Showing posts with label ripple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ripple. Show all posts

Ripple Team MOCKS The SEC Following Another Legal Win "This is not a settlement - This is a surrender by the SEC"...

SEC vs Ripple

The SEC's legal battle against Ripple involved coming after them on 2 fronts - first was their claim the company illegally profited by selling an unlicensed security (XRP Tokens) violating the Securities Act of 1933. The second targeted the company's co-founders Christian Larsen and Bradley Garlinghouse, saying they were the ones who made the decisions at the company, so they were charged with "aiding and abettting”.

Today, the SEC's targeting of Larsen and Garlinghouse has officially come to an end as District Judge Analisa Torres announced that the US securities regulator notified the court that it would not continue in the case and has issued a “voluntary dismissal”.

Ripple's lead lawyer Stuart Alderoty shared the news first saying;

"The SEC made a serious mistake going after Brad & Chris personally – and now, they’ve capitulated, dismissing all charges against our executives. This is not a settlement. This is a surrender by the SEC.

That’s 3 consecutive wins for Ripple including the July 13 decision ruling that as a matter of law XRP is NOT a security, the Oct 3 decision denying the SEC’s bid for an interlocutory appeal, and now this." on X.

Current CEO Brad Garlinghouse responded saying;

"In all seriousness, Chris and I (in a case involving no claims of fraud or misrepresentations) were targeted by the SEC in a ruthless attempt to personally ruin us and the company so many have worked hard to build for over a decade.

The SEC repeatedly kept its eye off the ball while secretly meeting with the likes of SBF – failing again and again to protect US consumers & businesses. How many millions of taxpayer $ were wasted?! Feels good to finally be vindicated."

FTX a Massive Blemish On An Already Troubled SEC...

The SEC's 'crack down' on crypto has targeted companies like Coinbase, Binance and Ripple - but where are the investors accusing these companies of wrongdoing? Who did Coinbase, Binance, or Ripple scam? You would think reddit and other crypto related forums would be full of these complaints, but when searching for terms that should lead to them, nothing is found.

While the SEC was busy targeting these companies, FTX was actively misusing users funds and behaving suspiciously fearless of being caught.  Ironically, it was one of the people under SEC investigation who brought the FTX issue to light - Binance CEO 'CZ'.

This means if CZ had not exposed Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX would still be freely spending their users funds, while their top 2 competitors faced SEC harassment - suspicious to say the least.

It makes you wonder - could SEC deliberately be hiding corruption by appearing ignorant and disorganized? 

The Strangest Contradiction...

The most alarming and confusing factor in the SEC's current actions has to be the fact that the SEC evaluated Coinbase just a couple years ago, when they approved the company to go public and sale shares of their stock.  This process involves a deep evaluation of the business, and obviously, if a business's main source of income was unlawful, they would not have been approved.

But they were approved. Coinbase even passed a phase where the SEC asked questions about any parts of the business they wanted clarification on, Coinbase answered them, and they were approved. 

Nothing has changed since Coinbase was worthy of SEC approval. There's no new leadership at the SEC since they deemed Coinbase's business legitimate just two years ago, Coinbase isn't offering anything now that they were not then. But seemingly out of nowhere, suddenly Coinbase is operating outside of the law. 

So SEC saying;  just because they approved a company seeking approval to go public and sell share shares on the stock market, it does not mean that company is legitimate - no one has been able to make sense of why the SEC is now undermining themselves in such an extreme way.

Next For Ripple...

While the charges against company founders are dropped, the case against the company itself is still considered ongoing.  While the SEC lost on their first attempt, the last statement from them was that they are appealing that decision.

But some say dropping the charges against the founders is a sign they may do the same with the charges against the company - because if the company is guilty, those running it would be as well - it would be odd to drop one and not the other.

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Author: Mark Pippen
London Newsroom
GlobalCryptoPress | Breaking Crypto News


Can You Spare $100? 3 Game-Changing Cryptos To Invest In...

 

Seesaw token SSW

To get started in crypto, you don't necessarily need a lot of money. While investing in stocks has historically been catered towards wealthier people with financial understanding, crypto has emerged as the accessible alternative for everyone. 

The terminology and charts utilised by the crypto market can easily put off a newcomer, but the truth is, nobody can predict which crypto will explode. Meme coins continue to surprise people with explosive gains until this day.

