Altcoins at a Glance – The Latest on XRP, PayPal, Safemoon and CBDC’s

Good day crypto investors.  For this edition of Altcoins at a Glance, we have news about CBDCs, Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto index platform, PayPal under the SEC’s microscope, and the charge against Safemoon.  We know that time is gold so we have summarized them for you.

Let us get to it.

CBDC Pilot in Switzerland

• The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is working on a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot with the SIX Digital Exchange (SDX) and 6 other commercial banks.
• The pilot is named Helvetia Phase III.  Its goal is to create a tokenized version of the Swiss France, as a settlement instrument between financial institutions.
• The six banks that are included in the test pilot are:
  • Banque Cantonale Vaudoise
  • Basler Kantonalbank
  • Commerzbank
  • Hypothekarbank Lenzburg
  • UBS
  • Zürcher Kantonalbank
• The pilot will start in December 2023 and will end in June 2024.
• Wholesale CBDCs will be used solely to transfer value between financial institutions and are not meant to be used by consumers.

A16Z’s Alongside V2 – Investing in BTC and Altcoins like ETFs

• A16z (Otherwise known as Andreessen Horowitz ), a private venture capital firm has launched Alongside V2 – a cryptocurrency index platform
• The startup aims to disrupt the crypto industry by giving investors exposure to a basket of 15 cryptocurrencies via a single token – AMKT. It works like ETFs or Exchange Traded Funds.
• The platform aims to provide investors with a diversified portfolio by reducing the risk of investing in a single cryptocurrency.
• A16z venture capital fund that has been investing in crypto, fintech, AI, and web3 startups across all stages. At the moment is has $35 billion under management
• It has invested in several crypto startups, including Coinbase, OpenSea, and Solana.
• The image shows that Alongside’s portfolio is heavy on Bitcoin, Ethereum and other major altcoins:

PayPal Subpoenaed by the SEC

• PayPal, a leading payment platform, has received a subpoena from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  The SEC is looking at PayPal’s recently launched dollar-denominated stablecoin, PYUSD.
• Reports are saying that PayPal is cooperating with the regulator by providing the documents related to the inquiry.
• PayPal launched PYSUD in August 2023.  The stablecoin is issued by PAXOS.

Safemoon Charged by the SEC

• On November 1, 2023, the US SEC charged Safemoon LLC, its founder Kyle Nagy, and other company executives for allegedly committing a massive fraudulent scheme through the sale of unregistered securities
• The SEC is saying that the company sold Safemoon tokens, which were dubbed by the government as a security asset.
• SafeMoon’s surged price by more than 55,000 percent from March 12 to April 20, 2021.  Its market capitalization exceeded $5.7 billion before its price plummeted by nearly 50 percent when the public learned that SafeMoon’s liquidity pool was not locked as claimed.
• The company and its officials are also being accused of wash trading, a form of market manipulation.  Wash trading involves an entity buying and selling the same assets to create a false sense of market activity.

Ripple Selected by the National Bank of Georgia for Digital Lari Pilot

• The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) has chosen Ripple Labs as the official partner for its Digital Lari pilot project.  The Georgian Lari is the country’s official currency.
• The pilot will use Ripples CBDC technology and will evaluate practical use for the public and private sectors.
• Ripples CBDC platform, XRP Ledger, boasts of its ability to provide an end-to-end solution that enables central banks and institutions to seamlessly mint, manage, transact, and redeem CDBCs.
• NBG Acting Governor Natia Turnava said:

“We were pleased to select Ripple as the official technology partner for our Digital Lari (GEL) pilot project following a thorough review of all shortlisted parties. The committee selected Ripple due to its technical excellence and the expertise of its team. We look forward to moving ahead with Ripple, we are grateful to all other participating companies for their interest and efforts in the selection process.”

That’s all folks, join us again next week as we cover your favorite altcoins, and don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter.