Tag: xrp

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Coinbase Crypto News Regulation Ripple

Coinbase Seeks to Support Ripple Against SEC

The US’ largest crypto exchange, Coinbase, has weighed in on the high-profile lawsuit brought against Ripple by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by filing legal documents in support of Ripple.  

The amicus curiae brief submitted to the court by Coinbase argues that de-listing XRP from crypto exchanges in the wake of SEC’s legal action caused its market value to decline by US$15 billion, “resulting in significant losses to Coinbase’s customers.”

Coinbase’s brief pointed out it had previously urged the SEC to provide direction for the digital asset industry to provide certainty, and defended Ripple’s legal position:

“In the absence of a regulatory framework governing digital assets, Coinbase believes that parties like Ripple must be permitted to pursue fair notice defenses in matters where they are facing surprise enforcement actions like this one.”

Coinbase amicus brief in support of Ripple

Coinbase Support Strengthens XRP Position

Crypto payments network, Ripple, which has its own token called XRP, has been battling the SEC lawsuit since 2020 — disputing the regulator’s findings that Ripple conducted an illegal securities offering by selling XRP, which is the sixth largest crypto by market share. 

Amicus briefs offer information or insights relevant to a case from an organisation not involved in the legal proceedings and are accepted at the discretion of the court. 

In a Twitter thread about filing the brief, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal said: 

“One of the fundamental due process protections guaranteed by our Constitution is that government agencies cannot condemn conduct as a violation of law without providing fair notice that the conduct is illegal. By suing sellers of XRP tokens after making public statements signaling that those transactions were lawful, the SEC has lost sight of this bedrock principle.”

Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal

The lengthy legal battle has been closely watched due to its ramifications for the crypto industry. Ripple’s CEO has denounced the SEC for its “shameful” behaviour and at one point, Ripple accused the SEC of deleting material relevant to the case.

Support for Ripple by Coinbase and others including the Blockchain Association further strengthens the crypto firm’s position, and a number of legal experts have also speculated that the SEC is likely to lose.

Some in the crypto community called on Coinbase to go one step further in their support by re-listing XRP on the exchange:

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CBDCs Crypto News Ripple Stablecoins

Ripple Pushes for Dominance on XRP Ledger, Launches ‘Innovation Challenge’

Ripple, the company behind the cryptocurrency XRP and the XRP Ledger (XRPL), has launched an innovation challenge to encourage the development of XRPL apps for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). 

Entrants will need to either build a new solution or update an existing solution that uses CBDC tech and can be run on the XRP Ledger. 

Submissions for the challenge will be accepted from June 27 until August 25, with the winners announced on September 8 set to share in US$47,000 in prizes.

Winners of the challenge will then be invited to the Ripple CBDC Innovate Winners Only Event, which has a prize pool of US$150,000.

Challenge to Cover Three Categories

The innovation challenge will accept entries in three categories each with their own separate judging criteria: interoperability, retail-facing, and financial inclusion:

  • The interoperability category encourages entrants to build a solution that enables an XRPL-based CBDC to bridge with other digital assets, such as other CBDCs, NFTs and stablecoins.
  • The retail-facing category requires entrants to build an interface to work with a CBDC in a “hip and fashionable way”, which is accessible enough for any human to interact with.
  • The financial inclusion category instructs entrants to build a solution that can “leverage the benefits of a CBDC” to bring banking services to underserved populations.

Ripple Looking to Secure Dominant CBDC Position

Ripple has been known primarily for its cross-border payment solutions and on-demand liquidity, but recently it has also been making a push into the CBDC space. In addition to this CBDC-focused innovation challenge, last year the government of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan enlisted Ripple to pilot a CBDC running on the XRPL, and the Pacific island nation of Palau also partnered with Ripple to create an XRPL-based government-backed stablecoin.

In related news, earlier this year Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen joined forces with Greenpeace in a US$5 million campaign to encourage Bitcoin to abandon its proof-of-work consensus mechanism and transition to a more energy-efficient system such as proof-of-stake.

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Crypto News Ripple

Number of XRP Whales Dropped as it Continued to Lose Support

XRP Whales dropped as it continued losing support

Ripple (XRP), which is presently the fourth-largest digital currency, almost ended the past year in the best way possible. From the Flare Network-planned Spark token airdrop and the coin’s price growth to over US$0.6 level, there were lots of excitement and activities going on with the XRP armies, not until the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) interrupted things. 

Can we say XRP Whales are Giving up Already?

Literally, everything began dying down, with the cryptocurrency dropping from that point to the current level around US$0.2. Meanwhile, XRP is presently up by 26.38 percent on the seven-day chart, per Coinmarketcap.

Notably, the cryptocurrency and its holders have seen more of the downside following the whole XRP-security saga by the US regulator. Consequently, the number of addresses holding XRP (especially the whale addresses) have been decreasing since the announcement was made by the SEC.

The number of XRP addresses holding at least one million coins decreased from 1,721 on December 21 to 1,567 on January 3, according to Coinmetrice’s latest “state of the network” report. 