Thus, a $100 initial investment could help lay the groundwork for massive long-term gains. Let's look at why Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP) and Seesaw Protocol (SSW) appear to be long-term winners. 

Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum (ETH) is the second-largest public crypto, with a market cap of $345 billion, accounting for nearly 20% of the entire crypto market. The Merge, a platform upgrade that could make running the blockchain more environmentally friendly and sustainable, is being worked on by the platform's developers to keep its dominant position.

Ethereum (ETH), as you may be aware, has fallen behind newer blockchains. Consider Solana (SOL), which can process 50,000 transactions per second versus Ethereum's (ETH) meagre 15.

This discrepancy is due in large part to Ethereum's (ETH) proof-of-work (PoW) block validation mechanism, which requires miners to solve computational problems in order to verify transactions. This is a time-consuming process that uses real-world resources. These problems will be addressed in a future update.

Ethereum's (ETH) main blockchain will merge with a parallel network known as the beacon chain and transition to a full proof-of-stake (PoS) system, where miners verify transactions using existing coins rather than solving puzzles, according to its developers. This change could result in a 99.95% reduction in Ethereum's (ETH) total energy consumption, as well as the possibility of future improvements aimed at speed and scalability.

The Merge's release date is unknown, but the developers say it could be a few months after June.


Ripple (XRP)


Do you want crypto with real-world application? Ripple (XRP) is where to look. Despite ongoing legal uncertainty, the well-defined niche and impressive technical capabilities of this finance-focused blockchain position it for long-term success in the competitive crypto industry.

While almost all cryptos can store and transmit value, Ripple (XRP) goes above and beyond by optimising its design for this purpose. Transactions are quick and inexpensive, taking three to five seconds to complete for a fee of 0.0001 XRP tokens (each XRP is currently worth $0.65).

Ripple Labs, the blockchain's creator, also offers RippleNet, an enterprise-level payment solution that allows large companies to move money across borders using Ripple's (XRP) native token, XRP, as well as other traditional currencies. So far, the protocol has a number of high-profile partners, including Santander, a Spanish multinational bank, and American Express, a global payments giant.

The real-world utility of Ripple (XRP) has piqued the interest of US regulators, who are investigating whether the blockchain's creators broke security laws when they launched it. Nobody knows how this situation will turn out, but investors should keep in mind that Ripple's (XRP) developer is distinct from the XRP tokens you buy or sell on exchanges.


Seesaw Protocol (SSW)


Before its launch, Seesaw Protocol (SSW) had a hugely successful presale, with its price increasing by an incredible 8000%. Seesaw Protocol (SSW) started at $0.005, but its popularity quickly grew, and the token's presale ended at around $0.40, much to the delight of its holders.

Seesaw Protocol (SSW) has generated a lot of buzz due to its transformative goals, which have contributed to its skyrocketing presale price. According to its White Paper, Seesaw Protocol (SSW) aims to connect other blockchains, including Binance Smart Chain (BNB), Polygon (MATIC), and Ethereum (ETH), allowing users to use whichever blockchain network they prefer.

Following the launch of PancakeSwap, holders can expect the multi-chain bridge and swap, cross-chain deployment across Ethereum (ETH) and Polygon (MATIC), and the UniSwap launch later this year. 


Find out more about Seesaw Protocol (SSW) here:

Swap: https://swap.seesawprotocol.io/

Website: https://seesawprotocol.io/

Telegram: https://t.me/SEESAWPROTOCOL

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SEESAWPROTOCOL

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seesaw.protocol

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Content not created, evaluated, or endorsed by Global Crypto Press Crypto & NFT Press Release Distribution

Ripple's Small Victory In Court May Lead To A Huge Victory Soon, As Their Battle Against The SEC Continues...

 Ripple SEC Lawsuit

The SEC says Ripple's $1.8 billion raised during it's ICO was raised illegally - and they want Ripple to give it back.

Ripple asks - why us, why now? As they compare their token with Bitcoin and Ethereum, which have already received the green light when the SEC publicly stated they are not a security.

Here's where it gets confusing...

The SEC argued that Ripple is indeed a security, as it was pre-mined and distributed among its executives before being publicly launched, while bitcoin and Ethereum were not.

Except...Ethereum was. They held an ICO, and sold pre-mined coins to investors during it.

