Ripple Accused of Spreading FUD About Bitcoin and Tether, Files Motion to Seal Documents

According to U.Today, Samson Mow, head of Jan3, has accused Ripple of spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) about Bitcoin and Tether. This follows a confrontation between Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino. Mow sided with Ardoino, stating that Ripple is attempting to gain traction for their own stablecoin by spreading FUD about Tether. He also mentioned a similar incident in 2022 when Ripple paid $5 million to Greenpeace to start a campaign against Bitcoin, aiming to change BTC's proof-of-work consensus algorithm to a proof-of-stake one. In other news, Ripple has filed a motion to seal or narrowly tailor some of its documents in its ongoing legal battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Defense lawyer James K. Filan reported that Ripple aims to protect its business interests from 'significant harm' if these confidential documents were made public. The documents in question include highly confidential information about Ripple's earnings, revenues, expenses, and contractual agreements with third-party business partners. Ripple also wishes to protect the identities of certain nonparty financial institutions and employees. Meanwhile, James Seyffart, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, has suggested that the SEC's decision to deny numerous Ethereum ETF applications this May is becoming increasingly likely. Seyffart's statement comes in response to finance lawyer Scott Johnsson's claim that the SEC is considering the security question for Ethereum in its next spot ETF order. The SEC argues that since the underlying asset is a security, it was improper to offer commodity-based trust shares. This issue did not arise with Bitcoin ETFs. The SEC is expected to make its final decision about VanEck and ARK's Ethereum ETF filings on May 23 and 24, respectively.