A school in Scotland has said it will be the first in the UK to start accepting Bitcoin payments. 

Lomond School in the town of Helensburgh said that it made the choice to accept the cryptocurrency after a number of parents—both local and foreign—made the request, The Times reported.

The private boarding school has a number of international students. 

To “manage and mitigate risk,” the school said it would start accepting the biggest cryptocurrency in phases, and would convert digital coins received into pound sterling. It also said that it would ensure full compliance with UK financial regulations when accepting BTC.

The school added that it would also consider building a reserve of the cryptocurrency if its use case grows in the UK. “Assuming Bitcoin gains broader acceptance in the UK and worldwide, the school will look to build a Bitcoin asset reserve,” it said in a statement. 

Lomond School did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s questions.

The idea of a “Bitcoin asset reserve” echoes U.S. President Trump’s executive order signed last month authorizing the government to hold BTC and figure out ways to buy more of the asset. The U.S. government already holds around 200,000 BTC—worth $16.7 billion at today’s price—that was primarily seized or forfeited in criminal cases. 

A number of other countries are now considering holding Bitcoin—like they hold other assets in reserves—and businesses too have started buying up the asset. Strategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, currently holds over $44 billion worth of the asset.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

Ripple Labs and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have jointly filed a request to suspend their respective appeals as they “pursue a negotiated resolution” of their long-running case.

As detailed in a filing submitted yesterday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the two parties have already reached an agreement-in-principle, with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse revealing last month that the SEC would be dropping its appeal.

Yesterday’s application represents the first official confirmation that the SEC has indeed dropped the appeal it lodged in October, while it also confirms that Ripple seeks to drop its cross-appeal.

Yet the document also makes clear that the agreement-in-principle between the two parties has not gained final approval from the SEC.

“The parties require additional time to obtain Commission approval for this agreement-in-principle, and if approved by the Commission, to seek an indicative ruling from the district court,” reads the filing, which was signed by legal representatives for both sides.

It’s possible that final SEC approval may not come until Trump nominee Paul Atkins assumes his role as chairman, although having gained Senate confirmation on Wednesday, his swearing in could only be a matter of days away.

Ripple vs the SEC

SEC approval of the agreement would mark the final end of a legal dispute which began in December 2020, when the regulator filed a suit alleging that Ripple had raised $1.3 billion via the sale of unregistered securities since 2013.

July 2023 saw Judge Analisa Torres rule largely in Ripple’s favor, determining that third-party sales of XRP on exchanges didn’t constitute the offering of (unregistered) securities.

However, the SEC filed its aforementioned appeal more than a year later, contesting that securities law was violated by Ripple’s direct offering of XRP on exchanges, and by personal sales of XRP by execs Brad Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen.

With this appeal now being dropped, the price of XRP could continue the upwards trend it began following the election of Donald Trump on November 5.

Since that date, XRP has risen by 300%, based largely on the expectation that a more pro-crypto administration would result in the end of the Ripple-SEC case.

Yet given the size of this gain, the end of the case may now already be priced in, with XRP up by only 0.2% in the past 24 hours despite today’s news, per data from CoinGecko.

On Monday, World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a decentralized finance project backed by President Donald Trump, announced a proposal to distribute a small amount of its newly launched USD1 stablecoin to all eligible WLFI token holders. 

The test, the company wrote, would “validate the technical functionality of its airdrop system in a live environment while thanking early supporters of the project.”

Framed as a test of its on-chain airdrop system, the proposal seeks to reward early adopters and boost “visibility and awareness” of its stablecoin USD1 before full-scale deployment.

“Testing the airdrop mechanism in a live setting is a necessary step to ensure smart contract functionality and readiness,” the proposal said.

The exact airdrop amount and timing are still being finalized, though it will occur on Ethereum Mainnet and be funded by WLFI.

“Even if approved, World Liberty Financial, Inc. reserves the right to discontinue, suspend, modify, or terminate the test airdrop at any time as well as to establish any additional eligibility requirements,” the Trump-linked firm wrote.

WLFI’s proposal also lays out a detailed plan including community discussion, finalization of the airdrop amount and execution method, a governance vote, and finally, public announcement of the distribution. 

The voters are offered three options: Yes, No, or Abstain, with the majority having selected ‘Yes’ since the proposal was posted 7 hours ago.

WLFI’s Political Ties Trigger Backlash 

Since WLFI launched USD1 in late March, just as Congress began debating the bipartisan STABLE Act, lawmakers have sounded alarms over Trump’s financial stake in the project, warning it could compromise the integrity of the regulation.

WLFI, launched last September, has already raised $550 million through token sales, with $390 million reportedly paid out to Trump family-linked entity DT Marks DEFI LLC. 

The firm’s stablecoin USD1 is collateralized by U.S. Treasuries and managed by custodian BitGo, but the platform’s governance token remains non-transferable, adding to concerns over transparency and decentralization.

Tensions exploded during a recent House Financial Services Committee markup of the bill as  Democrats pushed for amendments that would bar sitting presidents, cabinet members, and their families from launching stablecoins while in office.

Meanwhile last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) demanded the U.S. Securities and Exchange commission (SEC) to turn over all internal records related to WLFI, citing potential “regulatory favoritism” and the agency’s decision to pause enforcement actions, including one involving WLFI investor and Tron founder Justin Sun.