Now, the SEC will be forced to release internal documents giving insight into how they decided to clear Bitcoin and Etherum...

Ripple took the SEC to court in order to find out how they decided in Ethereum's favor - and won.

The SEC has to release internal documents showing their methods of deciding what is and isn't a security, and once those documents are in hand, Ripple's lawyers believe they can use the SEC's prior decisions against them by saying if Ethereum isn't a security, neither are they.

The lawyers of Ripple Labs Inc. argue that for 8 years the SEC has not raised its voice in this regard, so now they must clarify what has led them to sue the executives of this company. Faced with this allegation, the SEC had recently responded that it was not its responsibility to notify in advance regarding potential infractions of the law.

Either way, today is a small win for Ripple that they hope will lead to a huge win around the corner. 

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Author: Mark Pippen
London News Desk 
Breaking Crypto News

Ripple Changing Focus? Latest Project Aims To Provide Solutions To Government's Launching Official Digital Currencies...

Ripple and CBDC's

The Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is currently in the process of research and development at many financial institutions around the world, and is the subject of debate among global financial transactions and local governments as each makes its own decisions.

Completely separate from the cryptocurrency market, Ripple is now developing new solutions for traditional banks launching CBDC's and has announced that it has implemented a pilot program with privacy locks that may be useful in this market.

Perhaps Ripple is trying to secure their future, if challenges that their XRP token was launched illegally don't go their way.

XRP's Tech To Be Used...

Although with a new purpose, they're pitching the same tech XRP transactions currently use, stating:

"Transactions on the CBDC Private Ledger are verified by the same consensus protocol used by the XRP Ledger, which is far less energy intensive, and therefore less expensive and 61,000 times more efficient than public blockchains that leverage proof-of-work.

In addition to leveraging the XRP Ledger technology, the CBDC Private Ledger is also supported by RippleNet technologies, and the Interledger suite of protocols to enable ultra-high throughput use-cases such as micro-payments."

No Longer A Matter Of  "If" But "When"...

CBDC's will become commonplace, that much is obvious. The US is in early stages of developing theirs, and even smaller countries such as Lithuania and the Bahamas have announced their digital currencies.

However, currently all eyes are on China preparing to launch their "digital yuan".

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Author: Justin Derbek
New York News Desk
Breaking Crypto News


Ripple's XRP Token Drops Another Position On The Top 10, as Market Cap Losses Pass $13 BILLION In 30 Days...

ripple xrp price sec lawsuit

Ripple maintains a negative trend that has led to a loss of almost half of its price in the last 30 days, a disaster caused by a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit against the company that issues XRP.

There were a couple days with decent gains, but that just seemed to trigger new rounds of selloffs as worried investors who wish they got out earlier saw this as their chance to get out.

But generally speaking, the token has been declining since December when the public learned that the SEC was suing the company and its co-founders for selling XRP, which the government is considering an unregistered security.

Now as of today XRP has lost fourth place to Polkadot (DOT), whose market capitalization has exceeded $ 15 billion.

The day the news broke, the price of XRP was $0.48.

Today at the time of publishing, XRP is selling for $0.27

Their $25 Billion market cap now all the way down to $12 Billion.

But What If...

What if Ripple beats the lawsuit? Or better, it gets dropped as the new administration appoints new heads to the SEC and Justice Department.

Ripple has openly said they're even willing to settle right now.

Let's play devils advocate - imagine if someone were to stock up on XRP when it hits bottom, and then they win their lawsuit - you can bet that coin is going to shoot up like crazy and they're going to be pretty happy with their investment.

Of course, if the SEC takes this all the way and they lose in court, XRP will be worthless as the company would likely be finished. 

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Author: Justin Derbek
New York News Desk

Will We See Heat On The Summer Charts?! The July 2020 CRYPTO OUTLOOK...

Welcome to the July Crypto Outlook with Contentworks, an agency specialising in content marketing for financial services, crypto and blockchain.

The cryptocurrencies sector was relatively calm in June as the world economy started to reopen after months of lockdown. The price of Bitcoin remained below the important resistance level of $10,000 while Ethereum rose by 12%. Ripple declined by more than 7% even as the company announced new plans to expand its remittance gateways.



Ethereum momentum gains ahead of ETH 2.0...
ETH was among the best-performing digital currencies in June as enthusiasm rose over Ethereum 2.0.

