- Ripple CEO told CNBC that the entire crypto market value could double in 2024.
- Pro Ripple attorney Bill Morgan pointed out inconsistencies in SEC’s argument against the payment firm and said there is no admissible evidence.
- XRP price broadly consolidates and eyes recovery above the psychologically important $0.60 level on Monday.
Ripple (XRP) price struggles to recoup the $0.60 round level on Monday after touching it over the weekend, after Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in an interview with CNBC that he expects the crypto market to remain bullish this year.
The next key deadline in the Securities & Exchange Commission vs. Ripple lawsuit is April 22, when the payment firm will file its remedy-related opposition brief. Until then, XRP holders are closely watching comments from attorneys and crypto influencers for insights into the legal battle, withpro Ripple attorney Bill Morgan sharing his views on the SEC’s arguments on Ripple in the summary judgment briefings.
Daily digest market movers: Ripple CEO bullish on crypto market
- Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse told CNBC on Sunday that the combined market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market could top $5 trillion in 2024. Garlinghouse cited factors like the arrival of US Spot Bitcoin ETF and the upcoming Bitcoin halving event as the catalysts for the gains in crypto market cap.
- The Ripple executive said:
I’ve been around this industry for a long time, and I’ve seen these trends come and go. I’m very optimistic. I think the macro trends, the big picture things like the ETFs, they’re driving for the first time real institutional money. You’re seeing that drives demand, and at the same time demand is increasing, supply is decreasing. That doesn’t take an economics major to tell you what happens when supply contracts and demand expands.
- Pro Ripple attorney Bill Morgan showed inconsistencies between the regulator’s argument against Ripple and evidence on summary judgment briefings. Morgan says that the SEC likely has no admissible evidence to show that the sales by institutions with higher discounts had any significant impact on XRP price. The attorney labels it “allegation by speculation.”
I have pointed out the inconsistency between the SEC’s argument and evidence on the summary judgment briefings (when it suited it) that Ripple undertook several measures to buttress the price of XRP and its laughable but predictable transactional change of position in its brief… https://t.co/k93CMhZz6v
— bill morgan (@Belisarius2020) April 8, 2024
Technical analysis: XRP price attempts climb past key level $0.60
XRP price has recovered from its April 4 low of $0.5623, climbing nearly 5% since then to $0.5921 on Monday. If buying pressure continues, XRP price could close above the psychologically important $0.60 level on the daily timeframe.
Looking up, and after breaking through the $0.60 round level, The Fair Value Gap (FVG) between $0.6185 and $0.6204 is the likely target for XRP price in its uptrend. The altcoin also faces resistance at $0.6147, which coincides with the 50% Fibonacci retracement level for XRP’s climb to its year-to-date peak of $0.7440 on March 11.
The green bars on the Awesome Oscillator and the Relative Strength Index (RSI) climbing towards 50 (45.91, at the time of writing), support the thesis of XRP price recovery.
XRP/USDT 1-day chart
A daily candlestick close below the $0.60 level could invalidate the bullish thesis and the altcoin could sweep liquidity at the daily support level at $0.5386. This level has been key to the altcoin and acted as support throughout March 2024, despite multiple tests.
SEC vs Ripple lawsuit FAQs
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
