By James Davis
Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two biggest crypto assets by market capitalization, posted minimal gains during the last seven days. Bitcoin only grew by 0.26% to trade for $26,956 as of Sunday evening, while Ethereum added about 0.42% to its value. It is now priced at $1,813.
None of the top 30 cryptocurrencies recorded substantial losses this week. XRP, Lido DAO and Litecoin were the tokens that saw massive rallies.
XRP is up 9.34% this week to trade at $0.46 as of this writing. The token started rallying after news broke on Tuesday that a US court had ruled in favor of its issuer Ripple. Judge Analisa Torres dismissed the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) request to seal the documents of the regulator’s ex-director, Bill Hinman, which have records of him explaining reasons Ethereum and Bitcoin shouldn’t be treated as securities.
Ripple, the company involved in an ongoing legal battle with SEC over allegations that it offered XRP as an unlicensed security, previously pointed to Hinman’s documents when defending its token. However, the SEC argued that the documents only represented the former director’s personal views, not of the agency.
On Thursday, Ripple announced the launch of its CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) platform designed for central banks looking to develop their own digital currencies. The company’s Vice president of CBDCs, James Walls, said the platform will facilitate instant domestic or international transactions.
Elsewhere, Litecoin posted 7-day gains of 13% to trade for $91.34 at press time. The rally is fueled by the launch of the Ordinals protocol on the blockchain. Ordinals is a platform that allows users to inscribe digital assets to Proof-of-work networks like Litecoin, Dogecoin and Bitcoin.
Further, Lido DAO, an Ethereum staking token, is up 13.4% this week to change hands for $2.11. This cryptocurrency has been on a good run for the past two weeks.
US Crypto News: SEC Says it’s Ready to Help
On Thursday, SEC Chair Gary Gensler denied claims that the agency’s crypto regulatory guidance wasn’t clear. While delivering his speech at a Keynote session, the Chair said he believed the rules are already published and insisted that the SEC was prepared to help crypto companies to become compliant.
Gensler has been accused severally of slapping crypto players with lawsuits without making efforts to clarify the rules. Just recently, SEC commissioner Hester Pierce called out her boss for attempting to push crypto firms out of the United States through his ‘regulation by enforcement’ approach. Since the start of the year, Gensler’s SEC has been cracking down on the crypto industry, issuing some companies Wells Notices while charging others.
Moreover, the SEC finally responded on Friday to Coinbase’s petition that seeks to force the agency to clarify crypto rules. Through its attorneys, the regulator asked the court to block the request of the crypto exchange.
Crypto News Around the World
Tech giant Samsung partnered with the Bank of Korea to research and develop an ecosystem for the country’s CBDC. Last year, the two parties jointly carried out a CBDC pilot project, creating an offline technology for CBDC that enables payments and transfers using near-field communication.
On Wednesday, European Union Finance Ministers passed the most-anticipated Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) bill without objections. That means the 27 EU member countries now have a uniform crypto regulatory framework. MiCA is set to take effect in July next year. Crypto companies that secure a license in one member state will automatically obtain the right to operate in other members’ territories.
That day, the United Kingdom Treasury Committee released a report asking the government to apply gambling rules on crypto. The committee argued that the price volatility of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which are not backed, has brought losses to investors, yet these assets do not have any social purpose. The report added that applying financial regulations on crypto will cause investors to believe that crypto trading is safe when it’s really not.
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