XRP is Losing More Support

SEC’s announcement of charges against the blockchain company, Ripple, also caused exchanges to delist the cryptocurrency. These include the likes of Beaxy, Bittrex, Bistamp, including the US leading exchange, Coinbase. This could be seen as a strategy for these platforms to avoid legal issues with the regulator, should the court favor SEC’s statements that XRP is a security.  

Today, the popular crypto investment company, Grayscale announced the removal of XRP from their Digital Large Cap (DLC) fund, which tracks the market capitalization of the five largest digital currencies. Currently, the fund only covers Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The decision to delist the Ripple cryptocurrency came after DLC’s quarterly review on December 31.

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Australia Crypto News Ripple

Ripple Announces Partnership with Australian Payments Service Novatti

Australian payment services provider Novatti has announced a partnership with the major US blockchain firm Ripple. The collaboration will provide Novatti’s customer base with access to RippleNet, Ripple’s massive global network of financial institutions.

The RippleNet network covers 55 countries worldwide and offers quick and easy foreign exchange in over 120 currency pairs. Using blockchain technology and liquidity provided by the XRP cryptocurrency, RippleNet can complete cross-border payments faster and cheaper than traditional banking methods.

With Ripple onboard, Novatti’s clients will have better access to international remittance corridors between Australia and Southeast Asia. Novatti also hopes the partnership will further accelerate its development in the rapidly growing Southeast Asia region. 

“Novatti is incredibly excited to partner with Ripple, who are rapidly disrupting the global payments industry. This partnership will further increase Novatti’s competitiveness and provide our customers with access to new, innovative payment solutions,” said Novatti Managing Director Peter Cook.

Ripple

Since its formation in 2012, Ripple has gone through many changes and involved several prominent figures in the crypto sector, such as Mt. Gox founder Jed McCaleb. McCaleb, who co-founded Ripple with David Schwartz and Arthur Britto, left the project in 2014 to form the non-profit Stellar Development Foundation, and created the Stellar Lumens (XLM) cryptocurrency.

By 2018, Ripple had secured partnerships with over 100 banks worldwide and began drawing the attention of traditional remittance providers like SWIFT. However, the growth was met with some resistance after several investors filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, alleging that it raised millions of dollars through unregistered XRP token sales.

Most recently, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse threatened to relocate the multi-million dollar company overseas due to a lack of clarity from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding the legal status of XRP. Ripple general counsel Stu Alderoty believes other jurisdictions have better regulatory clarity and it would be “irresponsible not to explore those opportunities.”

Novatti

Australian fintech firm Novatti has been aggressively expanding its business lately with multiple international partnerships. Last month it secured a lucrative deal with the global card payment company UnionPay, which serves 90% of the ATMs and 80% of sales terminals in Australia.

Other major firms that the company has recently secured partnerships with include Visa, Google Pay, Alipay, and Samsung. After receiving regulatory approval in October this year, Novatti now plans a further expansion into the New Zealand market.

Novatti is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) under the ticker $NOV.

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Institutions Ripple

eToro And Binance Drop XRP From Their Platform

Following the massive backlash that Ripple faces due to the SEC’s lawsuit, two major exchanges —Binance and eToro— are suspending XRP trading from their platform.

As expected, it was only a matter of time until major exchanges started delisting XRP when Coinbase and Grayscale —both members of the Crypto Rating Council— decided to turn away from Ripple.

eToro stated that the platform is suspending XRP trading and deposits on the U.S. The broker settled a deadline of January 24 for users to close all XRP positions. Despite this, earlier suspensions could apply before January 3 if the panorama for Ripple worsens.

For now, the above prohibitions affect only US customers and will not affect any customer’s ability to hold XRP in the eToro Wallet.  All customers, including US customers, may continue to hold XRP in their eToro Wallet, and those customers still holding XRP on the eToro platform after January 24th can transfer their XRP to an eToro Wallet at any time.

Likewise, Binance announced that trading and deposits using XRP are suspended, but withdrawals are allowed until January 13.

A Risky Scenario For Exchanges

The SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple can take several years of legal dispute. The decisions to remove XRP are not only driven by the massive price drop. Exchanges could be in danger of being sued by regulatory bodies alike if the SEC wins and Ripple Labs did sell XRP as a digital asset.

Similarly, a Coinbase user is filing a lawsuit against the exchange for selling XRP as a digital asset instead of a security.

Thomas Sandoval, who resides in St. Louis, is the plaintiff in this case. Sandoval states that Coinbase knew that XRP was a security, unregistered by regulatory bodies, but decided to sell it as a digital asset anyway.

It’s not yet clear how the legal procedure will develop. Sandoval added that Coinbase “scammed” its user base by having “prior information” about XRP being an unlicensed security.

The pretrial for Ripple has been set as well, on February 22 of 2021. The pretrial will be held virtually with a teleconference. Both parties need to submit a joint letter a week later defending their position.