Crypto Chronicles:Report And News

1-The market manipulator was the SEC

Since December 2020, Ripple has been accused of marketing XRP as an unregistered securities.

Garlinghouse said on X that the case was a failed SEC enforcement effort to restrict the crypto business.

He called the lawsuit “doomed from the start” and part of a government attempt to “pick winners” in crypto.

He also emphasized that Ripple's court struggle created a precedent for clearer regulations.

Ripple previously scored a partial success when a U.S. court concluded XRP was not a security in secondary market dealings. The court also found securities law violations in institutional investor sales.

The SEC had planned to appeal, but Garlinghouse says it has dropped the matter.

Garlinghouse said Gary Gensler's SEC hurt investors rather than protected them.

He called the SEC a “market manipulator” for wiping off $15 billion in market value when it launched the complaint.

The crypto industry's biggest court dispute has been carefully observed. Ripple's win may change authorities' views on digital assets. Garlinghouse told the crypto community that this conclusion would make the U.S. more crypto-friendly.

2-Global liquidity boom of $108T should propel Bitcoin to moon

Economic volatility is causing market concern ahead of the Federal Reserve's Mar. 18-19 meeting. Inflation is high, stock markets have fallen, and investors are rethinking interest rate decreases.

President Trump's tariffs and government layoffs have heightened economic uncertainty and shook the market.

CME Group's FedWatch program predicts a 99% chance that the Federal Open Market Committee will maintain interest rates at 4.25-4.5% despite the turmoil.

The initial rate cut timing is the main concern. Rates are expected to drop to 4-4.25% in June, with a 55% possibility.

Investors expect the Fed's benchmark rate to drop to 3.5-3.75% in 2025 after a cumulative three-quarters percentage point drop.

In this uncertainty, financial markets have reacted aggressively. The S&P 500 fell more than 8% from its Feb. 19 all-time high, while the Nasdaq fell 4% on Mar. 10, its worst trading day since 2022.

The volatility index has reached its highest level since August, highlighting investors' struggles to adapt to changing policies, notably Trump's tariff rises.

3-Ethereum coders create Hoodi testnet to finish Pectra testing

After the much-anticipated Pectra update devastated the Holesky testnet last month, the Ethereum Foundation announced in a March 19 blog post that it would shut it down.

Pectra testing in February caused technical issues, therefore developers deprecated Holesky. The update crippled Holesky's network, making its validator set useless for weeks.

EF engineers fixed Holesky in March, but it remained blocked. Sepolia, Ethereum's second-largest test environment, had a similar problem, but engineers found a patch. Before implementing Pectra on Ethereum's mainnet, developers simulate and debug network upgrades on these testnets.

Hoodi will replace Holesky, according to EF DevOps engineer Paritosh Jayanthi and core coordinator Tim Beiko. Pectra will be tested on Hoodi on March 26 as the last dress rehearsal before a mainnet launch. If the test goes well, the EF might send Pectra to ETH's main chain by April 25.

References

https://crypto.news/ethereum-devs-launch-hoodi-testnet-to-finalize-pectra-testing/

https://crypto.news/the-sec-was-the-market-manipulator-sec-drops-case-against-xrp-ceo-claims/

https://crypto.news/liquidity-flood-hits-markets-but-bitcoin-stays-flat/