Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is appealing a federal judge's ruling in its yearlong legal battle against Ripple over sales of its XRP token.This extends the battle over whether Ripple violated securities laws, as an SEC spokesperson told CoinDesk, We believe that the district court decision in the Ripple matter conflicts with decades of Supreme Court precedent and securities laws and look forward to making our case to the Second Circuit."In August, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York fined Ripple $125 million despite the SEC asking for a much higher penalty of $2 billion. The much lighter punishment partly stems from an earlier ruling. In 2023, Judge Analisa Torres decided that while Ripple defrauded... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A little over a year after the collapse of the crypto banks Silvergate and Signature, financial institutions are very interested in crypto. PayPal has used its proprietary stablecoin to pay auditors Ernst & Young LLP, using a hub provided by SAP. Visa is helping to bridge existing fiat currencies with blockchains" through its Visa Tokenized Asset Platform (VTAP).A lot has happened since those bank collapses, huh? We have a Bitcoin ETF, we have crypto bros meddling in politics, and a mini boom-and-bust cycle on Bitcoin prices. I have to assume PayPal and Visa got started on this stuff a while ago in order to get it popping now, but I do think it's curious they are focused on stablecoins.Kinda seems like the big industry players are... Continue reading...

In which various government bodies fight over permissionless" assets | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The US Securities and Exchange Commission wants to unilaterally wrest regulatory authority away from the States" when it comes to crypto, according to a lawsuit from 18 states. These states want to halt the SEC's enforcement actions, so they can manage crypto regulation instead. Also named as a plaintiff on the suit is the DeFi Education Fund, a special interest lobbyist.Controversial SEC chair Gary Gensler is named in the suit, along with other SEC commissioners. Gensler's treatment of crypto during his time as chair has made him a punching bag for the industry - and for Republicans such as president-elect Donald Trump.There has been an ongoing turf war over crypto regulation. Until this point, the two major contenders were the... Continue reading...