ChainCatcher news, Ripple executives including CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Chief Legal Officer Stu Alderoty proposed to President Trump to include SOL in the U.S. cryptocurrency reserve program to enhance the program's legitimacy within the crypto community.Sources say that Ripple aims to strengthen the position of XRP by advocating for a reserve program that includes multiple U.S. tokens.

ChainCatcher news, Galaxy Digital's Vice President of Research Christine Kim posted on the X platform: "Latest weekend update on the status of the Ethereum Holesky testnet: Developers held a meeting on Friday to coordinate large-scale penalties and expedite the exit of inactive validators. However, it seems that the number of active validators on the testnet is insufficient, and the developers lack confidence in advancing the plan. Therefore, they decided to give more time over the weekend for more active validators to join Holesky, and to coordinate large-scale penalty actions by Monday at the latest. If you are running a Holesky validator and have not yet attempted to bring it back online, please do so as soon as possible and delete your slashing protection database. Additionally, a reminder that during the Holesky event, another vulnerability affecting Geth and Nethermind clients was reported through the Pectra audit competition. Please note that this vulnerability is unrelated to the issue of incorrect configuration of the deposit contract address."

ChainCatcher news, according to Sing Tao Daily, Joy Lam, the Head of Compliance and Legal Affairs for Binance in the Asia-Pacific region, stated in a recent interview that Hong Kong's regulatory framework for virtual assets is relatively cautious and is moving in the right direction. He suggested that further relaxation of restrictions could allow more virtual asset products and services to enter the local market while ensuring the protection of investors' rights.However, he did not directly respond to market concerns about whether Binance intends to return to the U.S. market or enter the Hong Kong market, only emphasizing that the Asia-Pacific region is the engine of global economic growth and that the local cryptocurrency usage rate is relatively high. He hopes to participate in and support the development of the local virtual asset market in different ways.

ChainCatcher news, citing two informed sources from Reuters, reports that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) plans to replace senior leadership at its regional offices across the country as part of its cost-cutting proposal to the Trump administration. According to the sources, the SEC informed the directors of its 10 regional offices on Friday that their positions would be eliminated based on a plan to be submitted next month. The SEC oversees over $100 trillion of the U.S. capital markets and is currently under pressure from Trump to cut jobs and reduce costs. Some of the government's cost-cutting efforts involve the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and Musk. Agency leaders have been instructed to submit proposals for significant budget cuts to the government.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, when asked whether there are plans to follow up with the launch of a Solana ETF, Rachel Aguirre, head of BlackRock's iShares product division in the U.S., did not provide a specific answer but reiterated that the company will focus on three core principles."First, what do clients need? Second, what is the investment thesis? In the world of cryptocurrency, not all coins are the same, and this investment thesis is very important. Third, is it suitable for an ETF structure? Is there enough liquidity? Can it support transparency, etc.? So our principles remain unchanged, whether it's an active management strategy, a strategy using options and other derivatives, or a strategy in the cryptocurrency space."

