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Rug Radio Recap - July 16, 2023

After a years long legal battle, Ripple scored a partial win against the SEC as judge rules that the XRP token is not a security.

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Rug Radio
July 16, 2023

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gm fam! We got a little taste of bull market vibes this past week with the XRP ruling sending crypto prices soaring and a few high value CryptoPunk and Bored Ape Yacht Club sales. Is this just another short-lived run or could it be early signs of an upcoming bull run?

This is Rug Radio. Slowly…then all at once.

 

Here's what we've got in this week's recap...

  • Rug Radio Updates🎙️

  • XRP ruling and a win for crypto⭐️

  • Google Play opens app store to NFTs📱

Graphic showing the holdings across Rug Radio treasury, team, and NFT wallets as of July 15

Holdings as of July 15.

 

Rug Radio Updates

STUBS Claim

This week's featured artist is Cat Russell, an Appalachian collage artist focused heavily in the web3 space with a high interest in coupling emerging tech with analog practices.

Abandoned Ramparts is a unique format in contrast to his physical collages, and was created with a combination of tagboard paper and pen work.

 

Rug Radio France 🤝 Decrypt France

To celebrate the launch of Rug Radio and Decrypt’s France based arms, Sandbox is hosting BrandXperience, a brunch on July 18th from 10am to 1pm CET at the Sandbox HQ in Paris🇫🇷

​This will be an interactive multimedia experience exploring the intersection between brands, culture and Web3 where we will be showcasing a curated selection of incredible projects that exemplify the potential of Web3 to transform brand engagement.

To get your tickets and learn more, check out the Luma invitation below!

A BrandXperience, by Decrypt France x Rug Radio France · Luma

Rug Radio France and Decrypt France are thrilled to present "BrandXperience", a brunch hosted on July 18th from 10am to 1pm at the Sandbox HQ.

Luma

 

Stores of the Week

XRP Ruling

Ripple Labs, blockchain and developer and creator or XRP, struck a partial yet big win in it’s 3.5+ year battle with the SEC that could influence ongoing and future crypto legal battles.

On December 22, 2020, the SEC charged Ripple Labs with raising $1.3 billion through the unregistered sale of securities and the two have been in a contentious legal battle ever since.

In a split decision ruling on Thursday, district judge Analisa Torres made two rulings that were a partial win for both Ripple and the SEC…

Ripple win: The XRP token is not a security and the programmatic sales of the token on exchanges isn’t a securities offering.

A sentence from the XRP ruling that says: Therefore, having considered the economic reality and totality of circumstances surrounding the Institutional Sales, the Court concludes that Ripple’s Institutional Sales of XRP constituted the unregistered offer and sale of investment contracts in violation of Section 5 of the Securities Act.15

US District Court S.D. New York

SEC win: The judge ruled that Ripple still violated securities laws in it’s offerings to institutional investors, such as Banks and VCs, citing the 3rd rule of the Howey Test and that these investors had an expectation of profit.

A sentence from the XRP ruling that says: Based on the totality of circumstances, the Court finds that reasonable investors, situated in the position of the Institutional Buyers, would have purchased XRP with the expectation that they would derive profits from Ripple’s efforts.

US District Court S.D. New York

The initial news of this ruling sparked a broad crypto rally with XRP jumping 102% from $0.47 to $0.95 and exchanges like Coinbase to relist XRP for trading on the platform.

While this ruling is a step closer to regulatory clarity, it’s important to keep in mind that this judgment may be appealed by the SEC. Additionally, it’s too early to determine whether this could set a precedent for other cases such as the ongoing battles between the SEC and Coinbase/Binance for similar accusations. Positive news, but we’re not out of the woods yet.

 

Snippets

Google Play Store Opens Its Doors to NFTs in a Major Policy Shift

Google has revamped its Play Store policies, embracing NFT-enabled apps and games, signaling a significant shift in its approach toward blockchain technology.

NFT Now

Cool Cats Expands Gaming Push With Trio of Upcoming Titles

The Cool Cats NFT project's next games span action, puzzle, and endless runner experiences, and are all set to release within nine months.

Decrypt

Sound Raises $20 Million, Opens Music NFT Platform to All Artists

Any artist can now drop on-chain music via Sound after it paid out $5.5 million over the past year—including to Snoop Dogg.

Decrypt

Arkham Intelligence Rolls Out Crypto Data Marketplace; Privacy Advocates Cry Foul

On-chain data provider Arkham Intelligence has started a bounty marketplace that will let people buy and sell on-chain cryptocurrency data.

Coindesk

 

Market Summary
Graphic showing the crypto prices and changes with Bitcoin at $30,282, Ethereum at $1,930, Solana at $27.47, and Ripple at $0.71

Prices as of 8pm ET on July 15.

Context

  • With crypto rallying on the XRP ruling and a general sentiment shift away from PFP projects, there was a significant drop in volumes with art focused projects like Chromie Squiggles and Fidenzas jumping into the top 10.

  • CryptoPunks saw a couple of large sales including a zombie punk for 550 ETH ($1.06M USD) and a hoodie punk for 225 ETH ($435K USD)

  • The XRP ruling sent crypto soaring, especially in altcoins like Solana and Ripple while bluechip cryptos like Bitcoin and Ethereum gave up most of their gains.

 

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