Lawyer Dents SEC XRP Case, China Ban Lift

Crypto news: We bring you a roundup of what’s been happening in crypto this week. And this week, it’s all about the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Again.

SEC Maintains Popular Cryptos are Securities

The SEC maintains at least 37 cryptos are securities, while pro-Ripple lawyer John Deaton finds incriminating evidence against the SEC’s assertion that XRP is a security.

A former Ledger CEO called the PR behind the recent Recovery feature a “horrible mess,” while the rumor mill churned speculation that a China Central Television TV broadcast could spur a bull market.

On Thursday last week BeInCrypto rounded up the latest list of cryptos the SEC argues satisfy the Howey Test.

While the list contained some familiar candidates, including XRP, Algorand, and Terra, the inclusion of Filecoin surprised some. The listing stopped Filecoin from creating a trust with Grayscale Investments. Grayscale’s legal team will contest the ruling.

In other news, the BeInCrypto team reminded investors of the risks of holding assets deemed securities.

These include penalties, profit disgorgement, and a lack of liquidity through exchanges delisting affected tokens. U.S. investors could be locked out of opportunities to invest in Initial Coin Offerings the SEC maintains are securities offerings.

Former Ledger CEO Quells PR Nightmare

Last Friday, former Ledger CEO Éric Larchevêque said the Recover fiasco was poorly handled.

He said Ledger made a “horrible mess” of offsetting PR damage from its new Recovery feature. The subscription service stores users’ seed phrases in case they lose access to the crypto in their Ledger wallet.

The community accused the new feature of violating crypto’s trustless principles.

Larchevêque pointed out that Ledger users had to trust the company to use the product before it launched the Recover feature.

The former CEO clarified that the project was technically flawless and contained no backdoors.

Crypto News – Socially Speaking

Ripple Lawyer Unearths Damning Evidence Against SEC

Crypto lawyer John Deaton said last Saturday discovered information in a long-lost email could severely dent the SEC’s case against XRP issuer Ripple Labs.

Exhibit 220 in an SEC filing argues that XRP cannot be called a security because it does not meet certain criteria of the Howey Test.

The SEC previously argued that Ripple Labs raised money through an unregistered security sale of XRP that earned top executives hundreds of millions of dollars. 

The email affirmed, “reasonable grounds to conclude that XRP does not satisfy all elements of the Howey Analysis and is therefore not a ‘security’ for purposes of the federal securities laws.”

However, Deaton said inspection said the comment might have come from lawyers, and not SEC staff. 

We will know for sure once the SEC releases documents related to its former employee William Hinman.

Crypto Market Effects if China Lifts Crypto Ban

The crypto community lapped up rumors this week that China could lift its crypto ban after China Central Television (CCTV) aired a broadcast mentioning crypto.

The broadcast caused the crypto community to reflect on what a rescission of restrictions could do for markets. The link to the crypto broadcast has been taken down.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said events like the China Central Television broadcast drove previous bull runs.

BeInCrypto’s Josh Adams said lifting the ban could increase crypto’s volatility and raise concerns around money laundering and financial stability. It could also hurt China’s central bank’s digital currency ambitions.

The Chinese government banned crypto in stages, starting with trading in 2013 and the ICOs in 2017. Its harshest clampdown came in 2021 when it banned Bitcoin mining.

Crypto Coin News

In an otherwise quiet week, these altcoins stole the show with bullish price action.

Render Token (RNDR) increased 15.4% to a new annual high of $2.95 on May 21, while KAVA broke out from the $1.10 resistance area to $1.55 on May 23.

Tron (TRX) finally cleared the $0.071 resistance area to a new yearly high of $0.080 on May 23. Singularity (AGIX) rose 6.06% to $0.305, while IOTA increased 5.45% on May 22 to reclaim the $0.18 area.

This Week in NFT Sales

Sorare collectibles saw their floor price increase to 0.00299 ETH, while Bored Ape Yacht Club’s floor price fell 46.5% amid a 48% decline in sales volumes. 

BAYC’s market cap continued its almost two-month downward trajectory to 461,910 ETH.

Fidenza #971 by Tyler Hobbs was the highest-selling NFT at $681,000.

For BeInCrypto’s latest Bitcoin (BTC) analysis, click here.