As the West and America tighten their economic sanctions on Russia, concerns have emerged about how this will affect the cryptocurrency market. The country has been largely cut off from the SWIFT international payment system, and businesses in the United States and other Western nations are banned from doing business or transacting with Russian banks and the national wealth fund. Executives at crypto exchanges have weighed in on the sanctions and their possible effects. The CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, went on Twitter to voice his opinion on the subject. He claimed that most banks adhere to sanctions rules and …

A former executive from the Securities and Exchange Commission believes the regulator has a good chance of losing its $1.3 billion lawsuit against Ripple “on the merits” of the case. Attorney Joseph Hall also voiced concerns over what the SEC’s endgame could be regarding the high-stakes case against Ripple (XRP), which will have ramifications for the entire industry. The lawsuit alleges that the company and its co-founders, Brad Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen, failed to notify the SEC about its sale of XRP beginning in 2013, and that the tokens are unregistered securities. The SEC is trying to prove that securities …

Ripple’s court battle with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has recently seen new developments that, according to some observers, could foreshadow an impending resolution of this massively consequential case. Feb. 17 marks the deadline for Ripple to unseal a series of 2012 documents whose contents will likely sway the opinions of both the court and the public toward either one side or another. In another plot twist, the court’s decision to treat some of the SEC’s documents as open to discovery could set a groundbreaking precedent for similar cases involving U.S. executive agencies. Here is where things stand …

XRP price has continued to bounce back after falling by more than 70% in a correction between April 2021 and January 2022. Why the XRP/USD 50-week EMA is key On Feb. 13, XRP/USD reached as high as $0.916, above its 50-week exponential moving average (50-week EMA; the red wave) around $0.833. The upside move, albeit not decisive, opened possibilities for further bullish momentum, mainly owing to a historical buying sentiment around the said wave. For instance, traders had successfully reclaimed the 50-week EMA as support in the week ending July 27, 2020, more than a year after flipping the wave …

Analyzing the aggregate cryptocurrency market performance over the past 7 days could give investors the impression that the total market capitalization grew by a mere 4% to $2.03 trillion, but this data is heavily impacted by the top 5 coins, which happen to include two stablecoins. Excluding Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB) and stablecoins reflects a 9.3% market capitalization increase to $418 billion from $382 billion on Feb 4. This explains why so many of the top-80 altcoins hiked 25% or more while very few presented a negative performance. Gala Games (GALA) announced on Feb. 9 a partnership …

Cryptocurrency advocates in the United States have been increasingly putting efforts to support the industry, with crypto lobbying spending growing significantly in recent years. Crypto-related lobbying expenditure in the U.S. totaled at $4.9 million in 2021, more than doubling from $2.3 million in the previous year, according to a new study by the crypto analytics startup Cryptohead.io. The study is based on lobbying tracking data obtained from research and government transparency group Open Secrets. According to Cryptohead’s findings, the total lobbying expenditure over the past five years amounted to more than $9.5 million. Back in 2017, the total spending on …

XRP price rose by nearly 30% in less than a week amid positive sentiment around the court case, in which the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) claims that Ripple sold XRP as illegal securities. SEC vs. Ripple Judge Analisa Torres has granted Ripple permission to respond to the SEC's Memorandum of Law in support of Motion to Strike fair notice defense, according to court documents. Additionally, Judge Torres also ordered to unseal three documents concerning the SEC vs. Ripple case, including Ripple's CEO Brad Garlinghouse's email thread and deposition notice and founder Chris Larsen's email string. Markets received Judge …

Blockchain payments company Ripple made it abundantly clear this week that it's not letting its feud with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) hold back its business plans. On Wednesday, the company announced it had repurchased all Series C shares that it issued to private investors back in December 2019 — even though a court ruling in 2021 said it didn't have to. This week's Crypto Biz explores Ripple's share repurchase and provides an overview of the biggest funding stories of the week. We also weigh a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) proposal by Valkyrie that seeks to provide …

Blockchain payments firm Ripple has announced a $200 million Series C share buyback, a decision that will take the San Francisco-based tech firm to a record-high valuation of $15 billion. Back in December 2019, Ripple raised $200 million in a Series C funding round with Tetragon Financial Group, a United Kingdom-based investment firm, acting as the lead investor alongside other participants SBI Holdings and Route 66 Ventures. However, in December 2020, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a $1.3 billion-dollar financial lawsuit against Ripple Labs, as well as co-founder Chris Larsen and CEO Brad Garlinghouse; accusing the …

How can users take advantage of opportunities in an uncertain market? Wallets that take out some of the steps in exchanging assets can help investors act on market opportunities quickly. Freewallet offers a family of mobile-first cryptocurrency wallets with built-in functionality for buying and exchanging cryptocurrency assets. Freewallet launched its first offering back in 2016 at the beginning of the cryptocurrency boom. Following this period of growth, the platform has now reported over 3 million users. Looking forward to today, the Freewallet family now includes solutions for over 100 different cryptocurrencies, each of which is available for iOS, Android and …

Executive Chairman and Co-founder of Ripple Chris Larsen has unveiled his plan for Bitcoin miners to move away from Proof of Work (PoW), saying they should view it as “a net positive for their longevity.” He argues it could provide a major boost to the share prices of listed mining firms “as any new code proposal would almost certainly have to include lucrative incentives to gain their support.” PoW is the consensus algorithm that secures Bitcoin (BTC) transactions on the blockchain. While the Bitcoin network is the most secure and reliable, the amount of energy BTC mining requires causes endless …

The CEO of Ripple, the company behind the XRP cryptocurrency, is not a fan of the meme-based digital currency Dogecoin (DOGE). Brad Garlinghouse believes that DOGE is not good for the cryptocurrency market due to its alleged “inflationary dynamics” and unlimited supply. The global inflation is driving Bitcoin (BTC) price higher, but has a warning for Dogecoin fans, Garlinghouse argued at a CNBC-moderated panel at the Fintech Abu Dhabi event on Tuesday. “I'm actually not convinced, somewhat controversially I guess, that Dogecoin is good for the crypto market. Dogecoin has some inflationary dynamics itself that would make me reluctant to …