GM, frens! Ambire here with our weekly newsletter.

Today we’re talking about the Ripple v. SEC battle conclusion, crypto claimed to helping terrorists - FUD & accusations, Ambire’s exclusive Halloween NFT, 9GAG’s Memeland project getting $40m in funding in a few hours, Binance temporarily shutting down withdrawals and Maestro TG bot refunding every user in full after a hack.

Let’s get down to it:

Is the Ripple vs SEC saga over?

It seems that Ripple, the blockchain firm behind the XRP token, is making significant strides in its legal battle against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In recent developments, a US District Court Judge has officially dismissed the charges filed by the SEC against Ripple's top executives Brad Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen. This marks a significant victory for Ripple, as they have been embroiled in a legal dispute with the SEC over allegations tied to the sale of XRP tokens.

Ripple attorneys James K. Filan and Jeremy Hogan, have shared their thoughts on the matter, with Filan revealing that the dismissal order was signed by Judge Analisa Torres on October 23.

In a Twitter post, Filan also noted that the charges were dropped by the SEC before the official dismissal.

So, essentially, the case has been dropped by the SEC. However, there are still hearings scheduled to decide a judgment of up to $770 million against Ripple.

XRP reacted positively to the news, with its price increasing by 12.3% in a week and adding $2.4 billion in market cap. This can also be attributed to the overall market rebound, led by a massive recent pump from Bitcoin (BTC).

It seems that Ripple's legal troubles are not yet over, but this latest victory brings hope for the future of XRP and the company itself.

Crypto & terrorism funding FUD: separating fact from fiction

As the adoption and use of crypto continue to grow, there have been concerns about its potential use by terrorist groups for funding their activities.

In recent news, claims were made that Hamas, a militant group operating in Palestine, had raised millions through crypto fundraising. However, upon closer examination and analysis by blockchain intelligence firm Elliptic, it was found that these claims were not backed by evidence.

Elliptic has stated that the public nature of blockchain technology makes it difficult for terrorist groups to successfully use crypto as a funding tool. Law enforcement agencies are able to freeze crypto assets held by these groups, making it a less attractive option for financing illegal activities.

In fact, the amount of crypto raised through fundraising by terrorist groups is minimal compared to traditional funding sources.

In a letter from Senator Elizabeth Warren and other U.S. Democratic lawmakers, there were calls for the Biden administration to address the potential use of crypto in terror financing. However, it has been clarified that only $21,000 in crypto was donated to Hamas since October 7th and most of it has already been frozen.

So, is there really a significant threat of crypto being used for terrorist funding? The answer seems to be no. But people who like to spread FUD have certainly latched onto this narrative to create a negative perception of crypto.

Mint an exclusive Halloween NFT with Ambire Wallet (& more chances to win)

No tricks from Ambire Wallet for Halloween this year - just treats! Mint a free, unique and exclusive soulbound Halloween NFT with superpowers on October, 31st 2023 and get a chance to win even more with swappin.gifts. Don’t miss your chance:

Binance temporarily shuts down withdrawals

Binance and different issues seem to go hand in hand. The world-renowned cryptocurrency exchange has faced multiple outages and temporary halts in the past, causing inconvenience to its users.

This time is no different. Apparently, a technical issue caused crypto withdrawals to be temporarily paused on Binance.

According to the platform's Twitter account, the issue has now been resolved and all crypto withdrawals are back to functioning as usual. According to Etherscan, the last withdrawal before the outage was processed at 10:45 UTC, and the issue was resolved by 11:55 UTC. This means that the disruption lasted for approximately an hour.

CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao also tweeted about the incident, assuring users that their funds 'were SAFU' and the team was working on fixing the issue promptly.

This outage coincidentally happened on a day when the crypto market saw record-breaking trading volumes, with over $100 billion traded across all platforms. The price of Bitcoin also hit a 16-month high on Tuesday, further increasing the activity on exchanges.

Whether Binance couldn't handle the surge in demand or it was just a technical glitch, it once again highlights the importance of having stable and reliable infrastructure in place for such a high-demand market.

Memeland gets $10M in 42 minutes - all for the love of memes

9GAG, an immensely popular meme site, has expanded into the world of Web3 with their latest venture, Memeland. The team behind 9GAG has developed a new project that combines NFTs, metaverses, and gaming.

The token sale for Memeland (MEME) was met with incredible success, securing $10 million in commitments just 42 minutes after going live. This impressive feat highlights the growing interest and demand for Web3 projects in the cryptocurrency space.

Prior to the sale, community members had the opportunity to enter a waitlist by completing various quests. The tokens were then made available for purchase on Thursday, with no roadmap or promises attached. Instead, buyers were promised "100% memes" with no expectation of financial returns.

The degen nature of this project was clearly appealing to many, as the tokens were sold out almost immediately.

Despite the lack of utility and roadmap, Memeland holds potential for merging various facets of the crypto world. NFTs, metaverses, and gaming are all rapidly growing sectors in the industry, making this project an intriguing prospect. In any case, the success of Memeland's token sale is a strong indicator of the potential for Web3 projects to capture the attention and investment of the crypto community.

Maestro bot returns 610 ETH to users after security breach

Maestro, one of the biggest Telegram trading bots got hacked recently, causing a loss of around 281 ETH. However, what followed next was truly remarkable and restored faith in the crypto community.

The team behind Maestro decided to use their own earnings to cover the losses of affected users. This gesture amounted to over 610 ETH, which is equivalent to more than a $1m dollars. The team ensured that every user who suffered losses received full compensation, with some even getting additional tokens as a bonus.

The bot got hacked due to a security vulnerability in the MaestroRouter 2 contract, which was exploited by the hacker to transfer tokens and convert them into ETH using the RailGun mixer. Thanks to their quick response, Maestro managed to detect the attack within just 30 minutes. They also collaborated with CertiK to verify the legitimacy of all refund transactions.

Of course, it would have been better if the hack had never happened in the first place. But Maestro's prompt and responsible actions have surely won them many loyal customers who trust their platform and security measures.

Other worthy reads:

BTC dominance is soaring, according to Jake Pahor:

Top ecosystems of the week by Prithvir:

Market sentiments according to DeFiMan:

The fun page

That's all for now, frens.

We'll see you next week. And remember, the market conditions are temporary, but our commitment to building a better DeFi is here to stay. Thanks for joining us, and we look forward to seeing you back next week. Cheers!

Yours, The 🔥 Team

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