After ending 2020 facing a lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under Donald Trump’s administration, Ripple’s leadership is looking to the new year and a new U.S. President to bring a change in regulations more favorable to the firm. According to a post on the Ripple website featuring comments from key executives, the firm is predicting the incoming Biden administration will most likely “bring a renewed focus on regulation and enforcement” in the crypto space. “As we’ve seen, a lack of a clear regulatory framework over the last four years in the U.S. especially has left fintech and …

Investors are beginning to worry that Bitcoin’s (BTC) uptrend could be in peril after the top-ranked cryptocurrency failed to pull above the $40,000. Some traders are afraid that a repeat of the crushing 2018 bear market is on the cards again if BTC fails to find bullish momentum. However, a study of both the bull markets shows distinct differences that are noteworthy. Research from Pantera Capital found that after the current bull move, 86% of the crypto market's value is concentrated in Bitcoin and Ethereum, largely because institutional funds have flowed into each cryptocurrency. In 2017, the top two coins …

David Schwartz, current chief technology officer at Ripple, is responding to reports his predecessor had lost access to hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin. In a Quora post on Thursday, Schwartz said recent reports about former Ripple CTO Stefan Thomas forgetting the password to an encrypted hard drive containing thousands of Bitcoin (BTC) were true, but added Thomas had also lost access to hundreds of coins when the crypto asset was young. The Ripple CTO said his predecessor used to test the development of a Javascript library for Bitcoin by using real coins when the price was well under …

Grayscale products witnessed $3.3 billion in inflows in the fourth quarter of 2020, a large jump over the $1.05 billion seen in the preceding quarter. According to Grayscale, institutional investors accounted for 93% of the new investments. The significance and magnitude of the investments can be gauged from the fact that in 20, Grayscale received $5.7 billion in investments, which is four times the cumulative inflow between 2013 and 2019 Data from Glassnode also shows that since July 2020, only about one-third of the 900 Bitcoin (BTC) mined each day have made their way to exchanges. During that period, Grayscale …

There have been some big movers as the crypto market rally resumes and Polkadot’s DOT token is among them. According to figures from leading analytics portal Coingecko, DOT has flipped Ripple’s XRP in terms of market capitalization following a massive gain of 26% over the past 24 hours. This makes it the new fourth largest cryptocurrency by market cap. The Polkadot token has surged from an intraday low of just below $11 to top out at an all-time high of $14.80 before retreating slightly to $14.45 at the time of writing. The big price move has pushed its market cap …

The XRP (XRP) price remained relatively unmoved on Thursday, Jan. 14, even as the broader cryptocurrency market ignited a recovery that saw over $150 billion flood back into the global market cap. Earlier this week the United States Securities and Exchange Commission announced the impending departure of Marc P. Berger, the commission’s Acting Director of the Division of Enforcement. The outgoing director was in office for the commencement of the SEC's $1.3 billion lawsuit against Ripple Labs. Berger leaves his position at the end of the month after just five months in the post. He had previously led the New …

Institutional crypto-fund manager Grayscale Investments has begun the dissolution of its XRP Trust in response to the Security and Exchange Commission’s December 2020 lawsuit alleging the XRP token is a security under U.S. law. According to an announcement published Wednesday, Grayscale decided to dissolve the trust in response to the spate of XRP delistings from major crypto-asset exchanges after the SEC’s complaint was filed. Grayscale concluded: “It is likely to be increasingly difficult for U.S. investors, including the Trust, to convert XRP to U.S. dollars, and therefore continue the Trust’s operations.” All XRP held by the trust has already been …

The top 100 richest Bitcoin (BTC) addresses have added 334,000 Bitcoin to their existing holdings over the past 30 days, a clear signal that whales and institutional-size investors bought the dip. A positive sign is that most of them have not reacted to the recent fall in Bitcoin’s price. This suggests that large investors are bullish on Bitcoin for the long term rather than looking to make a quick gain. An important element in the recent rally is many of the purchases have come from institutional investors who were critical of Bitcoin in the past. The list is likely to …

As Ripple faces serious legal charges over its associated token XRP, many crypto platforms have decided to drop support for the coin until things are settled. However, GateHub, a United Kingdom-based cryptocurrency gateway service, has decided to continue listing XRP. According to a Jan. 12 announcement, GateHub will not delist XRP unless a decision from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission makes it necessary: “Please be advised that GateHub Ltd. will continue listing XRP until the SEC’s complaint against Ripple is adjudicated and a final decision entered that XRP is properly classified as a ‘security,’ or until we receive …

Bakkt, one of the biggest cryptocurrency companies in the United States, will not support XRP as part of its further product development, according to the CEO. On Jan. 11, Bakkt CEO Gavin Michael sat down with the Axios Re:Cap podcast to discuss the mainstream adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets. Michael said that Bakkt is planning to roll out support for a number of altcoins on its platform in the future, but XRP is not one of them. Michael declined to comment on whether the company decided to stay away from XRP due to Ripple’s legal issues sparked …

Amid legal action from the SEC, Ripple has brought in fresh blood from Amazon to lead its engineering team. In a statement released today, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced that former Amazon vice president of delivery experience, Devraj Varadhan, has joined Ripple as its new senior vice president of engineering. Ripple’s all-star engineering team continues to grow – thrilled to welcome Dev as our new SVP of Engineering! https://t.co/OH5ceDOX4K — Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) January 11, 2021 Varadhan has 15 years’ experience at Amazon, where he worked on software development for more than a decade prior to becoming VP of delivery …

After an incredible run-up to nearly $42,000, Bitcoin (BTC) price finally entered a significant correction, and at the time of writing the price is down by about 18%. While the swift drop to $30,402 may not induce sleepless nights from the HODLer crowd, large drops like the one seen over the past 24-hours can easily blow up a leveraged trader's portfolio. The sharp downside move also threatens to wipe out a large portion of the gains accrued over the past few weeks. Data from Bybt indicates that over $2.7 billion worth of futures contracts has been squared off in the …