The US Securities and Exchange Commission and blockchain payments firm Ripple agreed to pause their appeals in the ongoing XRP legal battle, signaling a potential move toward a final settlement.

The SEC and Ripple agreed to put their appeals in “abeyance,” meaning the proceedings are now paused pending an anticipated settlement of the XRP (XRP) case.

“An abeyance would conserve judicial and party resources while the parties continue to pursue a negotiated resolution of this matter,” the parties jointly stated in an April 10 court filing.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse previously announced the end of the XRP case on March 19, and the new filing hints that the SEC is ready to settle once nominated and approved Chair Paul Atkins takes office, according to some community speculation.

The filing cancels Ripple’s April 16 brief deadline

According to Ripple’s defense attorney, James Filan, the new filing supersedes the April 16 deadline for Ripple to respond to the SEC’s brief filed in January. “The settlement is awaiting commission approval. No brief will be filed on April 16,” Filan wrote in an April 10 X post.

Some legal observers suggested the SEC’s willingness to pause the proceedings indicates that the agency may be prepared to drop the case after Atkins assumes office.

Source: James Filan

“SEC is ready to settle but is waiting for Atkins to take the helm as the new SEC chief so he can start off with dropping the biggest case of their career and start with a huge win,” one user suggested in a reply to Filan’s thread on X.

When is Atkins expected to officially assume office?

While the Senate confirmed Atkins as the new SEC chair on Wednesday, April 9, it’s unclear when he will take office.

Related: Ripple acquisition of Hidden Road a ‘defining moment’ for XRPL — Ripple CTO

It could be several days before Atkins is sworn into office as the new SEC chair.

Former SEC Chair Gary Gensler was sworn in three days after his confirmation in 2021, suggesting Atkins could take office as soon as April 12.

Cointelegraph approached the SEC for comment on when Atkins is expected to be sworn in as the new SEC chair but had not received a response by the time of publication.

Magazine: XRP win leaves Ripple and industry with no crypto legal precedent set

Bitcoin (BTC) is exhibiting familiar “bottom” behavior at current prices, according to one of its best-known leading indicators. 

In an X post on April 10, John Bollinger, creator of the Bollinger bands volatility metric, revealed good news in progress for Bitcoin bulls.

Bollinger bands %b metric teases BTC price comeback

Bitcoin may already be establishing a long-term bottom, the latest Bollinger bands data suggests.

Analyzing weekly timeframes, Bollinger himself drew attention to one of his proprietary indicators, known as “%b,” which offers further clues about market trend reversals.

%b measures an asset’s closing price relative to Bollinger band position, employing standard deviation around a 20-period simple moving average (SMA). 

Among its insights is the “W” bottom formation, where a first low beneath zero is followed by a higher low retest later — something that could now be in play for BTC/USD.

Bollinger confirmed to X followers:

“Classic Bollinger Band W bottom setting up in $BTCUSD. Sill needs confirmation.”

BTC/USD 1-week chart with Bollinger bands data. Source: John Bollinger/X

On both weekly and daily timeframes, Bollinger bands show no trend shift has taken place yet.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the daily chart continues to walk down the lower band, with the middle SMA acting as resistance.

BTC/USD 1-day chart with Bollinger bands data. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Turning to stocks, with which BTC/USD has become increasing correlated, Jurrien Timmer, director of global macro at Fidelity Investments, drew similar conclusions.

“Revisiting the Bollinger Bands, we have gone from 2 standard deviations above-trend to on-trend to now almost 2 standard deviations below-trend,” he noted about the S&P 500 on April 9. 

“Again, oversold but not at an historic extreme.”

Bitcoin bounce may follow 10% Nasdaq plunge

As Cointelegraph continues to report, BTC price bottom targets increasingly center around the $70,000 mark.

Related: Bitcoin, stocks shun CPI print win and give up tariff relief gains — Will BTC whales save the day?

That level is significant for several reasons, including as a psychological barrier and its status as a liquidity magnet.

Network economist Timothy Peterson, whose Lowest Price Forward metric previously offered 95% odds that $69,000 would stay intact as support, now sees Bitcoin reversing only after stocks find their own floor.

“Bitcoin led NASDAQ on this decline.  As the asset perceived to be at the top of the risk pyramid, I would expect NASDAQ to rally first, and then Bitcoin.  Just something to look for,” he revealed this week. 

“But I think NASDAQ has another -10% to fall.”

Bitcoin vs. Nasdaq comparison. Source: Timothy Peterson/X

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

A known maximal extractable value (MEV) white hat actor intercepted about $2.6 million in crypto assets stolen from Morpho Labs’ decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol. 

On April 10, Morpho Labs implemented a front-end update on its Morpho Blue application. A day later, a hacker breached an address through a vulnerability caused by the update. Blockchain security firm PeckShield reported that an address lost $2.6 million due to the vulnerability. 

However, the security firm noted that “c0ffeebabe.eth,” a known white hat MEV operator, had front-run the transaction, effectively intercepting the stolen funds.

At the time of writing, the funds had been transferred to a different wallet address. It’s unclear whether the funds have yet been returned to their original owner.

Morpho Labs reverts front-end update

Responding to the incident, Morpho Labs reversed its front-end update. In a post on X on April 11, the team confirmed it had been alerted to the issue and rolled back the changes. The team also said that normal operations had resumed:

“All funds in the Morpho Protocol are safe and unaffected. The Morpho team will provide a detailed update later today in this thread.”

After further investigation, the team confirmed that its front-end was safe and that users don’t need to perform additional actions to secure their assets. 

The team said the update was pushed to enhance the transaction flow. However, specific transactions on the front-end were incorrectly crafted. The Morpho Labs team said they’ve identified the issue and applied a fix. They added that they would publish a more detailed explanation of the incident next week. 

Cointelegraph reached out to the Morpho Labs team on X but did not receive a response by publication. 

Related: MEV bot loses $180K in ETH from access control exploit

White hat MEV operator c0ffeebabe.eth

C0ffeebabe.eth is known to have contributed to the recovery of funds during DeFi hacks. In 2023, the white hat MEV operator retrieved around $5.4 million in Ether (ETH) from the Curve Finance exploit in July 2023.  

During the incident, c0ffeebabe.eth used a bot to front-run a malicious hacker to secure 3,000 ETH. The funds were then returned to the Curve deployer address. 

In 2024, the mysterious white hat actor also recovered funds stolen during the Blueberry exploit. In an update, the DeFi protocol said all drained funds had been front-run by c0ffeebabe.eth and returned. 

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