Episode 17: Bitcoin Hits $124K, Ripple Wins Lawsuit & Pengu Takes Over

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Hey everyone, welcome to another episode. This is JR, founder and CEO of Social Market. Hey, my name is Leon Hitchens and I’m the chief marketing officer at Social Market. Do you want to that? Market, there we go. I really wanted to say CoinClick, I’m sorry. Yeah, mean, CoinClick was the name before Social Market. Social Market has kind of gone through a lot. The original name was WebC, but you know, whenever you’re doing a business, it rebrands. any case- on pivots. It’s always good though. Yeah, yeah, I mean-

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The business evolves. It’s good for everyone, I suppose. But yeah, this is the social ledger report and welcome to another episode. While we’ve been busy this last month, there’s been also a lot of things happening in the market and with the crypto space. So as far as the markets go for the last week, we’ve seen Bitcoin and altcoin season index be more in between. So it looks like it’s giving a little bit more to altcoin season. Fear and greed has gone down from 70, which is what I believe was the more

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common people were more greedy. Inflation has still been around 3 % and price of Bitcoin actually reached the new all time high this week. So I don’t know if you saw that beyond. No, didn’t. What’s the new all time high? It was 124,000. Oh, 124. I didn’t even realize it went that high this week. Yeah, it was like, where was I? I was under a rock. Right. What day was it again? Two days ago, Thursday. So Thursday, I’m like, gosh, man.

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I don’t know what I was doing. I thought we reached 125,000 before, but yeah. Yeah, maybe I thought it was higher, 126 or something, but it’s nice to see that Bitcoin is still going strong. I’m a little disappointed that there hasn’t been a bigger run on these altcoins. Like it looked like it going to teeter right before August and continually August is a very hot month for altcoins, but

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This year it seems to be very, very kind of dull. Yeah. I think altcoins,  usually what happens is when Bitcoin reaches the new old time high or when Bitcoin just is around the price that it’s right now,  people sell for profit and then they end up putting their money in altcoins. So that’s usually the cycle how it’s been. So  we’re probably going to start to see that in the near future if the ticker here leans more to altcoins.

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Just because based on the cycles, they were going to be putting their money more on altcoins. makes sense. I’m just, I’m really hoping for some more altcoin action as we head into September. And  I feel like the altcoins are getting a lot of pump, but Bitcoin has just been riding high continuously. We love to see it because,  you know, Bitcoin being high means that people can use it as collateral for loans. People can make profits. People can do.

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all that kind stuff with it.  I think it’s generally good when Bitcoin is high. But when it goes down, it’s also good opportunity to take profit or to start accumulating some.  So while we’re here, we actually want to talk about XRP real quick. XRP in the last few days has gone down a little bit. But something I want to talk about is  just how the whole lawsuit has kind of ended with XRP. So more people are selling right now than buying, I suppose.

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based on the market performance. So safe to say that the XRP Ripple lawsuit has been pretty much over with the SEC. The story, I don’t know if you guys remember or if you remember Leon, how the story came up to where we saw probably one of the most influential lawsuits in the whole crypto market. So it all kind of started in December, 2020 when the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple for selling and raising over 1.3 billion.

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through quote unquote on registered securities. And that was through the token sale of XRP.  And then the  SEC argued that XRP was qualified as a security under the PoE test because  Ripple controlled its supply and actively promoted the value of XRP, the token.  So the sale should have been registered to  protect investors. That’s kind of how it went. And then eventually after,  you know,

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DSCC and Ripple kept going at it for the last few years. In July, 2023 is when we saw a key court ruling that found Nextup is not a security when sold on public exchanges because it is a security when sold directly to institutional investors. This created a split outcome and a partial win for both sides. It’s kind of important to understand that because public exchanges, according to this ruling,

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does not constitute that cryptos are securities. Which is kind of like what happens for all tokens, like Bitcoin, Ethereum, everything. So this is why it’s kind of a big deal here because again, every token  is  sold through public exchanges. And even for those that are not in public exchanges, like with  swap exchanges,  like Uniswap, Picswap, you name it, this means those are not

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registered securities.  As of August 7, the whole lawsuit concluded  and Ripple only agreed to pay 125 million fine, but it still remains  as a public sale status as far as the XRP token goes.  And it’s just not under  security. So that means it’s a pretty big win, not only for XRP, but for the entire crypto  industry as a whole. But yeah, do you remember we were talking about XRP a while ago and how it’s kind of a

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an exciting token and putting your money on right now, not like financial advice, but like we’re going to  accumulating. Yeah. Like I started buying some, we were,  I think we were in Toronto and somebody told me that XRP could be on, you know, a tear towards October time saying it, you know, once the SEC stuff gets solved, there’s, um, banking charters that could come. And that was all the way back in May.

