A LITTLE-KNOWN cryptocurrency that is at the centre of a key legal fight for the industry is leading the latest rally in digital assets amid speculation that the company behind it may soon reach a settlement with US regulators.
XRP has rallied almost 40 per cent in the past week to around 60 US cents, while the market bellwether is up around 12 per cent during the same period. Cryptocurrencies have rallied in part this week on expectations that Donald Trump will be more amiable to the sector if he wins the US presidential election.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Ripple Labs in 2020, claiming the firm broke its rules when it raised money by selling the digital token without registering it as a security. The case is being closely watched because of its implications for the scope of the SEC’s turf. In what’s been seen by many as a loss for the agency’s jurisdiction, a US district judge ruled last July that sales of XRP to retail investors on exchanges did not amount to investment contracts.
Helping to fuel the conjecture is the listing of a “closed meeting” scheduled on the SEC’s website for Jul 18, according to posts on social media platform X. An SEC spokesperson declined to comment.
“Investors and traders are anticipating there will be a conclusion about the status of XRP tokens,” said Zaheer Ebtikar, founder of crypto fund Split Capital.”The entirety about XRP is anything attached to what the regulations will be.”
A Ripple Labs spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ripple Labs recently disclosed in a filing that it donated US$1 million to a new super political action committee to help unseat anti-crypto Senator Elizabeth Warren and support John Deaton as Massachusetts’ next senator.
XRP is the sixth-largest cryptocurrency, with a market value of around US$34 billion, according to data compiled by CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin is valued at about US$1.3 trillion, accounting for about 50 per cent of the crypto market, CoinMarketCap said. BLOOMBERG
