A round of applause for an art collector who made a 2,735% return on this investment. But please, students of Manchester, ensure your claps are mimed. If only crypto could return to those highs, maybe if blockchain solves one of the great disagreements of Brexit it might spark a bull run…. about as likely as Man United winning at home.
We take pride in our punny titles, but today all credit is due to Jake Chervinsky, one of the most respected lawyers on Crypto Twitter. It’s a reference to the famous Howey Test — a framework used by the US Supreme Court and the SEC to define whether a transaction is an investment and, therefore, a security. And the “bad lawyer joke” is the perfect answer to why Ripple is facing three lawsuits claiming XRP is a security.
After confirming xRapid, Ripple’s first cross-border payment solution to use XRP, was going into “commercial production” with three relatively unknown customers signed up, regulation was the key topic of discussion at Swell — Ripple’s annual conference, which ended yesterday. Answering a question from the audience, Michael Didiuk, former SEC Senior Counsel, claimed XRP passed the Howey Test with success.
But does it? While that’s a matter for the US courts to decide, investors should consider the impact of US regulation on global crypto markets. Independently of the merits of Ripple and XRP, it was clear XRP’s price appreciated after a Ripple executive hinted — during a CNBC interview two weeks ago — that xRapid was about to be launched. As Limitless argues and many believe, this means XRP fails the Howey Test.
Meanwhile, XRP has dropped 15% since the start of Swell on October 1st, and 8.6% over the past 24 hours. Many feel the best news has been announced and fear further losses — check Rampage’s gloomy target and make your own plan. As for the rest of the market, nothing has changed as bitcoin continues ranging — having lost 1.8% over the past day — while the top 100 cryptoassets by market cap have depreciated 3.7%. However, note this break of a meme diagonal that might entice bears to short!
▪ The Global Blockchain Forum, part of the Californian Blockchain Week, starts tomorrow in SF and features some of the major investors in the field. Follow it here.
▪ To counteract the bears, consider Voidbox’s comprehensive analysis. He believes that bitcoin will still bounce strongly before “any talk of yearly lows can be had”.
▪ The Wall Street Journal continues its FUD campaign. Its latest article explains how ”bots are manipulating price of bitcoin in wild west of crypto”.
▪ Qiao Wang continues to churn out excellent pieces decrypting key concepts. His latest focus on how cryptonetworks can complement both markets and firms.
▪ David Puell and Murad Mahmudov introduced the Bitcoin Market-Value-to-Realized-Value metric, following Nic Carter’s alternative concept of market cap
▪ Proof-of-Research, formerly known as CryptoMedicated, published a new summary of the New York Attorney General’s report on crypto exchanges. Part 1 here.
xRapid facilitates cross-border payments by sourcing liquidity on XRP pairs from exchanges around the world. It’s a great use case but will SWIFT, the current dominant system, let blockchain eat their lunch? Surf’s up for now but the winds can change swiftly.
