There’s been some confusion in the crypto world about whether the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dropped its appeal against Ripple in March 2025. Let’s clear things up.
In a video from March, called Crypto in a Minute, Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer, Stuart Alderoty, spoke about the case. He said, “I feel good,” as he reflected on the years of legal battles condensed into 60 seconds.
Alderoty claimed that not only did the SEC drop its appeal against Ripple, but it also dropped all its enforcement actions against crypto companies in the U.S. He explained that the SEC finally admitted what Ripple and others had argued for years, that you can’t enforce laws without first clearly defining them.
“We never had clear laws or regulations for crypto in this country,” Alderoty said. “Now, we’re going to clean up the mess, leave the courtrooms behind, and work with Congress to build smart rules that protect consumers and allow innovation to grow.”
But Here’s What a Former SEC Lawyer Says
However, former SEC attorney James Farrell shared a different view on social media. He wrote, “The SEC still has not dropped its appeal. Both parties’ appeals are still alive (although stayed) today..”
What’s Really Happening?
To be clear, while the SEC’s appeal has been stayed (put on hold), it hasn’t been officially withdrawn. Both Ripple and the SEC still have active appeals in court.
The case isn’t over yet, but there’s growing hope that clearer crypto rules will soon be created in the U.S. Ripple’s legal team is staying involved in those conversations, aiming to help shape fair regulations for the industry.
Ethereum’s torrid patch is extending into Q2 of 2025, forcing industry players to wade into proffer advice for the largest altcoin. Bankless confounder David Hoffman says a change in network culture will have the biggest impact on the Ethereum price performance.
David Hoffman Wants Ethereum Community To Stop Policing Behaviour
Bankless cofounder David Hoffman has revealed suggestions to improve Ethereum price performance, pointing to a culture and leadership shift in the network. According to an X post, Hoffman says mainstream Ethereum critics are sidestepping the real reason for ETH’s lackluster price performance in recent months.
Hoffman notes that Ethereum’s leadership and its culture of alienating users and builders is to blame for its underwhelming performance. The cryptocurrency executive cited the public exorcism of ETH staking platform Lido Finance and criticism against degenerate traders.
At the time, Lido Finance came under fire from the Ethereum community for regulatory, centralization, and security concerns while degens took flak for spiking gas fees and lack of long-term projects.
He argues that the broad hostility against a class of users plays a big role in the Ethereum price decline. Hoffman notes that the network’s attempt to police behavior on a permissionless chain is the straw that broke the camel’s back. Ethereum price is hanging onto the $1,500 mark after sinking to lows of $1,415 over the last week.
To remedy the situation, David Hoffman is advocating for the Ethereum Foundation (EF) to attract users and builders to the network, demonstrating the spirit of true decentralization.
“If we want ETH to group, the EF and broader community need to start attracting users and builders, not pushing them away with a holier-than-thou culture,” said Hoffman.
Ethereum Price Is Staging A Strong Recovery
Hoffman’s comments come amid a fresh market resurgence for Ethereum price with ETH grabbing a 6% spike over the last day. While ETH price has declined to a 5-year low against Bitcoin, momentum is rising for prices to reclaim $2,000.
One side, backed by community members like Leo Glisic sees a potential upside for Ethereum, driven by a simple investment narrative.
“The play is infrastructure for the future global financial system,” said Glisic. “Ethereum will serve as the settlement and interoperability layer, which is a winner-take-all market.”
However, CryptoCurb is comparing Ethereum to Nokia’s downfall, noting that Solana will displace ETH like Apple to become the largest altcoin. Critics like CryptoCurb and Peter Schiff say the rally is unsustainable and an ETH decline below $1,000 is a possibility.
While the token has not yet been launched, expectations are already swelling that the final unlock could bring in $1 billion to $2 billion, if not more.
“We have reached our deposit cap of $500 million. We are thrilled that 1,100+ wallets participated, with a median deposit amount of ~$35,000. Trillions,” Plasma announced.
Amid the headlines and hype, however, a deeper story is emerging. Concerns extend from whale domination and insider access to a growing sense that token launches are increasingly becoming gated events for the crypto elite.
The numbers show that only a handful of wallets accounted for outsized allocations. More specifically, the top three contributors alone deployed over $100 million collectively.
Perhaps more shocking, one user reportedly paid 39 ETH (approximately $104,871 at current rates of $2,689) in gas fees, which secured them a $10 million USDC allocation.
“This guy spent 100k in gas (230,000 Gwei) to get his deposit in for Plasma,” wrote MonaMoon, the founder of the Duck Frens NFT project.
User pays 39 ETH for a $10 million USDC allocation on Plasma ICO. Source: ManaMoon on X
This illustrates the intensity of FOMO and the lengths participants were willing to go to for early access. Notwithstanding, the frenzy has come at a reputational cost. With whales taking the lion’s share, many are calling this launch anything but fair.
“…it’s an obvious skip for the community…Only 100 wallets with $50 million each… these wallets alone will create an oversubscription of 100x… unfortunately, it’s not a fair launch, even though the price is very attractive,” warned an X user before the raise closed.
