IS THE XRP SUIT SETTLEMENT NEAR?

The maneuvers and motivations surrounding the Securities Exchange Commission’s year’s long suit against Ripple Networks might be murky and complex.

But the law surrounding the suit isn’t.

That’s the assessment of attorney and crypto observer Jeremy Hogan.

Hogan, who says he’s one of the few legal experts who’s read every assertion and document of the case, tweeted emphatically on 9 April:

“The #1 reason why XRP is not a Security (a thread).

First, under the legislative definition of a security, XRP can only POSSIBLY fit under the definition of an “investment contract.” It is not a stock or bond, etc..

Even the SEC concedes this: ‘investment contract.’”

He added:

“The issue is NOT whether Ripple used money from the sale of XRP to fund its business.

“The issue is whether the SEC has proven that there was either an implied or explicit ‘contract’ between Ripple and XRP purchasers relating to their ‘investment.’”

“There was no such contract.”

In January during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual elite meet in Davos, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse had predicted his company’s court battle with the SEC wouldn’t last past a “single digit” number of months.

Most analysts believe a favorable XRP ruling would put the definitive nail in the coffin of the crypto winter.

Garlinghouse told CNBC at the time that the SEC had acted in bad faith, according to Cointelegraph:

“Not once did they say to me we think XRP may be a security. So to later go back and say hey the whole time we thought XRP was a security we just didn’t tell you… that doesn’t feel like a genuine partnership between public sector and private sector.”

The New York district court considering the case will rule or try the case if the parties can’t agree.

Garlinghouse has said Ripple will not settle on any terms that define XRP as a securities investment.

TWITTER AND ETORO PARTNER FOR STOCK AND CRYPTO TRADE OFFERING TO USERS

eToro told CNBC this past Thursday that it has worked with Twitter on an integration allowing Twitter users to trade stocks, cryptocurrencies, and other financial assets via its social trading app.

Twitter added the features to its platform, enabling users to do things like  watch market charts on a wider variety of financial instruments, and buy and sell stocks and other assets.

eToro’s CEO Yoni Assia, said about the move: 

“There is very high quality content, real-time content on financial analysis of companies and what’s happening around the world. We believe this partnership will enable us to reach those new audiences [and] connect better the brands of Twitter and eToro.”

(“Twitter partners with eToro to let users trade stocks, crypto as Musk pushes app into finance,” 13 Apr 2023)

TradingView offers real-time trading data on index funds like the S&P 500 and equities like Tesla. Twitter’s “cashtags” feature enables users to search for a ticker symbol and add a dollar sign to retrieve price information from TradingView over an API.

eToro told CNBC that Twitter cashtags will cover new stocks and asset classes with the agreement.

Twitter owner Elon Musk has made periodic high profile crypto moves in the past, including briefly accepting bitcoin for payments to Tesla, his car company, before reversing the move based on “environmental concerns,” and advocating for the meme coin Dogecoin.

In a foreshadowing of the eToro partnership, Musk had the Twitter platform switch out its iconic “blue bird” for the dogecoin emblem, though dogecoin isn’t on the shortlist of cryptos to be offered as part of the eToro partnership.

A Coindesk report gauged the general sentiment surrounding the partnership as overall positive news for the crypto sector.

RFK JR WARNS AGAINST U.S. CBDC, WHILE SPEAKING POSITIVELY ABOUT CRYPTOS

Democrat Party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has come out boldly against CBDCs as a surveillance and control technology.

A 5 April tweet by RFK Jr. noted:

“The Fed just announced it will introduce its ‘FedNow’ Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in July. CBDCs grease the slippery slope to financial slavery and political tyranny.

“While cash transactions are anonymous, a #CBDC will allow the government to surveil all our private financial affairs. The central bank will have the power to enforce dollar limits on our transactions restricting where you can send money, where you can spend it, and when money expires.

“A CBDC tied to digital ID and social credit score will allow the government to freeze your assets or limit your spending to approved vendors if you fail to comply with arbitrary diktats, i.e. vaccine mandates.

“The Fed will initially limit its CBDC to interbank transactions but we should not be blind to the obvious danger that this is the first step in banning and seizing bitcoin as the Treasury did with gold 90 years ago today in 1933.

“Watch as governments, which never let a good crisis go to waste, use Covid-19 and the banking crisis to usher in a new wave of CBDCs as a safe haven from germ-laden paper currencies or as protection against bank runs.”

Kennedy’s position represents a marked contrast to Democrat party leaders including President Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren, both of whom are backing a U.S. CBDC while seeking to undermine crypto technology innovation and development.

While the FedNow now is not a CBDC, it does directly introduce Federal Reserve instant settlement accounts that can be repackaged by banks and offered to consumers and businesses. Many have argued FedNow is a step in the direction of implementing a CBDC.