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It’s shaping up that way. There’s still some interesting parts. I don’t know if they’re going to be  worth five, six dollars, but it does look like a strong token because if they get their own banking charter, they could be really powerful. And then if they like to do something unique within  the banking networks,  they could turn into something that’s like kind of rivaling the stable coin stuff or, you know, gets wrapped in a stable coin and is usable.

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It’s going to be interesting to kind of see and watch. I do like that the case is solved, that it says that, you know, this isn’t a security  and that’s like the most important part that they’re just withdrawing that.  I also think the reason that they were still not legal lawsuit was just essentially the was going to drop the fine a little bit or change the injunction or something.  So them closing, it’s just, it’s the end of the saga for Ripple.

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Hopefully they can focus on building. Absolutely.  you mentioned stable coins. They’re actually Ripple, the company behind XRP did release their own token. It’s called the the error. All you I’m sorry. Error. I have an accent.  R is what I’m trying to say. R, S and Romeo L USD. So they have their own stable coin. I don’t know what they’re trying to do with it. Maybe they’ll finally have some time to be able to do that. But everything that Ripple wanted to do, which is kind of like

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The reason they exist is to make bank payments  faster and easier. I forget how the story goes, but pretty much the previous guy who was running the SEC before Gary Gensler, he was making ties with the current CEO of Ripple and they got into a dispute.  I don’t remember the details. They got into a dispute and then they just  battled it out.  SEC sued Ripple and that’s kind of what created everything.

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Before that, know, Ripple was pretty much  about to be  in banking systems  as far as making remittance payments,  sending money overseas, sending money to people in general. And then that’s where we are right now. So interesting. You know, I guess, I guess now that, you know, the there’s no more chains on the ICC, it kind of unleashed the full potential of what could happen. That’s kind of a good indicator of where the crypto space is going to go now. It’s going to be just build, ship.

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and innovate, which is probably one of the most exciting times we live in. But just a final thing, just because the settlement reached a conclusion in August or August 7th, everything right now in this last week has been kind of like procedural court stuff. Like the court of appeals must formally dismiss the appeal for the case to be officially closed. So while that is being talked right now, it is very likely that it will. Like there’s nothing that I think that anybody thinks that

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could open up that lawsuit because there’s just been so many procedures, so many court hearings that it would be dumb to open it. You know,  especially under the current administration that we have, it’s pretty much case closed. That makes sense. I was in a Reddit rabbit hole while we were talking.  finally understand  the difference between Ripple and stable coins, why they have their own stable coin.  Because for a second there, I had like a  small crisis of like

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Hey, is Ripple really going to be worth as much as it is heading into the issues that stable coins are going to be everywhere? And it’s like, no, like Ripple is a very different thing than a stable coin and what the banks are going to use it for. So I’m excited to see all that. I believe, you know, everything that you said, like now they’re going to able to ship and focus on getting things out there and hopefully making better impacts than what they have over the past four or five years. know, you make a good point because Ripple, it

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XRP is a blockchain. They need their own income, their own money to be able to send across. I think that’s  going to be a potential use case for the Ripple stablecoin. They use XRP as the blockchain where  the Ripple stablecoin itself is going to be the main factor of sending money. But you still need a blockchain or like a system where you can send that money. So yeah, I think that would be in Ripple, but then it’s all stablecoin, which is back in peg. So

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I think it makes a ton of sense and it’s actually probably what most of these banks are going to use on like a backend perspective one day,  where,  if it’s going to go from here to Germany, like that, it’s probably easier than sending a stable coin and converting it to another stable coin and all of those network fees. I know we’re talking kind of hard, heavy, like crypto stuff.  you want to, you want to jump to the memes now  instead of ATMs.

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Oh, I’d love to. Somebody have. So, the most important thing on the internet is these dumb penguins. The pengu ones. Pengu. Yeah, pengu. They’re just on a roll, man. Like, over and over. I keep, you know, I send you a lot of memes about this, but it’s becoming like a mainstream thing. They have toys. They have their own game now.

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They’re on the F1 in the back through Kraken. Like they’re essentially becoming like a mainstream IP that is all based on crypto.  It’s just fascinating to see. Like this is,  this is cool. It’s like hitting the, um, I think that’s in Tokyo.  Do you know? Yeah. Oh, it’s in Korea. My bad. I just read the Twitter,  the thread here. It said, here’s a recap of.

