This Week in Crypto News: XRP, NFTs, Binance Overcollateralized
Crypto News: Here are the most popular stories from around the cryptosphere as featured on BeInCrypto this past week.
Ripple’s latest arguments
After two long years, Ripple’s lawsuit with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is finally coming to an end. Last Friday, Ripple Labs filed a response to the commission’s opposition to the motion for summary judgment. Ripple General Counsel Stuart Alderoty tweeted that the firm’s response would be its final submission.
Court redacted December 2 archiving argued that the SEC failed to prove the existence of an investment contract. It also said both Ripple founders were entitled to summary judgment regarding their decision to sell on foreign exchanges. According to the filing, the SEC could not provide any material facts to the contrary.
“After nearly two years of subpoenas, discovery and motion practices, the SEC still cannot identify the alleged ‘joint enterprise’, cannot explain how XRP holders can meaningfully expect profits from Ripple’s efforts, and cannot answer the point that many XRP recipients invested no money at all, the filing states.
Luxury Brands File NFT trademarks
When Ripple submitted its final proposals, other companies filed for patents on non-fungible tokens (NFTs). In the month of November, 367 US trademark applications were filed for metaverse and virtual goods/services. Trademark registrations for three companies stood out in particular.
First, luxury watchmaker Rolex filed trademark applications for an NFT, NFT marketplace and cryptocurrency exchange, reported trademark attorney Mike Kondoudis. Also among luxury brands, BMW used to trademark the Virtual Vehicle logo, Virtual Vehicle Stores and related services. Meanwhile, Reebok joined Nike and Adidas among top athletic lines in the metaverse. It applied to trademark its name for virtual footwear, headgear and sports equipment.
El Salvador’s President Trolls Bloomberg
As these companies enter the digital space, a president has taken heat from bringing his country into it. Last month, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele was criticized in a Bloomberg article that said his Bitcoin revolution “failed miserably.” Since introducing Bitcoin as legal tender last year, the article said there has been little enthusiasm for the cryptocurrency.
Last week, Bukele responded to the report, saying it was “full of lies.” He suggested that the interest of the “mainstream media” in this aspect of El Salvador struck him as rather cynical. Bukele added that they failed to report that “corrupt politicians looted $37 billion from our treasury.”
Reversal in the bull market
Bukele is surely hoping for a market reversal to support his project, as are many other crypto enthusiasts. With the current crypto market cap trading 73% below its all-time high, analysts have been trying to find signs of a reversal.
A recent analysis by cryptoanalyst bOnchain (@ghoddusifar) highlighted that when the market falls to the delta cap, the bull market will start. The analyst points out that the delta cap has historically been the market capitalization support for Bitcoin. Currently, the market value of Bitcoin has not fully reached the delta rate.
However, Huobi founder Du Jun said a new crypto bull run could only take place after Bitcoin’s next halving event. This is scheduled to take place in 2024. After the last halving event in 2021, Bitcoin reached its all-time high above $68,000. Similarly, when a BTC halving event took place in 2016, BTC prices hit another record high the following year.
Binance Overcollateralized
While the market continues to struggle, Binance has shown that it remains financially robust. Binance’s first proof of reserves (PoR) audit report revealed that the company had sufficient assets for mass withdrawals from customers. It also showed that the customers had also set up enough margin to secure their leveraged positions.
International auditing firm Mazars conducted the PoR audit on November 22, using several methods to verify that Binance had enough assets to honor customer withdrawals. For example, Mazars instructed Binance to migrate funds from a specific wallet address to prove they owned the private key. The transactions were verified on Etherscan and BSCScan, where the auditing company ensured that the addresses involved were marked as belonging to Binance.
Mazars then observed Binance’s management using custom internal code scripts to accurately extract customer liability reports. These reports showed liabilities and receivables from customers. Customers who borrowed money for leveraged trading had a negative balance on the report. The firm then confirmed that the balances were correct.
This week in NFT Sales
Despite the increase in trademark applications, overall sales in NFTs appear to have stagnated over the past week. In particular, on December 6, the number of sales fell while sales increased, indicating a larger than average sale. The Bored Ape Yacht Club Collection (BAYC) maintained its streak at the top of the charts, down to just $21 million in sales, however.
News about crypto coins
In the last week, some tokens have also increased, albeit at lower levels than last week. The price of games to earn the crypto game Axie Infinity’s token was the most appreciated, by almost 20%. The rate of appreciation accelerated on December 5, possibly due to news of the Axie Core update that day.
The next top coins were Synthetix (SNX), THORChain (RUNE), Stacks (STX) and EOS (EOS), which were all up just over 10%.
On the flip side, losers this week were 1INCH, HNT, LINK, ALGO, ETHW. While most of these losses were negligible, 1INCH came out on top with a nearly 11% write-off.
Social reviews for cryptocurrency
Crypto news on YouTube
And finally, our senior crypto analyst Valdrin Tahiri gives his view on whether now is a good time to short Ripple (XRP).
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