12
Mar, 2025
SEC’s enforcement case against Ripple may be wrapping up
Altcoin News, Bitcoin News, Crypto Analytics, Crypto Industries & Currency Updates
The US Securities and Exchange Commission may be preparing to end its enforcement action against Ripple Labs after more than four years.
According to a March 12 X post from Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett, the SEC’s case against Ripple was “in the process of wrapping up” after the parties filed an appeal and cross-appeal, respectively, over a $125-million court judgment in August 2024. The civil case against the blockchain firm filed in December 2020 alleged Ripple and certain executives used XRP (XRP) as an unregistered security to raise funds.
Ripple chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty told Cointelegraph on March 11 that the SEC civil case was “far more advanced” than many of the others the regulator had dropped following the inauguration of US President Donald Trump and the departure of Chair Gary Gensler. Since January, the SEC has announced it will not pursue enforcement cases against Coinbase, Consensys, Kraken and others.
“We do have a judgment, we are on appeal — that presents some additional complexity,” said Alderoty in regard to the case potentially being dropped. “But we remain optimistic that we’ll get to a resolution with the SEC, and if we don’t, we’ll proceed with the appeal.”
According to the Ripple CLO, there were several possible outcomes to ending the SEC case if both parties were in agreement that it should wind down. If Ripple and the SEC agreed independently to drop their appeal and cross-appeal in the Second Circuit, then the $125-million judgment in the lower court would stand. If there were a dispute over the monetary judgment, then the blockchain firm and the commission would have to go “hand-in-hand” to request any modification from a judge.
Related: Why is the Ripple SEC case still ongoing amid a sea of resolutions?
The SEC v. Ripple case involved one of the first significant court rulings favoring the crypto industry when Judge Analisa Torres said the XRP token was not a security under the regulator’s purview — but only in regard to programmatic sales on exchanges. At the time of publication, no filing suggesting the SEC intended to drop the case appeared on the docket for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York or the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Change of tone at SEC under Trump
Though the SEC filed the Ripple case under Trump’s former chair, Jay Clayton, the commission stepped up the number of enforcement actions following Gensler’s confirmation in 2021.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in an interview aired in December 2024 that the firm may not have gotten as involved in US politics if the commission had been led by someone other than Gensler. Under Garlinghouse, Ripple contributed $45 million to the political action committee Fairshake for the previous election cycle and donated another $25 million in November 2024.
Ripple pledged $5 million in XRP to Trump’s inauguration fund following his election victory, and both Garlinghouse and Alderoty attended Washington, DC events on Jan. 20 as official guests. The chief legal officer personally donated more than $300,000 to fundraising and political action committees supporting the US president.
The correlation between political contributions to Trump and Republicans and the SEC dropping enforcement actions has many critics pointing to potential conflicts of interest in the administration. Coinbase, another major Fairshake backer that donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, had its SEC civil case halted in February. Its CEO, Brian Armstrong, also attended a March 7 crypto summit at the White House, along with Garlinghouse and others.
Alderoty suggested that the SEC dropping cases was “independent” of any political donations and more reflective of Acting Chair Mark Uyeda’s perspective on the industry and related regulations.
At the time of publication, the US Senate has not scheduled a hearing to consider the nomination of the potential next head of the commission, Paul Atkins. Commissioner Hester Peirce said in February that the SEC would be more likely to wait on setting a crypto regulatory agenda after a new chair took office.
Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered
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Learn MoreSEC’s enforcement case against Ripple may be wrapping up
12
Mar, 2025
The GENIUS stablecoin bill is a CBDC trojan horse — DeFi exec
Altcoin News, Bitcoin News, Crypto Analytics, Crypto Industries & Currency Updates
The recent GENIUS stablecoin bill is merely a thinly veiled attempt to usher in central bank digital currency (CBDC) controls through privatized means, according to Jean Rausis, co-founder of the Smardex decentralized trading platform.
In a statement shared with Cointelegraph, Rausis said that the US government will punish stablecoin issuers that do not comply with the new regulatory framework, similar to the European Union Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulations. The executive added:
“The government realizes that if they control stablecoins, they control financial transactions. Working with centralized stablecoin issuers means they can freeze funds anytime they want — essentially what a CBDC would allow. So, why bother creating a CBDC?”
“With stablecoins under the government’s control, the result is the same, with the false veneer of decentralization added as a bonus,” the executive continued.
Decentralized alternatives to centralized stablecoins, such as algorithmic stablecoins and synthetic dollars, will prove to be a valuable bulwark against this creeping government control over crypto, Rausis concluded.
First page of the GENIUS Act. Source: United States Senate
Related: America must back pro-stablecoin laws, reject CBDCs — US Rep. Emmer
Revamped GENIUS bill to include stricter provisions
The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, introduced by Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty on Feb. 4, proposed a comprehensive framework for overcollateralized stablecoins such as Tether’s USDt (USDT) and Circle’s USDC (USDC).
The bill was revamped to include stricter Anti-Money Laundering, reserve requirements, liquidity provisions and sanctions checks on March 13.
These additional provisions will presumably give US-based stablecoin issuers an edge over their offshore counterparts.
During the recent White House Crypto Summit, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US would use stablecoins to ensure US dollar hegemony in payments and protect its role as the global reserve currency.
Largest holders of US government debt. Source: Peter Ryan
Centralized stablecoin issuers rely on US bank deposits and short-term cash equivalents such as US Treasury bills to back their digital fiat tokens, which drives up demand for the US dollar and US debt instruments.
Stablecoin issuers collectively hold over $120 billion in US debt — making them the 18th-largest buyer of US government debt in the world.
Magazine: Bitcoin payments are being undermined by centralized stablecoins
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Learn MoreThe GENIUS stablecoin bill is a CBDC trojan horse — DeFi exec