Summary
- The SEC lawsuit has resulted in other lawsuits, which have slowed down XRP’s price growth.
- Ripple continues to attract institutional investors, who are keen on using its blockchain architecture but reluctant to buy XRP.
Ripple faced marginal oscillations today, as it struggled to break off the sideways trading that has been ongoing for the past ten days. Today, Ripple’s price rose to nearly $0.48 and reversed to $0.45 at the time of writing. The price represented a 3.5% decline as compared to the price recorded in the previous 24 hours.
By the time of going to press, $613.8 million worth of XRP had been traded, with the year-to-date returns being up by 103%. However, the all-time high of $3.40 seems out of reach for now, as the much-publicized lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues to weigh down on XRP.
Legal storm and the slowdown in institutional adoption of XRP
Ripple’s tug of war against the SEC is an existential impediment to XRP’s price rise. Many potential institutional investors have kept off the digital asset in fear of an unsuitable outcome in the $1.3 billion lawsuits. However, the CEO of Ripple, recently downplayed the impact of the lawsuit, stating that the American market constituted only a small fraction of Ripple’s total foothold.
In the most recent development, the CEO, Brad Garlinghouse has intimated that Ripple tokens would continue to trade even if the company lost the SEC lawsuit and closed down. However, the crypto market’s growth trajectory is increasingly becoming dependent on institutional adoption. Therefore, a loss against the SEC would undoubtedly result in an unsuitable ripple effect on institutional affinity for XRP.
A statement by Jesse Powell, the CEO of the US-based cryptocurrency exchange platform, Kraken, epitomizes worrying times for XRP. Mr. Powell upholds that Kraken will not consider re-listing XRP on its platform under current circumstances, as it would be risky.
Kraken is among the exchange and trading platforms that removed XRP this year because of the SEC lawsuit. The removal of XRP from exchange platforms is a limiting factor for its price growth, as it minimizes exposure to investors.
In yet another monumental legal struggle, a law firm has filed a case against MoneyGram over Ripple. The firm’s stakeholders are seeking compensation over delusive statements about MoneyGram’s partnership with Ripple and XRP. The lawyers have also claimed that MoneyGram did not disclose to its investors that Ripple (XRP) is unregistered security in the lead-up to the lawsuit filed by SEC.
In some nerve-calming news, YouTube and XRP have settled their lawsuit. Ripple CEO made the announcement two days ago, ending another legal distraction. Ripple had accused YouTube of making monetary profits from deceitful promotions. The promotions were targeted at crypto enthusiasts, who were scammed using doctored videos of Ripple CEO.
Despite all its legal headwinds, XRP has attracted significant interest from the banking sector. After announcing the impending adoption of its tokens in creating Central Bank Digital Currencies, Ripple has bagged another banking win. The development is in the form of Banque de France expressing interest in using Ripple as a platform for central cryptocurrency in Europe.
It is, however, not all gloom on the legal front for Ripple. In a notable win for the company, it has won its legal battle against Tetragon. The win came after a court turned down Tetragon’s plea to redeem its funds from Ripple following SEC’s lawsuit.
XRP/USD technical outlook
XRP is facing a resistance level of $0.500. It will find the first support at $0.43, but a bearish trend could see the price dipping in the sub-$0.40 territory. The second support level will be established at $0.45. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is at 53, and the bulls, therefore, have to take charge for the price to break through the resistance at $0.50.
