crypto regulation

US Congress Plans New Provisions for Cryptocurrency Derivatives Markets

The US Congress aims to pass a new bill deciding on data collection for digital commodities contracts and swaps.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) clarified how all information can be accessed, helping efforts to fight manipulation and fraud in crypto markets. If the new bill is passed, it would be the first to place crypto set requirements onto the CFTC, which means that they must follow a higher set of guidelines.

The bill aims to have the CFTC comply with new rules detailing trade and trader data, including other information that the board of trade must be able to access. Congress sees this as the time to create smarter guidelines and regulations across all crypto-related trading and traders. In the US derivatives markets, there are more than 4 trillion USD of activity each day. If this were to become jeopardized, it would lead to an extreme problem for the economy and US citizens.

Regulation to ensure safety on all markets, including emerging crypto markets, is underpinning new approaches from congress in an attempt to close the gap in regulation between old and new financial markets.

The crypto markets are still small in comparison to traditional markets, however, without planning and new bills to support their growth, it seems unlikely the US government will allow citizens to become involved.

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US Rep. Tom Emmer Fears Criticism of Digital Payment Innovation May Repress Progress

In a congressional hearing which was held on Jan. 30, US Representative Tom Emmer has expressedhis concerns about the excessive criticism of innovations in digital payment, saying that it may repress its progress.

The constraints faced by digital payments

The US Rep. further elaborated on his fears over regulations which he believes will stifle the growth of innovative solutions: “There’s a whole environment out there of brilliant, genius, young people who are coming up with new ways to transfer value every single day,” he further emphasized, saying. “I worry that we’re going to crush that entrepreneurial spirit and that advancement.”

In a meeting comprising of several US representatives from the Financial Services Committee, the Fintech Task Force sat for a hearing which was on Jan. 30; the meeting was given a title ‘Is cash still king? Reviewing the Rise of Mobile Payments.”

The group sat for an intensive session of discussion, and they also exchanged comments with several witnesses. Usman Ahmed, PayPal Head of Global Public Policy and the US Faster Payments Council’s Executive Director, Kim Ford, were among the witnesses during this session.

A defense on cryptocurrency’s behalf

During the session, Emmer singled out the senior policy counsel for Consumer Reports, Christina Tetreault, with his questions, which led to further discussions in favor of the various crypto assets available for different use cases.

“Although you only mentioned Libra, which is not itself a cryptocurrency, I would hope that you more fully explored these innovations,” Emmer continued, mentioning “the opportunities that they provide to both built a financial future for individuals, but also to empower individuals to control the value of their own assets, separate from government control.”

The entire session appeared to be fruitful and lasted for about two hours, touching on the different issues and concerns of all the parties present.

Regardless of Emmer’s concerns, the growing number of severe and mature discussions regarding digital assets and blockchain is a small victory in itself. As recently reported by Blockchain.News, Presidential candidate Andrew Yang was outspoken on the need to clear the mess of “hodgepodge” regulation. He also cited the dangers of deterring innovation.

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Mike Bloomberg: US Presidential Candidate Highlights Crypto Adoption In Agenda for Financial Reform

United States presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg has outlined a proposal that aims to accommodate regulation for cryptocurrencies in his official 2020 campaign plan for financial reform.

According to a publication on Feb 18 by Bloomberg’s campaign team, he called for greater consumer protection measures and a robust financial system. Directly, the content of the publication suggests that regulated financial institutions be in charge of monitoring exposure to risk, the recording of all financial transactions in a central database and also for strengthening the consumer’s financial protection rights, among other recommendations.

The proposal also included a well-detailed action plan to create a regulatory sandbox for upcoming businesses and “providing a clear regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies.”

As quoted by the full proposal of the publication, it was stated that:

“Cryptocurrencies have become an asset class worth hundreds of billions of dollars, yet regulatory oversight remains fragmented and undeveloped. For all the promise of the blockchain, bitcoin and initial coin offerings, there’s also plenty of hype, fraud and criminal activity,”

In a move that is set to be welcomed by crypto enthusiasts, Bloomberg’s well laid out plan also recommended more transparent clarification of asset classes from US regulatory bodies. The plan recommends that agencies charged with monitoring the cryptocurrency terrain and creating a legal framework should classify if or when a token is to be treated as a security; explain in detail the type of taxation method that will be levied against digital assets, and finally to define the requirements for regulatory compliance in the space.

