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Cryptocurrency

US tightens crackdown on crypto with lawsuits against Coinbase, Binance

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The top U.S. securities regulator sued cryptocurrency platform Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) on Tuesday, the second lawsuit in two days against a major crypto exchange, in a dramatic escalation of a crackdown on the industry and one that could dramatically transform a market that has largely operated outside regulation.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday took aim at Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. The SEC accuses Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao of operating a “web of deception”.

If successful, the lawsuits could transform the crypto market by successfully asserting the SEC’s jurisdiction over the industry which for years has argued that tokens do not constitute securities and should not be regulated by the SEC.

“The two cases are different, but overlap and point in the same direction: the SEC’s increasingly aggressive campaign to bring cryptocurrencies under the jurisdiction of the federal securities laws,” said Kevin O’Brien, a partner at Ford O’Brien Landy and a former federal prosecutor, adding, however, that the SEC has not previously taken on such major crypto players.

“If the SEC prevails in either case, the cryptocurrency industry will be transformed.”

In its complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, the SEC said Coinbase has since at least 2019 made billions of dollars by operating as a middleman on crypto transactions, while evading disclosure requirements meant to protect investors.

The SEC said Coinbase traded at least 13 crypto assets that are securities that should have been registered, including tokens such as Solana, Cardano and Polygon.

Coinbase suffered about $1.28 billion of net customer outflows following the lawsuit, according to initial estimates from data firm Nansen. Shares of Coinbase’s parent Coinbase Global Inc closed down $7.10, or 12.1%, at $51.61 after earlier falling as much as 20.9%. They are up 46% this year.

Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s general counsel, in a statement said the company will continue operating as usual and has “demonstrated commitment to compliance.”

Oanda senior market analyst Ed Moya said the SEC “looks like it’s playing Whac-A-Mole with crypto exchanges,” and because most exchanges offer a range of tokens that operate on blockchain protocols targeted by regulators, “it seems like this is just the beginning.”

Leading cryptocurrency bitcoin has been a paradoxical beneficiary of the crackdown.

After an initial plunge to a nearly three-month low of $25,350 following the Binance suit, bitcoin rebounded by more than $2,000, exceeding the previous day’s high. It was trading just below $27,000 at 0410 GMT.

“The SEC is making life nearly impossible for several altcoins and that is actually driving some crypto traders back into bitcoin,” explained Oanda’s Moya.

BROKER, EXCHANGE CRACKDOWN

Securities, as opposed to other assets such as commodities, are strictly regulated and require detailed disclosures to inform investors of potential risks. The Securities Act of 1933 outlined a definition of the term “security,” yet many experts rely on two U.S. Supreme Court cases to determine if an investment product constitutes a security.

SEC Chair Gary Gensler has long said tokens constitute securities and has steadily asserted its authority over the crypto market, focusing initially on the sale of tokens and interest-bearing crypto products. More recently, it has taken aim at unregistered crypto broker dealer, exchange trading and clearing activity.

While a few crypto companies are licensed as alternative system trading systems, a type of trading platform used by brokers to trade listed securities, no crypto platform operates as a full-blown stock exchange. The SEC also this year sued Beaxy Digital and Bittrex Global for failing to register as an exchange, clearing house and broker.

“The whole business model is built on a noncompliance with the U.S. securities laws and we’re asking them to come into compliance,” Gensler told CNBC.

Crypto companies refute that tokens meet the definition of a security, say the SEC’s rules are ambiguous, and that the SEC is overstepping its authority in trying to regulate them. Still, many companies have boosted compliance, shelved products and expanded outside the country in response to the crackdown.

Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association trade group, rejected Gensler’s efforts to oversee the industry.

“We’re confident the courts will prove Chair Gensler wrong in due time,” she said.

Founded in 2012, Coinbase recently served more than 108 million customers and ended March with $130 billion of customer crypto assets and funds on its balance sheet. Transactions generated 75% of its $3.15 billion of net revenue last year.

Tuesday’s SEC lawsuit seeks civil fines, the recouping of ill-gotten gains and injunctive relief.

On Monday, the SEC accused Binance of inflating trading volumes, diverting customer funds, improperly commingling assets, failing to restrict U.S. customers from its platform, and misleading customers about its controls.

Binance pledged to vigorously defend itself against the lawsuit, which it said reflected the SEC’s “misguided and conscious refusal” to provide clarity to the crypto industry.

Customers pulled around $790 million from Binance and its U.S. affiliate following the lawsuit, Nansen said.

On Tuesday, the SEC filed a motion to freeze assets belonging to Binance.US, Binance’s U.S. affiliate. The holding company of Binance is based in the Cayman Islands.

“It’s important to note that recent regulatory actions are aimed at ensuring that companies operating in the cryptocurrency industry are complying with securities laws and protecting investors – this will always be their goal,” said Joshua Chu, group chief risk officer at blockchain technology firms XBE, Coinllectibles and Marvion.