ChainCatcher news, according to ibtimes, Luca Sorlini, the product head of virtual asset service provider Northstake, stated that he believes the reasonable inflow range in the first week after the approval of the XRP ETF will be between $400 million and $800 million.Luca Sorlini further added that his prediction will depend on various factors, including overall market conditions, the number of competing ETFs that may be launched simultaneously if approved, and, more importantly, institutional interest in this issuance.However, Bloomberg's senior ETF analysts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas currently believe that the probability of the XRP ETF being approved is 65%. This is because the classification of the token as a security or a commodity remains an unresolved issue.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cryptonews, Nigerian House of Representatives member Philip Agbese has filed a lawsuit against Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan in the Abuja Federal Capital Territory High Court, seeking 1 billion naira (approximately $667,000) in damages for defamation.The lawsuit stems from Gambaryan's claims on social media that Agbese and two other lawmakers attempted to solicit a $150 million cryptocurrency bribe. Agbese's camp stated that he has never owned a cryptocurrency account or engaged in digital currency transactions, demanding that Gambaryan publicly apologize in at least three national newspapers and delete all related social media posts.The Nigerian Minister of Information and National Orientation dismissed Gambaryan's allegations on February 14, stating that the claims lack credible evidence. The court has ordered Gambaryan to respond to the lawsuit within 8 days.Previous news, Binance executives reiterated that Nigerian lawmakers had solicited a $150 million bribe in exchange for dropping the lawsuit against Binance.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, Coinbase shareholder Wenduo Guo filed a lawsuit in the New Jersey federal court on February 18, accusing the cryptocurrency exchange and its executives of violating securities laws by allegedly concealing information related to bankruptcy risks from investors.The lawsuit claims that Coinbase and its management failed to disclose the risk that user assets could be considered bankruptcy property, which would make retail users unsecured creditors. The complaint also points out that at least 75 cryptocurrency exchanges had collapsed before the company's listing in April 2021, leaving users unable to recover their digital assets.Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that Coinbase did not disclose its engagement in proprietary trading to cope with the decline in cryptocurrency prices. The defendants include several executives and board members, including CEO Brian Armstrong. The plaintiffs are seeking a jury trial and are requesting damages and corporate governance reforms.

ChainCatcher news, Bitwise executive Jeff Park pointed out that under the framework of U.S. securities law, insider trading that results in losses does not constitute a violation on a technical level. This is because insider trading, as a form of securities fraud, must simultaneously meet the three elements of liability, breach, and damages.Jeff Park explained that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) defines insider trading primarily based on the anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Exchange Act. Since the essence of insider trading is fraudulent behavior in securities transactions, if the trade does not result in a profit, it cannot be proven to have caused actual harm to others. This also explains why the civil penalties in insider trading cases are usually calculated based on multiples of "profits gained" or "losses avoided."Additionally, Jeff Park stated that for crypto assets like meme coins, if they are not classified as securities, then insider trading regulations do not apply, and they should be regulated from the perspective of market manipulation or fraud.

ChainCatcher news, Binance's financial crime compliance officer Tigran Gambaryan recently reiterated that a rogue Nigerian lawmaker demanded a $150 million bribe in exchange for dropping the lawsuit against Binance. The relevant lawmaker wanted the funds to be transferred directly to their cryptocurrency wallet, using "fake cameras and media" to make the meeting with visiting Binance executives appear legitimate.In May 2024, reports emerged that Binance CEO Richard Teng accused members of the Nigerian House of Representatives Financial Crimes Committee (HCFC) of soliciting a $150 million bribe. At that time, Nigeria's Minister of Information Mohammed Idris denied the allegations, stating that it was a strategy by the company to "hurry to cover up the serious criminal charges it faces."However, Gambaryan insisted that this attempt was indeed conducted with the involvement of Nigeria's Department of State Services (DSS). He also stated, "The Nigerian government has publicly claimed that there is $26 billion in mysterious funds (through Binance) flowing out of Nigeria, which is completely nonsense. This information was provided at their request; it is merely the cumulative trading data of Nigerians on the platform. This money did not flow out of Nigeria—people are just buying and selling cryptocurrency. For example, if you trade $100 a hundred times, that amounts to $10,000 in trading volume, but in reality, you only used $100. Similarly, this is just another example of their lies to cover up a false investigation."Just after Gambaryan shared these explosive details, Nigeria's Minister of Information Idris issued a statement denying them. However, the statement acknowledged the bribery allegations, but Idris pointed out that it was the Nigerian government that initiated the investigation, "even though no one has formally filed a lawsuit." His statement also revealed that the Nigerian government rejected a U.S. proposal to pay $5 million in exchange for Gambaryan's release.

ChainCatcher news, according to Fortune, Patrick Liou, head of institutional trading at the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, stated that non-farm data once led to a rise in Bitcoin, but then fell again due to increased uncertainty about the Federal Reserve's interest rate cuts this year. The current trend in the crypto market may depend on expectations for future rate cuts.Generally, lower interest rates are favorable for cryptocurrencies, as loose economic conditions encourage investors to return to risk assets. However, the Federal Reserve has not provided a clear direction moving forward and is still observing whether to cut rates, leading crypto traders to be in a state of hesitation. "They are still uncertain because inflation has decreased, but the pace of decline is not fast."

