Week in Review: Ripple wins in court; Russia approves digital ruble legislation

Bitcoin barely moved on US inflation data; the Russian Duma approved the law to implement the digital ruble, a New York court ruled in Ripple’s favor, and other developments from the week.

Bitcoin’s reaction to US inflation data

This week Bitcoin rose to around $31,000, helped by a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on the slowdown in inflation in year-over-year terms in June, from 4% to 3%. On a monthly basis prices were up 0.2%—twice the pace of May—but came in above economists’ expectations (0.3%).

Initial optimism in the leading cryptocurrency gave way to selling. The price of digital gold retreated to earlier levels within half an hour of the release. On July 14 the asset rose above $31,000 but failed to hold the gains.

All top-10 cryptocurrencies by market cap finished the week higher. Against the backdrop of a favourable court ruling in the SEC case, Ripple’s XRP led the gains — more than 64%.

Total cryptocurrency market capitalization reached $1.26 trillion. Bitcoin’s dominance index stood at 46%.

This week a number of analysts offered price forecasts for the leading cryptocurrency. Analysts at Standart Chartered suggested that Bitcoin could surpass $50,000 this year, with a path to around $120,000 by the end of next year.

And the author of the bestseller “Rich Dad Poor Dad” and entrepreneur Robert Kiyosaki named a similar figure, while venture investor Tim Draper again repeated his forecast of Bitcoin reaching $250,000, moving the timeline to 2025.

Ripple wins case against the SEC

On July 13, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York concluded that Ripple’s programmatic sales and other distributions of the XRP token did not constitute an offer or sale of investment contracts.

Judge Analisa Torres issued the ruling in favour of the California-based blockchain company in the suit that had been pending since 2020. However, in her view, the large-scale distribution of coins by major players in the industry violated U.S. securities laws.

Top-10 assets by market cap reacted positively to the decision. Beyond the XRP rally, Ethereum also rose, with the cryptocurrency on July 14 breaking through the $2,000 level.

Several major exchanges announced the resumption of trading of Ripple’s token for users in the United States.

SEC accuses Coinbase of willful violation of the law

SEC lawyers doubted the accuracy of Coinbase’s claim that it did not know it was violating securities laws in its activities.

Since the suit against the company was filed, its market capitalization has risen by more than 50%. At the same time a number of top executives, including Armstrong, sold a total of 88,058 shares for about $6.9 million.

State Duma approves the digital ruble law

The State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted the law in its second and third readings, laying the groundwork for central bank digital currency integration.

The document introduces the concepts of “digital ruble platform”, “digital ruble platform rules”, “participant in the digital ruble platform”, “user of the digital ruble platform”, and “digital account”. The main provisions will come into force on 1 August 2023.

Media: US authorities arrest former Celsius chief

According to Bloomberg, on July 13 U.S. law enforcement arrested the former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky. Sources say the SEC filed a suit against the company and its former head. The case is under seal.

The U.S. Department of Justice charged the former head of the platform with seven criminal counts.

What to discuss with friends?

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• A U.S. presidential candidate invested in Bitcoin about $250,000.
• On‑chain analyst ZachXBT suspected the blogger’s involvement in a $1.5 million scam.
• BitOK: The Infraud Organization laundered ₽10 billion in Bitcoin.

Ex‑SEC chief sees chances for approval of a Bitcoin ETF

Prospective spot Bitcoin ETF applicants have a good chance of approval if they can demonstrate that it is a more efficient and effective way for investors to buy the digital asset, former SEC chair Jay Clayton said.

«If [the companies] are right that the spot stock market has similar efficiency to futures, it will be hard to resist approving the instrument», the official added.

Hacks of the week

On July 10, PeckShield researchers reported a hack of the DeFi protocol Arcadia Finance, whereby the hacker managed to withdraw digital assets totaling around $455,000.

Experts say the exploit was possible due to a “lack of robust input validation.” The code reportedly lacked a mechanism for cross-verification of unconfirmed input data. The attack affected Ethereum pools (darcWETH) and Optimism (darcUSDC).

The next day an unknown actor withdrew 810.1 ETH from the DeFi protocol Rodeo Finance on the Arbitrum network via oracle manipulation. According to PeckShield, after the hack the attacker sent the stolen assets to the Ethereum network, then swapped them for unshETH to move the funds to the staking service Ankr. Subsequently, they laundered the cryptocurrency through the Tornado Cash mixer.

Additionally, Beosin researchers discovered a fresh outflow from the cross‑chain protocol Multichain, which on 6 July halted operations amid a possible breach. On 14 July the project team confirmed the arrest of CEO Zhao Jun and announced a shutdown.

Also on ForkLog:

• WonderFi, Coinsquare and CoinSmart created the largest crypto exchange in Canada.
• Chainalysis: inflows of crypto assets to illicit services fell by 65%.
• Dapper Labs cut 51 employees.
• 9,800 BTC moved, seized from Silk Road.

CFTC fines Bitcoin exchange Digitex $15 million

A U.S. federal court ordered the Digitex Futures exchange and its CEO Adam Todd to pay $15 million in penalties in a case brought by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) accusing fraud and unregistered activity.

According to the CFTC, the company attempted to manipulate the price of its native token DGTX, unlawfully offered futures contracts, failed to register with the agency and did not implement KYC/AML procedures. The court also ordered a ban on Digitex’s and related entities’ activities.

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The decentralized finance sector continues to attract heightened attention from cryptocurrency investors. ForkLog has compiled the most important events and news of the past weeks in a digest.