Paul Atkins closes in on SEC chair role amid setbacks: Report  

The United States needs to establish a competitive moat around highly secure tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) to remain competitive in the age of borderless, permissionless finance, according to Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov.In an interview with Cointelegraph’s Turner Wright at the Digital Asset Summit in New York, Nazarov said that blockchain is a global phenomenon that relies on open-source software and distributed technology, unlike previous technological shifts.The executive added that the shift to online commerce, which gave the US a competitive advantage due to a five- to 10-year head start on the development of internet infrastructure, is not applicable in the age of digital finance. The executive told Cointelegraph:“The US really has to push its other two advantages of a very strong domestic market and the ability for it to create these highly reliable financial assets. And this is what I think the administration and the people in the legislature are now starting to understand.”Real-world tokenized assets could become a $100-trillion market in the coming years, as the world’s assets come onchain, the Chainlink executive predicted.Sergey Nazarov takes part in a panel at the 2025 Digital Asset Summit. Source: Turner Wright/CointelegraphRelated: Ethena Labs, Securitize launch blockchain for DeFi and tokenized assetsTokenized RWAs reach all-time highsAccording to RWA.xyz, real-world tokenized assets, excluding stablecoins, hit an all-time high in 2025, topping $18.8 billion.Private credit took up the lion’s share of the total RWA market capitalization, with over $12.2 billion in tokenized private credit instruments permeating the market at the time of this writing.Total tokenized real-world assets, excluding stablecoins. Source: RWA.xyzAsset tokenization can make previously illiquid asset classes, such as real estate, more liquid, eliminating the illiquidity discount inherent in physical properties.In February, Polygon CEO Marc Boiron told Cointelegraph that tokenizing real estate could fractionalize ownership, eliminate intermediaries, and lower settlement costs —transforming the slow-moving sector.This real estate overhaul can be seen in Turkey, with projects such as Lumia Towers, a 300-unit mixed-use commercial real estate development that was tokenized using Polygon’s technology. It’s also taking place in the United Arab Emirates, which is considered one of the hottest property markets in the world. Proactive digital asset regulations are driving a tokenized RWA boom in the Gulf state as institutional investors and developers flock to tokenization as an alternative method of capital formation.Magazine: Real life yield farming: How tokenization is transforming lives in Africa

The US Securities and Exchange Commission dropping its appeal against Ripple is the “final exclamation point that these [XRP] tokens are considered digital commodities, not securities,” crypto lawyer John Deaton told Cointelegraph.Deaton added that there is still a $125-million judgment against Ripple over the improper selling of the XRP (XRP) cryptocurrency, which perhaps the company can negotiate down now that the SEC has dropped its appeal.Deaton is a well-known lawyer who represented XRP holders, arguing that their interests were not being represented in the SEC’s case against Ripple. He’d later run against Elizabeth Warren, a vocal crypto critic, for a senate seat to represent Massachusetts in Washington, DC.Related: Why is the Ripple SEC case still ongoing amid a sea of resolutions?Will Ripple drop its cross-appeal?One factor that will play out going forward is Ripple’s cross-appeal, which was filed in October 2024. Deaton believes the SEC doesn’t want Ripple to proceed with the cross-appeal because a ruling could hurt the commission’s jurisdiction and affect other cases.That gives Ripple some leverage in negotiating the settlement. “Everything’s turned,” Deaton said. “The election’s turned, the industry turned, the SEC [has] completely done a 180 as it relates to the industry. Why should we pay $125 million?”However, there still is the issue of the injunction issued by Judge Analisa Torres, which prevents Ripple from selling XRP to institutional investors to prevent violation of securities laws.“If Ripple obviously wants to be able to issue XRP to banks in America directly, I think the hang-up is that injunction and how do you get past that injunction,” Deaton said.Related: XRP’s role in US Digital Asset Stockpile raises questions on token utility — Does it belong?Ripple case was an attack on the industry“I remember when this case was first filed,” Deaton told Cointelegraph, adding:“I thought it was an assault on the industry, like the boot on the neck of the industry, and I was confident that it wasn’t going to be just a one-off, that it wouldn’t just be Ripple, that it was more of a message that the traditional finance, the banking system, the Elizabeth Warrens and the Gary Genslers of the world, had it in for the industry.”He added that Ripple can appeal to the fact that it never left the US even after the SEC brought the case and that it is an American-made company.“I think it’s to do with Brad Garlinghouse being able to say, ‘Well, look, we got sued by the US government and the Biden administration; we’re an American-made company, you know, [and] we never left.’ And I think that bodes well.”Magazine: Hall of Flame: Crypto Banter’s Ran Neuner says Ripple is ‘despicable,’ tips hat to ZachXBT

The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s dismissal of its years-long lawsuit against Ripple Labs, the developer of the XRP Ledger blockchain network, is a “victory for the industry,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said at Blockworks’ 2025 Digital Asset Summit in New York.Earlier on March 19, Garlinghouse revealed that the SEC would dismiss its legal action against Ripple, ending four years of litigation against the blockchain developer for an alleged $1.3-billion unregistered securities offering in 2020.“It feels like a victory for the industry and the beginning of a new chapter,” Garlinghouse said on March 19 at the Summit, which was attended by Cointelegraph. Ripple’s CEO said the SEC is dropping its case against the blockchain developer. Source: Brad GarlinghouseRelated: SEC will drop its appeal against Ripple, CEO Garlinghouse saysMajor reversalThe dismissal is the latest — and arguably most significant — reversal by the SEC under US President Donald Trump. The agency previously dropped charges against other crypto firms, including Coinbase, Kraken and Uniswap, for similar alleged securities law violations. Under former President Joe Biden, the SEC brought upward of 100 enforcement actions against crypto firms, typically alleging failure to properly register products that former SEC Chair Gary Gensler said fell under the securities regulators’ jurisdiction. Trump has taken a friendlier stance toward the burgeoning industry, promising to make America the “world’s crypto capital” and appointing industry-friendly leaders to key regulatory posts. “The new chapter started with the reset at both the Congress and the executive branch when Trump came in and nominated Paul Atkins, Scott Bessent, [and] brought on David Sacks,” Garlinghouse said. Trump nominated Atkins and Bessent to head the SEC and Treasury Department, respectively. Sacks is Trump’s artificial intelligence and “crypto czar,” a newly created White House advisory role. “I really deeply believed that we were going to be on the right side of the law and on the right side of history,” Garlinghouse said of his company’s protracted legal fight with US regulators, adding that, in his view, the SEC was “just trying to bully” the crypto industry. Now that regulatory headwinds have subsided, Ripple is focusing on expansion, Garlinghouse added. “Ripple has invested over $2 billion in investments and acquisitions across the crypto landscape, and some of those have nothing to do with XRP because if crypto does well, I fundamentally believe Ripple will do well,” he said. Magazine: Classic Sega, Atari and Nintendo games get crypto makeovers: Web3 Gamer