BTC is currently trading around $31,200 and ETH around $2,000. Notable gainers in the last 24 hours are XRP, XLM, and SNX. The global crypto market cap is $1.29T, up 5.1% over the last day. DeFi Total Value Locked is ~$46b and BTC dominance is around 50%.
The big news yesterday was a partial victory by Ripple Labs in its court case against the US SEC, where the SEC had alleged that sales of Ripple’s XRP token constituted a securities offering in violation of US securities laws. While institutional sales of XRP to hedge funds and VCs were found to be illegal, programmatic sales to retail investors directly on digital asset exchanges as well as sales of tokens as a form of payment for services were not found to be investment contracts in violation of the law. Some legal experts urged caution, stating that the split decision creates additional uncertainty, that the judgment is not binding precedent, and that the decision is likely to be appealed. However, the industry quickly applauded the decision, with some suggesting that it implies secondary market transactions in crypto assets are not securities and that it may bolster industry arguments in other lawsuits like the SEC vs. Coinbase.
Token prices quickly gapped up in the wake of the ruling, with XRP rising by 65% over the last 24h to make it the fourth largest token and the total crypto market cap increasing 5%. Notably, beaten down tokens previously alleged by the SEC to be securities like MATIC, ADA, and SOL exhibited strong performance as well, increasing 10-25% over the last day, while Coinbase stock shot up 24% yesterday. Finally, Uphold, one of the few US-based exchanges that still listed XRP, went down after seeing a 50x spike in volume, while several US exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken quickly re-listed XRP.
Elsewhere: Argentina’s central bank approved the country’s first Bitcoin-based futures contract; bankrupt crypto lender Celsius moved $64m of LINK, MATIC, AAVE and other alt coins following court permission to sell the tokens; former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky pled not guilty to fraud charges and had bail set at $40m; Bitcoin miner CleanSpark achieved 8 EH/s in hash rate as its $55m expansion went live; decentralized wireless network operator World Mobile gained licensed spectrum in four US states, enabling the company to deploy its decentralized hybrid-connectivity solution; Techteryx, the owner of stablecoin TrueUSD, assumed full management of operations; Coinbase’s OP Stack-based layer 2 network Base went live; blockchain-based identity verification project Worldcoin surpassed 2m signups for its WorldID program; scaling solution provider StarkWare successfully deployed its Quantum Leap upgrade; and, Multichain announced it will cease operations due to a lack of funds and key operational information arising from its CEO’s arrest in May.
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Authors:
Matt Kunke, Research Analyst | Twitter, Telegram, LinkedIn
Brian Rudick, Senior Strategist | Twitter, Telegram, LinkedIn
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