Content
Uncertainty about the future price of the cryptocurrency XRP has been ongoing since the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched its court case against tech company Ripple in December 2020.
As well as targeting the crypto firm, the SEC also named Ripple’s executive chairman Chris Larson and CEO Brad Garlinghouse in its lawsuit that alleged XRP tokens had been sold in an unregistered securities sale raising $1.3bn.
While much of the case has moved at a relatively slow place, Ripple was handed a small win on 29 September.
XRP to USD
Judge orders release of documents
US federal district judge Analisa Torres overruled the SEC’s attempts to prevent the crypto firm from accessing documents by former SEC finance division director, William Hinman, that are thought to hold key information on the regulatory status of Ethereum.
This had become important because the main claim behind the court action has been that the SEC classified XRP as a security, a condition that is different to Ethereum (ETH).
Garlinghouse has previously stated that the crypto company will relocate outside the US if it loses its legal dispute with the SEC.
What is your sentiment on XRP/USD?
Vote to see Traders sentiment!
XRP price fluctuations
XRP was first released in 2012 by co-founders Jed McCaleb and Chris Larsen as a way to facilitate cross-border currency transfers through the Ripple network.
Ripple’s native token has been bullish in the past couple of days, breaking into the $0.40 mark and even upwards of $0.48. It stabilised at the $0.45 mark on 3 October, with analysts believing that the updates in the SEC lawsuit sent trading volumes to peak.
At the time of writing, XRP was trading at $0.4805, up 2.5% in the last 24 hours, with a market cap of $24bn.
This isn’t the first time the price of XRP has surged in relation to the SEC legal action – last month, Garlinghouse was interviewed by FOX Business, after which the price of XRP surged the following day on 23 September. The Ripple CEO’s appearance resulted in more than a 10% total increase for the cryptocurrency.
Although the price of XRP has fluctuated in recent months, it is down significantly since its 2021 peak price of $1.96 on 14 April that year. At the end of 2021, the value of XRP was looking like it was stabilising at around $1.
Since the emergence of the SEC’s lawsuit, XRP has also been delisted by a number of popular cryptocurrency exchanges, such as Coinbase and OKCoin.
Related reading