1. The U.S. SEC files another lawsuit against Ripple for selling unregistered securities to investors
According to Decrypt, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed another lawsuit against Ripple for selling unregistered securities to investors. It has filed a notice with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and stated that it will appeal the final decision made by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in August. In a statement, an SEC spokesperson said, "The district court's decision on the Ripple case conflicts with decades of Supreme Court precedent and securities laws, and we look forward to filing a lawsuit with the Second Circuit Court."
In 2020, the SEC filed a $1.3 billion lawsuit against Ripple, accusing the company of selling unregistered securities to investors in the form of the cryptocurrency XRP to raise funds. The SEC had asked Ripple to pay a $2 billion fine, but in August this year, a New York court ordered the company to pay only a $125 million fine.
2. Gurbir Grewal, head of the U.S. SEC enforcement division, will step down on October 11
According to Cointelegraph, Gurbir Grewal, head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Enforcement Division, will step down on October 11. The SEC has not yet selected Grewal's permanent successor, but Sanjay Wadhwa, deputy director of the SEC Enforcement Division, will temporarily serve as acting director. Gurbir Grewal advocates strict regulation of the cryptocurrency industry, and Cointelegraph said that this departure may lead the SEC to take a more moderate attitude towards cryptocurrencies.
3. Swift plans to conduct digital asset trading trials in 2025
Swift announced that it will conduct a real-time digital asset and currency transaction trial on the interbank global messaging network in 2025, covering banks from North America, Europe and Asia. Next year's trial will pilot an advanced version of its infrastructure that will be able to coordinate real-world digital asset and currency transactions across the network for the first time.
The trial was conducted in partnership between Swift and Chainlink, connecting its network to the Ethereum Sepolia test network as an enterprise abstraction layer. The experiment showed that Swift can provide a single access point to multiple public and private blockchain networks, which can also support institutions in creating tokenized assets and developing central bank digital currencies.
4. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority held a bilateral meeting with the Central Bank of Qatar to share experiences in digital assets, etc.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Central Bank of Qatar held a bilateral meeting in Doha on October 3 to strengthen cooperation in the financial services sector between the two places. During the meeting, the HKMA and the Central Bank of Qatar discussed a number of cooperation plans to strengthen cooperation in the field of financial infrastructure, and shared experiences on capital market connectivity, sustainable finance, bond market development, digital assets and talent cultivation.
5. Ripple partners with Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange to launch enterprise-level payment solutions
According to CoinDesk, Ripple has partnered with Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin to launch an enterprise-level payment solution.
Mercado Bitcoin uses Ripple’s services to improve its internal financial operations between Brazil and Portugal. It aims to provide international payment support for its corporate and retail customers, allowing users to conduct transactions in Brazilian reals.
6. Visa launches asset tokenization platform "VTAP"
According to Cointelegraph, Visa launched the asset tokenization platform "VTAP" to support a wide range of tokenized assets, including stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
According to Visa, VTAP is currently in the sandbox phase, with participants including Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) testing core functionality. The platform will address the needs of institutional investors and central banks, providing an end-to-end infrastructure to securely mint, transfer and settle digital assets on public and permissioned blockchains.