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our initiatives in Korea. Yeah,  but pretty cool.  It’s just this. This is what  bored apes should have been like. Yes. high, high end. And then what was the other one that got really popular for a second? Doodles. Doodles. Yeah. Almost had this, but then they kind of sputtered out and got a little too high end too, versus just like being everywhere. These guys will show up.

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anywhere like  they’re pushing  the whole meme coin the whole meme market  like higher and higher it is a fascinating fascinating case study so like  this is some of it  it’s launched a successful game there’s two more on the way  they’ve got partnerships  partnerships with lithuania oh my god lufanza  that’s such a mouthful  lufanza okay let’s go with lufanza  nascar icy peds so much more

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They’re in Walmart, they’re in Target and other stores. They’re getting like the parent company, Igloo is building consumer focused stuff on them. It’s 800,000 holders. Like there’s NFT for super fans. There’s collector like things like I saw on Amazon too. This is like one of the most exciting things for me because I just, I love that these NFT arts are becoming IP and it makes me feel like

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the next Disney could come out of the crypto space  with what’s happening right now.

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have utilities, we should definitely put in the app. feel like, you know, we don’t have to put every pump that fun one, but if it’s got some sort of utility or backing to it, like I feel like people would invest in that sort of thing. Like when you buy Ping-U you’re buying, you know, into that marketplace of IP essentially. Yeah. mean, right now, if you go to any decentralized exchange screener, kind of like Dex screener or Uniswap or

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pancake swap, you name it. There’s a lot of meme coins, especially on Solana. They have this launch pad that’s pump.fun and let’s bonk.fun, I think that’s what it’s called. That’s a launch pad where you can create your meme coins. Usually a lot of people lose money there, but Pingu was created not through them, but it was launched as a Solana meme coin and I think might even be available as a New York C20, if I’m not mistaken.

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But a lot of that data, you you can pull into any app. We have the means to put it in our app and any other tokens that are generated, which is kind of like the goal. I think  there’s a very small chance that any tokens that are made on any of these two launch paths I mentioned could have some sort of utility beyond just memes and,  and what’s  it called? Like when you, when you speculate, like  speculation.

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Speculative? Yeah, like if there’s  any  there’s a there’s a small chance but I think it’s still very possible that people create meme coins on any of these meme launch fats to bring value Do things  and have actual meaning rather than just quick profit pump and dump sort of thing. So okay.  Yeah, like it’s very rare but point being

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with Pengu, I really don’t think we’re going to see something similar  unless CryptoPunks, which are still kind of like blue chip NFTs along with  Bored Apes. Well, I think Bored Apes still retain value, but they’re just not like because people call the monkeys ugly.  I think they’re more like the Cybertrucks of the NFT space. But  CryptoPunks, I’m for the meme coin.  The micro is that’s right. We need meme coins for

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all these NFTs, especially like crypto punks. That’s one I’d be willing to hold and buy. Apecoin exists, but it’s kind of just, again, it’s like the cyber truck. It’s so controversial. But yeah, mean, overall, I’m excited for Pingu. I’m excited to see what happens in the next few months. If we want to swap back, we can go back to a heavy topic. Yeah, of course. All the news in the world aren’t always memes, unfortunately.

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The  so we’ve talked about this a little bit before  crypto ATMs probably not the best thing to be using, not just for the fact that their exchange rates and the cost  is often really high when you’re trying to buy it. There’s a lot of pressure  just from legislation and federal law enforcement  to essentially ban these ATMs  or make them less anonymous. The big issue around them is fraud. I didn’t realize how much.

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problems these are actually causing until I read this, like people are laundering money. There’s also cases where essentially where you go tell an old person to go to the ATM, get  the crypto and then send it to somebody.  Oh, like this is happening all over the world. It’s just why did you order the minute?  Why did you order the minute?  Just the crypto, though, they’ll send it. They’ll tell you to go to the ATM, get the crypto, send it to this address  and then

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That money is gone. Like there’s no way to get it back for people. Like where is an exchange might stop you and tell you like, this is the problem or don’t do that. You know, Coinbase is going to be like, Hey, that’s a high fraud wallet. Like these, these are doing that. Not only that you can go steal cash and go put it in there and feed it. Like I just think, Hey, maybe if you’re buying crypto,  you have to, you know, like your photo is going to be taken or your

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something, something, your ID scan, like it makes sense. Like KYC, know your customer. Like you do it everywhere else.  I don’t see why you wouldn’t do it with one of these ATM. The opportunity now is to go put like an ATM with a Coinbase, like, Coinbase, like you can buy crypto anywhere. Like we have crypto ATMs now you can access your, Coinbase account. think that there’s a lot of opportunities for this, but I didn’t realize how problematic.

