XRP Wins: The Bulls Are Back 🐂

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Good Morning,

Rejoice. It was a quiet week but then we got what could possibly be the best crypto news year-to-date. Ripple Labs won against the SEC, at least for now.

As a result, the bulls are back 🐂

In Today's Email:

• What Matters: Ripple wins 🌊

• Founders-Investors Highlight: Binance new General Counsel 👩‍⚖️

• Deal Flows: $12M institutional liquid staking 💧

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WHAT MATTERS

Ripple Wins Against the SEC

State of play: Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York, ruled that Ripple did not violate securities law by selling XRP on public exchanges, but did violate it by selling XRP directly to institutional investors.

• In 2020, the SEC accused Ripple of illegally raising $1.3B through the sale of XRP.

• XRP retail sales generated around $757M, while the institutional sales in question amounted to $728.9M.

• Judge Torres left the personal liability issue regarding the institutional sale violation by Ripple’s founders, Garlinghouse and Larsen to a jury trial.

However, the SEC left the door open for an appeal of the decision. It said that it will "continue to review the decision".

• The judge’s ruling can still be appealed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

• Experts concur that both Ripple and the SEC are likely to pursue appeals.

• Some experts doubt that the appeals court will unquestionably uphold the district court's decision or reasoning.

After the ruling, Coinbase plans to re-enable trading for XRP. Soon after, many exchange including Kraken and Gemini are also considering the same move.

Why it matters: The Ripple case is a groundbreaking development in distinguishing tokens from investment contracts. However, it is not final yet as the SEC may appeal the decision.

• The Ripple Labs outcome may have positive implications in the Coinbase and Binance cases.

• Thus far, the crypto market is responding positively, with XRP itself rallying more than 60%.

For builders: You’re much better doing a public fair launch of your token, and raise funding from private investors for your equity instead.

• Although appeals will be made and the final outcome remains to be seen, the fact that Coinbase has decided to re-list XRP is a positive sign.

• The dynamics between private and public funding rounds, as well as how token warrants will be treated, remains to be seen.

For investors: Institutional investors involved in private deals need to wait and see what this means for future deals.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Eleanor Hughes, Binance’s New General Counsel

Eleanor Hughes is the new General Counsel of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange.

• Hughes is filling the position of Han Ng who recently left the company.

• Hughes assisted Binance in acquiring licenses in Bahrain, Dubai, and New Zealand.

• Binance is in full-on turmoil after top executives resigned last week.

Previous backgrounds: Hughes earned her law degrees from the University of Law and her Bachelor of Arts degree from Cambridge.

• She spent 7 years as Litigator at Skadden law firm’s SG and HK offices before joining Binance as legal counsel.

The big idea: Hughes' appointment as Binance’s new GC is part of the exchange latest move to navigate the regulatory scrutinies coming its way, especially the rumored investigation by the US DOJ.

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INSIGHTS

$600M Worth of Tokenized US Treasuries

@RWA.xyz published a dashboard on $600M worth of US Treasuries that is using blockchain as its underlying technology for custody, trading, and settlement.

Here is the list of tokenized treasuries which market cap is more than $10M:

• Franklin Templeton $BENJI (Stellar) - ~$294M.

• Ondo $OUSG (Ethereum) - ~$151M.

• Matrixdock $STBT (Ethereum) - ~$89M.

• Flux Finance $fUSDC (Ethereum) - ~$23M.

• Maple $MPLcashUSDC (Ethereum) - ~21M.

• Ondo $OUSG (Polygon) - ~$19M.

• Open Eden $TBILL (Ethereum) - ~$12M.

• Backed $bIB01 (Ethereum) - ~$11M.

DEAL FLOWS

Alluvial $12M Series A Round

Deal flows remain steady 📉 — we saw $80M+ in deals.

$12M to build an institutional-grade liquid staking standard. Alluvial is building Liquid Collective, a liquid staking protocol that addresses operational and regulatory concerns for institutional users.

• The fresh capital will be used to advance the development of Liquid Collective.

• Alluvial previously raised a $6.2M Seed Round from strategic participants including Coinbase Ventures, Kraken, Figment, and Kiln.

• Alluvial aims to enable mainstream adoption of liquid staking on a global scale.

The round is co-led by Ethereal Ventures and Variant, with participation from Brevan Howard Digital, Robot Ventures, Fenbushi, IOSG, Blockdaemon, and others.

Deal flows in the past week:

• Ion Protocol, $2M Pre-Seed Round

• Giza, $3M Pre-Seed Round

• Narval, $4M Seed Round

• Olympix, $4.3M Seed Round

• Get Protocol, $4.5 Seed Round

• Gondi, $5.3M Seed Round

• Artela, $6M Seed Round

• Ambient Finance, $6.5M Seed Round

• Xterio, $15M Seed Round

• Aark Digital, Undisclosed $ Seed Round

• LunarCrush, $5M Series A

• Alluvial Finance, $12M Series A

• Sound, $20M Series A

• Peko Protocol, $700k Private Round

• Cloudburst, Undisclosed $ Strategic Round

QUICK BITES

• Circle cuts workforce.

• Ripple Labs won SEC case over XRP.

• Celsius Ex-CEO arrested on fraud charges.

• Google Play allows users to earn crypto assets in apps.

• PWC says hedge funds are showing confidence in Crypto.

• Stablecoin Issuers told to start preparing for 2024 EU rules.

• FTX Lawyers ask court for $323M Recovery from FTX Europe.

• Coinbase stock surges more than 24% following XRP court ruling.

MEME & NOTEWORTHY READS

• Joel John’s read on after the Ethereum merge.

• a16z crypto’s read on 17 misconceptions about SNARKs.

• Katherine Wu’s read on SEC vs Ripple Labs.

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Disclaimer: All the information presented in this publication and its affiliates is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advice.