Crypto investors rejoiced this week after the US Securities and Exchange Commission dismissed one of the crypto industry’s most controversial lawsuits — one that resulted in an over four-year legal battle with Ripple Labs.

In another significant regulatory development, Solana-based futures exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have debuted in the US, a move that may signal the approval of spot Solana (SOL) ETFs as the “next logical step” for lawmakers.

SEC’s XRP reversal a “victory for the industry”: Ripple CEO

The SEC’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.

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 Cointelegraph attended. 

Ripple’s CEO said the SEC is dropping its case against the blockchain developer. Source: Brad Garlinghouse

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Solana futures ETF to grow institutional adoption, despite limited inflows

The crypto industry is set to debut the first SOL futures ETF, a significant development that may pave the way for the first spot SOL ETF as the “next logical step” for crypto-based trading products, according to industry watchers.

Volatility Shares is launching two SOL futures ETFs, the Volatility Shares Solana ETF (SOLZ) and the Volatility Shares 2X Solana ETF (SOLT), on March 20.

Volatility Shares Solana ETF SEC filing. Source: SEC

The debut of the first SOL futures ETF may bring significant new institutional adoption for the SOL token, according to Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Research.

The analyst told Cointelegraph: 

“The launch of the first Solana ETFs in the US could significantly boost Solana’s market position by increasing demand and liquidity for SOL, potentially narrowing the gap with Ethereum’s market cap.”

The Solana ETF will grow institutional adoption by “offering a regulated investment vehicle, attracting billions in capital and reinforcing Solana’s competitiveness against Ethereum,” said Lee, adding that “Ethereum’s entrenched ecosystem remains a formidable barrier.”

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Pump.fun launches own DEX, drops Raydium

Pump.fun has launched its own decentralized exchange (DEX) called PumpSwap, potentially displacing Raydium as the primary trading venue for Solana-based memecoins. 

Starting on March 20, memecoins that successfully bootstrap liquidity, or “bond,” on Pump.fun will migrate directly to PumpSwap, Pump.fun said in an X post. 

Previously, bonded Pump.fun tokens migrated to Raydium, which emerged as Solana’s most popular DEX, largely thanks to memecoin trading activity. 

According to Pump.fun, PumpSwap “functions similarly to Raydium V4 and Uniswap V2” and is designed “to create the most frictionless environment for trading coins.”

“Migrations were a major point of friction – they slow a coin’s momentum and introduce needless complexity for new users,” Pump.fun said.

“Now, migrations happen instantly and for free.”

Raydium’s trading volumes surged in 2024, largely due to memecoins. Source: DefiLlama

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Bybit: 89% of stolen $1.4B crypto still traceable post-hack

The lion’s share of the hacked Bybit funds is still traceable after the historic cybertheft, with blockchain investigators continuing their efforts to freeze and recover the funds.

The crypto industry was rocked by the largest hack in history on Feb. 21 when Bybit lost over $1.4 billion in liquid-staked Ether (stETH), Mantle Staked ETH (mETH) and other digital assets.

Blockchain security firms, including Arkham Intelligence, have identified North Korea’s Lazarus Group as the likely culprit behind the Bybit exploit as the attackers continue swapping the funds in an effort to make them untraceable.

Despite the Lazarus Group’s efforts, over 88% of the stolen $1.4 billion remains traceable, according to Ben Zhou, co-founder and CEO of crypto exchange Bybit.

The CEO wrote in a March 20 X post:

“Total hacked funds of USD 1.4bn around 500k ETH. 88.87% remain traceable, 7.59% have gone dark, 3.54% have been frozen.”

“86.29% (440,091 ETH, ~$1.23B) have been converted into 12,836 BTC across 9,117 wallets (Average 1.41 BTC each),” said the CEO, adding that the funds were mainly funneled through Bitcoin (BTC) mixers, including Wasbi, CryptoMixer, Railgun and Tornado Cash.

Source: Ben Zhou

The CEO’s update comes nearly a month after the exchange was hacked. It took the Lazarus Group 10 days to move 100% of the stolen funds through the decentralized crosschain protocol THORChain, Cointelegraph reported on March 4.

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Libra, Melania creator’s “Wolf of Wall Street” memecoin crashes 99%

The creator of the Libra token has launched another memecoin with some of the same concerning onchain patterns that pointed to significant insider trading activity ahead of the coin’s 99% collapse.

Hayden Davis, co-creator of the Official Melania Meme (MELANIA) and Libra tokens, has launched a new Solana-based memecoin with an over 80% insider supply.

Davis launched the Wolf (WOLF) memecoin on March 8, banking on rumors of Jordan Belfort, known as the Wolf of Wall Street, launching his own token.

The token reached a peak $42 million market cap. However, 82% of WOLF’s supply was bundled under the same entity, according to a March 15 X post by Bubblemaps, which wrote:

“The bubble map revealed something strange — $WOLF had the same pattern as $HOOD, a token launched by Hayden Davis. Was he behind this one too?”

Source: Bubblemaps

The blockchain analytics platform revealed transfers across 17 different addresses, stemming back to the address “OxcEAe,” owned by Davis.

“He funded these wallets months before $LIBRA and $WOLF launched, moving money through 17 addresses and 2 chains,” Bubblemaps added.

Source: Bubblemaps

The Wolf memecoin lost over 99% of its value within two days, from the peak $42.9 million market capitalization on March 8 to just $570,000 by March 16, Dexscreener data shows.

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DeFi market overview

According to Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView data, most of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week in the green.