Worthy of note is the fact that the presidential candidate joins a growing list of contenders willing to dive into the issues surrounding cryptocurrency. Rep. Eric Swalwell briefly accepted donations in cryptocurrency during his campaign as did Dem. Andrew Yang, both have now withdrawn from their campaigns.

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ISIS Millions Could Be Hidden in Cryptocurrency Ready-to-Fund War Chest

Experts have disclosed that ISIS is using crypto platforms to conceal donations and bypass financial security measures. Experts have made such a revelation after identifying an increase in advertising for donations.

The ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq And Syria) has been recognized as the world’s richest terror group. Governments across the world are aware of the terror group and actively looking to block and track all funding efforts through banking channels. However, such difficulties have not stopped ISIS from using other ways to bypass money-laundering filters and sanctions. The group is using cryptocurrencies as it looks for untraceable and anonymous ways to transfer money.

Terrorists Think Cryptocurrency Is the Perfect Hiding Place

According to the latest report, experts fear the terror group’s missing £246 million war chest could have been transferred into cryptocurrency in an attempt to hide it from the authorities.

In the previous year, ISIS used crypto to fund the Easter Sunday terror attack in Sri Lank that left at least 250 people dead after suicide bombers targeted four hotels and three churches in quick succession.

Hans-Jakob Schindler, director of CEP (the Counter Extremism Project, a specialist think tank tracking the trend of terrorism financing), revealed that since 2017, the authorities have been searching for the terror group’s mission war chest and it is feared that it may have been converted into cryptocurrency to be used at a later date.

Schindler stated: “I’m wondering if from 2017-2020 there has been $300m that we have not found and that’s why I’m thinking this might have been one of the ways it might have been used.”

“This would be an ideal storage mechanism until it is needed. If done right it would be unfindable and unseizable for most governments.” He said.

ISIS is considered to be the first terror group to face prosecution in court for crypto activities.

Ali Shukri, a US teenager, was put in prison for 11 years in 2015 for providing an online manual to ISIS supporters on how to use Bitcoin to conceal financial donations.

Schindler mentioned that there have been consistent cases of Hamas and ISIS using cryptocurrencies since 2014. From these early days of cryptocurrency, ISIS has been interested in what could be done with the new technology. Due to the anonymity of the user, when digital transactions are broken up into small transactions, it is next to impossible for the terror group to be traced back to a particular entity.

Schindler is urging the EU governments to work together to develop a regulatory framework to build tighter regulations.

Yaya Fanusie, a director at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, has been studying terror groups using crypto since 2016 and first saw an increase in advertisements for crypto donations in crowdfunding sites. He identified supporters of ISIS increasingly rely on the sophistication of blockchain technology to generate funds for the terror groups. Rather than one blockchain address, there are multiple addresses, which make it difficult for law enforcers to track. He said that the terror group is using software that supporters can download and, therefore, they don’t have to go through a crypto exchange.

In the previous year, a report by US security group, the NSRD (National Security Research Division) urged for international cooperation between the intelligence community and law enforcement in dealing with the issue. The US security group said that the high adoption and use of these technologies are critical uncertainties, which have significant operational impacts.

This analysis suggests that oversight and regulation of cryptocurrencies, together with international cooperation between the intelligence community and law enforcement, would be vital steps to prevent terrorist groups from using crypto to support their activities.

Terrorist Groups Use Telegram for Raising Cryptocurrencies

Last year in August, MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute), a Washington-based nonprofit research organization, issued a new report indicating that social media has demonstrated to be fertile ground for soliciting funds used in terror financing. Terrorist groups like Hamas, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS are increasingly using social media sites to raise cryptocurrency. Donors may not even know that they are giving their money to fund conflicts. Encrypted messaging app Telegram is identified as the most preferred app by these terror groups. The terrorist groups regularly publish their Bitcoin addresses when they seek donations on social media sites like Twitter, Telegram, Facebook, and others. They also share detailed instructions via these sites to explain how potential donors can donate in cryptocurrencies. MEMRI mentioned that it has been in touch with the US government and other western government agencies to inform them about their findings. Pavel Durov, Telegram’s CEO, obtained letters from the US Congress to take immediate action against the evidence provided of terrorist groups using his platform.

