 |
Top Stories of The Week
SEC will drop its appeal against Ripple, CEO Garlinghouse says
The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s multi-year enforcement action against Ripple is finally coming to an end, according to the company’s CEO.
“This is it — the moment we’ve been waiting for. The SEC will drop its appeal — a resounding victory for Ripple, for crypto, every way you look at it,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse wrote on X on March 19.
“I’m finally able to announce that the case has ended; it’s over,” Garlinghouse said in the video attached to the X post.
The end of a long-running legal battle between Ripple and the SEC comes four years after the US securities regulator sued the company over an alleged $1.3 billion unregistered securities offering in December 2020.
Trump becomes first US sitting president to speak at a crypto conference
US President Donald Trump is steadily aligning his administration with the crypto industry. On March 20, he addressed a community conference for the first time since being elected.
Speaking at Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit on March 20 in a pre-recorded statement, Trump reiterated that the US would take steps to ensure it is the “crypto capital of the world.”
The president lauded the recent regulatory shift in the crypto industry over the previous administration and added:
“Pioneers like you will be able to improve our banking and payment system and promote greater privacy, safety, security and wealth for American consumers and businesses alike. You will unleash an explosion of economic growth.”
Bybit: 89% of stolen $1.4B crypto still traceable post-hack
The lion’s share of the hacked Bybit funds is still traceable after the historic cybertheft, as blockchain investigators continue their efforts to freeze and recover these funds.
The crypto industry was rocked by the largest hack in history on Feb. 21, when Bybit lost over $1.4 billion in liquid-staked Ether, Mantle Staked ETH and other digital assets.
Blockchain security firms, including Arkham Intelligence, have identified North Korea’s Lazarus Group as the likely culprit behind the Bybit exploit, as the attackers have continued swapping the funds in an effort to make them untraceable.
Despite the Lazarus Group’s efforts, over 88% of the stolen $1.4 billion remains traceable, according to Ben Zhou, the co-founder and CEO of Bybit exchange.
Coinbase becomes Ethereum’s largest node operator with 11% stake
A Coinbase report revealed that the crypto exchange is the largest node operator on the Ethereum network, controlling 11.42% of total staked Ether.
In a performance report, Coinbase said it had 3.84 million Ether, worth about $6.8 billion, staked to its validators. The exchange also said that, as of March 3, it has 11.42% of total staked ETH.
Anthony Sassano, host of The Daily Gwei, said that Coinbase’s stake makes the exchange the “single largest node operator” in the network.
Sassano added that while the staking platform Lido is bigger as a collective, each node operator has a much smaller percentage share.
Binance CEO reiterates denial of Trump family deal talks
Binance CEO Richard Teng denied reports that Binance.US was in deal talks with entities affiliated with US President Donald Trump during a March 18 panel at Blockworks’ 2025 Digital Asset Summit in New York.
Teng’s statement reiterated the position taken by Binance’s co-founder, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, and Trump, both of whom denied the story last week.
Read also
Features
An Investment in Knowledge Pays the Best Interest: The Parlous State of Financial Education
Features
Soulbound Tokens: Social credit system or spark for global adoption?
On March 13, The Wall Street Journal reported that Binance.US, an independently-operated US cryptocurrency exchange, was discussing selling an equity interest to Trump-affiliated business entities, including a possible deal with World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s decentralized finance (DeFi) project.
“I believe both World Liberty Financial as well as CZ himself have tweeted and denied the reforms, right? So that there’s really nothing else to add,” Teng said during the summit, which was attended by Cointelegraph.
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $84,136, Ether (ETH) at $1,962 and XRP at $2.38. The total market cap is at $2.75 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the…
cointelegraph.com