| | Good afternoon. Donald Trump has tapped crypto-friendly former regulator Paul Atkins to lead the SEC. Bye bye Gensler. | Today’s Stories: 🚀 XRP booms 🇰🇷 South Korea Tumbles | Today's newsletter is 930 words, a 4-minute good read. |
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Ripple is Rippin’ |
Ripple’s (XRP) post-election surge has made it the third-largest crypto by market cap, surpassing the stablecoin tether. |
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Wait, what’s XRP again? XRP is the native token for a payments protocol managed by Ripple Labs. Long before we even began writing CoinSnacks, Ripple was helping banks settle cross-border payments by providing a faster, cheaper alternative to traditional systems like SWIFT. |
XRP acts as a bridge currency, enabling real-time settlement and reducing costs for international money transfers. By using XRP, banks can free up capital typically held in foreign accounts, reducing liquidity costs. |
Regulatory backdrop: Ripple Labs has been through the gauntlet of legal challenges throughout the years. Most notably was a lawsuit filed by the SEC in December 2020, alleging that XRP was an unregistered security. |
But in July 2023, Ripple achieved a partial victory when a federal judge ruled that XRP is not necessarily a security when sold on exchanges to the general public. |
This legal clarity, along with some recent big developments, has boosted investor confidence and contributed to the recent surge. |
What’s new over at Ripple? |
Growing anticipation for an XRP ETF. WisdomTree became the fourth issuer to file an ETF application with the SEC. Stablecoin could be on the way. Last week, Fox Business reported that New York's financial regulator is close to approving a new Ripple-issued stablecoin, potentially expanding Ripple's product offerings |
By the numbers: |
XRP has surged over 400% in the past month alone, reaching levels it hadn’t seen since 2018 As of this morning, the coin boasts a $139 billion market cap, which is about $4 billion larger than Tether and $25 billion larger than Solana |
Our Take: Unlike many most coins riding the current bull market, Ripple's XRP actually does offer some tangible utility in the real world. And perhaps investors are now finally recognizing that Ripple isn't just a crypto dinosaur but, rather, a longstanding industry player with a real use-case partnering with banks globally. |
Now, the typical word of caution here is that Ripple is “completely centralized.” Bitcoin, on the other hand, offers similar cross-border transaction capabilities without all the centralized risk. |
But who are we to say “watch out” because of centralization factors. Just like any publicly-traded company, Ripple has a leadership team guiding its direction. |
The bigger concern for investors right about now should be its rapid surge in price. Any time the XRP Army (basically, the OG annoying memecoin/degen crowd) comes out of hiding, let alone a token of this size soaring 400% in less than a month, is a sign of a top. |
We’ll give credit where credits due. Ripple’s resurgence underscores its continued relevance and its efforts to solve real-world problems. But history would tell us to proceed with caution. |
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Crypto Gets Caught Up in S. Korea Turmoil |
In what seems like a completely rogue move, S. Korea’s President, Yoon Suk Yeol, instituted martial law on Tuesday claiming it would prevent the opposition from trying to paralyze his administration amid a political rift. |
What happened (TLDR): In a surprise, nationally televised address, Yoon declared martial law in S. Korea for the first time in decades. |
The move banned political activities and “fake news” in what he called an attempt to save his country from “pro-North Korean” and “anti-state forces.” Immediately, citizens took to the streets changing “Impeach Yoon Suk Yeol!” Lawmakers pushed their way into the National Assembly and voted unanimously to strike down his martial law. Six hours after declaring marshall law, Yoon retracted his decision |
While the entire ordeal occurred in under 6 hours, the impact was felt throughout the entire market. You can find what it means for the traditional stock market elsewhere, but as always our interest is what it means for the crypto markets. |
Impact on Crypto: As the Korean won (KRW) fell to its weakest exchange rate against the dollar in 15 years, Korean-based crypto exchanges Upbit and Bithumb struggled to meet demand. Outages affected users throughout the day. |
BTC on Upbit fell to under $65k XRP, the most popular asset traded in S. Korea fell nearly 60%. Trading volumes for XRP were so high that they surpassed the entire Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) market. |
| Replying to@ltrd_ | BTC on Upbit was priced under $65k, while we saw almost $95k on Binance— $30k difference between Korea and the rest of the world. That was absolutely crazy. We observed big sell pressure, with almost $7mm more in sell orders than buy orders. The next plot is the most important. | | 6:50 PM • Dec 3, 2024 | | |
| 100 Likes 4 Retweets | 4 Replies |
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Why it matters: While S. Korea has had a good amount of political upheaval, it’s far from a 3rd would country. It goes to show that short term price impacts can happen at any time on any day in any country. Stay frosty. |
Meanwhile: France's government teeters on collapse. |
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| Cointelegraph @Cointelegraph | |
| 🇺🇸 BREAKING: Donald Trump nominates Paul Atkins as SEC Chairman. | |
| | 5:51 PM • Dec 4, 2024 | | |
| 823 Likes 173 Retweets | 55 Replies |
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