Of the top 100, the BNB Chain-native Four (FORM) token rose over 110% as the week’s biggest gainer, followed by PancakeSwap’s CAKE (CAKE) token, up over 48% on the weekly chart.

Total value locked in DeFi. Source: DefiLlama

Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education regarding this dynamically advancing space.

Ether (ETH) price dropped 6% between March 19 and March 21 after failing to break the $2,050 resistance level. More notably, ETH has fallen 28% since Feb. 21, underperforming the broader crypto market, which declined 14% over the same period.

Despite ETH’s price struggles, Ether futures open interest hit a record high on March 21. This has led traders to question whether large investors are positioning for a potential rally toward $2,400 while also raising concerns about the risks of cascading liquidations due to heightened leverage.

Ether futures aggregate open interest, ETH. Source: CoinGlass

The aggregate open interest in Ether futures rose 15% over two weeks, hitting a record 10.23 million ETH on March 21. Binance, Gate.io, and Bitget collectively dominate 51% of the market, while the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) holds 9% of ETH open interest, according to CoinGlass data. This contrasts with Bitcoin futures, where CME leads with a 24% market share.

Demand for leveraged ETH longs has declined

The increased activity in ETH futures contracts typically indicates institutional investors’ interest, as open interest measures the demand for leverage. However, buyers (longs) and sellers (shorts) are always matched, so an increase in open interest does not inherently indicate a positive outlook.

To gauge whether buyers are seeking more leverage, analysts should compare ETH futures monthly contract prices to spot exchange rates. In neutral markets, these derivatives typically trade 5% to 10% higher on an annualized basis to account for the extended settlement period. If traders turn bearish, this premium would likely drop below that range.

Ether futures 2-month annualized premium. Source: Laevitas

The annualized premium for ETH monthly futures dropped to below 4% on March 21, down from 5% two weeks earlier. This decline in the futures premium suggests reduced incentives for traders to use the “cash and carry” strategy, which involves selling futures contracts while simultaneously buying spot ETH to capture the premium as a fixed-income trade.

Spot ETF outflows and reduced network fees pressure ETH price

Part of Ether’s decline stems from weak demand for US-based Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which saw $307 million in net outflows over the two weeks ending March 20. The macroeconomic environment has also dampened investor confidence, as economists warn of rising recession risks due to global tariff wars, inflationary pressures, and US government spending cuts, according to the Boston Globe.

However, some analysts argue that Ether’s recent price weakness stems from an imbalance between network fees—required to compensate validators—and the interests of decentralized applications (DApps) and layer-2 scaling solutions. This critique was perfectly summarized by Martin Köppelmann, co-founder of Gnosis.

Source: koeppelmann

In a sense, Ethereum’s successful shift to proof-of-stake and the introduction of blob space to enhance scalability through rollups—while significantly boosting the network’s capabilities—are also seen as factors limiting Ether’s price growth. Despite the low transaction costs of its layer-2 solutions, some ETH investors believe they are not being adequately rewarded.

Ether’s price has faced pressure from rising macroeconomic risks, while demand for DApps continues to decline—whether due to increased competition or waning investor interest. Ethereum’s 7-day base layer revenue fell to $605,000 on March 17, a sharp drop from $2.5 million just two weeks earlier.

There is no indication that the surge in ETH futures open interest is driven by bullish positioning. On the contrary, demand for leveraged long positions remains notably weak, suggesting cautious market sentiment.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Coinbase is in advanced talks to buy Deribit, a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange, according to a March 21 report by Bloomberg.

Acquiring Deribit — the world’s largest venue for trading Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) options — would bolster Coinbase’s existing derivatives platform, which currently focuses on futures. 

Coinbase and Deribit have reportedly alerted regulators in Dubai to the deal talks. Deribit holds a license in Dubai, which would need to be transferred to Coinbase if a deal goes through, according to Bloomberg, which cited unnamed sources. 

In January, Bloomberg reported that a deal with Coinbase could value Deribit at between $4 billion and $5 billion. 

Deribit lists options, futures and spot cryptocurrencies. Its total trading volumes last year were around $1.2 trillion, Bloomberg said. 

On March 20, Kraken, a rival crypto exchange, announced plans to acquire derivatives trading platform NinjaTrader for around $1.5 billion.

Deribit is a popular crypto derivatives exchange. Source: Deribit

Related: Kraken to acquire NinjaTrader for $1.5B to offer US crypto futures

Red-hot market

Cryptocurrency derivatives, such as futures are options, are surging in popularity in the US.

Futures are standardized contracts allowing traders to buy or sell assets at a future date, often with leverage. Options are contracts granting the right to buy or sell — “call” or “put,” in trader parlance — an underlying asset at a certain price.

Both types of financial derivatives are popular among both retail and institutional investors for hedging and speculation. 

In December, Coinbase said derivatives trading volumes soared roughly 10,950% in 2024, Coinbase said. 

Coinbase lists derivatives tied to some 92 different assets on its international exchange and a smaller number in the US, according to its 2024 annual report.

In January, Robinhood rolled out cryptocurrency futures as the popular online brokerage redoubled its efforts to compete with Coinbase. 

In February, CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives exchange, said it clocked an average daily trading volume of approximately $10 billion for crypto derivatives in the fourth quarter of 2024 — a more than 300% increase from the year prior. 

Coinbase launched the US’ first Commodity Futures Trading Commission-regulated Solana (SOL) futures in February. CME launched its own SOL futures contracts the following month.

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