Bitcoin rose Friday morning in Asia to breach the $31,000 resistance, after Ripple Labs made Partial victory In a three-year lawsuit against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The regulator has accused Ripple of offering XRP as an unregistered security. Besides Bitcoin, Ether and all 10 other stablecoins posted significant gains, with XRP leading the rally with a gain of over 70%. US stock futures traded flat in the Asian time zone on Friday as investors await earnings reports from major US banks. Thursday’s US Producer Price Index added to the sentiment of slowing inflation in the country.
The XRP ruling provides a boost to the crypto market
Bitcoin rose 3.45% over the past 24 hours to $31,463 as of 07:50 am in Hong Kong for a weekly gain of 4.93%, according to data From CoinMarketCap. The world’s largest cryptocurrency reached $31,814 early Friday morning, the highest price since June 2022.
in summary judgment On Thursday, New York Southern District Court Judge Annalisa Torres ruled that Ripple’s automated sales of the XRP token on public exchanges did not constitute securities, marking a partial victory for Ripple with the Securities and Exchange Commission. organizer first lawsuit The San Francisco-based financial technology company is on the grounds that XRP constitutes a security in 2020.
However, the ruling came with a crucial caveat. The court ruled that the sale of XRP to institutional investors violated securities laws.
However, Ripple CEO Stuart Alderotti called the ruling a “huge win” on Friday. tweet.
Alderoty said that “the only thing the court has found to be an investment contract is past direct XRP sales to institutional clients.” These transactions will now be subject to further court proceedings.
Despite the general optimism in the cryptocurrency community evidenced by the rally in the market, there are also a number of industry voices that sound cautious.
In an emailed comment, Townsend Lansing, Head of Product at CoinShares, said that the aspect of the ruling designating Ripple’s sales to institutional customers as a violation of securities law is “a huge victory for the SEC.”
He said the ruling would now set a precedent for legal action against other cryptocurrencies by regulators.
“It is important to note that institutional investors who have bought directly from Ripple may find themselves subject to class action lawsuits as potential guarantors,” Lansing added. “This is an area that needs to be watched closely, particularly if large venture capitalists are involved.”
But, while some sense of danger remained for the participants, Justine DeAnthan, APAC’s head of business development at the Belgium-based crypto market maker Kirokbelieves the ruling has at least “shaken investors in the best ways”.
Elsewhere, Europe’s first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) is set for public listing this month. It comes after a 12-month delay from the initially planned date, the Financial Times reports mentioned Thursday.
Experts have identified the listing as another possible catalyst for the crypto market.
“With the talk of ETFs in the background, the notion that we could see products tracking multiple cryptocurrencies is not far-fetched and traders are naturally positioning themselves accordingly,” said Keyrock’s Danthan.
Like bitcoin, ether rose 6.99% to $2,004, up 7.69% for the week. The token is trading above $2,000 for the first time since April.
Buoyed by the ruling in the SEC-Ripple case, all 10 other volatile cryptocurrencies are up in the past 24 hours. Cardano’s ADA, Solana’s SOL, and Polygon’s MATIC all posted double-digit gains.
XRP, the subject of the SEC’s lawsuit against issuer Ripple, jumped 72.75% to $0.8142 and gained 74.89% for the week. In doing so, it has replaced Binance’s BNB as the third largest fiat cryptocurrency by market cap.
The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies increased by 6.19% over the past 24 hours to $1.26 trillion, while the trading volume jumped 95.72% to $60.3 billion.
Forkast 500, Dapper Labs announce layoffs
The indices are proxy measures of the performance of the global NFT market. administered by cryptoslamwhich is a sister company of Forkast.News under the Forkast.Labs umbrella.
Main Forkast 500 NFT Index It rose 0.14% in the last 24 hours to 2,699.39 as of 09:55 am in Hong Kong. Forkast’s Solana and Cardano NFT market indices also gained, while Etheum and Polygon indices fell.
