Pro-Ripple lawyer John Deaton has said he expects a lengthy legal process for the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) v Ripple case, possibly lasting a year. Deaton suggests that a settlement may only be considered if Coinbase’s motion to dismiss (MTD) the SEC’s case against it is successful. 

In a detailed post on X (formerly known as Twitter), Deaton discussed the lack of serious settlement talks between Ripple, its executives and the SEC. He mentioned the SEC’s desire for a $770 million penalty and explained the complexities of the penalty phase involving various legal processes.

In his words,

“I do not believe there has been a single serious conversation regarding a settlement… Read more on Cointelegraph

Global payment giant Mastercard continues exploring cryptocurrency benefits through a new collaboration with crypto payment platform MoonPay.

MoonPay officially announced on Oct. 25 a partnership with Mastercard aiming to jointly explore how Web3 tools can improve experiential marketing, or new ways to connect with Mastercard’s consumers.

The firm also took to X (formerly Twitter) to report that MoonPay’s enterprise president Keith Grossman and Mastercard’s chief marketing and communications officer Raja Rajamannar announced the collaboration at Money20/20 in Las Vegas.

MoonPay’s partnership announcement with Mastercard. Source: X (formerly Twitter)

“Mastercard will take advantage of…

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Stefan Thomas, the former CTO of Ripple, holds 7,002 bitcoins, currently valued at $244 million, in a hard drive he can no longer access because he misplaced the digital keys.

The programmer received these bitcoins in 2011 as payment for an educational video he created about bitcoin, only to lose the access code later that same year.

Crypto security specialists at Unciphered have now thrown Thomas a potential lifeline. 

The firm penned an open letter to him on Oct. 25, claiming they have the technical ability to outsmart Thomas’s “IronKey,” the encrypted USB device, and help him gain access to his bitcoin fortune.

Years ago, Thomas misplaced the paper containing his IronKey…

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Bitcoin (BTC) may reach new all-time highs by the end of next year, but crypto investors should brace themselves for a “chopfest” in the meantime, according to veteran trader and analyst Peter Brandt. 

In an Oct. 26 post on X (formerly Twitter), Brandt told his 660,000 followers that Bitcoin had likely already bottomed in Nov. 2022 and that the cryptocurrency is on track to notch new highs by the third quarter of 2024.

Anyone who declares they know the future path of any market is a fool. Markets will ALWAYS surprise.

Yet, with this disclaimer, I believe:1. The $BTC bottom is in2. New ATHs not coming until Q3 20243. Chop fest in the meanwhile

I’ve used this blueprint for approx 2 years…

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Blockchain forensic firm Elliptic says there’s “no evidence” that Hamas is receiving a significant volume of cryptocurrency donations to fund its attacks against Israel.

“There is no evidence to support the assertion that Hamas has received significant volumes of crypto donations,” Elliptic said in an Oct. 25 statement. The amounts raised “remain tiny,” the firm added.

Elliptic’s statement was framed as a rebuttal to recent articles and letters written by The Wall Street Journal and United States lawmakers, which the firm says had misinterpreted data to make the case that cryptocurrency is widely used to fund Hamas’ “terrorist” activities.

As an example, Elliptic…

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Asset manager Hashdex recently held a meeting with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to address the regulator’s concerns about its application to allow the Hashdex Bitcoin Futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) to hold spot Bitcoin, a source familiar with the matter told Cointelegraph. 

As per a memorandum released by the Division of Trading Markets, the meeting took place on Oct. 13, with six SEC officials and representatives of Hashdex, NYSE Arca, Tidal Financial Group, and law firm K&L Gates in attendance.

In the meeting, Hashdex presented its mechanism allowing spot Bitcoin (BTC) to be traded and held in the ETF on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), which the Commodity…

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A company is petitioning former Ripple chief technology officer Stefan Thomas for a hard drive containing more than 7,000 Bitcoin (BTC) that he has been unable to access for years.

In an Oct. 25 open letter, crypto recovery firm Unciphered offered to unlock an IronKey hard drive belonging to Thomas containing 7,002 BTC — roughly $244 million at the time of publication. The former Ripple CTO forgot the information to access the drive, designed to erase its data if an individual enters the incorrect password ten times. So far, the German-born programmer has used eight out of his ten attempts.

According to Unciphered, its teams developed a method to crack the hardware and access the BTC…

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Web3 gaming developer Neon Machine raised $20 million in series A funding toward the development of its highly-anticipated extraction shooter “Shrapnel.” 

This round follows a $10.5 million seed round completed in June of 2021. It was led by Polychain Capital and included funding from Griffin Gaming Partners, Brevan Howard Digital, Franklin Templeton, IOSG Ventures, and Tess Ventures.

Shrapnel is an ambitious gaming project touted by Neon Machine as a “AAA game” — a non-standard designation used to indicate a video game with top-tier production value, budgeting, and marketing.

According to gameplay footage shown on Neon Machine’s YouTube page and documentation on the game’s…

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