Ripple ruling sends crypto market soaring 💸

Hello, and welcome to your weekly update on the cryptosphere and the world of finance. The crypto market has been a happening place this week. The US court partially ruled in favor of Ripple (XRP), sending the market soaring. Read on to learn more about how the XRP ruling and its impact on crypto.

It is tax time in India, though. So let’s take a moment to learn about the newly planned Liberalized Remittance Scheme (LRS).

India’s finance minister recently announced significant changes to the LRS, and the taxation space has been abuzz since. LRS helps Indians send and receive money from abroad. So if you have any international money transfers to make or simply want to know more about the recent changes, watch the video below.

Found this video useful? Make sure to check in here next week. And head to the CoinSwitch Money channel to watch many other informative videos!

For now, let’s move on to a brief market update.

Crypto markets saw tremendous gains last week on the back of a US court ruling. The ruling, which was partially in favor of Ripple, stated that XRP is not a security. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is likely to re-appeal, but the development has already led to a massive rally across the board. So, although profit booking did cause some prices to lower, the overall crypto market cap surged past $1.3 trillion.

US macroeconomic data also brought us some good news. Inflation seems to have finally cooled off to a lower-than-estimated 3% level. This naturally fuels hopes that an end to the Fed’s frequent interest rate hikes is in sight.

Thanks to these positive developments, many tokens witnessed double-digit percentage gains in weekly prices! Rumors that “Alt Season” might be making a comeback are doing rounds, as investors speculate that altcoins may use the “not a security” judgement as a precedent in court against SEC charges. Early signs of this are visible in Bitcoin’s dominance plunging sharply last week. Meanwhile, altcoins saw a disproportionate spike in prices.

With the US court ruling somewhat in its favor, XRP saw a massive surge. Both the “blue-chip” tokens, BTC and ETH, too, saw brisk selling over the weekend, as capital flowed into altcoins. Here’s a list of the main movers and shakers:

• BTC: 0.56% ⏫ $30,283

• ETH: 4.02% ⏫ $1932

• XRP: 61.16% ⏫ $ 0.7534

• SOL: 32.67% ⏫ $27.81

(All data here is as of 12.45 pm, 17 July 2023.)

It always helps to understand what’s making the market jiggle. That’s why we curate this section each week, highlighting all the latest news, to help you make sense of all the action.

• A re-launched US bill has proposed that crypto exchanges be overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)—not the US SEC. Read more here.

• Coinbase added an encrypted messaging function to its crypto wallet on Wednesday. The feature allows Ethereum wallet users to communicate. Read more here.

• The Google Play store now allows developers to incorporate digital assets, such as NFTs, into their apps and games. The move marks a major shift in policy. Read more here.

• Following the US court’s favorable ruling, Ripple (XRP) surpassed BNB to become the world’s fourth-largest digital asset by market cap. Read more here.

• Aave launched its new dollar-pegged algorithmic stablecoin GHO on the Ethereum mainnet. The stablecoin will be backed by digital assets like ETH. Read more here.

• Polygon recently proposed a token upgrade to replace MATIC with a new token—POL. The move allows POL to function as a single token for all Polygon-based networks. Read more here.

Before getting on with your Monday, don’t forget to jog those brain muscles with our weekly crypto crossword.

That’s it for now. Thanks for sticking around.

See you later, folks!

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