XRP’s price surged by more than 8% amid rumors of a potential settlement between Ripple and the U.S. SEC. Meanwhile, Solana’s security status is still uncertain after the SEC amended its complaint in its case against Binance. The SEC has also charged BitClout founder Nader Al-Naji with selling unregistered securities and fraud, while two artists are suing the SEC for clarity on NFT regulations.

Settlement Rumors Boost XRP’s Price

The price of Ripple (XRP) surged by more than 8% over the past 24 hours, surpassing all other top 50 altcoins. This increase in investor interest comes as there are discussions of a potential settlement between the U.S. SEC and Ripple. In contrast, Bitcoin (BTC), the leading cryptocurrency, failed to achieve the same price performance over the past day.

XRP 1D chart (Source: CoinMarketCap)

According to CoinMarketCap, XRP’s price rose by around 8% since yesterday. This means that the remittance token was worth about $0.649 at press time. Additionally, its trading volume surged by more than 170% as well.

With August right around the corner, the SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit enters a critical phase as Judge Analisa Torres still has to issue a ruling. Interest surrounding the case spiked after XRP enthusiast Jack the Rippler retweeted a leaked image on X suggesting a secret meeting between the SEC and Ripple on Aug. 1. This ended up fueling rumors of a settlement. Pro-XRP lawyer Rispoli speculated that the lawsuit might even be resolved by July 31.

XRP's price surge is also happening as investors are actively accumulating the crypto. According to the blockchain analytics platform Santiment, the number of wallets holding at least 10,000 XRP has skyrocketed over the past five weeks. Santiment revealed that 279,400 of these shark and whale addresses exist on the ledger, which is a six-month high.

It is important to take note of the fact that the Relative Strength Index (RSI) for the XRP/USDT pair reads 69, which indicates the token is nearing overbought territory. While the RSI’s upward trajectory suggests further price increases are possible, entering the overbought zone could signal a potential cool-off.

Solana's Fate Uncertain as SEC Amends Complaint

The SEC also has its hands full with other legal battles as it has not definitively determined the status of Solana (SOL) as a security, despite retracting its request for a court decision on the matter as part of its lawsuit against Binance. According to Jake Chervinsky, Chief Legal Officer at crypto-focused venture capital firm Variant Fund, the SEC has not decided that SOL is a non-security. 

This comes in light of the SEC's latest move to amend its complaint regarding ”Third Party Crypto Asset Securities,” effectively informing the court that it is no longer requesting a decision on whether the tokens listed in the lawsuit are securities.

Chervinsky, along with other legal experts like Miles Jennings of a16z Crypto and Justin Slaughter of Paradigm, believes the SEC's retraction does not signal a shift in its stance. Slaughter suggested that the SEC's filing is being over-interpreted and does not indicate that Solana and other tokens are not considered securities. 

Jennings believes that Judge Amy Berman Jackson set a high bar to establish the Howey test in the Binance case, making it unfeasible for the SEC to prove these tokens were securities. He also mentioned that Judge Katherine Polk Failla, who is presiding over the SEC's lawsuit against Coinbase, appears more inclined to support the SEC’s position, which may explain the different strategies in the cases.

Jennings is also a bit skeptical about the SEC’s ability to establish a connection between token sales on secondary markets and the managerial efforts of token issuers. He speculated that the SEC's decision is influenced by internal information and political motives.

The SEC's lawsuit against Binance initially claimed several tokens as securities, including Solana (SOL), Binance Coin (BNB), Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC), The Sandbox (SAND), Decentraland (MANA), and Axie Infinity (AXS). The SEC also previously stated that at least 68 tokens are securities.

SEC Sues BitClout Founder

Meanwhile, the SEC, alongside the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, announced charges against BitClout founder Nader Al-Naji on July 30. The SEC’s complaint alleged that Al-Naji sold $257 million in unregistered securities through BitClout’s native token, BTCLT, and defrauded investors by misusing a portion of those funds. Decentralized Social (DeSo), a newer project from Al-Naji, was also named in the complaint.

The complaint accused Al-Naji of spending $7 million in customer funds on luxury items, including leasing a Beverly Hills mansion and giving generous cash gifts to family members, despite promising investors that funds would not be used as compensation for any BitClout team members. The SEC also claimed that Al-Naji mischaracterized the core inner workings of the BitClout project by misleading investors and legal firms into believing the project was decentralized and had no governing company, while he was actually running the project behind the scenes. 

The SEC believes that messages to certain investors reveal that Al-Naji wanted to avoid regulatory scrutiny by promoting the project as decentralized. Gurbir S. Grewal, the director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, stated that Al-Naji tried to evade federal securities laws and defraud the investing public by pretending the project was decentralized to confuse regulators.

Additionally, Al-Naji’s wife, mother, and related business entities were listed in the complaint as relief defendants because they were alleged recipients of investor funds from Al-Naji. In response, Jordan and Luke Lintz, founders of HighKey Agency and investors in the Decentralized Social project, stated that the SEC’s allegations were against BitClout and claimed that the DeSo treasury remains untouched. 

They also mentioned that they were unaware of Al-Naji's personal life and did not comment on the alleged personal reimbursements to family members specified in the SEC's complaint.

Artists Sue SEC Over NFT Regulations

Two artists have sued the SEC to clarify whether non-fungible tokens (NFTs) fall under the commission’s authority. Law professor and filmmaker Brian Frye and songwriter Jonathon Mann, represented by their attorneys, are looking for guidance on which actions could trigger US securities laws when creating and selling NFT art. 

They questioned whether artists need to register their NFT art before selling it to the public and if they have to disclose the risks of buying their art, according to a court filing on July 29.

The attorneys argued that classifying NFTs as securities would be as absurd as treating Taylor Swift concert tickets as securities. They pointed out that Swift sells concert tickets, which are resold on the secondary market, and promotes her events, but it would be nonsensical for the SEC to regulate these tickets or collectibles as securities. They stated that Frye and Mann, like Swift, are artists who want to sell their digital art without SEC interference or the threat of lawsuits.

The lawsuit also seeks declaratory and injunctive relief against what the plaintiffs consider unlawful enforcement actions by the SEC on NFT projects launched by Frye and Mann. The SEC's first NFT case was against YouTube channel and podcast Impact Theory last August, alleging that it encouraged potential investors to view the purchase of Founders Key NFTs as an investment with expected profits.

Frye and Mann’s lawyers disagreed with the SEC's stance, and even compared it to hypothetically finding Taylor Swift’s songs or collectibles to be securities, which they argued would be far-fetched and damaging. According to the lawyers, the SEC’s approach threatens the livelihoods of artists and creators experimenting with or choosing NFTs as their preferred medium.