SEC reviews Ripple ruling, US bill seeks control over DeFi, and more: Hodler’s Digest, July 16-22
Top Stories This Week
Chair Gensler says SEC reaction to Ripple decision is mixed, still under consideration
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler has commented publicly about the recent ruling on the agency’s suit against Ripple, saying the SEC is “still looking at it and assessing that opinion.” Gensler declined to comment further on the case, but said the commission is pleased with the court’s decision stating that XRP was a security when sold to institutional investors, but disappointed with the non-security ruling for retail investors and other XRP distributions. Comments made by the regulator on July 21 in a lawsuit hinted that it might appeal the decision. In the crypto community, however, some believe it is unlikely to happen as the SEC benefits from the “current confusion.”
Bipartisan bill to regulate DeFi, crypto security risks introduced into US Senate
A bipartisan bill was introduced into the U.S. Senate, tightening regulations and sanctions requirements for decentralized finance (DeFi). The bill would subject DeFi operations to the same requirements as “other financial companies, including centralized crypto trading platforms, casinos, and even pawn shops.” The proposal also makes “anyone who controls that project” liable for the use of the DeFi service by sanctioned persons. The bill also set new requirements for operators of crypto kiosks (or ATMs) to prevent their use in money laundering. Kiosk operators would be required to verify the identities of both counterparties in a transaction.
Altcoins ‘bled’ as Bitcoin gained dominance in Q2: CoinGecko
The second quarter of the year has been a solid one for Bitcoin’s performance as its market dominance gained against altcoins, which “bled” throughout the period, according to CoinGecko’s industry report. Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) continued to build their market share over the past months, while Binance Coin (BNB), XRP (XRP), and Cardano (ADA) suffered double-digit losses over the quarter. DeFi tokens were hit particularly hard during the quarter, with Uniswap (UNI), Chainlink (LINK) and Lido (LDO) taking double-digit losses as well. The top five metaverse and play-to-earn tokens by market cap also marked losses up to 40%.
Multiple spot crypto ETF applications go to Federal Register in step toward SEC approval
Applications from several firms for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) have been published in the Federal Register, moving them one step along in the U.S. SEC process. According to the records, applications from BlackRock, Fidelity, Invesco Galaxy, VanEck and WisdomTree were officially registered. Publishing the applications gives the SEC a window of opportunity to accept or reject the request, extend the time allowed or open the application for public comment. The SEC has an initial window of 45 days to reach a decision, but the commission has the option of extending the process for up to 240 days — until March 2024 — for final approval or denial.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vows to back US dollar with Bitcoin if elected president
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has promised to progressively back the United States dollar with Bitcoin if he is elected president. Kennedy said during an event that backing the U.S. dollar with what he called “hard currency,” including gold, silver, platinum or Bitcoin, could help to re-stabilize the American economy. Kennedy explained the process would be gradual and that, depending on the plan’s success, he’d adjust the amount of backing for the dollar. Additionally, Kennedy declared he would make Bitcoin-to-U.S. dollar conversions exempt from capital gains taxes in an attempt to spur investments in the country.
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $29,883, Ether (ETH) at $1,894 and XRP at $0.78. The total market cap is at $1.2 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Maker (MKR) at 32.18%, XDC Network (XDC) at 24.19% and Stellar (XLM) at 20.88%.
The top three altcoin losers of the week are Rocket Pool (RPL) at -14.95%, GMX (GMX) at -10.93% and Lido DAO (LDO) at -7.90%.
For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.
Read also
Most Memorable Quotations
“For me, the lack of protection for retail investors underscores the fierce urgency around passing a market structure bill to protect the average American consumer.”
Ritchie Torres, New York Representative
“Japan, Korea, China, all these places are pushing Web3 in a really big way because they see that as an opportunity to break away from basically U.S.-dominant technologies.”
Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca Brands
“Backing dollars and U.S. debt obligations with hard assets [gold, silver, platinum or Bitcoin] could help restore strength back to the dollar.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. Democratic presidential candidate
“Based on Metcalfe’s law model, fair value for Bitcoin is around $55K. So I think we drift upwards toward that level.”
Mark Yusko, chief investment officer at Morgan Creek Capital
“[The Ripple ruling] has made our argument more compelling and more urgent, meaning that we can’t just rely on enforcement to get the kind of investor protection standards we need.”
Timothy Massad, former chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission
“The Commission benefits from the current confusion and losing these issues on appeal would jeopardize its entire enforcement agenda. So I’d be surprised if the SEC tried to appeal now.”
Kathryn Haun, CEO of Haun Ventures
Prediction of the Week
Bitcoin Bollinger Bands echo move that ended in 40% January gains
Bitcoin is lining up a burst of volatility that could rival its 40% January gains, on-chain data suggests.
BTC price has acted in a tight range for an entire month, using $30,000 as a focal point for sideways behavior, putting both bulls and bears to the test. According to popular analyst Aksel Kibar:
“Seems like $BTCUSD is exhausting many trader’s patience,” he wrote on July 21, before adding that this “is usually the condition you see before strong moves. Not sure about the direction though. I will stick with my well-defined boundaries. I know that increased volatility is around the corner. Capture the directional move.”
According to Bollinger Bands behavior, a classic volatility indicator, this move should come sooner rather than later as it’s printing a telltale sign that the days of rangebound BTC price action are at an end.
FUD of the Week
Crypto firms and influencers may need to start including disclaimers on crypto memes to stay compliant with advertising laws in the United Kingdom. The country’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) released, on July 17, a proposed guidance on social media financial promotions that targets promotional memes and financial influencers — or “finfluencers.” The FCA considers crypto a high-risk investment. Per the FCA’s proposal, crypto can be advertised to retail investors at large, but there are requirements such as including risk warnings and a ban on investment incentives.
Uniswap founder Hayden Adams’ Twitter account was compromised on July 20. His account released a tweet to its more than 254,000 followers falsely claiming that the platform’s Permit2 contract had been “affected by an unknown exploit” and users’ tokens were at risk, encouraging them to click on a malicious link. The “Web3 Security Alerts” channel on Telegram detected the scam attempt and reported that Adams had also been blocked from his accounts with MetaMask and Coinbase Wallet.
Couple behind Bitfinex money laundering scheme reach plea deal with US prosecutors
Two people accused of having laundered billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin connected to the 2016 Bitfinex hack have reached a plea agreement with authorities in the United States. The pair had been charged with money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to defraud the U.S., and they are expected to forfeit digital assets connected to the case. Crypto exchange Bitfinex was hacked in August 2016, with roughly 119,754 Bitcoin stolen.
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Former US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler renewed his warning to investors about the risks of cryptocurrencies, calling most of the market “highly speculative” in a new Bloomberg interview on Tuesday.
He carved out Bitcoin (BTC) as comparatively closer to a commodity while stressing that most tokens don’t offer “a dividend” or “usual returns.”
Gensler framed the current market backdrop as a reckoning consistent with warnings he made while in office that the global public’s fascination with cryptocurrencies doesn’t equate to fundamentals.
“All the thousands of other tokens, not the stablecoins that are backed by US dollars, but all the thousands of other tokens, you have to ask yourself, what are the fundamentals? What’s underlying it… The investing public just needs to be aware of those risks,” he said.
Gensler’s record and industry backlash
Gensler led the SEC from April 17, 2021, to Jan. 20, 2025, overseeing an aggressive enforcement agenda that included lawsuits against major crypto intermediaries and the view that many tokens are unregistered securities.
Related: House Republicans to probe Gary Gensler’s deleted texts
The industry winced at high‑profile actions against exchanges and staking programs, as well as the posture that most token issuers fell afoul of registration rules.
Under Gensler’s tenure, Coinbase was sued by the SEC for operating as an unregistered exchange, broker and clearing agency, and for offering an unregistered staking-as-a-service program. Kraken was also forced to shut its US staking program and pay a $30 million penalty.
The politicization of crypto
Pushed on the politicization of crypto, including references to the Trump family’s crypto involvement by the Bloomberg interviewer, the former chair rejected the framing.
“No, I don’t think so,” he said, arguing it’s more about capital markets fairness and “commonsense rules of the road,” than a “Democrat versus Republican thing.”
He added: “When you buy and sell a stock or a bond, you want to get various information,” and “the same treatment as the big investors.” That’s the fairness underpinning US capital markets.
Related: Coinbase files FOIA to see how much the SEC’s ‘war on crypto’ cost
ETFs and the drift to centralization
On ETFs, Gensler said finance “ever since antiquity… goes toward centralization,” so it’s unsurprising that an ecosystem born decentralized has become “more integrated and more centralized.”
He noted that investors can already express themselves in gold and silver through exchange‑traded funds, and that during his tenure, the first US Bitcoin futures ETFs were approved, tying parts of crypto’s plumbing more closely to traditional markets.
Gensler’s latest comments draw a familiar line: Bitcoin sits in a different bucket, while most other tokens remain, in his view, speculative and light on fundamentals.
Even out of office, his framing will echo through courts, compliance desks and allocation committees weighing BTC’s status against persistent regulatory caution of altcoins.
Magazine: Solana vs Ethereum ETFs, Facebook’s influence on Bitwise — Hunter Horsley
New figures reveal a 70% year-on-year increase in Cayman Islands foundation company registrations, with more than 1,300 on the books at the end of 2024, and over 400 new registrations already in 2025.
These structures are increasingly being used as legal wrappers for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and as ecosystem stewards for major Web3 projects.
According to a news release from Cayman Finance, many of the world’s largest Web3 projects are now registered in the Cayman Islands, including at least 17 foundation companies with treasuries over $100 million.
Why DAOs are choosing Cayman
The Cayman foundation company has emerged as a preferred tool for DAOs that need to sign contracts, hire contributors, hold IP and interact with regulators, all while shielding tokenholders from personal liability for the DAO’s obligations.
The legal wake‑up call for many communities came in 2024 with Samuels v. Lido DAO, in which a US federal judge found that an unwrapped DAO could be treated as a general partnership under California law, exposing participants to personal liability.
The Cayman foundation company is designed to plug that gap, offering a separate legal personality and the ability to own assets and sign agreements, while giving tokenholders assurance that they are not partners by default.
Add tax neutrality, a legal framework familiar to institutional allocators and an ecosystem of companies that specialize in Web3 treasuries, and it becomes clear why more projects have quietly redomiciled their foundations to Grand Cayman.
Elsewhere, policymakers have made big promises but delivered patchwork. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly pledged to turn the United States into the “crypto capital of the planet,” but at the entity level, only a handful of states explicitly recognize DAOs as legal persons.
Switzerland remains the archetypal onshore Web3 foundation center, with the Crypto Valley region now hosting over 1,700 active blockchain firms, up more than 130% since 2020, with foundations and associations representing a growing share of new structures.
Related: Switzerland’s Crypto Valley hits $593B with 17 unicorns in 2024
From light‑touch haven to compliance player
The surge in Web3 foundations coincides with a shift in Cayman’s own regulatory posture — the arrival of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Crypto‑Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), which the Cayman Islands has now implemented via new Tax Information Authority regulations that take effect from Jan. 1, 2026.
CARF will impose due diligence and reporting duties on Cayman “Reporting Crypto‑Asset Service Providers” (entities that exchange crypto for fiat or other crypto, operate trading platforms or provide custodial services), requiring them to collect tax‑residence data from users, track relevant transactions and file annual reports with the Tax Information Authority.
Legal professionals note that CARF reporting under the current interpretation applies to relevant crypto-asset service providers, including exchanges, brokers and dealers, which likely leaves structures that merely hold crypto assets, such as protocol treasuries, investment funds, or passive foundations, off the hook.
