An appellate court has granted a joint request from Ripple Labs and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to pause an appeal in a 2020 SEC case against Ripple amid settlement negotiations.

In an April 16 filing in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the court approved a joint SEC-Ripple motion to hold the appeal in abeyance — temporarily pausing the case — for 60 days. As part of the order, the SEC is expected to file a status report by June 15.

April 16 order approving a motion to hold an appeal in abeyance. Source: PACER

The SEC’s case against Ripple and its executives, filed in December 2020, was expected to begin winding down after Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced on March 19 that the commission would be dropping its appeal against the blockchain firm. A federal court found Ripple liable for $125 million in an August ruling, resulting in both the SEC and blockchain firm filing an appeal and cross-appeal, respectively.

However, once US President Donald Trump took office and leadership of the SEC moved from former chair Gary Gensler to acting chair Mark Uyeda, the commission began dropping multiple enforcement cases against crypto firms in a seeming political shift. Ripple pledged $5 million in XRP to Trump’s inauguration fund, and Garlinghouse and chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty attended events supporting the US president.

Related: SEC dropping Ripple case is ‘final exclamation mark’ that XRP is not a security — John Deaton

Despite support for the end of the case coming from both Ripple and the SEC, the August 2024 judgment and appellate cases leave some legal entanglements. Alderoty said in March that Ripple would drop its cross-appeal with the SEC and receive a roughly $75 million refund from the lower court judgment. It’s unclear what else may result from negotiations over a settlement in appellate court.

New leadership at SEC incoming

Acting chair Uyeda is expected to step down following the US Senate confirming Paul Atkins as SEC chair on April 9.

During his confirmation hearings, lawmakers questioned Atkins about his ties to crypto, which could create conflicts of interest in his role regulating the industry. In financial disclosures, Atkins stated he had millions of dollars in assets through stakes in crypto firms, including Securitize, Pontoro and Patomak.

Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered

Asset manager Bitwise has listed four Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) exchange-traded products on the London Stock Exchange, expanding its presence in the European region.

The listings include the Bitwise Core Bitcoin ETP, the Bitwise Physical Bitcoin ETP, Bitwise’s Physical Ethereum ETP, and the Bitwise Ethereum Staking ETP, according to the April 16 announcement.

The products are available to institutional or otherwise-qualified investors with an accreditation, and not open to retail investors.

Bitwise is applying to launch crypto investment vehicles as digital assets gain a greater foothold in global financial markets, attracting more institutional interest in crypto and increasing the legitimacy of the nascent asset class.

Related: Bitwise doubles down on $200K Bitcoin price prediction amid trade tension

Bitwise expands ETF offerings following a regulatory shift in the US

The resignation of former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler triggered a wave of crypto ETF applications in the United States.

Asset managers and crypto firms rushed to submit filings in anticipation of a relaxed regulatory regime once Gensler left the agency in January.

Bitwise’s BTC and ETH ETF, which gives investors exposure to both digital assets in a single investment vehicle, was granted preliminary approval by the SEC in January but still requires final approval before listing.

In March 2025, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) submitted an application for a rule change to list the Bitwise Dogecoin ETF on the US-based exchange.

If approved, Dogecoin (DOGE) would be the first memecoin with a US-listed investment vehicle and could attract more institutional inflows into the dog-themed social token.

Bitwise also filed for an Aptos ETF in March. The proposed Bitwise Aptos ETF will hold the native cryptocurrency of the high-throughput layer-1 blockchain, APT (APT), and will not feature staking rewards.

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan predicted Bitcoin ETFs would attract $50 billion in inflows during 2025.

Institutional inflows into crypto ETFs act as a price stabilizer for digital assets with investment vehicles, lowering volatility through a pipeline siphoning capital from traditional investors in the stock market to cryptocurrencies.

Magazine: Bitcoin ETFs make Coinbase a ‘honeypot’ for hackers and governments: Trezor CEO

Tokenization company Securitize has expanded its digital asset operations by acquiring MG Stover’s fund administration business, in a move the company said has significantly grown its assets under management and ability to serve institutional clients.

With the acquisition, MG Stover’s fund administration business has been absorbed into Securitize Fund Services, Securitize’s wholly owned subsidiary, the company disclosed. 

Securitize Fund Services now manages more than $38 billion in assets across 715 funds. 

Founded in 2007, MG Stover offers full-service fund administration spanning traditional financial industries like hedge funds, venture capital and private equity, as well as digital asset funds. 

A Securitize spokesperson informed Cointelegraph that the acquisition pertains only to MG Stover’s fund administration business and not the company as a whole.

In an emailed statement to Cointelegraph, Securitize co-founder and CEO Carlos Domingo said, “The MG Stover acquisition significantly strengthens our institutional offering by adding one of the most experienced digital asset fund administration teams in the industry to Securitize Fund Services.” He continued:

“Legacy fund administrators were never designed for the speed, complexity, or global reach of digital assets. Their systems struggle with the pressure of 24/7 markets, and they weren’t built to handle stablecoin flows or real-time settlements.”

Securitize is one of the largest real-world asset (RWA) tokenization companies, having issued more than $3.3 billion in onchain assets, most notably the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, also known as BUIDL.

BUILD currently has nearly $2.5 billion in assets, according to industry data. 

BUIDL leads the booming market for tokenized US Treasurys. Source: RWA.xyz

Related: VC Roundup: 8-figure funding deals suggest crypto bull market far from over

Tokenization market heats up

Tokenized RWAs are a rapidly expanding segment of the blockchain industry, attracting both traditional investors and crypto-native users. 

RWA growth has defied the broad downtrend in the cryptocurrency market, with the total value of onchain financial assets surging 11.2% to $21 billion over the past 30 days, according to RWA.xyz.

Amid the tokenization wave, Securitize recently partnered with Ethena Labs to create a new blockchain for the RWA economy. The forthcoming Converge blockchain will allow retail and institutional investors to access tokenized assets and decentralized finance applications. 

Meanwhile, the Mantra blockchain recently unveiled a $109 million ecosystem fund to bootstrap startups building across the RWA and DeFi economies. 

Related: Bitwise makes first institutional DeFi allocation