Cryptocurrency
Hester Pierce strikes back against SEC crypto warning to accounting firms

Commissioner Hester Pierce of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has raised concerns about the agency’s recent statement advising accounting firms against taking on non-audit work for crypto firms.
In a July 28 tweet, Pierce challenged the recent statement by the SEC’s chief accountant Paul Munter, proposing that accounting firms adopt an all-or-nothing approach in their dealings with crypto firms. Pierce believes this might cause crypto firms to shy away from making good-faith efforts to be transparent.
Crypto platforms & their accountants should be clear about what proof of reserves is and isn’t & customers should understand the limitations, but why would we want to discourage good-faith efforts to provide more transparency? https://t.co/fsuxUGPrrb
— Hester Peirce (@HesterPeirce) July 27, 2023
While Pierce noted that crypto firms and accountants should ensure transparency regarding proof of reserves, specifying what is and isn’t acceptable, she questioned why accounting firms should be cautious of providing assurance work to crypto firms.
“Why would we want to discourage good-faith efforts to provide more transparency?” Pierce asked in a tweet.
Munter argued that partial engagements might result in crypto firms selectively choosing only certain aspects of the business to show accounting firms and then presenting that information as a full audit to clients.
He believes that work beyond a full audit’s scope will lack transparency for investors, stating:
“Certain crypto asset trading platforms, with others in the crypto industry, have marketed to investors their retention of third parties, sometimes accounting firms, to perform some sort of review of certain parts of their business, often presented as a purported “audit.“
According to Munter, if an accounting firm discovers that a client is making misleading statements about its non-audit work to the public, it should consider making a “noisy withdrawal, disassociating itself from the client” by making a public statement or reporting the crypto firm to the SEC.
Related: SEC appeal could amplify Ripple win, says Ripple Labs legal chief
Mike Shaub, an auditing and accounting ethics professor at Texas A&M University, responded to the statement in a July 29 tweet, mentioning that auditors are obligated by confidentiality, making it challenging to make public statements like Munter suggested.
The recent trend has been to take credit as being cutting edge (e.g., specializing in SPACs or crypto or whatever) to raise the profile, then to be low profile when things go south. That may have triggered SEC interest as well. If the auditor is silent in these cases, beware. 2/2
— Mike Shaub (@mikeshaub) July 28, 2023
Shaub also highlighted the issue of some accounting firms aligning themselves with cryptocurrency expertise to boost their reputation but becoming unresponsive when problems arise.
Magazine: SEC reviews Ripple ruling, US bill seeks control over DeFi, and more: Hodler’s Digest, July 16-22
Cryptocurrency
Crypto Markets Shed Over $100 Billion After Trump’s Latest Tariff Threats (Weekend Watch)

Bitcoin’s price actions took a turn for the worse yesterday after US President Trump recommended a 50% general tariff against the European Union.
The altcoins have also bled out on a daily scale, with more than $100 billion leaving the space within this timeframe.
BTC Pushed Below $107K
In general, it was a very good, some would say historic, week for the primary cryptocurrency. It started on a volatile foot as it pumped from $104,000 to $107,000 on a couple of occasions on Sunday and Monday but was stopped in its tracks and driven south hard.
However, the bulls kept the pressure on, and that upper boundary finally gave in on Wednesday. Moreover, bitcoin rocketed past its January all-time high of $109,100 and set a new one at almost $110,000.
It was met with immediate resistance there and a drop to $106,500, but that was short-lived. Bitcoin began another, even more impressive leg up in the following hours and tapped a fresh peak at $112,000 on Pizza Day.
It retraced slightly to $111,000 on Friday but remained at around that level until the POTUS recommended a new set of tariffs against the EU to start from June 1. In minutes, BTC’s price tumbled below $107,500, bounced off, and then slipped again to under $107,000.
It has recovered some ground now and sits above $108,000, but it’s still over 2% down on the day. Its market cap has plunged to $2.150 trillion, while its dominance over the alts stands tall at 61% on CG.
Alts in Red
The altcoins have followed BTC on the way south, with substantial losses of up to 10% from the likes of DOGE, ADA, SUI, SHIB, LINK, and AVAX. Ethereum has slipped by over 5% and is now down to $2,550. XRP has dropped to just over $2.3 after a 4.4% daily decline.
Even more painful price drops are evident from ENA, WIF, TIA, S, IP, and PEPE as all of them have plunged by double digits.
The total crypto market has lost over $100 billion since yesterday and is down to $3.530 trillion on CG.
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Cryptocurrency
ChatGPT Evaluates Ripple Price Predictions: How Viable Is XRP at $100?

