- XRP price hit a high of $0.5590 on Thursday as Bitcoin’s price rally fueled gains in top altcoins.
- XRP trade volume nearly doubled this week, climbing to 1.46 billion on February 15.
- Pro-Ripple attorney condemns the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple in response to Chair Gary Gensler’s comments on crypto.
XRP price hit a peak of $0.5590, early on Thursday. Altcoins like XRP noted gains as Bitcoin price rallied past resistance to $52,500. Bitcoin’s bull run ushered a marketwide recovery in altcoin prices.
Apart from the Bitcoin-effect, XRP on-chain activity likely also helped catalyze the recent gains alongside other developments in the Ripple ecosystem.
Also read: Bitcoin inches closer to $52,000, liquidates over $72 million in short positions
Daily Digest Market Movers: XRP on-chain metrics show surge in activity
- According to data from crypto intelligence tracker, Santiment, the Volume in XRP nearly doubled from 578.41 million on February 10 to 1.48 billion on February 15. The surge in Volume implies the demand and relevance of XRP has increased among market participants.
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XRP Volume. Source: Santiment
- Ripple recently revealed its plans to expand into the custody business with its acquisition of Standard Custody. As the payment giant pivots from its cross-border payment remittance business and expands to related infrastructure services for financial firms, it is likely to boost the demand for XRPLedger’s services. Find out more about it here.
- Bitcoin price rallied to a peak of $52,500 on Thursday, catalyzing a rally in altcoins in the ecosystem. XRP price climbed to a peak of $0.5590, alongside BTC.
Technical Analysis: XRP price rallies towards its $0.6000 target
XRP price is currently in an uptrend. The altcoin is rallying towards its $0.6000 target, a psychologically important level for the asset. XRP price faces resistance at its 50% Fibonacci Retracement level of the decline from the 2024 peak of $0.6405 to its January low, at $0.5629.
XRP price’s rally to $0.6000 represents a climb of over 10%. The green bars on the Moving Average Convergence/ Divergence (MACD) and Awesome Oscillator (AO) indicators, suggest that XRP price uptrend is intact and there is positive momentum.
XRP/USDT 1-day chart
A daily candlestick close below the $0.5000 level could invalidate the bullish thesis and signal a sweep of the January low at $0.4853 before another possible XRP price recovery.
SEC vs Ripple lawsuit FAQs
Is XRP a security?
It depends on the transaction, according to a court ruling released on July 14:
For institutional investors or over-the-counter sales, XRP is a security.
For retail investors who bought the token via programmatic sales on exchanges, on-demand liquidity services and other platforms, XRP is not a security.
How does the ruling affect Ripple in its legal battle against the SEC?
The United States Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Ripple and its executives of raising more than $1.3 billion through an unregistered asset offering of the XRP token.
While the judge ruled that programmatic sales aren’t considered securities, sales of XRP tokens to institutional investors are indeed investment contracts. In this last case, Ripple did breach the US securities law and will need to keep litigating over the around $729 million it received under written contracts.
What are the implications of the ruling for the overall crypto industry?
The ruling offers a partial win for both Ripple and the SEC, depending on what one looks at.
Ripple gets a big win over the fact that programmatic sales aren’t considered securities, and this could bode well for the broader crypto sector as most of the assets eyed by the SEC’s crackdown are handled by decentralized entities that sold their tokens mostly to retail investors via exchange platforms, experts say.
Still, the ruling doesn’t help much to answer the key question of what makes a digital asset a security, so it isn’t clear yet if this lawsuit will set precedent for other open cases that affect dozens of digital assets. Topics such as which is the right degree of decentralization to avoid the “security” label or where to draw the line between institutional and programmatic sales are likely to persist.
Is the SEC stance toward crypto assets likely to change after the ruling?
The SEC has stepped up its enforcement actions toward the blockchain and digital assets industry, filing charges against platforms such as Coinbase or Binance for allegedly violating the US Securities law. The SEC claims that the majority of crypto assets are securities and thus subject to strict regulation.
While defendants can use parts of Ripple’s ruling in their favor, the SEC can also find reasons in it to keep its current strategy of regulation by enforcement.
Can the court ruling be overturned?
The court decision is a partial summary judgment. The ruling can be appealed once a final judgment is issued or if the judge allows it before then. The case is in a pretrial phase, in which both Ripple and the SEC still have the chance to settle.