Happy Thursday! In today’s Daily, SEC appeals previous ruling against Ripple, Swift plans real-time banking trial for digital asset trading, Binance Labs invests in ZKsync “elastic chain” and more.
Meanwhile, analysts at Standard Chartered and JPMorgan say geopolitical risks could drive investors toward Bitcoin.
Let’s get started.
SEC appeals Ripple case ruling
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is appealing a previous ruling in its case against Ripple, according to a court filing Wednesday.
- “We believe the district court’s decision on the Ripple matter conflicts with decades of Supreme Court precedent and securities law, and we look forward to filing the case in the Second Circuit,” an SEC spokesperson told The Block.
- The SEC first sued Ripple in 2020, accusing the company of raising more than $1.3 billion through the sale of unregistered securities.
- Last August, District Judge Analisa Torres partially granted the agency’s request for relief related to Ripple’s XRP sales by ordering Ripple to pay a civil penalty of $125 million, well below the $2 billion the SEC originally sought. .
- In July 2023, the same judge ruled that Ripple’s secondary market sales of XRP did not violate securities laws, but that its direct sales of XRP to institutional investors constituted securities investment contracts.
- Following the appeal, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse criticized the agency, arguing that XRP’s insecure status was already the law.
- “Somehow, they still haven’t gotten the message. They’ve lost everything that matters. Ripple, the cryptocurrency industry, and the rule of law have already won,” Garlinghouse said.
- “We will fight in court as long as necessary, but let’s be clear: XRP’s status as non-collateral is the law of the land today and that does not change despite this misguidance and outrage.” “I appeal,” he added.
- Meanwhile, SEC Enforcement Director Gurbir S. Grewal announced Wednesday that he is leaving the agency after a three-year term.
Swift plans to begin real-time banking trials for digital asset trading in 2025.
Swift said that starting next year, banks in North America, Europe and Asia will begin testing real-time trading of digital assets and currencies through its global messaging network.
- Swift has previously experimented with blockchain transactions, including working with web3 services company Chainlink as an enterprise abstraction layer to connect to the Ethereum Sepolia test network.
- This experiment demonstrated Swift’s ability to provide a single point of access to multiple public and private blockchain networks. This could also support institutions creating tokenized assets and the development of central bank digital currencies.
- But next year’s trials mark the first time Swift moves beyond experimenting with blockchain transactions in a test environment and into real-world payments.
Binance Labs Invests in ZKsync ‘Elastic Chain’
Binance Labs has invested an undisclosed amount in Sophon, a ZKsync “elastic chain” layer 2 network built using Matter Labs’ ZK stack ahead of its mainnet and SOPH token distribution next month.
- The round, which closed in August, consisted of a simple contract for future tokens (SAFT), Seb, the semi-anonymous co-founder and CEO of Sophon and former head of DeFi at ZKsync, told The Block. However, it declined to comment on the value of the project.
- The investment brings Sophon’s total funding to more than $70 million, following a $60 million node sales raise in May and a $10 million seed round earlier this year.
- Sophon aims to create a “culturally rich” web3 ecosystem focused on consumer-facing applications such as gambling, ticketing and social platforms, and the funding will also help the team expand.
Grayscale launches new Aave fund
Crypto asset manager Grayscale has launched a new fund called Grayscale Aave Trust, providing accredited investors with exposure to governance token AAVE.
- Aave is a decentralized finance protocol that allows you to borrow or lend cryptocurrency assets through smart contracts on various blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Base, Avalanche, and Polygon.
- However, the fund is available only to qualified individual and institutional accredited investors through a private placement and is not open to the general public.
- Grayscale has launched a number of cryptocurrency funds over the past year, including public-facing Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs.
Airfield deposits exceed $1 billion
Decentralized exchange Aerodrome Finance has seen its deposit volume exceed $1 billion, up from $120 million since January. This represents more than half of the total value locked in the Ethereum Layer 2 network infrastructure.
- Aerodrome dominates the Base in both total locked value and trading volume, outperforming other DeFi giants on the network such as Uniswap and Aave.
- However, Aerodrome’s volume is still lower than DEXes on other chains such as Uniswap (Ethereum mainnet) and PancakeSwap (BNB chain).
within the next 24 hours
- U.S. non-farm payrolls figures will be released at 8:30 a.m. Friday.
- US FOMC member John Williams is scheduled to speak at 9am.
Don’t miss The Block’s daily digest of the most impactful events happening across the digital asset ecosystem.
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