Investors in the cryptocurrency sector celebrated a significant legal win this week as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) decided to drop a highly contentious lawsuit against Ripple Labs. This case, which has spanned over four years, has been a focal point of contention within the crypto community.
In another noteworthy regulatory update, the launch of futures exchange-traded funds (ETFs) linked to Solana in the U.S. has taken place, potentially setting the stage for the future approval of spot ETFs related to Solana (SOL) as a logical progression for regulators.
Ripple CEO Calls SEC’s XRP Dismissal a “Win for the Industry”
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse proclaimed the SEC’s dismissal of its lengthy lawsuit against Ripple Labs as a “win for the industry” during the 2025 Digital Asset Summit held in New York. On March 19, Garlinghouse announced the SEC’s decision to end its legal pursuit, which accused Ripple of conducting an unregistered securities offering worth $1.3 billion back in 2020. “This feels like a triumph for the entire sector and marks the start of a new era,” he stated at the summit, which was attended by Cointelegraph.
Launch of Solana Futures ETF Expected to Boost Institutional Interest
The cryptocurrency market is poised to witness the introduction of its first Solana futures ETF, a development that industry analysts view as a potential precursor to the approval of spot SOL ETFs. Volatility Shares is set to launch two Solana futures ETFs, namely the Volatility Shares Solana ETF (SOLZ) and the Volatility Shares 2X Solana ETF (SOLT), on March 20. Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Research, believes that this launch could significantly enhance Solana’s market position by increasing both demand and liquidity for SOL, thereby narrowing its market capitalization gap with Ethereum. Lee emphasized that the Solana ETF is likely to encourage institutional adoption by providing a regulated investment avenue, which could attract substantial capital while bolstering Solana’s competitive edge against Ethereum, despite the latter’s well-established ecosystem.
Pump.fun Introduces New DEX, Challenging Raydium
Pump.fun has rolled out a new decentralized exchange (DEX) named PumpSwap, which may potentially replace Raydium as the go-to trading platform for Solana-based memecoins. Starting March 20, memecoins that achieve liquidity requirements, referred to as “bonding,” on Pump.fun will transition directly to PumpSwap, as noted in a recent post on X. Previously, tokens that bonded on Pump.fun were transferred to Raydium, which gained popularity as Solana’s leading DEX, primarily due to its association with memecoin trading. Pump.fun claims that PumpSwap operates similarly to Raydium V4 and Uniswap V2, aiming to create a seamless trading experience. The platform highlighted that moving tokens used to be a major source of friction, but now these migrations can occur instantly and without any cost.
Bybit Reports on Traceability of $1.4B in Hacked Funds
Following a historic cyber heist, a substantial portion of the stolen funds from Bybit remains traceable, as blockchain investigators continue their pursuit to freeze and recover the assets. The crypto sector was shaken on February 21 when Bybit lost over $1.4 billion in liquid-staked Ether (stETH), Mantle Staked ETH (mETH), and various other digital currencies. Investigative firms have pointed to North Korea’s Lazarus Group as the likely perpetrator of the Bybit breach, as the group attempts to obscure the trail of the stolen funds. Despite their efforts, over 88% of the compromised amount is still traceable, as reported by Ben Zhou, co-founder and CEO of Bybit. In a recent post on X, Zhou shared that “of the total hacked funds amounting to USD 1.4 billion, 88.87% remain traceable, with 7.59% having become untraceable, and 3.54% frozen.” He further detailed that 86.29% of the funds, equivalent to approximately $1.23 billion, have been converted into Bitcoin across multiple wallets.
New Memecoin “Wolf of Wall Street” Faces 99% Crash
The creator of the Libra token has launched yet another memecoin, which has exhibited concerning on-chain patterns indicative of potential insider trading prior to its dramatic 99% drop in value. Hayden Davis, who co-created the Official Melania Meme (MELANIA) and Libra tokens, introduced the Wolf (WOLF) memecoin on March 8, hoping to capitalize on speculation surrounding Jordan Belfort, famously known as the Wolf of Wall Street, potentially launching his own token. The memecoin achieved a peak market capitalization of $42 million; however, it was revealed that 82% of WOLF’s supply was held by a single entity. According to a March 15 post by Bubblemaps, the token displayed similar patterns to $HOOD, another token associated with Davis. Bubblemaps also identified numerous transfers across 17 addresses linked to Davis, suggesting prior funding activities before the launches of $LIBRA and $WOLF. Following the peak, the WOLF memecoin plummeted over 99% in value within a mere two days, falling from a $42.9 million market cap to approximately $570,000 by March 16, according to data from Dexscreener.
Overview of the DeFi Market
Recent data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView indicates that most of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization experienced gains over the past week. Among these, the BNB Chain-native Four (FORM) token emerged as the week’s leading gainer, surging over 110%, while PancakeSwap’s CAKE (CAKE) token saw an increase of more than 48%. As the DeFi landscape continues to evolve, we thank you for following our recap of this week’s pivotal developments. We invite you to join us next Friday for more updates, insights, and educational content regarding this rapidly advancing space.
