First Mover Asia: SEC Appealing XRP Ruling Isn't Moving Markets

Good morning. Here’s what’s happening:

Prices: The market seems confident that the SEC's move to appeal the favorable Ripple ruling isn't going to lead to much.

Insights: Curve exploit fiasco revealed the susceptibility in the DeFi space, and what is a Bart pattern?

Both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) are trading flat in Asia as the region begins its business day.

The world's largest digital asset is trading at $29,581, down 0.8%, while ether is trading at $1,854, down 0.1%.

Overall, the crypto market seems to have shrugged off news from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it intends to file an appeal of the ruling in its case against Ripple, which ended in a partial victory for Ripple in July.

Last month, U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York ruled that Ripple's XRP token sales did not constitute investment contracts, though institutional sales violated federal securities laws. The ruling led to a rally in XRP, Solana's SOL token, and other tokens that were alleged to be securities, but legal experts believe it does not fully settle the definition of a digital asset as a security under U.S. law.

Now, the SEC is seeking to appeal part of a recent decision that ruled Ripple's programmatic sales and other distributions of XRP did not involve the offer of or sale of securities under the Howey test, while a federal judge previously determined that Ripple's direct sales to institutional investors violated securities law.

SOL is flat on the news as is Cardano (ADA) and NEAR is down 1%.

It should also be noted that the market is in a relentless period of HODLing at the moment with exchange balances at close to record lows, and the amount of bitcoin and ether that haven't moved in 7-10 years at a record high, meaning that it'll take a lot to move the market – more than the news that the SEC is filing an appeal of a case that it might not win.

As Curve Averts DeFi Death Spiral, Fiasco Exposes Serious Risks: The worst-case consequences of last month’s Curve exchange hack seem to have been avoided, thanks to a series of side deals cut between the project’s debt-strapped founder and a handful of key crypto players. But the events still served as an indictment of the prevailing decentralized finance, or DeFi, narrative since last year’s collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto exchange — that centralized platforms are susceptible to greed and poor risk management while decentralized platforms keep chugging along. It turns out that DeFi is susceptible too.

What Is Bitcoin's 'Bart' Pattern and Does It Mean BTC Is Heading Towards a Rally: Squint at the latest price charts and you can see a popular cartoon character from The Simpsons – and portents of a brighter future for crypto.

9:00 a.m. HKT/SGT(1:00 UTC) Australia Consumer Inflation Expectations (Aug)

4:00 p.m. HKT/SGT(8:00 UTC) Italy Consumer Price Index (YoY/July)

8:30 p.m. HKT/SGT(12:30 UTC) United States Consumer Price (MoM/July)

In case you missed it, here is the most recent episode of "First Mover" on CoinDesk TV:

PayPal's Stablecoin Grabs Attention From Lawmakers; Music Icon Enters the Metaverse

PayPal's move to issue a stablecoin is putting crypto legislation back in focus in Washington, D.C. Timothy Massad, former CFTC chairman and current director of the Digital Assets Policy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School, joined the conversation. Tastycrypto head Ryan Grace shared his crypto markets outlook. And, The Sandbox co-founder and COO Sebastien Borget discussed the virtual world's latest collaboration.

Coinbase Officially Launches Base Blockchain in Milestone for a Public Company: The largest U.S. crypto exchange says its blockchain is the first to be launched by a publicly traded company and gives it a new revenue opportunity.

Microsoft, Aptos Labs Team Up on New Blockchain AI Tools: The price of Aptos' token is surging on news of the collaboration.

Rollbit's RLB Token Rockets 60% as Crypto Casino Bets on Daily Token Burn: Rollbit's revenue crossed over $2 million in the past 24 hours across various services, data shows. This means a significant amount – after costs – will use to fund RLB purchases daily.

Stablecoin Market to Soar to Almost $3T in Next 5 Years, Bernstein Says: That's up from $125 million now as use should grow with more co-branded partnerships, a report from the firm said.

Russia to Test Digital Ruble With Banks, Clients: The country's central bank will begin real-world tests of the digital currency with 13 banks and limited clients on Aug. 15.