Decentral Block Post

Worldcoin (WLD), a project partly created by OpenAI CEO Sam Alman, launched the token that will be used within the project's ecosystem on July 24. 

The project has continuously split opinions from within the crypto space up to Silicon Valley, with some praising the project’s ambition to some calling it “creepy” and “dystopian.” Despite these comments, the project continues to pursue its goal of solving income inequality and online identity authentication.

The project was first launched back on March 14, along with a waitlist for its software development kit (SDK). According to its team, the World ID will function as a global digital passport that users are able to store within their phones. The project also claims that the World ID will also provide proof that they are not robots, without the need to provide identifying information to various websites like phone numbers. 

On May 8, the project released its gas-free crypto wallet for verified humans. This allowed users to take advantage of gas-free transfers by registering for a World ID — where they would be asked to provide a phone number or an iris scan. 

According to the developers, the project does not store the data provided by the users. It generates a zero-knowledge proof to verify that the user is a human being, without revealing the data that was used to generate this proof.

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has agreed to a “gag order” which will prevent him from making comments to third parties that may interfere with his trial — but argues it should apply to all potential witnesses as well, including current FTX CEO John Ray.

The gag order against Sam Bankman-Fried was initially requested on July 20, when the U.S. government accused the FTX founder of attempting to interfere with a fair trial by publicly discrediting former business partner and witness Caroline Ellison in an interview with the  New York Times.

In a July 22 letter to United States District Court Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of New York, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers Cohen & Gresser LLP denied the accusations but agreed to accept a gag order as requested.

A gag order is a legal order often issued by a court to restrict information or comment from being made public or passed onto any unauthorized third party. In this case, Bankman-Fried will no longer be able to make comments that publicly discredit a government witness by sharing confidential information that may taint the jury pool.

However, in accepting the relief, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers also want the same gag order to be applied to all parties and witnesses that could be involved in his criminal trial.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has condemned the United States securities regulator over recent comments from its lawyers that hint at a possible appeal to its case against Ripple.

In a July 23 tweet, Garlinghouse slammed the regulator for its "regulation by enforcement" approach, arguing it has only served to hurt retail investors.

“​​The SEC created this mess by proclaiming it was the cop on the crypto beat when it had no legal jurisdiction,” wrote Garlinghouse in a July 23 tweet. “Where’s that gotten us? Consumers left holding the bag in bankruptcy court while the SEC holds press conferences,” he added.

Garlinghouse’s criticism came in response to the SEC’s latest round of comments concerning Ripple, where the regulator hinted at appealing the split-decision ruling against Ripple Labs.

On July 21, the SEC used its ongoing case against Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon to air out its concerns with the decision that retail sales of XRP (XRP) on exchanges didn’t constitute the legal definition of a security.

Bitcoin (BTC) is struggling to rise above the overhead resistance at $31,000 but a minor positive is that the bulls have not allowed the price to dive below the $29,500 support. This suggests that a catalyst may be needed for the price to break out from its range.

On the macroeconomic front, the Federal Reserve’s meeting on July 25 and 26 is an important event to keep an eye on. The FedWatch Tool shows a 99.2% probability of a 25 basis point rate hike in the meeting. If that happens, the markets may not witness a knee-jerk reaction as the hike seems to have been priced in. However, any surprise move by the Fed could thrust the price out of the range.

Several analysts expect the range to break soon but there is no consensus on the direction of the breakout. If the price breaks below the range, analysts expect a significant downside. Some are even projecting a fall closer to $20,000.

If Bitcoin moves higher, select altcoins could attract buyers. Let’s study the charts of top-5 cryptocurrencies that could turn positive over the next few days.

Bitcoin price analysis

Bitcoin remains pinned below the 20-day exponential moving average ($30,036) for the past few days but a positive sign is that the bears have not been able to sink the price to the 50-day simple moving average ($28,979).

Stellar (XLM) is basking in the glow of Ripple's partial win against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), up around 60% since the court ruling on July 13.

XRP fuels XLM price rally again

XLM price has risen over 60% since July 13, when a federal judge ruled that the XRP sales on public exchanges did not break U.S. securities laws. Still, the token is down about 20% from its local peak of $0.195 and was changing hands for about $0.154 on July 23.

The period of XLM's price rise has appeared alongside the token's growing positive correlation with XRP on the daily timeframe. As of July 23, the correlation coefficient between the two assets was 0.95, suggesting they are moving in a near-perfect tandem.

The price trends in XLM and XRP markets typically mirror one another, given Stellar is a breakaway blockchain payment project founded by Ripple's co-founder Jed McCaleb. For instance, XRP's price has also surged around 60% since the Ripple win.

But XRP price risks dropping approximately 40% by September, which will likely put XLM under similar bearish stress.