Despite offering just 10% of the total XPL token supply in the public sale at a $500 million FDV (fully diluted valuation), retail users were effectively pushed to the sidelines. They will likely only get in later, at 10x to 16x the price.
Critics Slam Plasma’s Tech and Tokenomics- ICO Was a Lockout, Not a Launch
This sharp disparity has some dubbing it a “whale sale,” rather than a launch accessible to the broader community. Further, there may be more than just bad optics at play. Crypto trader Hanzo raised serious red flags, suggesting possible coordinated insider behavior.
Hanzo calls out over 100 wallets, each receiving 48 million USDC, before the token even launched, highlighting that some of these wallets approved token interactions before the token contract went public.
“That means insiders had early access to mint and trade. This wasn’t a surprise launch — it was a private party. Retail wasn’t invited,” he claimed.
The mechanics of the raise also raise questions. Hosted on Sonar/Echo, dubbed by some as “the CoinList of this cycle,” a time-weighted share of vault deposits determined plasma’s deposit period.
Participants had to lock stablecoins on Ethereum, with a minimum 40-day lockup. However, with the deposit cap abruptly raised to $500 million and filled almost instantly, many users were left wondering whether this was ever meant to be an open opportunity.
Even the technology underpinning Plasma has not escaped scrutiny. A user broke down the chain’s architecture and found it lacking.
“Plasma is another L1 chain… It uses a ‘classic’ pBFT consensus layer, with Proof-of-Stake… and Bitcoin as ‘settlement’ by simply publishing state differences… It looks a lot like many alt-L1 EVM forks… It surfs on the Bitcoin “side-chain” marketing campaign and is pushed by influencors.. but I am not convinced at all,” the user noted.
In his view, Plasma’s use of influencers and Bitcoin branding is more marketing veneer than technical substance.
What makes this worse is how well it’s working.
Influencers are hyping it. Retail is showing up.
The liquidity is flowing — right where it needs to.
Still, not everyone agrees. Zaheer from SplitCapital praised the distribution, noting a broad holder distribution with over 1,100 wallets and only one wallet holding $50 million.
“All things considered insanely good distribution of holders for Plasma at $500m total size of deposit. Seeing a ton of folks with smaller amounts on here and only one entity with $50m in a wallet. Well done,” he stated in a post.
According to Zaheer, this contrasts with the typical whale-dominated ICOs and suggests a more inclusive allocation strategy.
Plasma’s ICO serves as a mirror to today’s market mechanics, where speed, size, and for some, connections, often matter more than innovation or accessibility.
Whether Plasma becomes a foundational chain or another cautionary tale will depend on the unlock numbers and how its ecosystem fairs beyond the ICO hype.
The crypto market is still facing capitulation as most digital currencies are reversing the selloffs registered in the past week. The price of Bitcoin (BTC) remains in the spotlight as the combined crypto market capitalization jumped 2.44% to $2.76 trillion. With sellers quietly exiting the market, whether the underlying factors can sustain the current outlook remains unknown.
Crypto Market Rebound, Here’s The Trigger
Uncertainty has defined the trajectory of the most assets thus far this month as top coins dropped to their lowest levels this year. While Bitcoin’s price has shown strength, it fell to a low of $76,624.24 before reclaiming the $80,000 mark according to CoinMarketCap data.
Altcoins like Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) also dropped to new multi-week lows earlier in the month. While Ethereum fell to a monthly low of $1,760.94, Solana bears dragged the coin down to a $113 low. As it stands, BTC and altcoins have bounced off key support, which was formed at their respective monthly lows.
Since the Digital Asset Summit earlier in the week, the crypto market has not witnessed any bearish negative news. Rather, investors are digesting the Trump promise of stablecoin legislation from Congress and a BTC reserve confirmation.
On the macroeconomic level, mainstream media updates regarding the tariff war have toned down, giving the stock market room to recover.
More Selloff Ahead for Bitcoin Price?
At the time of writing, the BTC price had changed hands for $84,295.18, up 2.4% in 24 hours. The coin has pared off the losses incurred in the past week. However, the BTC price still maintains its 30-day loss of 14.27%.
At the moment, shorter-term headwinds in the market are cleared, with ETF investors returning to the scene. Per an earlier CoinGape report, spot Bitcoin ETFs scored an inflow of $785 million after a tumultuous 7-day trend.
Unlike a typical weekend in the industry known for its volatility, BTC prices show stability. Should the positive regulatory shift continue, Bitcoin might turn the $84,000 level into sustainable support.
Where is the Crypto Market Heading?
The current bullish outlook also extends to other altcoins. Per an earlier Solana price analysis, the prospect of a $1000 breakout was explored as the coin formed a parabolic base.
XRP is also in the spotlight following the Ripple and SEC lawsuit resolution, which has carved a positive growth path for it. While most analysts have different price projections for top coins, including Cardano and Dogecoin, the visible outlook shows a tempered selloff for now.
(@DeFi_Hanzo) 