“These events will ultimately lead to a more stable and trustworthy industry, which could help to attract more institutional investors and mainstream adoption.»

Cryptocurrency

4 XRP Warning Signs Flash: Is Ripple’s Price About to Tumble?

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TL;DR

  • Ripple’s native token fared relatively well during one phase of the ongoing market-wide correction, but has slipped further below the crucial resistance at $3.
  • Although the asset has lost more than 20% of its value since its all-time high registered in mid-July already, there could be more pain on the horizon. Here are four signs supporting this narrative.

Technical Indicators

It was just a few weeks ago when XRP rode a massive wave that drove it from a range-still position of around $2.2 to an all-time high of $3.65. Following this spectacular run, the asset expectedly calmed and retraced toward $3.3. At this point, analysts emerged to warn about the significance of the $3 support, which has to endure so that XRP can remain in a bullish state.

Although this was indeed the case for a long period during the recent correction, that support line finally cracked in the past several hours, and the third-largest cryptocurrency now sits well below it. Although it still hasn’t closed beneath it on the daily, it could dump to the next two support lines at $2.8 and $2.5 if it does, as previously reported.

The second worrying sign for XRP’s price comes from the TD Sequential metric. Ali Martinez, a popular crypto analyst with roughly 140,000 followers on X, warned that the indicator had flashed a sell signal on the 4-hour chart at the local top.

Thirdly, Martinez highlighted the MVRV ratio, which just notched a “death cross, another sign that a steeper correction could be underway.”

XRP MVRV. Source: Ali Martinez
XRP MVRV. Source: Ali Martinez

Whales Dumping

Ahead of and during the aforementioned rally to a new all-time high, large market participants, known as whales, were accumulating en masse. Within a few weeks, they spent billions to acquire more tokens. In fact, they were buying even when the asset’s price dipped.

However, whales have switched their strategy and disposed of more than 700 million XRP tokens in the span of just a day. To put things into a USD perspective, this stash is worth over $2.1 billion at current prices. Such massive sell-offs increase the immediate selling pressure and serve as examples for smaller investors who can follow suit.

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Has Ripple’s XRP Already Peaked in 2025? We Asked 3 AIs: Answers Might Surprise You

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Ripple’s cross-border payments token took central stage in July as it finally did what many thought it was impossible and broke its all-time high set over seven years ago (January 2018) at $3.4. XRP peaked at $3.65 after a mindblowing 65% rally that took place in just a matter of ten days or so.

However, the third-largest cryptocurrency, which had a market cap of well over $200 billion at that point, has already dropped by 20% to a multi-week low of $2.9 as of press time, raising a few questions, such as whether it has already reached its 2025 high. To gain a different perspective, we decided to ask three of the most popular AIs: Grok, ChatGPT, and Gemini.

More Peaks to Come?

Is the July 2025 all-time high of $3.65 as good as it is going to get for XRP this year? Well, the three AIs in question provided a few alternative answers, as giving a straightforward yes or no answer would be irresponsible, given the volatile nature of the cryptocurrency market. Also, it’s impossible to know what would happen in the future.

Nevertheless, the AI solutions offered these scenarios based on what has transpired in the past year or so – developments, market changes, regulatory improvements, etc – and on a few probabilities.

ChatGPT’s bullish scenario indicated that the current correction is “often healthy after a parabolic run.” If XRP holds above critical support levels, such as $2.8 and $3, its rally could resume in the following week. Additionally, it noted that if BTC and ETH maintain their overall bullish structure, XRP has a solid chance of jumping past its July peak.

It could get another price boost if spot Ripple ETFs are approved in the States and when, for once, the legal case against the SEC officially concludes. ChatGPT also noted that XRP tends to outperform later during a bull market phase.

“Historically, XRP has been a late-stage bull run performer.

In both 2017 and 2021, it had explosive second legs after initial consolidation.”

Grok’s answer was somewhat similar:

“XRP’s $3.65–$3.66 high in July 2025 is a significant milestone, but most expert sources don’t rule out the possibility of new highs later this year if strong market or regulatory catalysts materialize. For now, the price correction appears to be a healthy retracement after a swift rally, not necessarily the definitive peak of the cycle.”

Peak Already Achieved?

Gemini was slightly less optimistic about XRP’s upcoming performance by the end of the year. It outlined significant competition in Ripple’s field, from contenders like Stellar, that can take some of its market share and jeopardize XRP’s adoption curve.

In terms of the asset’s price movements, it said it “might consolidate around its current price or even experience further declines before a potential rally in 2026.”

