The Daily Brief: eToro Settles with SEC, Grayscale Launches XRP Trust, Standard Chartered's Bitcoin Forecast, and More

The Daily Brief: eToro Settles with SEC, Grayscale Launches XRP Trust, Standard Chartered's Bitcoin Forecast, and More

In recent developments, eToro has agreed to a $1.5 million settlement with the SEC over allegations of operating as an unregistered broker and clearing agency. As part of the settlement, the platform will restrict U.S. users to trading only Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ether, discontinuing support for other cryptocurrencies by March 2025. Despite the settlement, eToro’s CEO Yoni Assia noted that this change will have minimal impact on its global operations.

Meanwhile, Grayscale has introduced a new closed-end fund for XRP, the Grayscale XRP Trust, offering investors direct exposure to the cryptocurrency. This move follows the closure of an earlier XRP Trust in 2021 due to regulatory issues. The announcement led to an 8% increase in XRP’s price, pushing its market cap beyond $32 billion.

Standard Chartered's Head of Crypto Research, Geoff Kendrick, predicts Bitcoin will achieve a new all-time high by the end of 2024, regardless of the U.S. presidential election outcome. Kendrick forecasts Bitcoin could reach $125,000 with a Trump victory and $75,000 with a Harris win, citing regulatory changes and market trends as key drivers.

In other news, Coinbase has launched cbBTC, its version of wrapped Bitcoin, on Ethereum and Base networks. This new ERC-20 token, backed 1:1 by Bitcoin held at Coinbase, will be used in DeFi applications and aims to compete with Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), which currently leads the market with an $8.9 billion cap.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has announced a shift in how he will discuss Layer 2 rollups, focusing only on those that meet "Stage 1+" criteria, which require significant decentralization and governance standards. Buterin emphasizes a move away from reliance on multisigs toward stronger cryptographic trust.

Looking ahead, there are no major economic events on the immediate horizon, while ETHSafari continues in Kenya.