For starters, ETH 2.0 is a new software update to the current public mainnet that is intended to improve Ethereum usage and adoption. The most significant change in the system will be Proof of Stake (PoS), which will be implemented by sharding. By implementing PoS, ETH 2.0 will replace miners and electricity with validators and stake. In this, validators will replace miners as the individuals who maintain the agreed-upon state of the network and receive rewards for randomly selecting the next block of data.

ETH 2.0 will be the next big update in the cryptocurrencies space after halving, which happened in May. Therefore, there is a possibility that the price of ETH will continue to rise as enthusiasts wait for the new changes.

Ripple gets ready to expand payment gateways...
The coronavirus pandemic has led to a sharp decline in global remittances. According to the World Bank, total remittances will fall by more than 20% this year as unemployment rates in the developed world rise. However, digital platforms have seen an increase in transactions.

In a statement in June, Asheesh Birla, an executive at Ripple said that the company was moving to expand its remittance gateways to more countries. While the process will take months to implement, traders believe it will lead to more transactions in the XRP platform. In July, we will continue to focus more on these developments.

Coronavirus second wave...
The past three months have been difficult for the world economy. The pandemic also put cryptocurrencies to their biggest test since they were formed a decade ago. That is because, in the past, most analysts were worried about whether the currencies could survive a recession.

In total, Ethereum has been among the best-performing digital assets, gaining by more than 66% in the past three months. Bitcoin is next, having gained by 38% while XRP has gained by just 5%.

In July, the currencies may be tested again as the number of coronavirus cases jump in the United States and elsewhere. In the past week, the country has reported more than 100,000 new cases and more states have started to implement stay-at-home orders. And the CDC has warned that these numbers are underreported.

Therefore, cryptocurrencies could see more movement as the Federal Reserve moves to implement more stimulus funding. There is also a possibility that Washington will implement more stimulus. The chart below shows how the three biggest digital currencies have performed during the pandemic.



Top crypto events in July...
Events have been among the worst-affected sectors in the cryptocurrency industry. In the past few months, events that used to attract thousands of attendees have been replaced by virtual events. In July, with the number of cases rising, most events will remain online.

Among the key events to watch are the Cardano Shelly Summit, which will happen on July 2 and 3.  Binance will host its third “off the charts” events while Unitize will happen between July 06 and 10. Other key events to watch are the Singapore Blockchain Week, Mining Disrupt, and Asia Blockchain Summit. We will also be media partners at the TradeOn virtual event so be sure to join us there!

At Contentworks Agency, our team of financial professionals closely follows market movements for FX, Crypto and other tradable instruments. We are proud to serve some of the biggest crypto and fintech companies in the world by delivering high-impact articles, videos, PRs and white papers.

Visit Contentworks at www.contentworks.agency 

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Global Crypto Press / Breaking Crypto News
PR Distribution / Industry Services

Ripple CEO On CNBC TV Discussing How They Plan To Disrupt Global Payment Infrastructure...


Ripple says it is modernizing the global payments infrastructure and is making the task of sending money around the world as easy, fast and inexpensive as sending an email. It claims to have over 300 financial services customers globally and has signed partnership deals with American Express and Santander.

Last June it announced a partnership with MoneyGram, one of the world’s largest money-transfer companies. The partnership uses Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity, or ODL, technology to enable money to be sent from one currency and instantly settled in the destination currency. Today MoneyGram moves 10% of its transaction volume between the U.S. and Mexico through ODL.

Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple CEO explains on CNBC.

Video courtesy of CNBC

Ripple's XRP Quietly Preparing For a Comeback? Raw Data Gives Us A Glimpse Of Surprising, Large Growth...

There's been a huge spike in activity - a whopping 80% rise just throughout September, of transfers originating in the US or Europe, with destinations in Mexico and the Philippines, using Ripple's On Demand Liquidity service, ODL, formerly known as xRapid.

Who are these new users? Immigrant workers, sending funds home.

An independent analyst monitored the flow of XRP and recorded movement in exchanges who installed ODL. Among them are the Mexican exchange house Bitso, Coins.ph based in the Philippines, the American Bittrex, and Bitstamp based in Europe.

A quick glance at CoinMarketCap's data shows $1.5 million XRP had been traded paired with the Mexican Peso just in the last 24hrs before publishing this article.

