TL;DR

• Was it a classic ‘sell-the-news’ event? It seems so, as XRP’s price has tumbled hard since Brad Garlinghouse’s triumphant announcement last week.
• Is the hype over, or can something bring back Ripple’s cross-border token?

Lawsuit Closure

It all started over four years ago, in December 2020, when the US SEC went after Ripple for selling unregistered securities (XRP) for $1.3 billion. The hit against Ripple was immediate as exchanges delisted the token, while former partners went away.

The following four years were filled with twists and turns, but the company was actually in the lead, at least according to several court rulings that went its way. Moreover, its top two execs were exonerated. The SEC notched a minor win when Judge Torrest ruled that Ripple has to pay $125 million in penalties, but that was far off the $2 billion the agency asked for, which is why it appealed in 2024.

However, that appeal was dropped last week when the company’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, announced on X that the case had essentially ended with the Commission’s decision. Ripple’s CLO confirmed that the firm has dropped its own appeal, which marked the end of the lawsuit. Oh, and the company still needs to make a payment to the SEC, but it’s not $2 billion, not even $125 million – only $50 million.

Although the lawsuit’s conclusion is not a landslide victory for Ripple, it sure seems as if the company emerged as the moral winner. So, you would expect a massive surge for XRP, right?

No Surge, Just Correction

As with all major announcements, XRP reacted well to Garlinghouse’s statement last week and went from $2.3 to $2.6 within minutes. While many anticipated this to be the start of a major rally, the reality is entirely different.

XRP lost almost all gains within a day or two and was stuck below $2.5 for a while. However, the market-wide retracement hit the asset hard. As of press time, XRP is down to $2.05, which means that it has lost over 20% of the peak from last week.

Its battle with USDT for the third spot in terms of market cap seems lost, as there’s a $25 billion gap between the two now. Moreover, a popular analyst warned recently that XRP could plunge toward $1.2 if the $2 support is broken to the downside, which is now being tested.

All in all, the signs point that this was a classic ‘sell-the-news‘ event for XRP’s price even though Ripple is winning on multiple fronts.

Nevertheless, certain factors could still reverse the asset’s price trajectory in the following months, such as the potential to have its own ETF in the States or Ripple going public. Or, perhaps, those could have already been priced in, and there’s more pain ahead.

In March, corporate treasuries from Virginia to Texas, California, and Japan added Bitcoin to their books as a financial strategy. This is beginning to become a trend with factorable implications for Bitcoin’s price.

Bitcoin ETFs on Wall Street flipped back to a streak of decisively positive inflows in March. These are custodial services of on-chain BTC for regulated investors.

But meanwhile, it’s not just publicly traded, SEC-regulated financial conglomerates competing with the US government and states for Bitcoin this year to sell it to their clients.

Several publicly traded non-financial corporations are now adding BTC to their corporate treasuries as a long-term financial strategy to improve their account balance by unburdening it of dollar buying power that boils off unless the team immediately adds it to a profitable expense line.

The following four examples could be the first drops in a brewing storm of corporate competition for Bitcoin, which might find that today’s price levels significantly undervalue the scarce supply of this novel Internet currency secured by commercially available military-grade public key encryption.

1. Michael Saylor’s Strategy Buys 6,911 More Bitcoin

Let the $GME begin. pic.twitter.com/k8orQ5Zsju

— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) March 26, 2025

The Virginia-based Bitcoin holding and financial company Strategy bought 6,911 BTC for $584 million from Mar. 17 – Mar. 23. That brings Strategy’s total holdings to 506,137 BTC, according to data compiled by Bitcoin Treasuries.

In Q4 of last year, the company bought a total of 218,887 bitcoins for $20.5 billion. Then in January, Strategy bought 10,107 BTC for around $1.1 billion.

In second place globally by BTC holdings is MARA Holdings, Inc., with 46,374, less than 10% of Strategy’s vault. Shockingly, the electric carmaker Tesla weighs in at 4th place, with 11,509 BTC.

The Austin-based automobile IT giant has more Bitcoin on its balance sheet than many blockchain sector companies like CleanSpark, Coinbase, and Block.

2. GameStop to Hold Corporate Bitcoin

Meanwhile, brick-and-mortar Texas retail video game chain GameStop, which became a meme stock in 2021 so the finance bros on Wall Street Bets could let off some steam amid the global pandemic, announced on March 25 that it will add BTC to its balance sheet.

Just under four months after Microsoft voted to reject a similar proposal for the Seattle computer giant, GameStop’s board of directors unanimously approved a plan to buy Bitcoin for the company.

Its stock jumped 11.7% following the news but later dumped by over 20%. GameStop has filed to raise $1.3 billion in stock-convertible corporate loans to purchase Bitcoin.

The main thrust of GameStop’s business strategy isn’t focused on acquiring Bitcoin like Strategy. Neither is it a blockchain nor even a high-tech sector company. But now BTC is part of its financial toolkit.

This is a premier example of the normalization and mainstream adoption of Bitcoin as a modern currency and financial asset because of its unique characteristics that are highly valued by key specifications of the Internet and mainstream financial economy.

3. Japan’s MetaPlanet Adds $12.6M in BTC

Across the ocean from California, MetaPlanet, a hotel chain in Japan, is shoring up its corporate finances with a big Bitcoin purchase. In March, the corporate cryptocurrency adopter bought 150 BTC for around USD $12.6 million.

That brings the company’s total holdings to 3,350 BTC, with a total market value above $172 million in March. The week before March’s top-off, the US president’s son Eric Trump joined the firm’s crypto advisory board as its first member.

