GameStop (GME) has added its name to the quickly-growing roster of publicly-traded companies adopting a bitcoin treasury strategy.

Alongside its fourth quarter earnings report, the company said its board unanimously approved adding bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset.

CEO Ryan Cohen in early February got tongues wagging when he posted a picture of himself and Strategy (MSTR) Executive Chairman Michael Saylor at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.

Several days later, Strive Asset Management CEO Matt Cole sent a letter to Cohen urging GME to use at least part of its nearly $5 billion of cash on hand to purchase bitcoin. Co-founded by Vivek Ramaswamy, Strive is an owner of GME through its ETFs.

«We believe GameStop has an incredible opportunity to transform its financial future by becoming the premier bitcoin treasury company in the gaming sector,» wrote Cole.

Cohen further raised eyebrows when he tweeted out, «Letter received.»

GME shares are up 5.7% in after hours trading. Bitcoin has gained modestly on the news, now trading at $88,500, ahead about 0.2% from 24 hours ago.

The long-running legal battle between Ripple Labs and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seems to finally be near an end, with Ripple emerging victorious.

The SEC will return the lion’s share of the $125 million-court ordered fine paid by Ripple last year, according to a Tuesday X post from Ripple’s chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty, keeping just $50 million and returning the $75 million balance to Ripple.

The proposed settlement, which is subject to commissioner and court approval, comes just a week after the SEC agreed to drop its appeal of U.S. District Court judge Analisa Torres’ 2023 ruling that Ripple’s programmatic sales of XRP to retail exchanges did not violate federal securities laws. Torres found that only Ripple’s institutional sales violated securities laws, ordering Ripple to pay the $125 million fine. Though hefty, the fine was a mere fraction of the nearly $2 billion in civil penalties, disgorgement and prejudgement interest the SEC initially requested.

As part of the pending settlement agreement, Ripple has agreed to drop its cross-appeal of the SEC’s appeal. Alderoty also said that the SEC will ask the court to lift the standard injunction imposed against Ripple.

XRP jumped 1.5% higher in the minutes following the news before paring some of the gains, changing hands at around $2.47 recently. The token was down 0.5% over the past 24 hours, in line with bitcoin (BTC) and the broader crypto market benchmark CoinDesk 20 Index’s performance.

A representative for the SEC did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.

— Krisztian Sandor contributed reporting.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has dropped its investigation into Web3 gaming platform Immutable and will not file enforcement charges, according to a Tuesday announcement from the company.

Immutable, an Australian company, disclosed that it had received a Wells notice — essentially an official heads-up from the SEC that it intends to file an enforcement action against the recipient — in November. At the time, the firm speculated that the SEC’s investigation was tied to its listing and private sales of its native IMX token back in 2021.

“We are pleased the SEC has concluded its inquiry,” said Robbie Ferguson, Immutable’s co-founder and president, in a statement. “This marks a significant milestone for the crypto

industry and gaming as we advance towards a future with regulatory clarity.”

Ferguson added that the firm was “thrilled” at the developing regulatory clarity coming from the U.S. government, and said that “with a clear regulatory framework, we plan to accelerate our ambitions to bring digital ownership to the 3.1 billion gamers in the world.”

The SEC declined to comment, telling CoinDesk that the agency “does not comment on the existence or nonexistence of a possible investigation.”

The SEC’s decision to end its investigation into Immutable is the latest in a string of closed probes and dropped litigation as the agency continues its full-scale retreat from former Chair Gary Gensler’s so-called “regulation by enforcement” approach to the crypto industry. Under the leadership of Acting Chair Mark Uyeda, the SEC has signaled a total overhaul in its crypto regulation strategy, setting up a Crypto Task Force spearheaded by crypto-friendly Commissioner Hester Peirce and starting a series of roundtable discussions with industry players.

In the less-than-three-month span since U.S. President Donald Trump took office — catalyzing a regulatory sea change for the crypto industry — the SEC’s investigations into crypto exchange Gemini, trading platform Robinhood, non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea, NFT company Yuga Labs, and now, Immutable, have all been dropped, with no enforcement charges filed. The agency’s litigation against crypto companies including Kraken, Coinbase, ConsenSys, Ripple andCumberland DRW have also been dropped. Still more litigation, including the SEC’s cases against Tron and Binance, have been paused.

However, not everyone who received a Wells notice is off the SEC’s hook yet. Crypto issuer Unicoin received a Wells notice last year informing the firm that the SEC planned to bring charges alleging violations related to fraud, deceptive practices and the offer and sale of unregistered securities.

A spokesperson for Unicoin told CoinDesk that the firm “remains in the final stages of the SEC review process.”

“As of now, we have not received any new updates or formal feedback from the SEC regarding our registration,” the spokesperson added. “We are fully committed to compliance and transparency, and we continue to work toward securing the necessary approvals for our planned offerings.”

Crypto.com also received a Wells notice from the SEC last year, after which it sued the agency and then-Chair Gensler, accusing the regulator of “unlawfully expanding its jurisdiction.” The suit was later dropped. Crypto.com has not publicly commented on the status of the SEC’s investigation, and did not respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.