Appold Market Watch - Week ending 13 June 2025

Market Update & Industry News - Week ending 13 June 2025

🔷 Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have filed a joint motion to end all pending appeals and avoid further legal proceedings in their long-running legal dispute. The case, initially filed in 2020, saw the SEC accuse Ripple of undertaking $1.3 billion in unregistered XRP sales. The proposed resolution will release a $125 million civil penalty currently held in escrow, allocating $50 million to the SEC and returning $75 million to Ripple.

Appold view: A court-approved final settlement would eliminate residual legal ambiguity surrounding Ripple. It could serve as a catalyst for broader institutional adoption, offer additional momentum to the XRP token, and accelerate potential Ripple (XRP) ETF issuances.

🔷 Shopify announced a partnership with Coinbase and Stripe to enable USDC stablecoin payments via the Base network for millions of merchants starting 12 June. Shopify users will be able to checkout with USDC across Shopify Payments and Shop Pay, and merchants will have the option of receiving local fiat or staying in USDC, with no FX fees.

 Appold view: This highlights a growing confidence in stablecoins for real-world commerce and could catalyse broader merchant and consumer acceptance of digital asset transactions.

🔷 Nasdaq-listed VivoPower International has partnered with layer-1 blockchain Flare Network to deploy $100 million of XRP to generate yield on its treasury holdings. VivoPower, which recently adopted an XRP-focused treasury strategy, plans to create yield through Flare-native protocols such as Firelight and reinvest the income to expand its XRP holdings further.

Appold view: VivoPower joins a growing cohort of public companies allocating capital to digital assets as part of their treasury strategy—a model popularised by Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR), now the largest corporate holder of bitcoin.

🔷 Coinbase has partnered with American Express to launch the “Coinbase One Card”, a credit card offering bitcoin cashback. The card will be available to U.S. Coinbase One members in the autumn.

Appold view: This reflects a broader trend among digital asset platforms of introducing payment cards that allow users to spend their token holdings on everyday purchases.

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