That means October is currently on-pace to beat out September, which had $18.9 million in remittances to Mexico and the Philippines, which as mentioned, was 80% more than in August.

So how are these immigrant workers discovering XRP, and why are they choosing it over alternative cryptocurrences?

Moneygram.

The deal made back in June has been put into effect - Ripple agreed to taking a $50 million stake in MoneyGram, and MoneyGram agreed to begin using XRP for cross-border payments, which is what's happening now.

Another important factor to consider - many feared working wth Ripple, worried the SEC would classify XRP as an unlicenced security.

But between Coinbase listing it, and Moneygram implementing it - these fears seem to have largely vanished.

With these obstacles removed - another big rally for XRP may be imminent. As long as there isn't any new, negative surprises around the corner - I can't imagine a scenario where these recent developments don't lead to some strong gains.

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Author: Adam Lee 
Asia News Desk

Ripple Executives Deliver Letter To US Congress, Sharing Their Love Of Central Banks and Government...

It's a blend of some very valid points, reasonable requests, and cringe-worthy lines of hardcore sucking up. Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple and Chris Larsen, Executive Chairman, sent a letter to the US Congress with the hope lawmakers will take their words into account as cryptocurrency continues to be a hot topic on Capitol Hill.

Featuring gems like "For centuries, governments have been well suited for the job because paramount to the acceptance of any currency is trust." the Ripple leaders perfectly captured the thoughts of us all - when you hear the words 'government' and 'money'- you too likely think 'trust...right?

Also worthy of admiration - the role central banks play, letting them know that they "don’t take for granted the vital role of central banks in issuing currencies and setting monetary policy in concert with the complex dynamics of economies around the world."

Thankfully it's not all like this, as they do a good job pointing out that cryptocurrency comes with some advantages as well; "Without a doubt, blockchain and digital currencies will engender greater financial inclusion and economic growth not unlike the internet’s historic impact. As it did with the internet, the U.S. has the chance to lead the way, nurturing this economic opportunity while continuing to protect privacy and stability."

Along with a point we've emphasized countless times in our reporting as we watched the next generation of tech innovations leave the US, out of fear of potential future regulation, and confusion over current guidelines - "We urge you to support regulation that does not disadvantage U.S. companies using these technologies to innovate responsibly" they added.

You can read their full letter here.

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Author: Justin Derbek
New York News Desk

After years of hurling insults and slander at Coinbase, Ripple fans celebrate victory! A look back on how it all went down...

It's official - the 'XRP Army' has won the war - CoinBase has decided to list their favorite token! While everyone is best friends now, 48hrs ago it was a different story... seriously, about as different as a story can be.

Anyone who's in crypto, and on Twitter, has undoubtedly been subjected to seeing every Tweet posted by, or related to Coinbase or their leadership, get totally taken over by the 'XRP Community'  aka 'XRP Army' as they absolutely ripped Coinbase apart.

It became so bad, i'm somewhat shocked Coinbase added them, and now we finally know the trick to get a coin listed - verbally assault them daily on social media.

While the XRP community celebrates their official listing on Coinbase - I thought it would be fun to look back at all the good times!

If you're part of a project with a token and dream about one day being listed on Coinbase - take notes, this is how it's done...













What else is there to say? It worked!

So... good job?

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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle News Desk

Death threats, police, FBI, and accusations of manipulation follow claim that XRP is $6+ billion overvalued - and there's MORE to this story...

The spark that lit this fire happened earlier this week when research firm 'Messari' came out with a report on why they believe Ripple's XRP token is greatly overvalued - by up to 46% meaning "Ripple’s $XRP market cap is likely overstated by $6.1 billion".

Others have covered that and the initial reaction from Ripple/XRP fans calling it all lies.

But that's not the whole story - there's several important factors to take into account to truly understand how things reached the level of intensity we're at today. The other reports i've seen this week we're all missing crucial parts of the story.

Before diving in I must add - I neither own any XRP, or have a grudge against Ripple.  I understand how Ripple's involvement with the big banks turn some people off to it.  I also think expecting the banking industry to sit back and simply watch cryptocurrency grow is unrealistic. If Ripple wasn't working with them, someone else would be. So i'm literally neutral, making me qualified to cover all this fairly.

So let's begin - at the actual beginning.

