Bitcoin and Ethereum prices remained flat for the third straight week as the US Securities and Exchange Commission showed no sign of backing down on its claim to be the industry’s top regulator.
Bitcoin (BTC) is up a modest 0.3% in value over the past seven days and is currently trading at $27,110.29. Likewise, Ethereum (ETH) is up just 0.6% and is currently changing hands at $1,825.
None of the top 30 cryptocurrencies saw notable losses this week. Three projects saw notable rallies.
XRP is up 9.4% to start the weekend at $0.46. The coin’s precursor, Ripple, won a small court victory against the SEC in their ongoing lawsuit against the company over the sale of XRP as an unregistered security.
On Tuesday, Judge Analisa Torres blocked the SEC’s request to seal documents related to a speech by former SEC Director Bill Hinman explaining why Bitcoin and Ethereum should not be considered securities. Torres said the documents in question “are subject to a strong presumption that they are in the public domain.”
Ripple’s defense had previously advanced Hinman’s arguments for XRP, but the SEC countered that Hinman’s speech reflected Hinman’s personal views before unsuccessfully seeking the docs sealing request.
Ripple made headlines again on Thursday with the news that it launched its central bank digital currency (CBDC) platform. The platform caters to central banks and governments looking to create their own centrally-issued stablecoins, financial institutions to distribute them, and users – both private and corporate – to trade, hold and use them.
Another big climber was Litecoin (LTC), which is up 13.2% this week and is trading at $91.29 at the time of writing. The Litecoin network has recently gained popularity due to Ordinals Inscriptions, a craze that brings NFT-style assets onto blockchains using simple smart contracts like Bitcoin and Litecoin.
Ethereum stake token Lido DAO (LDO) is up 13.7% this week, maintaining last week’s momentum.
SEC “ready to help”
On Monday, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler dismissed claims that the SEC’s regulatory guidance for crypto companies is not clear. At a keynote session, Gensler emphasized that “the rules have already been published,” adding that his agency “stands ready to help them comply.”
The SEC’s position is widely viewed as disingenuous as the regulator simultaneously bombards the industry with lawsuits. Even one of the SEC’s commissioners, Hester Pierce, has disagreed a few times due to the lack of clarity, most recently over her agency’s decision to shut down Kraken’s staking platform and her proposal to change the definition of “exchange” to introduce crypto companies in his area of responsibility.
Another notable event Monday was the SEC’s response to Coinbase’s petition for a Mandamus filing, an order that would require the agency to clarify its rules on crypto regulations. Lawyers for the regulator asked the court to dismiss Coinbase’s motion.
Around the world
In the South Korean press on Monday, Samsung announced its partnership with the Bank of Korea (BOK) to jointly conduct research to develop an ecosystem for a CBDC.
According to a Korea Herald report, both parties signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to deepen their research on offline CBDC payments.
Samsung previously participated in BOK’s CBDC pilot project last year, developing offline CBDC technology to enable near field communication (NFC) remittances and payments even when the sender and recipient devices of the transaction were not connected to the internet.
On Tuesday, European Union finance ministers approved the Union’s Crypto Asset Markets Act (MiCA) without objection. This marks the final step in the process of the legislation coming into force and now means that the EU has comprehensive and consistent guidelines for regulating crypto across its 27 member states.
Finally, on Wednesday, a cross-party committee of UK MPs released a report recommending that the UK government legally classify cryptocurrencies as gambling. The bizarre proposal involves handing over oversight to the Gambling Commission and includes potential taxes to support addiction and debt counseling.