A judge in the Seoul Central District Court dismissed two claims filed by individuals against the controversial crypto exchange, Bithumb. The individuals were seeking $126,000 and $38,000 respectively for damages related to a data breach incident back in 2017. According to Fn News, plaintiffs Hong and Seo (both named only by their surname) stated that they had lost money due to a phishing attack using private data that was extracted in a hack of Bithumb. The third claimant, Jang, was granted $5,000 to cover his total loss. This amount reflects a much lower dollar value than his initial $27,200 claim. …

On Aug. 26, Ripple (XRP) partner Flare Networks revealed details of a proposed new bridge connecting XRP with the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse and the XRP Army have expressed support for the first two-way bridge to bring the ecosystems together. The trustless bridge will allow XRP on the Flare Network — known as FXRP — to be used within the Ethereum network while “providing a scaling platform for Ethereum tokens and applications.” Flare is a network that integrates the Ethereum Virtual Machine in order to provide advanced smart contracts on the XRP network. The proposal, which needs …

Ripple, a major cryptocurrency firm developing XRP-based products, continues to actively claim rights on new business trademarks. Over the past month, the company filed four trademark applications to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), according to publicly available data on the USPTO website. The latest trademark application by Ripple was filed on Aug. 19. Dubbed “Ripple Impact,” the new trademark intends to cover categories of charitable foundation services including fundraising activities and capital improvement funding, the company said. On Aug. 11, Ripple filed another batch of three trademark applications, including trademarks like Ripple Impact, Ripple X, and Ripplex. …

The modus operandi of crypto scammers differ in each case as it happens with the rest, but this time, a popular Youtuber who has 2.43 million subscribers explained on August 20 how his channel was seized by hackers to launch an XRP fake giveaway campaign. According to a video published by David Damasceno, who runs Universo Curioso, cybercriminals took control of his account after receiving a contact request from an individual offering him a video editing tool. The fake software was called Zenium Editor, which also handles advertising revenues, and when Damasceno downloaded and installed the app, the damage has …

On Aug. 20, Representative Tom Emmer (R-MN) held the first ever Cryptocurrency Town Hall, bringing together a number of leaders from the Blockchain space. Conducted in collaboration with the Chamber of Digital Commerce PAC, the event featured major crypto figures like Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, eToro’s Guy Hirsch, BitPay’s CEO Stephen Pair, and Paxos’ Chad Cascarilla. Ripple CEO Garlinghouse outlined that the biggest challenge faced by Ripple so far is the lack of clarity around the regulatory status of XRP. “The biggest challenge Ripple has faced and anyone developing in the XRP community has faced is …

XRP, the world’s third largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, is not competing with national digital currencies like the forthcoming digital yuan, according to a senior executive at Ripple. Emi Yoshikawa, senior director of global operations at Ripple, claimed that XRP does not compete either with central bank digital currencies (CBDC) or stablecoins. In an Aug. 19 interview with Japanese crypto exchange FXcoin, Yoshikawa said that XRP is complementary to the global progress in CBDC and stablecoin development. The exec stated that XRP should be considered as a “bridge asset” in international settlement: “There are various types of crypto assets, but …

Ripple (XRP) CEO Brad Garlinghouse has responded to criticism from New York Times technology reporter Nathaniel Popper after news surfaced that Santander Bank is still hesitant to use the company’s native token XRP. Popper took aim at Garlinghouse, citing statements by the CEO in January 2018 around banks “planning to use [the] XRP token in the near future.” He went on to say that “people used their savings to invest in XRP based on the forward looking projections that Brad Garlinghouse gave,” adding: “If investors put their money into XRP on the day @BradGarlinghouse talked about the banks planning to …

Santander, the large scale Spanish bank and one of Ripple’s major partners, is still hesitant to adopt XRP as part of its international payment network, One Pay FX. The company reasoned that the token “was not actively traded in enough markets” to support the company’s banking needs. During an interview with the Financial Times, Cedric Menager, chief executive officer of One Pay FX, explained that Santander wants to provide the “best [user experience] as quickly as possible.” He also said that the bank hopes to “operate in as many currencies and corridors as possible from the beginning.” Ripple clarified that …

The much-debated blockchain firm Ripple is now planning to expand its use case far beyond just streamlining cross-border payments in partnership with national and international banks. Ripple had focused its efforts solely on cross-border payments for the past five years when Brad Garlinhouse joined the company as the chief executive officer. Despite their unprecedented success as a software solution provider to financial entities, Ripple has seemingly come to a realization that the company’s core value still lies in the associated cryptocurrency XRP and the Ripple blockchain. While the company had mostly worked with banks and directly funded millions to blockchain …

A judge has sentenced Australian citizen Kathryn Nguyen to a maximum time of 2 years and 3 months in prison for her role in stealing more than 100,000 XRP tokens in January 2018. According to an Aug. 11 report in Australian publication Information Age, Nguyen was sentenced over the theft of more than $300,000 in XRP two years ago. She was initially charged in Oct. 2018 and pled guilty to fraud charges the following August. Chris Craigie, the judge presiding over Nguyen’s case, said it was a “difficult and troubling decision” to send her to prison. The Australian national will …

United States markets have rallied sharply from their March lows, led by the tech sector and Federal Reserve injections designed to hold up the ailing economy. Markets across the globe have also joined the party as a steady economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic picks up steam. The fast-paced rally in global stock markets has pushed the Buffett Indicator into bubble territory, which suggests that markets might be overheated in the short term. Similarly, gold has seen a sharp rally in 2020, and last week the asset reached a new lifetime high. Silver also followed suit and is trading near …

In the past couple of weeks, the Bitcoin (BTC) price has resurged after months of apparent monetary stagnation. Since July 23, the value of a single Bitcoin has risen by around 20%. Not only that, after trading sideways since its supply squeeze in early May, the premier currency broke through its all-important $10,000 psychological threshold, thus leading many casual investors to once again jump back on the crypto hype train. Bitcoin’s recent price hike has also resulted in a retail boom, with a whole host of trading platforms across the world reporting sky-high Bitcoin trading volumes. As a result of …