TL;DR

• Speculation is rising that the SEC’s upcoming closed meeting under new Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda might address the Ripple lawsuit, but experts warn against expecting major developments.
• Despite Gensler’s exit, the Ripple-SEC legal battle continues, with disputes over XRP’s classification and an ongoing appeal delaying resolution.

Incoming Resolution or Just Another Speculation?

The lawsuit between Ripple and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) remains ongoing despite numerous legal developments and changes in the agency’s leadership. Recall that the regulator’s Chairman, Gary Gensler, officially stepped down on January 20 and was replaced by crypto proponent Mark Uyeda.

The Commission has scheduled its first closed meeting under the new Acting Chairman for January 23, causing the XRP Army to speculate that the case against Ripple might be on the agenda this time. Some of the most optimistic predictions include a dismissal of the lawsuit.

It is worth mentioning that the SEC conducts such meetings quite frequently, and there are no public records showing that it has touched upon the aforementioned legal tussle in any of them. 

Marc Fagel – a former regional director of the SEC for the San Francisco office – claimed that those expecting “something monumental to happen” at the upcoming gathering “are about to be disappointed.”

“This is the same meeting they hold nearly every week. They will vote on recommendations calendared weeks ago,” he assumed. 

Not so Fast

The anti-crypto Gensler might be out of the SEC, but the official resolution of the case against Ripple remains challenging. After all, the entities have been confronting each other in court for over four years, throwing punches at each other on every possible occasion.

The core issue in the lawsuit is whether XRP (Ripple’s native token) should be classified as a security. The SEC argues it was sold as an unregistered investment, while the company insists it is a digital asset used for payments and not subject to securities laws.

In 2023, Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP sales on public exchanges to retail investors did not constitute securities transactions. A year later, she ordered Ripple to pay a fine of $125 million for violating certain rules. 

The penalty represented just a fraction of the $2 billion the SEC initially asked for, and somewhat expected, the firm was ready to settle it. 

However, the watchdog appealed the 2023 verdict and recently filed the necessary opening brief, thus prolonging the lawsuit indefinitely. 

On Jan. 21, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin firmly asserted his sole authority over Ethereum Foundation leadership decisions, stating that it will remain until reforms establish a “proper board.”

“The person deciding the new EF leadership team is me. One of the goals of the ongoing reform is to give the EF a ‘proper board’, but until that happens it’s me,” he said on X.

The post came in response to significant backlash against Aya Miyaguchi, the Foundation’s executive director since 2018, with accusations of inefficiencies during her tenure.

“If you ‘keep the pressure on,’ then you are creating an environment that is actively toxic to top talent,” Buterin said in response to the social media backlash.

No. This is not how this game works.

The person deciding the new EF leadership team is me. One of the goals of the ongoing reform is to give the EF a “proper board”, but until that happens it’s me.

If you “keep the pressure on”, then you are creating an environment that is…

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) January 21, 2025

EF Backlash Mounts

Buterin announced changes to the Foundation’s leadership on Jan. 18, focusing on supporting dApp developers and promoting decentralization.

However, he emphasized the foundation would not engage in ideological shifts, political lobbying, or take a more central ecosystem role.

There is strong community pressure to promote developer Danny Ryan to a leadership position. On Jan. 22, Ryan, who left the EF in 2024 due to health issues, said, “Some of the discourse has turned counterproductive,” before adding:

“These are real people attempting to sort through and do what is best. With or without me, the EF is evolving and for the better. You’ve been heard, but vitriol is ultimately harmful to this process.”

Just to fill you in: I left the EF last year due to health issues and in an attempt to clear my head after working my ass off exclusively at the EF and on Ethereum for seven years.

I stepped aside, and the EF and the broader Ethereum ecosystem moved on without missing a beat—new…

— dannyryan (@dannyryan) January 21, 2025

Fellow developer Eric Connor announced his departure from the Ethereum ecosystem, stating:

“The Ethereum Foundation is a leftist-driven, anti-winning swamp. 80% of the budget can be cut and Ethereum would function and progress just fine.”

Meanwhile, Ethereum educator Anthony Sassano highlighted all the good things that the EF has done, stating, “Ethereum is much bigger than the EF,”

I am not an EF apologist or think that the EF is perfect and can do no wrong, but I think it’s worth highlighting some of the positive stuff they’ve done recently:

– Revived the @ethereum account (it’s no where near good enough yet, but it’ll get better)
– Moved 50k ETH into a…

— sassal.eth/acc (@sassal0x) January 22, 2025

ETH Price Flounders

Nevertheless, the situation appears to have created tension between Buterin’s desire to reform the Foundation while maintaining control over leadership decisions. Additionally, the dissent and recent EF ETH sales have dampened ETH prices, which have been consolidating for the past month.

ETH has gained 2.4% on the day to reach $3,330 at the time of writing, but most of the other altcoins are still outperforming it.

The asset failed to follow Bitcoin, XRP, and Solana to existing or new peaks and remains down 32% from its 2021 all-time high.

This is all despite US President Donald Trump actively buying ETH and the premise of staked Ethereum ETFs being approved by the SEC soon.

Tension within the Ethereum (and Bitcoin) communities is nothing new, and the ecosystem has survived and improved.

the last time there was this dissent in Ethereum

was February 2020 with the gory fight and eventual rejection of ProgPoW

(this is financial advice) pic.twitter.com/8P8vBJ2qra

— DCinvestor (@iamDCinvestor) January 21, 2025

After the recent enhanced volatility across the entire crypto market, bitcoin’s price has finally calmed and stands still at around $105,000.

Many altcoins have recovered some ground following yesterday’s declines, and the total market cap is close to $3.8 trillion.

BTC Calms at $105K

The primary cryptocurrency jumped past $100,000 at the end of the previous business week and went to a high of $105,000 on Friday. While the weekend was less eventful on the BTC front, despite the two Trump-related meme coins, the asset maintained its level and even surged to $106,000 on Monday morning.

Then came the volatile ride that pushed the asset to under $100,000. In minutes, it had recovered all losses and skyrocketed even further to just over $109,000 to register a new all-time high. All of these movements transpired in the span of just a few hours.

Once Trump’s inauguration began on Monday afternoon, BTC’s price started to tumble again and plunged to $100,000 once again as he failed to mention crypto even once. Nevertheless, the bulls intervened at this point and drove the cryptocurrency to $107,000 yesterday.

It has lost some ground since then and now trades a lot more calmly around $105,000. Its market capitalization has risen to $2.080 trillion on CG, and its dominance over the alts is still above 55%.

Alts in Recovery Mode

Most alternative coins have turned green today after yesterday’s retracements. Solana and Dogecoin have popped up as the top performers, with both gaining around 6%. As a result, SOL has risen to over $250, while DOGE, which exploded yesterday at one point, is now above $0.36.

ETH, XRP, BNB, and ADA have posted minor gains, while TRX, LINK, and AVAX have added around 3-4% of value.

Other notable price gainers since yesterday include HYPE and CRO, as the exchange behind the latter launched in the US.

The total crypto market cap has increased by over $100 billion on a daily scale and is close to $3.8 trillion on CG.