Despite the overnight rally in cryptocurrency prices linked to the Ripple ruling, total NFT sales volume fell 1.72% in the last 24 hours to $24.45 million, according to data from cryptoslam.
Among all NFT pools, Bitcoin-based FRAM BRC-20 NFT led the 24-hour sales volume, rising 0.31% to $2.14 million. In doing so, it recorded more than two-thirds of the total volume on the bitcoin network. Ethereum-based groups Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Captainz ranked second and third, respectively.
Pike #1734, part of the BAYC Group, topped collectible sales over the past 24 hours. It was sold at 600 Ether ($1.2 million USD) early Friday. As exciting as this big sale is, BAYC #1734 was ex Sold At 800 Ether in January 2022.
said Yehuda Beecher, NFT strategist at Forkast Labs, the parent company of Forkast.
As the bear market continues, Dapper Labs, developer of popular NFT kits such as Crypto cats And NBA Top ShotAnnounced Lay off 51 employees on Thursday — roughly 12% of its workforce.
“The decision was very difficult,” but necessary “to ensure an efficient and agile company,” Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou said in a letter to employees. It’s the company’s third round of layoffs in the past 12 months. Those layoffs saw its workforce shrink 22% In November 2022 and beyond 20% In February this year.
Cool Cats Group, the Web3 company behind the Cool Cats NFT Collection, announce Partnership with game developer nWayPlay, a subsidiary of Hong Kong software and investment giant Animoca Brands. The two companies will jointly develop a Web3 game that is scheduled for release between late 2023 and early 2024.
US stocks held steady amid data releases
US stock futures trade Apartment as of 11:50 am in Hong Kong. All three major US indexes closed higher in regular Thursday trading, with the Nasdaq leading the gains, up 1.58%.
United State producer price index The Producer Price Index (PPI) released on Thursday rose 0.1% year-on-year in June, down from 0.9% in May. The June number is the smallest increase since August 2020.
The data is also much less than the analyzer expectations of 0.4% annual increase in PPI. Along with the weak Consumer price index Released on Wednesday, the data points to slowing inflation in the United States.
Better-than-expected inflation figures for June 2023 suggest that policy is easing price pressures as higher interest rates reduce demand. Headline payroll numbers announced in early July also came in below expectations with the economy creating fewer jobs than expected in June, said Keith Wade, chief economist and strategist at Asset Management. Schroders.
However, given persistent inflation fears, Wade still expects the Fed to raise interest rates again in July. Wade said the tight labor market and the prospect of a reversal in the Fed’s monetary policy could lead to a bond market rally that would “ease financial conditions.”
“Given the Fed’s efforts to convince markets that they are serious about inflation and not about to pivot, this appears to be way too soon,” Wade said.
Federal Reserve Chairman Christopher Waller said on Thursday letter That the Fed will need to “keep its policy constrained for a while” in order to bring inflation below its 2% target. He said he expected two more price increases by the end of the year.
“I’m more confident that banking turmoil won’t lead to a major problem for the economy, and I see no reason why the first of those hikes won’t happen at our meeting later this month,” Waller said.
Meanwhile, on Wed a report By financial comparison services firm Bankrate showed that economists believe there is a 59% chance that the US economy will enter a recession within the next 12 months. The report cited concern about the long-term economic impact of a series of interest rate hikes extended this year.
The 59% figure, however, is a drop in 64% Given the opportunity in April, the lowest level in the last twelve months.
The Federal Reserve meets on July 26 to discuss its next move on interest rates, which now sit between 5% and 5.25%. the CME FedWatch tool 92.4% expect the Fed to enact a 25 basis point rate increase this month, and a 7.6% chance it will leave the rate unchanged.
Investors are now awaiting the release of second-quarter earnings reports from major financial institutions on Friday. Releases will include reports from JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, BlackRock, and more.
Elsewhere, major stock indexes across Asia traded higher on Friday morning. China Shanghai boatHong Kong Hang SengJapan Nikki and South Korea Cosby All up as of 12:30 PM in Hong Kong.
(Stock section updates.)