TL;DR
- The XRP Army, arguably the loudest niche of the cryptocurrency community, frequently posts about the asset’s market potential, but some forecasts can go into the ‘ridiculous’ category.
- Although many might seem far-fetched, at least for the current market prices, ChatGPT noted that a double-digit price tag is not out of the question.
$29, $55?
Although XRP has been the object of countless massive price predictions, even before its explosive rally at the end of last year, we will focus on a more summarized version from this article, where the first two targets were set at $29 and $55.
The AI chatbot described the more modest one as “ambitious yet conceivable,” since it came from more renowned industry experts, such as Bitwise Research’s Oscar Ramos, who believes the asset can surge to such an impressive price tag if certain conditions are met.
At first, he highlighted the significance of a potential approval of a spot Ripple ETF in the States. Although the US SEC has delayed making a decision on a few listings, the chances for such products to hit the US markets this year are above 75%, according to Polymarket.
XRP’s price can also benefit if the token continues to gain traction in global financial systems and sees “widespread institutional adoption.”
The $55 target was categorized as “highly optimistic” by ChatGPT. It explained that such a price per token would require a market cap above $3 trillion, given the current available supply, which would put XRP above BTC.
“Such a surge would necessitate unprecedented adoption and utility, making this target highly optimistic under current market conditions,” – added the AI tool.
What About $100?
The last price target set by analysts was an entry triple-digit price. ChatGPT kindly dismissed it by putting it in the “speculative and unlikely” category. After all, such a price tag would put XRP’s market cap above those of Apple and Nvidia… combined.
“While some proponents argue that XRP could capture a significant share of global financial transactions, including SWIFT replacements and derivatives settlements, these scenarios are highly theoretical and face numerous regulatory and practical challenges,” – concluded the AI chatbot.
Although the predictions above might sound a bit (or a lot) far-fetched at the moment, this doesn’t mean that XRP lacks any market potential this year. In fact, you can check what ChatGPT thinks about the possibility of a $10 price tag for Ripple’s cross-border token – here.
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Cryptocurrency
Venom Foundation Achieves 150k TPS in Closed-Network Stress Test, Paving the Way for 2025 Mainnet Upgrade

[PRESS RELEASE – Abu Dhabi, UAE, May 23rd, 2025]
The Venom Foundation has successfully completed a closed‑network stress test of its next‑generation protocol, which is capable of completing 150,000 transactions per second (TPS) and finalizing all transfers in under three seconds. The implementation of this upgrade is set to occur in Q3 2025 and make Venom one of the most effective throughput public blockchains in existence.
“Throughput only matters if it can remain reliable under pressure,” said Christopher Louis, Chief Executive Officer at Venom. “Our new stack can handle enterprise‑scale workloads without spiking fees or compromising decentralization, which is exactly what payment providers, exchanges, and game studios need.”
Why It Matters for Markets
- Speed at scale — DAG‑based mempool consensus unlocks headroom for 400,000+ TPS in synthetic benchmarks while maintaining real‑time finality.
- Fair order flow — The distributed sorting layer can convert the DAG into a single linear order, preventing front‑running and other MEV exploits.
- Parallel smart‑contract execution — TVM actor model shard accounts and processes call asynchronously, enabling high‑volume DeFi and microtransactions.
- Deterministic security — Validators can generate identical outputs, meaning finality is reached once 2 n + 1 signatures are collected, making forks virtually impossible.
- Lean networking footprint — Asynchronous block distribution keeps bandwidth costs low for operators and cloud partners.
Path to Production
Testnet (Q2 2025) – Security audits, ecosystem tooling, third‑party audits
Mainnet Migration (Q3 2025) – In‑place hard fork
Ecosystem Expansion (Q4 2025) – Cross‑chain bridges, feature‑complete SDKs
Transparency
All raw data, node configurations, and test scripts will be published to Venom’s public GitHub repository ahead of the testnet launch. Independent auditors are currently reviewing both the security and performance aspects of the upgrade.
About The Venom Foundation
The Venom Foundation consists of researchers and developers from Abu Dhabi, where they built the foundations for the network. The foundation is a Cayman‑registered, community‑driven non‑profit supporting research, development, and adoption for the Venom blockchain.
Website: https://venom.foundation/
https://x.com/VenomFoundation/
Press contact: press@venom.foundation
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