ChatGPT also provided a more skeptical scenario, suggesting that the lack of fresh catalysts could limit XRP’s upside potential. It noted that capital can rotate out of XRP into other popular altcoins, which are yet to benefit during this market phase, such as TON, SOL, or some meme coins, and Ripple’s native token could cool down.

Overall, though, ChatGPT, as well as Grok, maintained a more bullish stance. The former noted that XRP’s actual high this year can be somewhere between $4 and $5. The latter was even more optimistic, indicating that a price pump to $8 is not out of the question if certain developments go Ripple’s way, such as approval of spot XRP ETFs, major partnership announcements, or a broader market surge.

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Here Are Some Binance Coin (BNB) Eye Poppers For You

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A former Tokyo Stock Exchange software engineer built and launched the Binance cryptocurrency exchange in 2017. Soon after that, they issued BNB as a native token for its ecosystem.

One of the features that makes it original is BNB’s supply limit of 200 million and Binance’s regularly scheduled BNB “burns.” These are intended to halve its supply effectively.

The company cryptographically locks up some of its own BNB tokens in a way that makes them impossible ever to retrieve or spend again, thus “burning” them.

As a result, the value of the remaining BNB supply increases in an exchange economy against fiat currencies and stablecoins.

That’s a way for the company to share some of the profit with all the other token holders. It provides built-in, long-term support for BNB price growth. So far, ROIs for long-term BNB holders have been very attractive when compared to returns on investment for US stock owners.

Here are some eye-popping BNB crypto token figures, milestones, and comparisons for you.

1. BNB Price Record High To Date (Jul. 28): $850

The BNB price rally on crypto exchanges in July took it to an all-time high record of $850. Even though the price has since declined by some 12%, this is still a very impressive accomplishment.

Over the past month, that’s a +14% ROI, after settling down to $755 at the time of this writing.

This also makes for an impressive growth of around 35% in the past 365 days. Since debuting on crypto exchanges at $0.10 for 1 BNB coin eight years ago in July 2017, that’s an ROI of 849,900%.

It’s an average annualized ROI of 106,237% for Binance tokens over the eight years since the landmark crypto bull market year of 2017.

BNB Tokens vs. S&P 500 US Stocks Compared

By comparison, the S&P 500 Index grew by 158% from Jul. 2017 until this July.

The average annualized ROI of 19.75% for the past eight years was well above average for the broad US stock market benchmark. For many decades now, the S&P 500 has delivered around 10% yearly ROI.

The eight-year ROI from 2017 BNB tokens, approaching one million percent, is staggering compared to the 158% growth from stocks that most people’s grandparents are relying on to keep their retirement years secure and comfortable.

Investing relatively small amounts of money in Binance in 2017 has remarkably produced a significantly life-changing, trajectory-altering financial result for the average household or business.

Are results this extraordinary and unheard of even real? Is there something questionable or dubious about them?

2. BNB Market Cap Surpasses $100 Billion

Amazon shares delivered investors 298,666% ROI in 28 years. Something almost three times that gargantuan percentage in less than a third of the time is par for the course with the Internet’s accelerating rates of market adoption for new tech platforms.

Binance and its BNB currency are no small flash in the pan. Comparisons to US tech giants Microsoft and Amazon are apt and plentiful. It’s not just BNB’s price growth and ROI that are impressive, but its market cap.

The total market capitalization for the BNB economy surpassed $100 billion in July for the third time since last December and in Nov. 2021.

Binance is just eight years old. In 28 years, Amazon has grown to be a nearly $2.5 trillion market cap company by common stock shares.

The sheer, relentless, daily volume of profitable business that Binance conducts with customers, swapping cryptocurrencies for a small fee per transaction, supports the growth in its native token’s market cap and exchange prices.

Binance has gotten into trouble with the U.S. government for anti-money laundering law violations and settled them with the Department of Justice by paying a stiff $4.3 billion fine.

That puts the exchange in the same company as every banking giant like JP Morgan in Warren Buffett’s portfolio, which has also paid massive corporate fines to the US government over similar cases.

3. Nanotech Grabs Corporate BNB Treasuries In 2025

Meanwhile, another corporate treasury stockpile race is brewing over BNB tokens.

Michael Saylor and his Washington, D.C.-based Strategy, Inc. have started investing in Bitcoin over the past four years. Now, even the US government is collaborating with the crypto bros to stockpile BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL, and ADA.

Then you’ve got a publicly traded hotel company in Japan and an online sports betting company in Minnesota piling billions into Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Now, two nanotech firms are buying BNB tokens to establish their own corporate crypto treasuries.

Chinese microchip designer Nano Labs is snapping up some $90 million worth of 120,000 BNB tokens to rebalance its corporate finances.

Pennsylvania-based biotech firm Windtree Therapeutics announced on July 24 that it is committing $520 million to its BNB token treasury strategy, a move aimed at attracting major institutional investment, bringing its total to $700 million.

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