Wednesday Watch: CryptoPH on TV and XRP Woes

Good morning. Browsing through the cryptocurrency community on Twitter and various news publications, all eyes are on Ripple and its impending battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Read on.

Welcome to Wednesday Watch, part of our new series: BitPinas Daily. We will look at the price of Bitcoin, Ethereum and the major cryptocurrencies. Crypto is global, but sometimes news that matters happens while we sleep. So we bring to you what’s happening in our space here and abroad. 

Market Price as of December 23, 2020:

Bitcoin closed December 22, 2020, at $23,795 per BTC. We’re up 22.9% in the last 7 days and 232% since the year began. This figure is 1.4% below the previous all-time high of 24.225.28 which was hit on Dec. 20, 2020.

Bitcoin’s market capitalization stands today at $443,485,478,603 which is 66.20% of the entire cryptocurrency market. 

On the table above, there’s the cryptocurrency SLP. If you’re wondering what that is, check out this article: Playing Axie Infinity vs Minimum Basic Salary in the Philippines.

Philippines: #CryptoPH

Miguel Cuneta on ANC Market Edge 

Miguel Cuneta, Co-founder of SCI Ventures was interviewed by ANC Market Edge to give his views on Bitcoin, which is now up 220% since the year began, as opposed to the headline that it slumped 6%, because that was just for the previous day. In the longer time frame, it’s currently one of, if not, the best performing assets of the year.

“Bitcoin is backed a massive network – it’s an internet native monetary network; in 2020 alone, during the pandemic – it was up 24/7, 100% uptime for everyone; it is still intimidating and its volatility is making people stay away,” Miguel told Market Edge host Michelle Ong.

BitPinas interviewed Miguel when Bitcoin breached the psychological all-time high of $20,000. He said, Bitcoin’s market value is severely undervalued. When asked about Central Bank Digital Currencies, the Co-founder even mentioned that there are proponents of Bitcoin to be part of a central bank’s reserves. 

Watch Miguel’s almost 20 minutes interview below at the 9:56 mark:

Ripple

U.S. SEC sues Ripple over 7-Year, $1.3 billion ‘ongoing’ XRP sale

First hinted by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, the U.S. SEC has now announced it is suing Ripple for the sale of XRP, which, in its view, is a security.

“Over a years-long unregistered offering of securities (the ‘Offering’), Ripple was able to raise at least $1.38 billion by selling XRP without providing the type of financial and managerial information typically provided in registration statements and subsequent periodic and current filings,” the filing said.

“Ripple used this money to fund its operations without disclosing how it was doing so, or the full extent of its payments to others to assist in its efforts to develop a ‘use’ for XRP and maintain XRP secondary trading markets.”

According to U.S. SEC Enforcement Director Stephanie Avakian, “We allege that Ripple, Larsen, and Garlinghouse failed to register their ongoing offer and sale of billions of XRP to retail investors, which deprived potential purchasers of adequate disclosures about XRP and Ripple’s business and other important long-standing protections that are fundamental to our robust public market system.” (U.S. SEC)

Ripple Effect

An SEC victory in Ripple case would render XRP ‘untradeable,’ market pros say

What happens if the SEC wins its case against Ripple? Coindesk published an article about it some hours before the SEC announced that they are indeed suing Ripple.

Messari research analyst Ryan Wartkins said XRP’s price would crash hard because exchanges will be forced to delist it. “Many cryptocurrency exchanges would be forced to delist it, so liquidity would dry up.” (Coindesk)

MoneyGram

“Wait and see approach”

In a statement, MoneyGram said it will continue to monitor the situation as it evolves. 

“MoneyGram has continued to utilize its other traditional FX trading counterparties throughout the term of the agreement with Ripple.”

Ripple owns more than 4% of Moneygram. In the complaint filed by the U.S. SEC, it did not mention MoneyGram but said Ripple onboarded a partner for its “on-demand liquidity platform (ODL)” that the regulator deemed not organic or market-driven.

“The Money Transmitter became yet another conduit for Ripple’s unregistered XRP sales into the market, with Ripple receiving the added benefit that it could tout its inorganic XRP ‘use’ and trading volume for XRP,” the complaint stated. (Coindesk)

What else is happening?

• Visa issues principal membership to crypto card firm Wirex. (Decrypt)
• Bitcoin active addresses doubled in 2020. (Decrypt)
• ShipChain to settle with SEC, pay $2 million penalty for unregistered initial coin offering (The Block)
• Space invaders: launching crypto into orbit. (Cointelegraph Magazine)

This article is first published on BitPinas: Wednesday Watch: CryptoPH on TV and XRP Woes