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these could be out there in the market. Apps  and  mobile phones just make life far more convenient.  And the key demographic users of crypto are always going to be on their phones or computers over ATMs. But I actually think the best use case for crypto ATMs is  if, I don’t know, you go to the casino, you go somewhere where it requires cash,  you have cash in winnings or cash in holdings,  and you kind of just want to

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deposited somewhere, you want to get access to that money real quick. You go to a crypto ATM, you deposit into a regular ATM. It’s going to take at most three business days just to get your money. But with a crypto ATM, you can get in seconds.  So if you’re like in a casino and that’s probably not a good example, but if you’re  anywhere where  you want to turn your immediate cash  into  digital money, then you go to that crypto ATM.  The best  use case I can think of right now is a You see what I mean?

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Because  I think I’m going to go slightly different. I think if you’re unbanked, you know, like in cases where you just don’t have a bank account, you could go deposit your cash. You could go to that ATM, have crypto on a USB stick or wherever your wallet is,  and then send that to go pay for something online.  Like I think that there’s use cases for it. I think it’s fringe at the moment, but I could see it more and more in the future of like.

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apartment complexes, hey, send your crypto here and people go and use those sorts of ATMs. But big opportunity for like a Coinbase or crack and to come in and say, Hey, we now have crypto ATMs. can buy crypto anywhere, but also you can send it for your wallets, bring your cash, load your account with, you know, the USDC immediately. You know, that’d be cool. So before I got into being an entrepreneur, I’ve looked into

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having my own vending machine  and maybe looking at a laundry business  because that’s cold hard cash and it’s like, in some cases, profitable. I wonder if it’s possible if we could  get our own ATMs  as like freelancers almost, like the way you would get a vending machine and you just collect processing fees and everything. That, in my opinion, could cause some, it wouldn’t make the situation any safer, I feel, unless

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There’s like an enforced KYC or even some kind of message that says, Hey, just be careful. You’re not being scammed. If someone is on the phone with you telling me to do this, you’re probably getting scammed.  If it were in the very least some sort of UI UX development on these ATMs that kind of put that message out there, I don’t see this improving, but ATMs are, are good in general. I would say like they do more good than bad. Assuming the transaction fees aren’t high. Like.

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Very high.  I’m sure they’re very high. That’s part of the problem. Yeah, because I was thinking like I was on Facebook Marketplace the other day and we sold like some furniture because I’m and I have like cold hard cash  and I don’t use cash anymore. Like I’d rather just have it on crypto or even just on my bank and I want this money now. If I want it right now, I can go to crypto ATM. That’s probably the best use case I can think of.

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Assuming I don’t pay like, I don’t know, like 30 % transaction fees. I forget what the transaction fee is like, but that would be a good use case. 4 5%. Perhaps. That seems reasonable. But I think what they do if like crypto right now is like 117 for Bitcoin, they would say it’s 1680. Yeah, like there’s a spread. 16900, yeah. I don’t know.

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I would love to do something with like an ATM. That’d be kind of fun. I would love to load it into like stable coins, know, like sell the wallets next to it and be like, here, buy a ledger and then, Hey, get USDC stuff like that. That’d be kind of cool. That’d be fun.  Best Buy already sells ledger cold wallets.  So it’d be fun if they put a Bitcoin ATM there. Be like,  Hey, you want some Bitcoin? You know, here you go. That cool activation for  a company one day.

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Essentially sell the ledgers and be like, hey, we’ll give you free Bitcoin if you  come do that over here. You got to sign up for this app. Some future marketing for us. agree. Like normally real quick on the transaction fees, though, I think for every exchange like central exchange, you’re looking at around 3 % for a transaction fee.  anything that’s  around there, it’s fine, I guess. But if it’s like 10, that’s  you’re getting ripped off.

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That’s what I would say. So just everyone be careful out there. 100%. I think that’s all the topics for the week. Right. Anything else? No, I’m actually  feeling good about everything today that we covered.  If you have any thoughts or if you think we missed anything and you’d like for us to cover anything, just leave it in the comments. If you’re tuning in on YouTube, if you’re on the podcast, follow our socials and reach out to us. And something we were thinking about is maybe bringing in people that we can talk to in the podcast. I know you already do this in another segment for the

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marketing boost or for the boost network. But you know, we would love to have anyone who is in the crypto space kind of join us and maybe give us your thoughts or even have like a very live conversation on just your views on the markets on crypto. That’d be fun. So if you’d be interested, reach out to us. Also, leave a like, subscribe to the channel, it costs you nothing and it supports us so that way we can keep producing this kind of content for you. If you find it of any help, you could dislike it if you dislike it.

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Just let us know what you think. love it. Talk to everybody next week. Yeah. See you guys.