XRP price rose by nearly 30% in less than a week amid positive sentiment around the court case, in which the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) claims that Ripple sold XRP as illegal securities. SEC vs. Ripple Judge Analisa Torres has granted Ripple permission to respond to the SEC's Memorandum of Law in support of Motion to Strike fair notice defense, according to court documents. Additionally, Judge Torres also ordered to unseal three documents concerning the SEC vs. Ripple case, including Ripple's CEO Brad Garlinghouse's email thread and deposition notice and founder Chris Larsen's email string. Markets received Judge …

Nonfungible tokens (NFT) have taken the world by storm, resulting in mainstream interest and greater adoption of cryptocurrency. According to blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, NFT popularity skyrocketed in 2021. Chainalysis’ “NFT Market Report” shows a minimum of $44.2 billion worth of cryptocurrency sent to Ethereum smart contracts associated with NFT marketplaces and collections last year. The report notes that this number was $106 million in 2020. While impressive, increasing scams and fraudulent activities have infiltrated the NFT space. For instance, major NFT marketplace OpenSea recently announced that its free minting tool was prone to misuse. As a result, OpenSea shared …

“Web3” may be one of the biggest buzzwords of 2022, but the idea of creating an entirely decentralized platform to host decentralized applications has long been a vision of the crypto community. While it’s notable that some blockchain companies began building out Web3 applications four or five years ago, the Web3 space has only started gaining traction recently. The recent growth of Web3 was highlighted in a new report from Electric Capital, a venture capital firm that has been investing in Web3 companies since 2018. The “Electric Capital 2021 Developer Report” analyzed data from nearly 500,000 code repositories and 160 …

Major crypto exchanges originating from Asia as well as from the West have shown an increasing interest in the Asia-Pacific region. Coinbase launched in Japan last year, joining the selected group of exchanges to offer crypto trading services to native customers. Binance, the world’s leading crypto exchange by trading volume, has forged a series of new partnerships in Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand. The growing interest in global crypto exchanges in Asia could be attributed to the crypto craze in the region, despite regulatory uncertainty in several countries. The Asia-Pacific region is currently the hub for the majority of crypto growth. …

Bitcoin analyst and co-founder of software firm Hypersheet Willy Woo believes that on-chain metrics show that BTC is not in a bear market despite observing “peak fear” levels. Speaking on the What Bitcoin Did podcast hosted by Peter McCormack on Jan. 30, Woo cited key metrics such as a strong number of long term holders (wallets holding for five months or longer) and growing rates of accumulation suggest that the market has not flipped the switch to bear territory: “Structurally on-chain, it’s not a bear market setup. Even though I would say we’re at peak fear. No doubt about it, …

NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, have created a wealth of opportunities over the last year. Data from market tracker DappRadar found that NFT sales reached $25 billion in 2021. Artwork NFTs in particular have seen impressive growth. Financial services firm FinancePR recently determined that 257 artists generated at least $1 million in the past 30 days from selling NFT artwork. It’s also notable that NFT transactions have continued to increase, despite recent slumps in the crypto market. Yet with so much revenue being generated over a short period of time, some may be wondering how NFT creators are applying these new …

Bitcoin (BTC) seems to be on everyone’s mind lately as the world recently witnessed the price of BTC take a rather unexpected bearish turn this month. On January 21, 2022, Bitcoin reached six-month lows, sinking below $40,000 for the first time in months. While some panicked, other industry experts pointed out that the Bitcoin network has become verifiably stronger than ever before. The growth of the Bitcoin network has become apparent, as hash rate figures for BTC continue to set new highs this month. For example, on Jan. 22, the BTC network recorded an all-time high of 26.643 trillion with …

Former Goldman Sachs hedge fund manager and cryptocurrency bull Raoul Pal claimed in a tweet that he now only owns a single Bitcoin. As the claim was made in the heat of a Twitter fight with self-proclaimed “Bitcoin Strategist” Greg Foss it’s not entirely clear whether it’s an exaggeration or an accurate statement about his holdings. Pal is the founder and CEO of Real Vision and Global Macro while Foss is an executive director at Validus Power Corp. The revelation of his apparently small holding certainly caused uproar and angst among Bitcoin true believers, who’ve looked at Pal askance ever …

Cryptojacking accounted for 73% of the total value received by malware related addresses between 2017 and 2021, according to a new malware report from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis. Malware is used to conduct nefarious activity on a victim’s device such as a smartphone or PC after being downloaded without the victim’s knowledge. Malware-powered crime can be anything from information-stealing to denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks or ad fraud on a grand scale. The report excluded ransomware, which involves an initial use of hacks and malware to leverage ransom payments from vicitms in order to halt the attacks. Chainalysis stated: “While most tend …

Nonfungible tokens have proven to be successful across a number of industries. From gaming to high-end luxury fashion, NFT use cases have demonstrated the importance of creating lasting connections between a company or a brand and its users/customers. As such, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the billion-dollar event-ticketing industry is on its way to being disrupted by nonfungible tokens. Specifically, the online event-ticketing sector — which is expected to reach $60 billion by 2026 — will likely see an increase in NFT ticket platforms and marketplaces that issue virtual tickets across a blockchain network. Colby Mort, head of …

Sales of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, reached $25 billion in 2021, demonstrating that the sector is one of the most sought-after markets in crypto. Art NFTs, in particular, made a big impact last year with Christie’s reporting over $93 million in nonfungible token sales during its fourth annual Art+Tech Summit that took place this past August. While notable, much of the crypto art scene appears to be dominated by cartoons and memes, as projects like CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club have taken center stage. Although these projects are some of the most successful to date, a new subset of …

Dogecoin (DOGE) prices rose substantially Friday as Elon Musk announced that Tesla would start accepting it as payments for merchandise. Tesla merch buyable with Dogecoin — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 14, 2022 After the announcement, DOGE price jumped nearly 13%, hitting a 30-day high a $0.2150. Its upside move came as a part of a larger intraday rally that was taking place already before Musk's Dogecoin tweet went viral. The DOGE price went up by over 25% on Friday before correcting lower to $0.1986 on profit-taking. Better than Bitcoin Tesla's integration of a DOGE payment option on its online shopping …