Grudges between the two sides goes way back:

Ryan Selkis is the founder of Messari, the firm that made this week's claims against Ripple.

But the hate between Ryan Selkis and Ripple fans goes way back, long before this report.

Ryan shared his opinions on Ripple over a year ago, calling XRP "a sham". On his personal blog, he wrote an entry called "I See You, $XRP" where he explained his stance at length.

From then on he was among the 'most hated' by Ripple's community, with leaders like Tiffany Hayden labeling him a 'liar'.

But that just seemed to motivate Ryan more, he explains it:

"The XRP community is irredeemably awful"  their hate for him is actually "a badge of honor."

Then this week's research report calling XRP overvalued was released:

Knowing the long-standing animosity between the two sides, the response was fairly predictable.

Ripple's supporters argue that it would be impossible for a company founded by someone who takes pride in being hated by them, to conduct honest unbiased research.

But those supporting Ryan say he has such a nasty history with Ripple fans because he's long known 'the truth' - and they just hate hearing it.

Which now brings us to the last 72hrs:

Following the release of the report from Messari, Ryan claims he's been on the receiving end of threats and harassment, saying:

"Someone just called me from a Nashville number and recited my wife’s birthday to me. Then hung up.[Ripple's CEO] these are the type of animals you and your fucking company enable."

He then demanded the company's leaders step in and tell their fans to back off:

"I want [Ripple executives] to denounce any $xrp community threats against my family. I’m going to the fbi and local police after THREE calls. Ensuring our family doesn’t get swatted.  I’m not going home until it’s publicly stated."

Where things stand today:

As you can see there's an established history of each side responding to the other by stepping up their attacks.  Keeping that tradition - things have gotten even worse.

The Ripple community maintains their stance that he's a liar, and now adds that he's even lying about the threats made to him. As one member who goes by 'Cryptocrusader' says:

"Can this lying sack of shit prove anything that exits his pie hole. Selkis makes a living telling lies
Don't you think he would go to the FBI first instead of tweeting about it? Ryan is a worthless piece of shit."

Now Ryan out for more blood than ever, and he's hoping someone inside of Ripple will help him throw his next punch - he's looking for leakers:

"If you’re a current or former partner, investor, customer, employee of Ripple and you want to share anonymous tips regarding the company’s XRP sales, marketing or general business practices, you can do so with our team.  Off the record: anontips@Messari.io"

My thoughts so far:

The data showing Ripple is overvalued may be totally true - but it's tainted by the history of Ryan acting like a man-child on Twitter and openly saying he loves doing things that make Ripple's community hate him, and the fact he's the research company's founder.

A researcher who stands by their findings should simply keep pointing to those findings - demanding them to be disproven.  When you're right, winning the argument really is that simple.  Everything else is a step in the wrong direction, and he's walked a mile.

Likewise, Ripple's community may have valid points to dispute the report - but those are tainted as well, by them resorting to personal attacks, and if true, making threats. 

There's also a disturbingly high number of accounts with anonymous ownership among Ripple's supporters . To Ryan's credit, he's willing to make his claims under his own name, while Ripple's community appears be made up mostly of people using 'screen names' - they won't face consequences for being wrong, they can just move on with a new name.

In closing, because of this I cannot imagine either side being the one to settle this. The only solution would be a neutral, 3rd party of qualified researchers reviewing all of the claims made so far and sharing their findings.

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Author: Ross Davis
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco News Desk

As markets recover a new #2 cryptocurrency emerges - Ripple has dethroned Ethereum... for now.

Following yesterday's cryptocurrency market bloodbath, today's recovery has given us a new #2 token - Ripple's XRP has overthrown Ethereum to take the spot after the never-dethroned #1 - Bitcoin.

The margin isn't huge, with XRP's market cap sitting at $18,683,209,694 and Ethereum at $18,307,093,020 at the time of publishing.

A few factors aside from yesterday's crash played into this too - when markets take a dive, ICO's that raised Ethereum to fund project development tend to ditch some or all of their ETH. Rather than sit by and see how low it will go and risking the funds they need pay the bills.

At the exact same time, Ripple was getting a wave of positive press following an interview it's Chief Executive Officer Brad Garlinghouse did with Bloomberg, where he outlined Ripple's aggressive goals to take over banking transactions.

