It’s been a long 4 years! 😊

🚨NEW: @realDonaldTrump has nominated Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur @DavidSacks to be White House #crypto and AI Czar.

This just in…we have final approval from @NYDFS for $RLUSD! Exchange and partner listings will be live soon – and reminder: when RLUSD is live, you’ll hear it from @Ripple first.

Following his interview on @60Minutes and everything it included, along with fighting the SEC (remember, @bgarlinghouse was personally sued), plus Ripple’s new stable coin launch, hate it or love it (and there are many on both sides), the Ripple CEO has to be in contention for Crypto CEO of the year. And 2025 has the potential to be the best year in @Ripple’s history. With @HesterPeirce, Mark Uyeda and Paul Atkins as Commissioners, they can vote to dismiss the SEC’s appeal. Even one of Crypto’s most harsh critics, @JohnReedStark, has come out and said that that’s exactly what the SEC should do. With a new pro-crypto administration, coupled with true bipartisan support for enacting smart, tailored crypto regulations, and I assume Ripple would, likewise, dismiss its cross-appeal. Hence, with regulatory clarity in the U.S., coupled with removing the dark cloud of an SEC appeal, it would be true blue skies for Ripple (pun intended for you legal nerds, who get it). Considering 95% of its business has been outside the United States, Ripple has done quite well during these last four years. No appeal, plus a crypto friendly administration, equals a green light in the biggest and most important market in the world - the United States. In January 2024, it was reported that Ripple was buying back $285 million of its shares, valuing the company at $11 billion. See👇 One might ask whether the Ripple CEO was clairvoyant? Some argued the stock buyback was a bold move, especially considering all the uncertainty surrounding both the appeal and the election. In poker terms: Ripple went ALL IN. Let’s just say, I’m not playing poker against @bgarlinghouse anytime soon. If the appeal is dismissed in the first quarter of 2025, I could see a Ripple IPO by the end of the year. Certainly, the first quarter of 2026 is not unrealistic. Ripple repurchased its shares at an $11B valuation. But with $1B in cash on the balance sheet, plus over 40 billion XRP, held in escrow, at today’s XRP price, one could argue Ripple’s true valuation is over $100B. I’m not suggesting it is or it isn’t. I am suggesting, however, that if you’re a Ripple shareholder, you’re likely not disappointed in its CEO. [FULL DISCLOSURE: Through the @linqtoinc platform, I’ve purchased shares of Ripple and other companies in the digital asset space, including @krakenfx, @BitPay, @circle and @UpholdInc]. reuters.com/technology/rippl…

And it’s official - the interview I gave with @60Minutes about crypto’s fight for regulatory clarity in the US will air live this Sunday Dec 8 , and available here afterwards: cbsnews.com/60-minutes/

Those are pretty clear marching orders to the new Chair of the SEC. The fact that he highlighted digital assets in his announcement? I would even call it "bullish."

Two Nigerian nationals, Ikemukwu Benjermin Ezirim (39) and Christian Valentine Uchenna (37), were arrested in Volkrust, Mpumalanga, on November 28, 2024, for dealing in drugs. The suspects were found with R1.2 million worth of drugs, as well as cash, cellphones, a weighing scale, and a Mercedes-Benz C180. They appeared in the Volkrust Magistrates Court on November 29, 2024, and were remanded in custody until December 9, 2024, for a bail application.