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Pressure Piles Up on BitMEX as Recent Outage Exposes Network Holes

Once branded a “Bitcoin casino,” BitMEX has plunged into a series of crises over the last few years. The crypto exchange found itself trending on Twitter in the US recently because of the recent shutdown. BitMEX announced that its trading engine went offline for over an hour because of an incident, which the exchange identified as a “major outage.”After some investigation, the exchange later announced that that platform restored its online operations.

The exchange announced that all funds were safe, and no liquidations happened during the downtime. Once the platform resumed its operation at full capacity, the exchange said that full postmortem would be conducted and released to the public within the next few days.

Recent outage exposes BitMEX’s network holes

Such outage of BitMEX’s trading engine is the latest in a series of negative circumstances facing the exchange. Currently, as Bitcoin price hits $10,000, the major outage has prompted warnings that the exchange is becoming increasingly unreliable. The outage left customers unable to access their funds.

Closely-watched crypto and Bitcoin analyst Scott Melker said that he has been warning people about BitMEX for nearly three years now, saying BitMEX is a “horrible” exchange.

Another Bitcoin trader stated, “I just do not understand why people still trade there.”

In recent months, crypto and Bitcoin exchanges across the globe have experienced increasing new user signups and surging demand partly due to lockdown measures put in place to slow down the spread of coronavirus pandemic.

The rising demand is putting the stability of some Bitcoin exchanges into tests, with Coinbase, the largest US cryptocurrency exchange, went offline as Bitcoin price crashes earlier this month.

Jim Nevotti, the president at software provider Sterling Trading Tech, said that recent outages experienced by some crypto and Bitcoin exchanges have exposed fault lines in their underlying infrastructure.

BitMEX’s market share has been eroded by other crypto exchanges expanding their crypto and Bitcoin derivatives offerings. But BitMEX’s problems have also caused users to seek alternatives.

In March, a sudden decline in the Bitcoin price to fall under $4,000 was caused by BitMEX before the crypto exchange was closed for maintenance.

In the previous year, BitMEX sparked panic amongst investors and traders after accidentally exposing thousands of its customers’ emails – with the exchange’s Twitter account compromised shortly after.

The latest outage comes just a few days BitMEX was hit with a lawsuit on May 18. The lawsuit accused the exchange of having engaged in multiple illegal activities, including wire fraud, money laundering, and market manipulation.

The lawsuit also reported that a full 15% of BitMEX’s crypto trades in 2019 came from US-based traders despite the exchange not having the appropriate license to allow such kind of trading.

The crypto exchange disputes the allegations, with its spokesperson said that the exchange would deal with the complaint through a normal legal procedure and is completely confident that the court would make a fair ruling.

Recently the exchange was forced to restrict access to users in Japan because of increased crypto regulations enforced by the nation’s Financial Services Agency (FSA).

UK’s financial watchdog raises the alarm on BitMEX being unauthorized

Recently, the UK’s financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), warned local consumers about the operations of BitMEX. The independent financial regulator announced that the crypto exchange has been targeting UK residents without approval or obtaining permission to offer services. The agency confirmed that it holds information that proves that the cryptocurrency exchange had been illegally conducting activities that must be regulated and require approval from the regulator. In other words, the financial watchdog stated that BitMEX was operating in the UK without being given the green light by the regulator. Now it remains to see how BitMEX would address the challenges highlighted above.

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India's Largest Crypto Exchange CoinDCX Raises $2.5 Million in New Growth Capital to Increase User Base

CoinDCX, India’s largest crypto exchange, has announced that it has raised $2.5 million from investors like Polychain Capital and Coinbase Ventures. Polychain Capital led the funding round with support from Coinbase Ventures, the investment arm of the US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.

CoinDCX had raised a $3 million Series A round earlier in March, which was also led by Polychain Capital and included HDT Group (operator of BitMEX) and Bain Capital Ventures.

The company’s other main investor, Coinbase Ventures, has also made investments in other crypto businesses like BlockFi, Messari, Compound, Securitize, and Etherscan.

Thriving through tough times

There is a good reason why India has not been having lots of firms around cryptocurrencies or their trading. The key reason is that the Reserve Bank of India (country’s banking regulator) issued a ban on crypto industry in 2018. The ban shut down doors to new crypto companies while almost crippling whatever cryptocurrency firms existed during that time.