“The key question is whether your entity, as a business, provides a service effectuating exchange transactions for or on behalf of customers, including by acting as a counterparty or intermediary or by making available a trading platform.”
In practice, that means many pure treasury or ecosystem‑steward foundations should be able to continue benefitting from Cayman’s legal certainty and tax neutrality without being dragged into full reporting status, so long as they are not in the business of running exchange, brokerage or custody services.
Magazine: EU’s privacy-killing Chat Control bill delayed — but fight isn’t over
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has suffered another budget blow with a rebellion by rural Labour MPs over inheritance tax on farmers.
Speaking during the final day of the Commons debate on the budget, Labour backbenchers demanded a U-turn on the controversial proposals.
Plans to introduce a 20% tax on farm estates worth more than £1m from April have drawn protesters to London in their tens of thousands, with many fearing huge tax bills that would force small farms to sell up for good.
Farmers have staged numerous protests against the tax in Westminster. Pic: PA
MPs voted on the so-called “family farms tax” just after 8pm on Tuesday, with dozens of Labour MPs appearing to have abstained, and one backbencher – borders MP Markus Campbell-Savours – voting against, alongside Conservative members.
In the vote, the fifth out of seven at the end of the budget debate, Labour’s vote slumped from 371 in the first vote on tax changes, down by 44 votes to 327.
‘Time to stand up for farmers’
The mini-mutiny followed a plea to Labour MPs from the National Farmers Union to abstain.
“To Labour MPs: We ask you to abstain on Budget Resolution 50,” the NFU urged.
“With your help, we can show the government there is still time to get it right on the family farm tax. A policy with such cruel human costs demands change. Now is the time to stand up for the farmers you represent.”
After the vote, NFU president Tom Bradshaw said: “The MPs who have shown their support are the rural representatives of the Labour Party. They represent the working people of the countryside and have spoken up on behalf of their constituents.
“It is vital that the chancellor and prime minister listen to the clear message they have delivered this evening. The next step in the fight against the family farm tax is removing the impact of this unjust and unfair policy on the most vulnerable members of our community.”
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Farmers defy police ban in budget day protest in Westminster.
The government comfortably won the vote by 327-182, a majority of 145. But the mini-mutiny served notice to the chancellor and Sir Keir Starmer that newly elected Labour MPs from the shires are prepared to rebel.
Speaking in the debate earlier, Mr Campbell-Savours said: “There remain deep concerns about the proposed changes to agricultural property relief (APR).
“Changes which leave many, not least elderly farmers, yet to make arrangements to transfer assets, devastated at the impact on their family farms.”
Samantha Niblett, Labour MP for South Derbyshire abstained after telling MPs: “I do plead with the government to look again at APR inheritance tax.
“Most farmers are not wealthy land barons, they live hand to mouth on tiny, sometimes non-existent profit margins. Many were explicitly advised not to hand over their farm to children, (but) now face enormous, unexpected tax bills.
“We must acknowledge a difficult truth: we have lost the trust of our farmers, and they deserve our utmost respect, our honesty and our unwavering support.”
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UK ‘criminally’ unprepared to feed itself in crisis, says farmers’ union.
Labour MPs from rural constituencies who did not vote included Tonia Antoniazzi (Gower), Julia Buckley (Shrewsbury), Jonathan Davies (Mid Derbyshire), Maya Ellis (Ribble Valley), and Anna Gelderd (South East Cornwall), Ben Goldsborough (South Norfolk), Alison Hume (Scarborough and Whitby), Terry Jermy (South West Norfolk), Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth), Noah Law (St Austell and Newquay), Perran Moon, (Camborne and Redruth), Samantha Niblett (South Derbyshire), Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Suffolk Coastal), Henry Tufnell (Mid and South Pembrokeshire), John Whitby (Derbyshire Dales) and Steve Witherden (Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr).
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