But the battle for #2 is hardly over, while it's been a rough year for Ethereum the light at the end of the tunnel keeps getting brighter. 

Last week at Ethereum's 4th annual developer conference the public was given an update on Ethereum 2.0 which could very well solve all of Ethereum's current problems with one big upgrade. It's coming, but the release dates keep changing and Ethereum's rough ride will likely continue for awhile longer - still, don't make the mistake of thinking a comeback isn't extremely likely.
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Author: Justin Derbek
New York News Desk

Ripple snags Google's Vice President of Products...

Ripple has confirmed their latest heavyweight hire is Google's (now former) Vice President of Products, Amir Sarhangi.

Sarhangi is now in charge of development for Ripple's global payments network known as RippleNet.

Dispite a bear market for 2018, Ripple has been beating the odds - boasting $73.53 million in revenue in the 2nd quarter of the year, and following that up by doubling that amount and hitting $163.33 million in the 3rd quarter.

His title from Google, 'Vice President of products' will be Sarhangi's official new title at Ripple as well.

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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle News Desk

Ripple's XRP token and Ethereum are in a battle over who will hold the #2 cryptocurrency ranking...

Love em or hate em, Ripple has had an amazing week.

Earlier today Ripple actually did officially steal the #2 spot on Coinmarketcap for a brief period of time - at the high Ripple's total market cap was about $26 billion, leaving a $3 billion gap between them and Ethereum when XRP bumped Ether down to #3 at around $23 billion.

As the day progressed though, it appears some XRP investors decided it was a good time to take a profit and sold some tokens - while Ethereum investors appear to have to held firm or buy more.

At the time of publishing - there's barely $1 billion separating them, with Ethereum at $23,269,161,168 and XRP at $22,560,661,106.

Ripple's rise this week comes from two front - the first a rumor that xRapid payment platform is ready to launch, and a confirmed report that PNC Bank will use RippleNet to process international payments.

Ethereum on the other hand, has had probably it's roughest month yet. With critics saying it's over, and it's developers and supporters saying Ethereum 2.0 is coming, and when it does - Ethereum will rise again.
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Author: Ross Davis
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco News Desk

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse asked 'are you the devil?' of the cryptocurrency world at Tech Crunch Disrupt...


The exchange took place today as part of a wider discussion on the topics of blockchain and banking.

Hosted by TechCrunch Editor-at-large Mike Butcher, the discussion included Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and Michael Arrington who is one of the original founders of TechCrunch in 2005 but has since moved on to other ventures, including some in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space.

Turns out Arrington and Garlinghouse go way back as well - when TechCrunch sold to AOL, the current Ripple CEO was one of the people inside AOL who helped make the deal happen.

As Editor of Global Crypto Press - i'm all too familiar with what comes next - it's something not only our own team here is split on, but the entire cryptocurrency community. 

On one hand, you have people who see banks turning to blockchain as part of a natural evolution of the technology.  On the other hand, die-hard cryptocurrency enthusiasts who see this tech as a means to an end for corporate controlled banking altogether - and anyone helping bring them into our world is undoubtedly evil.

To my surprise, TechCrunch's Mike Butcher chose this as the first thing to address, asking the Ripple CEO:

"The crypto libertarians to this day rail against ripple and XRP, and anyone who will deal with them... some of them actually literally called you the devil - so, are you?"

Garlinghouse responded:

"Look I think it's interesting place to start in part because I think there are a lot of religious zealots in the crypto space. And I think people believe things in a way that you would kind of describe as religious zealotry, ripple took a contrarian view pretty early in our evolution and said, look, if you want to really revolutionize the way payments work, if you really want to revolutionize the way transactions work in this regard, it's not gonna happen by everybody giving up their existing infrastructure and just switching to something new as much as I am actually a bull on Bitcoin. 

 The Bitcoin blockchain is not trying to be one ledger to rule them. All ripple invented, is series of technologies built upon the XRP ledger that allows institutions, banks, and even in some cases governments, to take advantage of these technologies and dramatically accelerate the nature of transactions fully into talking points. But I'm trying to explain the thing I'm getting to is simple. The idea that the people who say that ripple is somehow that your word the devil, it's because we were partnering with the man we decided, if you want to enable an internet of value, got to connect the repositories of value - and the repositories of value are the banks."

Now to be clear, I own no XRP - and wouldn't call myself a fan.  But i'd be lying to say I think Garlinghouse is wrong. 