In March 2020, India’s Supreme Court made a landmark ruling that overturned the ban issued by the Central Bank. Ever since, things have changed and the more resilient cryptocurrency firms, which survived the ban, are now flourishing. That explains why CoinDCX, the largest crypto exchange in the country, is doing very well because of its resilience. Recently, the Mumbai based startup has secured a capital funding of $2.5 million from Polychain Capital and Coinbase ventures.

CoinDCX stated that it will use the fresh round of funds to handle the growth spurt, which has been initiated by the Central Bank’s recent announcement. The crypto exchange intends to drive cryptocurrency adoption in India by supporting its plans of increasing cryptocurrency traders and investors in India to 50 million. The company plans to divert these funds to assist in achieving that goal. Moreover, the firm seeks to develop a secure and user-focused exchange to support the rising demand for cryptocurrency in the country.

But that is not the only focus of the company. While India’s market is certainly growing, the majority of the population does not understand the concept of cryptocurrency. Based on the number alone, the country has lots of potentials when it comes to the cryptocurrency market. But there is a great need for blockchain and crypto education. CoinDCX aims to address this gap by launching a $1.3 million initiative for educational campaigns, consumer campaigns, community engagements, and meetup events. As part of the initiative, the company intends to create an online academy, which is a cryptocurrency and blockchain learning program aimed toward first-time cryptocurrency traders.

Following the Reserve Bank of India lifting banking ban on the crypto industry, CoinDCX stated that its sign-ups had risen by 10 times in one week. The crypto exchange said that its trading volumes had increased by 47% and it saw a 150% growth in daily active users in March.

The fresh round of funding comes a time when cryptocurrency trade in India is experiencing new highs despite the global economic crisis caused by the coronavirus outbreak. Crypto investments such as Bitcoin have been seeing growth ahead of traditional assets like gold and equity globally. Bitcoin also has been receiving positive endorsements from mainstream investors, including the US billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones who revealed that 1-2% of his assets are held in Bitcoin.

India’s supreme court turned the tables on crypto ban in landmark ruling

In April 2018, India’s Central Bank instructed all banks under the banking regulator not to deal with digital currencies or provide services to organizations and individuals dealing with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. The move that the regulator took was directed at a consistent effort to oppose payment systems, which undermine the integrity of the banking system. The directive caused lots of firms to either close down their businesses or shift their operations outside the country.

But when the Supreme Court overturned such a directive in February, crypto firms rejoiced and since then the market has been flourishing. Recently the Reserve Bank of India has also confirmed that there is no banking ban on the cryptocurrency industry. The Central Bank responded to a Right to Information (RIT) inquiry that asked whether the regulator has banned banks from providing bank accounts for crypto traders. The regulator confirmed that there is no such prohibition. With the environment ripe of crypto firms to nurture, lots of more investments, like the one recently funded to CoinDCX, are expected to increase.

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Malaysia’s Securities Commission Legalizes Digital Asset and Crypto Trading

Malaysia’s Securities Commission (Shariah Advisory Council) has announced that the trading of digital assets is now legal in the country. The Securities Commission is the regulatory authority that oversees the implementation of Islamic laws in the operations of Islamic financial institutions.

Datuk Syed Zaid, the Chairman of the Securities Commission, said that the regulator has resolved key issues facing regulations of digital currencies in a principled manner.

Big Crypto Gains

Malaysia has experienced exponential growth of interests in the crypto market but there have also been inside trading abuses, market manipulation, and some exchanges were even involved in predatory and deceptive practices. All these have led to the need to reposition the existing financial regulatory framework to incorporate the supervision of the crypto market in the country.

Datuk stated that the regulator has resolved that trading and investment of digital currencies and tokens are permissible in registered digital asset exchanges. He said that in a teleconference panel session at Invest Malaysia 2020 here today. He said: “This is a really ground-breaking resolution by SAC (Shariah Advisory Council) that could spur greater development and investment in digital assets.”

Datuk stated that the commission’s resolution has been finalized, and the agency would issue further details later.

The commission has currently allowed three digital asset exchanges (including Tokenize, SINEGY, and Luno) to operate in the country.

As per the report, the agency has approved at least four digital assets in the nation up until this month.