ChainCatcher news, according to informed sources, a startup called Receipts Depositary Corp. (RDC), founded by a group of former Citigroup executives, is planning to launch XRP-backed securities.This will allow institutions to access XRP securities through U.S. regulated market infrastructure.The company will offer depositary receipts similar to American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) that represent foreign stocks traded on U.S. stock exchanges. The product will only be offered to qualified institutional buyers through transactions exempt from registration under the Securities Act of 1933. Therefore, it does not require approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

ChainCatcher news, according to the New York Post, the potential candidates for the Trump administration's digital asset market working group have been revealed. These industry executives include former Kraken General Counsel Marco Santori, Ripple co-founder Brad Garlinghouse, podcast host Frank Chaparro, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, and Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek.This list does not include all individuals; the potential candidates for the advisory committee are selected based on industry experience.

ChainCatcher news, YZi Labs director Ella Zhang shared a tweet from Zhao Changpeng on X (formerly Twitter) and stated that YZi Labs will not prioritize short-term financial returns but will focus on finding companies/projects that can continuously create long-term value. Such companies typically have three key characteristics:Strong competitive moats;Management teams with a long-term vision;Resilience and adaptability to economic cycles and market fluctuations.Previous news, Zhao Changpeng tweeted: Stick to fundamental investing, time will be on your side.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, crypto VC Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang, along with Chief Technology Officer Georgios Konstantopoulos and partners Dan Robinson and Charlie Noyes, published a call to accelerate the development of Ethereum, advocating for more than one major upgrade per year, while opposing the idea that the best way to protect Ethereum's decentralized status is to slow down or "stagnate" the development of the core protocol.The article states: "We believe Ethereum should focus on reaching the possible effective boundaries, and then hypothetically argue how we will make choices between values once those limits are reached."The article also proposed several "uncontroversial improvements" that they believe should be deployed quickly, rather than postponed to accommodate annual major upgrades. Some changes include repricing L1 opcodes to scale Ethereum without modifying the block gas limit, improving the user experience of batch transactions through further development of the account abstraction framework, and further developing rollups to meet the growing demand.

ChainCatcher news, VanEck's Head of Digital Asset Research Matthew Sigel retweeted a tweet from the "Ethereum Foundation" on social media, stating that there is no reason to believe that the Ethereum Foundation is the only entity that can shape the future of Ethereum.Previous news, Lido and P2P.org founder Konstantin Lomashuk announced the establishment of the "Second Foundation," aimed at further supporting the development of the Ethereum ecosystem.

ChainCatcher news, Chris Taylor, Vice President of the NYSE Group and Global Head of Listings and Services, stated that cryptocurrency companies are increasingly interested in going public, and more crypto companies are expected to conduct IPOs.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, Grayscale's Managing Director of Research Zach Pandl stated that following the approval of the spot ETF in 2024 and the election of Trump, the crypto industry will see more small-scale breakthroughs in 2025. These include increased institutional adoption, Congress introducing a more comprehensive legislative framework, and Bitcoin potentially becoming a reserve asset for the United States.In a conversation with Ric Edelman, founder of the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals (DACFP), Pandl mentioned that it is not "completely impossible" for Bitcoin to reach $500,000 by 2030. He pointed out that pension funds and endowments that have been cautious about cryptocurrencies over the past decade are now actively engaging in this field, with some portfolio managers beginning to allocate up to 5% of their assets to crypto, and more institutional approval processes expected to be completed within 6-12 months.Additionally, Pandl anticipates that sovereign wealth funds outside the United States will increase their exposure to crypto assets in the coming months. He is particularly optimistic about the institutional adoption prospects of Ethereum, calling it "one of the most important open-source software projects." In the private equity space, decentralized finance (DeFi), tokenization of physical assets, and AI tokens may attract institutional interest.