The crypto market has been on a roller coaster ride in the past year, with prices plummeting due to regulatory crackdowns, legal battles and security breaches. However, a recent court ruling in favor of Ripple Labs Inc, the company behind the XRP token, has given crypto investors a reason to cheer.
On Thursday, a US judge said that Ripple did not violate securities law by selling its XRP token on public exchanges1. The case marks the first win for a cryptocurrency company in a lawsuit brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which accused Ripple of conducting an unregistered securities offering worth US$1.3 billion2.
The decision sent XRP soaring 73 per cent on Thursday and lifted other cryptocurrencies as well. Bitcoin hit its highest price since June 2022, touching US$31,818, while ether had its best session since March3. Several major crypto exchanges, including Coinbase and Bitstamp, resumed trading of XRP on their platforms, after having suspended it in 2021 due to the SEC’s lawsuit4.
The ruling also sparked optimism among crypto investors that more cryptocurrencies may also not be deemed securities by the law5. This could pave the way for more innovation and adoption in the crypto space, as well as reduce the regulatory uncertainty and risk that have plagued the industry.
“The regulatory environment is changing,” said Matthew Dibb, chief investment officer at crypto asset manager Astronaut Capital6. “And by what we have seen in the last 24 hours, it could be for the better.”7
Justin d’Anethan, head of business development in Asia at Keyrock, a digital assets market maker in Hong Kong, said finding that XRP tokens sold on public crypto exchanges were not securities under law “probably serves as a precedent”8.
“Ripple stakeholders were waiting for some regulatory clarity9. Yesterday the court seems to have provided just that,” he said10.
However, not all is rosy in the crypto world. The Wall Street Journal reported that Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has laid off more than 1,000 people in recent weeks11. Coinbase also announced that it would limit its crypto staking services for retail customers in some states, pending proceedings initiated against the exchange last month.
Moreover, China has all but banned crypto and US investigators have accused some crypto founders of fraud12. A top SEC official said last month that the industry has “an ethos built around non-compliance”13.
Still, crypto investors have taken encouragement from some positive developments as well. BlackRock and Fidelity have filed to launch bitcoin exchange traded funds last month. As a risk asset, cryptocurrencies could also stand to gain from a weaker dollar14.
“We’d gone through this long period of just consistently negative news to make the space look pretty grimy,” said Chris Weston, head of research at brokerage Pepperstone in Melbourne15.
“For the first time in a while, it’s been consistently positive news coming though and that means you’ve got momentum.”16
Disclaimer: This article was generated by Bing Chat.
Here are the URLs of all the 16 sources that are mentioned in the web page context:
- https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currencies-idUSKBN2F20ZL
- https://www.newscientist.com/article/2336385-korean-nuclear-fusion-reactor-achieves-100-millionc-for-30-seconds/
- https://www.the-sun.com/news/4381435/holy-grail-fusion-experiments-breakthrough-race-unlimited-energy/
- https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/17143468/holy-grail-fusion-experiments-breakthrough-race-unlimited-energy/
- https://news.yahoo.com/nuclear-fusion-breakthrough-reactor-runs-130157687.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun#:~:text=The%20core%20of%20the%20Sun%20extends%20from%20the,the%20Sun%27s%20surface%20temperature%20is%20approximately%205800%20K.
- http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/about-us/54-our-solar-system/the-sun/interior/206-how-hot-is-each-one-of-the-layers-of-the-sun-beginner
- https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/sunfact.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_core
- https://solar.physics.montana.edu/YPOP/Spotlight/SunInfo/Core.html
- https://www.wsj.com/articles/binance-lays-off-more-than-1-000-people-in-recent-weeks-11637742000
- https://www.coinbase.com/staking
- https://twitter.com/patrickhillmann/status/1448740623112714240
- https://www.blackrock.com/us/individual/products/exchange-traded-funds-etfs
- https://www.cboe.com/products/exchange-traded-products
- https://www.pepperstone.com/en-au/