SINEGY is the first crypto exchange approved by Malaysia’s securities regulator. The founder of SINEGY, Kelvyn Chuah, termed the announcement as having extreme significance as more than 60% of Malaysians are Muslims. He said that the announcement has cleared several ambiguities associated with digital assets. Chuah is delighted by the announcement that the country has made. He revealed that Malaysia aims to become the hub of Islamic fintech and finance.

Chuah said that currently, all regulated trading activities of digital assets are allowed, but many non-compliant activities are not permitted. He said that the crypto industry in the country is closely waiting for the commission’s full guidelines on trading and issuance of digital assets. Chuah mentioned that crypto operators think that the regulatory authorities may consider creating a regulated digital asset derivatives market in the future.

As the Malaysian Muslim community is still awaiting a Shariah-compliant resolution for the trading of digital assets, crypto firms such as SINEGY now can explore potential services, which may welcome more Muslims into the digital asset space.

Malaysia Leading the Way in Crypto Regulation

The status of the cryptocurrency industry in the country had been unclear until the recent announcement by the Securities Commission. Crypto trading was not termed illegal but remained unregulated.

In February 2019, Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) announced that the nation would be implementing new regulations on the trading of digital assets and ICOs (initial coin offerings). Malaysia’s finance minister, Lim Guna, said that new regulations guiding cryptocurrency trading would assist in serving as criteria for exchange operators and coin issuers. That would also assist in ensuring standard practice in terms of trading, pricing, and asset protection.

The new regulations require any digital asset offering to get approval from the Securities Commission. Such offerings are also required to meet counter-terrorism financing and anti-money laundering rules. Any trader identified trying to bypass the law would be subjected to a fine up to US$2.4 million (RM10 million) or a prison sentence of up to 10 years. The country’s central bank and the Securities Commission said that new rules aim to help protect investors’ assets and create fair trading.

Ripple Blockchain Firm to Establish Regional Headquarters in Dubai

Amid the conflict with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over its strict crypto regulatory framework, Ripple has announced that it will set up a regional office in Dubai.

The blockchain firm has announced that it will instill regional headquarters in Dubai, a leading global financial center. The news comes amid a time when Ripple has been considering exiting the United States due to conflict with the cryptocurrency regulatory framework put forth by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Under the SEC’s cryptocurrency policies, Ripple’s native token XRP could be registered as a security, which may result in strict sanctions applied to the blockchain company.

Dubai has proven to be very crypto-friendly, with plans to launch a “cryptocurrency valley” in the country’s free zone, where personal or corporate income tax would not be applicable, allowing blockchain and crypto firms to run on its own judicial system. By establishing offices in Dubai at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Ripple hopes to expand its clientele and benefit from the financial hub’s views on digital assets, in which XRP would likely not be registered as a security.

Navin Gupta, the managing director for Ripple’s South Asia, Middle East, and North African operations, said:

“Our regional office will serve as a springboard to introduce our blockchain based solutions and deepen our ties with even more Financial Institutions in the region. We feel very welcome in our new regional home at DIFC.”

The news comes as Joe Biden has won the elections over Donald Trump. With Biden as President of the United States, effective starting on January 20, 2021, regulations revolving around cryptocurrencies may change once more in the country. Whether or not that will accommodate Ripple’s XRP operations still remains in question. One thing is for certain – despite the SEC’s strict policies for crypto, this has not prevented Ripple from expanding its network and business.

Its payment network, RippleNet, which is based on distributed ledger technology (DLT), has been rapidly expanding and has already been leveraged in more than 45 countries as of now.

What Biden’s Presidency Could Mean for Crypto

Biden has officially won the US presidential election, unseating Donald Trump. With change in the air, the crypto community has pondered the question of what a Biden presidency would mean for the industry.

Unlike Trump, who has on more than one occasion publicly made it known that he was not keen on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, associating them with crime, Joe Biden has not broached the subject of crypto during his presidential campaign. The only instance in which he mentioned Bitcoin (BTC) was to clarify that he did not possess any, following the infamous Twitter hack, in which hackers demanded Bitcoin funds through the compromised profiles of celebrities and important figures.

New key leaders in crypto

The correlation between Biden and crypto appears to be murky, although who the President-elect appoints to fill important seats in regulatory roles revolving around crypto may result in stricter or more permissive rules for the industry. General Counsel at Compound Finance, Jake Chervinsky, said:

“The next four years of US crypto policy depends on who he (Joe Biden) appoints to key positions.”