At Michael Saylor’s New Year’s Eve party last year, MetaPlanet’s CEO Simon Gerovich said:

“In April for us—that’s when we decided we want to begin adopting Bitcoin. And now what we want to do is accumulate more Bitcoin over time for our shareholders.”

He also said he believes governments in Asia, including Japan’s, will be sure to follow the US in establishing national Bitcoin stockpiles. When the US begins mining or purchasing tranches of BTC to hold in a national reserve, the international “gold” rush would be apt to begin in earnest.

4. KULR Technology Buys $5 million More Bitcoin

In San Diego, California, the lithium ion battery and electronics company KULR Technology Group added to its corporate BTC stockpile in March. It bought an additional 58.3 BTC worth around $5.3 million. That brings its told holdings to 668 BTC.

KULR first established its Bitcoin treasury in December with a $21 million investment in the blockchain built to hold only 21 million BTC. KULR chairman and CEO Michael Mo said, “We believe the growing global acceptance of Bitcoin is still in its early stages.”

He reiterated BTC’s reputation as a macro hedge on inflation and geopolitical uncertainties with a strong trend of appreciating value over the long-term time scale.

The electronics company isn’t merely accepting Bitcoin as payment and waiting for a customer to push some to them. It’s actively going out and acquiring BTC to protect and improve its finances.

5. 2024 Accounting Update Paves Way for Corporate Holdings

Another reason this new trend of corporate accumulation has begun to emerge may be the Dec. 2023 update to the Financial Accounting Services Board (FASB) rules, officially adopting fair value accounting procedures for corporate BTC holdings.

The acceptance and standardization of a reasonable and simple accounting procedure for Bitcoin held by corporations lowers the complexity and cost of compliance. It also signals mainstream acceptance and support for companies’ ownership of Bitcoin.

[PRESS RELEASE – Singapore, Singapore, March 29th, 2025]

Scallop, a lending and borrowing protocol on the Sui blockchain, has recorded an impressive revenue of $79,920 over the past 24 hours, according to recent data from DeFiLlama. This achievement places Scallop second among all decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocols, trailing only Aave, a well-established name in the sector. The milestone underscores Scallop’s growing prominence within the Sui ecosystem and the broader DeFi landscape.

The Sui Ecosystem: A Foundation for Innovation

Sui, a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain launched in May 2023, has quickly emerged as a hub for scalable and efficient DeFi applications. Designed with a unique object-centric data model and powered by the Move programming language, Sui offers low transaction fees, high throughput, and robust security. These attributes have fueled significant growth in its DeFi ecosystem, with Total Value Locked (TVL) surpassing $2 billion in early 2025, as reported by DeFiLlama. The blockchain’s ability to process transactions in parallel and achieve instant finality has attracted developers and users alike, positioning Sui as a competitive player alongside established networks like Ethereum and Solana.

The Sui Foundation, the organization driving the blockchain’s development, has played a pivotal role in nurturing innovative projects. Scallop stands out as the first DeFi protocol to receive an official grant from the Sui Foundation, a testament to its strategic importance within the ecosystem. This support, combined with backing from prominent industry players such as CMS Holdings, 6th Man Ventures (6MV), UOB Venture Management, and notable individuals like Dingaling, Pentoshi, and Virtual Beacon, has provided Scallop with a strong foundation for growth.

Scallop Protocol: Redefining Lending on Sui

Scallop Lend is a peer-to-peer money market protocol built on Sui, offering users a platform to lend and borrow digital assets with institutional-grade features. Since its token generation event (TGE) a year ago, Scallop has established itself as the top lending and borrowing protocol on Sui, boasting a TVL of approximately $130.27 million as of March 29, 2025. This figure reflects a notable 34% increase over the past seven days, highlighting sustained user confidence and adoption. The protocol’s total deposits and collateral currently stand at $187 million, with cumulative revenue reaching $3.94 million.

Scallop’s design emphasizes accessibility, security, and user experience. It separates lent assets from collateral to enhance resilience and employs a vote-escrow (ve) model to incentivize borrowing activity. Under this model, users who stake Scallop’s native token, $SCA, can access higher yield rewards. To date, the community has locked more than 27 million $SCA tokens—over 10% of the total supply—for an average duration of 3.72 years, signaling strong long-term commitment to the protocol.

In the past three days, Scallop has expanded its offerings by listing the Walrus token and partnering with Binance Wallet to host a yield-focused activity. These developments reflect Scallop’s ongoing efforts to diversify its ecosystem and enhance value for users.

A Competitive Force in DeFi Lending

Scallop’s recent 24-hour revenue of $79,920 positions it as a formidable contender in the DeFi lending space, trailing only Aave, a protocol with a long-standing presence on Ethereum and other chains. With a focus on scalability and innovation, Scallop leverages Sui’s technical advantages to deliver a seamless experience for lenders and borrowers. Its open-source framework has also enabled other projects within the Sui ecosystem to build on its infrastructure, further amplifying its impact.

As the Sui ecosystem continues to mature, Scallop’s performance suggests it is well-positioned to maintain its leadership in lending and borrowing. The protocol’s combination of strategic partnerships, community engagement, and robust metrics underscores its potential to shape the future of DeFi on Sui and beyond.

About Scallop

Scallop is the pioneering Next Generation peer-to-peer Money Market for the Sui ecosystem and is also the first DeFi protocol to receive an official grant from the Sui Foundation.

The protocol offers a range of financial services, including high-interest lending, low-fee borrowing, asset management, and automated market-making (AMM) tools, all on a single platform. Additionally, Scallop provides a software development kit (SDK) that enables professional traders to implement complex trades, including zero-interest loans easily. By emphasizing security and adhering to best practices, Scallop aims to reduce the risk of malicious behavior in the DeFi space, providing users with a trustworthy and reliable platform.