchange the world over, its …

Despite being in the middle of a $1.3 billion lawsuit with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, it appears that it is still business as usual for Ripple. Speaking to Reuters on Friday, Garlinghouse revealed that the company has not suffered any negative blowback in the APAC business theatre amid the current SEC lawsuit: “It (the lawsuit) has hindered activity in the United States, but it has not really impacted what’s going on for us in Asia Pacific.” In December 2020, the SEC charged Ripple and its principal executives of violating securities laws in the sale of XRP tokens …

Chris Larsen — Ripple’s executive chairman — has joined company CEO Brad Garlinghouse in moving to dismiss the securities violation case filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In a court letter filed on Wednesday, Larsen’s attorneys provided four arguments detailing the reasons why the case against the Ripple executive should be struck. According to the letter, the SEC cannot substantiate its claims that Larsen “knowingly or recklessly provided substantial assistance” towards the violation of Section 5 of the Securities Act of 1933. Arguing further, the letter stated that in 2015, when Larsen bore the designation of Ripple CEO, …

Payments company MoneyGram International has been sued over allegedly false statements made regarding its partnership with Ripple Labs and its XRP cryptocurrency. The class-action lawsuit, filed on Monday in California, was submitted by law firm Rosen on behalf of investors who purchased securities from MoneyGram between June 17, 2019 and February 22, 2021. The global investor rights legal practice asserted MoneyGram made fraudulent statements regarding its partnership with Ripple Labs and the status of XRP as a security. According to a post announcing a "strategic partnership" between the two companies in June 2019, MoneyGram utilized Ripple's xRapid product, "leveraging XRP …

The United States is divided politically these days into red states and blue states, and increasingly, it seems to be fracturing into cryptocurrency-friendly and crypto-wary locales, too. On Feb. 21, it was revealed that San Francisco-based Ripple Labs had registered as a Wyoming business. Wyoming is arguably the most blockchain and cryptocurrency-welcoming state in the United States. Meanwhile, several days later, New York State’s attorney general announced a settlement of the office’s long-standing investigation into crypto trading platform Bitfinex for illegal activities. As a result, Bitfinex and affiliated Tether must pay $18.5 million for damages to the state of New …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has alleged that Ripple Labs executives Bradley Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen manipulated the XRP price by ramping up or slowing down their coin sales depending upon market conditions. In an amended complaint filed Feb. 18, the plaintiff — the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission —reiterated its stance that Ripple Labs, Christian Larsen and Brad Garlinghouse violated securities laws with the sale of XRP coins starting in 2013: “From at least 2013 through the present, Defendants sold over 14.6 billion units of a digital asset security called ‘XRP,’ in return for cash or other …

The SEC’s recent inquiry into the Tim Draper-backed DeFi Money Market platform is the most recent example in a concerning trend of increasing action by regulators against unregistered securities. As a result of regulatory inquiries, DMM is ceasing operations. mTokens can be redeemed with interest accrued to-date through the following link: https://t.co/mWB1WacKaH — DMM DAO (@DMMDAO) February 5, 2021 It joins Kik Interactive, Ripple and Coinseed as crypto projects facing the wrath of regulators under aspects of securities law. The mystery behind DeFi Money Market’s abrupt closure on Feb. 5 was unveiled in the project’s official Telegram channel on Feb. …

A major United States-based cryptocurrency exchange has halted all XRP trading on its platform in the wake of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s ongoing lawsuit against Ripple Labs. The PayBito exchange, which processed $1.1 billion worth of trades in 24 hours leading up to the time of publication, will suspend all XRP trading pairs, as announced on Feb.18. Four XRP trading pairs have historically been available on PayBito, with XRP/USDT trades proving the most popular. Notably, the trading suspension will not affect users’ holdings, and those with coins held on the exchange will still be able to transfer them out …

The changing of the guard at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission seems to have affected any possible pretrial settlement in the SEC’s case against Ripple. This conclusion was part of a joint discovery letter filed on Monday before Judge Analisa Torres of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Commenting on the prospects of a pretrial settlement, the letter reads: “Counsel for the parties have met and conferred and, having previously discussed settlement, do not believe there is a prospect for settlement at this time. However, the parties will promptly notify the Court if …

XRP briefly lost its top-three altcoin position on Feb. 9 after newcomer Polkadot (DOT) overtook its market cap in an ongoing altcoin shake-up. Data from Cointelegraph Markets and CoinMarketCap confirms that XRP is now barely holding on to the fifth-largest cryptocurrency spot and could soon leave the top five altogether. Ripple gets flippled... a second time The new order among large cap altcoins comes as a new "altseason" hits the market, with investors' chosen targets differing considerably from the last in early 2018. Among the victims is Bitcoin Cash (BCH), which as Cointelegraph reported was removed from the top ten …

Several DeFi tokens saw their prices breakout on Feb. 4 as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) prices traded sideways for the day. Aside from the general bullish trend permeating the DeFi sector, positive comments from big-name investors touting the benefits of blockchain technology and DeFi appear to be lifting sentiment throughout the sector. Currently, Bitcoin price is still struggling to reclaim the $38,000 level and according to Cointelegraph analyst Marcel Pechman, top traders may have added to their short positions as BTC rallied toward $38,000 on Feb. 3. Elon Musk made waves again as his “DOGE” tweet resulted in a …

Japanese financial services firm SBI Group has enabled XRP lending through its cryptocurrency-related subsidiary, SBI VC Trade. According to a Feb. 4 announcement, SBI VC Trade Lending users can now earn interest by depositing their XRP holdings between 1,000 and 100,000 XRP, with the lending period lasting up to 84 days. “VC Trade Lending is a service that allows customers to rent out their crypto assets to the company and receive interest rewards according to the quantity and duration of the crypto assets,” SBI stated. The annual interest rate for lending XRP amounts to 0.1% with taxes included, the announcement …