For now, it appears as though the crypto community has been widely receptive to welcoming Biden as president. Crypto enthusiast and entrepreneur Qiao Wang said:

“The real winner is crypto: Biden to hire Bitcoin-friendly Gary Gensler; Trump/Mnuchin openly hostile towards BTC […] Looking forward to the next few years.”

There have been rumors that Biden has designated Gary Gensler as a likely candidate for overseeing Wall Street as a financial advisor. Gensler, a former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has been known to be very open-minded towards crypto in the past.

Bitcoin gains as the dollar loses

A definitive winner for crypto is that in any case, inflation will likely result in more investments entering the crypto space. With a second round of stimulus packages to be distributed for COVID-19 relief, the US Federal Reserve will have to continue mass printing fiat, leading to a debasement of the US dollar.

This will inevitably lead to more people securing their funds through Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Top UK economist Garrick Hileman shared his views in an email to Blockchain.News, and said:

“Anything that negatively impacts the perception of a safe and stable dollar will likely boost interest in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.”

What Would Happen if Ripple's XRP Token Was Classified as a Security Under US Crypto Regulations?

Amid Ripple (XRP) token’s recent price surge that made headlines everywhere, whether the cryptocurrency and technology firm will stay in the US despite the lack of clear regulations still remains in question.

Ripple’s XRP: ideal for cross-border payments

A class-action lawsuit had previously been filed against US-based tech firm Ripple alleging that its XRP token should be considered a security in the country. However, in a podcast with Bitcoin bull Anthony Pompliano, Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, broached the subject once again, clarifying that it is only the US that views XRP as a security.

In comparison with other G20 members, the US seems to be the odd one out in classifying XRP as a security. The CEO said:

“If XRP were deemed a security here in the United States, we have other G20 markets that have taken a different view. I’m not aware of any market globally that thinks that XRP is a security.”

He also added:

“It is very hard to look at XRP as a security.”

The token had previously been touted as a bridge currency between assets, enabling real-time payments and cross-border transactions to be conducted fluidly at a low cost. Garlinghouse explained the mission behind his distributed ledger technology firm:

“Ripple is trying to make value networks interoperable, and today the most painful part of non-interoperable value networks is cross-border transfers, there is a lot of friction there. RippleNet is a network of banks and financial institutions connected today that are enabling 60+ countries where we have payment corridors that continues to grow.”

US SEC authorities disagree on how to define crypto

The Ripple CEO said that it was unfortunate that the US crypto regulatory framework lacked so much clarity. Referring to the US Department of Justice (DoJ)’s released “Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework” report, Garlinghouse pinpointed that the report, which contained over 80 pages, provided confusing definitions for cryptocurrency.

In the report, eight separate regulatory bodies have all provided their own definition of cryptocurrency, some classifying it as a commodity while others said it should be listed as a security. The confusion and lack of clear taxonomy around crypto are what is making the US lag behind other countries in the “level playing field.”

It is crippling them from staying competitive in the cryptocurrency field, in comparison with Singapore, Japan, and Switzerland. On top of those countries, which Garlinghouse stated had a very clear regulatory system surrounding crypto, the CEO also praised the UK for its crypto guidelines:

“Unfortunately, the US crypto regulatory framework is out of sync with other frameworks. You see crypto in a positive light in other countries, such as the UK. They have clear taxonomy revolving around crypto.”

Even if XRP is a security in the US, Ripple will thrive

The Ripple CEO asserted that in any case, even if XRP was classified as a security under US regulations, “RippleNet’s customers are primarily out of the United States.” He gave a ballpark figure and said that more than 90% of RippleNet clients were located in other regions of the world.

This implies that Ripple may still thrive and be profitable as a fintech company, even if it were to act on its word and move its headquarters from San Francisco.

Currently, XRP has been all the talk in crypto, with the token soaring to new heights on the market. At the time of writing, it has pulled back slightly, down 61% in the past 24 hours. Recently, it made headlines as it soared to a two-year high, outperforming Bitcoin and Ethereum in a week.

Market experts have also said that the coin has increasingly been touted and that statistics show that its social volume – its popularity on media channels and the amount of times XRP is involved in social conversations – may soon surpass Ethereum (ETH)’s.