Just pause for second and honestly consider how ridiculous someone sounds making the case that blockchain is a superior method of both transferring funds and record keeping - and then saying they expect banks not to use it. That's literally everything a bank does, so of course they're keeping up with the latest tech that does it the best.  People expecting anything else are among this childish part of the cryptocurrency world that occasionally makes me cringe - your heart is in the right place, but it's a fantasy.

Point is - Ripple or some other company doing the exact same thing was bound to pop up, and when it did I couldn't have been any less surprised.  If Ripple is evil, it's an evil that would have happened with or without Brad Garlinghouse.

This isn't to say everything the Ripple CEO said had me nodding my head in agreement.

At one point, host Mike Butcher asked Garlinghouse about his 'general view' on Ethereum, in which Garlinghouse responded by pointing out that virtually all of the projects built on it's blockchain so far have proven only to be largely "experimental" and have "solved no real-world problems".

That's a statement I don't take issue with - I take issue with who's saying it. 

A deep look into Ripple's relationships with the banks, and it seems pretty damn experimental too.  When you look at the specifics of when Ripple announces a new relationship with a bank, more often than not you learn that 'experimenting' is exactly what the banks are doing with Ripple.  They're agreeing to try it out, not replace what their doing with any of Ripple's tech, and never by using the actual XRP token.

To understand where Ripple actually stands currently, compared to how they are hyped up by their fans, see what Garlinghouse himself recently told CNBC "You know, by the end of next year (2019), I would certainly hope that we would see you know in the order of... dozens  (of banks using their technology)" - that statement makes Ripple's true position today a bit more clear.

Our coverage of TechCrunch contines through the end of the week, with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstong wrapping things up on Friday.

TechCrunch Disrupt, the world’s top technology and startup event, is taking place in San Francisco on September 5-7, 2018. For more information and to tune-in to the livestream, please visit techcrunch.com
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Author & US Editor In Chief: Ross Davis
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco News Desk

Former President Bill Clinton announced as Ripple's keynote speaker for their upcoming Swell Conference in San Francisco...

Former President Bill Clinton has just been announced today as the keynote speaker at Ripple's upcoming event "Swell". In a press release Ripple stated:

"Today, we’re thrilled to announce 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton as the keynote speaker for Swell – where the world’s leaders in policy, payments and technology connect.

 At a time when groundbreaking technology and regulation were often on a collision course, President Clinton helped usher in a period of extreme growth and adoption of the Internet, shaping what it is today. He also established programs that bridged the “digital divide” and brought new technology to underserved communities around the world."

What is unclear is if the former President will touch on the topics of cryptocurrency or blockchain technology - he's never mentioned either in the past.

Swell takes place in San Francisco October 2nd and 3rd.
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Author: Ross Davis
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco News Desk

Ripple doesn't sound very excited about Ripple in new interview...

If you're in the cryptocurrency space you likely either love or hate Ripple, but for the same reason - they work with the big banks. 

Now a new interview with Reuters brings to light that banks switching over to being powered by blockchain is an uphill battle, and not expected to happen tomorrow.

“I will concede, we haven’t gotten there yet” Ripple’s chief cryptographer David Schwartz said speaking to Reuters.

"The feedback from the banks is you can’t put the whole world on a blockchain.” added Marcus Treacher, senior vice president of customer success.

Ripple is also learning that some sectors of banking are likely never to move to the blockchain. “What we hear from many of our customers is that it’s imperative to keep their transactions private, process thousands every second, and accommodate every type of currency and asset imaginable” Schwartz added.

Now to be fair, just because Ripple isn't accomplishing everything they want to immediately let's not discount what they have accomplished.  Banks have been impressed with Ripple's XCurrent technology which utilizes an immutable interledger protocol, and in the use case of cross-border payments banks can see transactions that used to take days literally take just seconds. Because of this you may still see Ripple's tech used to move trillions of dollars in the global market.

A big goal like revamping how banks fundamentally function is simply bound to be a massive challenge - and i'm absolutely not making the case that Ripple is failing by any means.  However - there's a couple questions worth asking; how long will investors wait? and what progress could competing companies make while Ripple still looks to solidify it's role in the banking world?

The full interview with Reuters can be read here.

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Author: Mark Pippen
London News Desk