• XRP News Today: Ripple scores a significant legal victory as a US court rules in favor of Ripple Labs in the ongoing XRP lawsuit, narrowing the scope of class claims.

• Ripple Lawsuit Update: Judge Phyllis Hamilton grants Ripple’s motion for final judgment on settled class claims, limiting the case and setting a trial date for January 2025.

• The news of Ripple's legal win boosts XRP sentiment, with potential positive effects on XRP price action in the coming months

   

  In the latest development, Ripple has scored a legal victory. In the ongoing In re Ripple Labs Inc. litigation, a US court has ruled in favor of Ripple Labs, XRP II LLC and Brad Garlinghouse. This is a huge win for Ripple in the long-running case over unregistered securities sales. Judge Phyllis Hamilton granted Ripple’s motion for final judgment on certain class claims, which limits the case and sets up a trial in January 2025.

   

  Key Lawsuit Details

  Ripple and the plaintiffs jointly filed a motion seeking final judgment on settled class claims and a pause on remaining claims while appeals are pending. Judge Phyllis Hamilton’s order specifically addresses the class action claims related to unregistered securities sales, Ripple’s potential liability as a “control person,” and alleged California securities law violations.

  With this ruling, the court has scheduled a trial for January 21, 2025, while pausing previous pretrial deadlines until appeals of the class claims are resolved.

   

  Ripple’s Push for Clarity

  Ripple’s request for this final judgment aims to streamline the legal process, clarify remaining claims, and shorten the case’s timeline. The court has also encouraged both sides to consider alternative dispute resolutions, hinting that settlement discussions may be on the horizon in the coming months.

   

  Implications of the Ripple vs SEC Case

  The Ripple case has implications for the SEC v. Ripple Labs case where the U.S. SEC is accusing Ripple of violating federal securities laws. Ripple’s win could further enhance the confidence in their stance against the SEC.

   

  Especially after Trump has hinted towards regulatory clarity in the industry, and promised to fire Gary Gensler, the market anxiously awaits an action from the administration. Legal experts and Ripple CTO David Schwartz believe that a dismissal or settlement is possible. Attorney Fred Rispoli had stated that while a settlement appears more realistic, however, a full dismissal might be unlikely. 

   

  Gary Gensler To Exit Soon?

  While Trump’s inauguration is set for January 20, the pro-XRP attorney James Murphy (MetaLawMan on X) believes Gensler may vacate his post as early as this month. Gensler’s potential resignation and a pro-crypto replacement could fuel a significant market resurgence.

  XRP’s price remains closely tied to the regulatory clarity surrounding the token. Attorney Case Darwin agreed with a trader who noted that ‘not owning XRP during this run will be one of the biggest mistakes many will make’. He shared that people will not buy it, as the SEC appealed the district court’s decision, in which Ripple won a resounding victory. He emphasized that the BTC hype and its appeal will keep them away. XRP is currently trading at $0.7263, up over 3% in the last 24 hours.

   

  

  With the stakes higher than ever, Ripple’s victory is more than a win—it’s a turning point for crypto.📈

   

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In June the Swiss National Bank (SNB) extended its wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) pilot by two years. That major news overshadowed another groundbreaking first: the central bank conducted DLT-based monetary policy operations by issuing CHF 64 million in digital SNB Bills on the SIX Digital Exchange’s DLT. They were redeemed seven days later.

This week the central bank shared findings about the trial, which formed part of Project Helvetia III, its wholesale CBDC initiative. It concluded that this approach is feasible and effective.

However, most of the other findings amounted to digital SNB Bills being a new process that would therefore require additional work. The SNB views DLT as still being niche, with relatively low volumes.

“Hence, the question of whether to conduct monetary policy operations on a DLT-based infrastructure is premature. Ramping up such operations would also entail significant investment for the SNB, its counterparties as well as infrastructure providers,” the paper states.

How it worked

The central bank would usually issue SNB Bills to mop up liquidity in the banking sector. In this case, the bills were a bit shorter than usual – seven days rather than the usual 28 days minimum. It involved a smaller than normal group of pilot banks and the digital SNB Bills weren’t auctioned on the usual CO:RE repo platform.

Two days after the Bill auction, the digital SNB Bills were issued in much the same way as other digital bonds that have been issued on SDX. Plus, the banks converted central bank reserves to the wCBDC on SDX. As soon as that happened the transfer of the wCBDC and the Bills happened atomically. On redemption, the Bills were returned to the central bank with the banks receiving wCBDC in an atomic settlement transaction. The SNB noted that the wCBDC represents central bank reserves in a different form, which makes it effective for monetary policy purposes.

Digital SNB Bill findings

Firstly, the SNB acted as issuer, issuer agent and paying agent. It found this improved transparency and reduced coordination efforts. However, it would usually delegate some of these tasks to the central securities depository (CSD).

Secondly, using a wCBDC required an extra step beyond basic cash management. Finally, automation was out of scope for the test but would be necessary to enable straight through processing.

Hence, the conclusion that the extra work is not currently justified given the progress of DLT adoption.

Meanwhile, the SNB and SDX are both participants in Project Agorá, the tokenized cross border payment trials organized by the BIS. It involves seven central banks and over 40 private institutions.

Link

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have been selected by President-elect Donald Trump to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where they will "slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies," according to an official release from the Trump-Vance transition team, which called this "potentially, the "Manhattan Project" of our time."

According to the statement, "Their work will conclude no later than July 4, 2026" - the nation's 250th anniversary.

Musk previously predicted he could cut at least $2 trillion from the US federal budget, while Ramaswamy suggested firing federal workers based on their social security numbers.

"Here’s how: if your [Social Security number] ends in an odd number, you’re fired," he wrote on X.

In September, Ramaswamy told podcaster Lex Fridman: "Get in there on day one, say that anybody in the federal bureaucracy who is not elected, elected representatives obviously were elected by the people, but the people who are not elected, if your social security number ends in an odd number, you’re out, if it ends in an even number, you’re in. There’s a 50% cut right there. Of those who remain, if your social security number starts in an even number, you’re in and if it starts with an odd number, you’re out. Boom. That’s a 75% reduction done. Literally, stochastically, okay, one of the virtues of that, it’s a thought experiment, not a policy prescription, but one of the virtues of that thought experiment is that you don’t have a bunch of lawsuits you’re dealing with about gender discrimination or racial discrimination or political viewpoint discrimination."

More:

He also said:

So the way I would do it, 75% headcount reduction across the board in the federal bureaucracy, send them home packing, shut down agencies that shouldn’t exist, rescind every unconstitutional regulation that Congress never passed. In a true self-governing democracy, it should be our elected representatives that make the laws and the rules not unelected bureaucrats. And that is the single greatest form of economic stimulus we could have in this country, but it is also the single most effective way to restore self-governance in our country as well. And it is the blueprint for, I think, how we save this country.

...

...most people who have run a company, especially larger companies know this, it’s 25% of the people who do 80 to 90% of the useful work, these government agencies are no different.

And how many government workers do we have?

Watch the entire interview here:

"This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people," Musk said on Tuesday in a statement provided by the Trump transition team.

Earlier in the day, Trump said the new government efficiency effort would develop a plan to eliminate "fraud and improper payments," conducting a "complete financial and performance audit" of the federal government. Trump also said that the panel would partner with the White House's Office of Management and Budget.

In the last fiscal year, the federal government spent more than $6.75 trillion - of which more than $5.3 trillion was spent on Social Security, health care, defense and veterans’ benefits.

Related:

Read the full press release below:

Here we go?

Link