XRP rallies 5% as Ripple gears for utility in institutional crypto products
- Ripple CEO appreciated the CME Group and CF Benchmarks for adding the XRP-Dollar reference rate and indices.
- Brad Garlinghouse says institutional crypto products have trusted benchmarks for reference rates, fuels positive sentiment among traders.
- XRP extends gains by 5% on Friday, trades at $0.4719.
Ripple (XRP) traders’ sentiment turned positive on Friday, as CEO Brad Garlinghouse highlighted the addition of XRP-Dollar reference rate and indices to the CME Group and CF Benchmarks.
The CME Group is a leading derivatives marketplace, and CF Benchmarks is an FCA-regulated Benchmark administrator. The addition of XRP indices shows how the asset is heading towards finding utility in institutional crypto products.
XRP trades at $0.4719 at the time of writing.
Daily Digest Market Movers: Ripple traders positive with recent developments in XRP
- Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse tweeted about the addition of XRP-Dollar reference rates and indices to the CME Group and GF Benchmarks on X.
- The executive highlights that institutional crypto products have trusted reference rates, fueling a positive sentiment for XRP among market participants.
First step towards institutional crypto products is to have a trusted benchmark reference rate. Nice to see @CMEGroup and @CFBenchmarks collaborate on this for an XRP index. The market has spoken. https://t.co/cKqqMLswdw
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) July 11, 2024
- The CME Group announced in an official tweet that the XRP reference and indices go live on July 29 for users.
Starting July 29, benefit from transparent pricing on two new cryptocurrencies as CME CF Internet Computer-Dollar and XRP-Dollar Reference Rates and Real-Time Indices are added to our expanding suite of benchmarks. https://t.co/1kn5BPZi4C pic.twitter.com/jqcJPInSt9
— CME Group (@CMEGroup) July 11, 2024
- The CryptoEQ sentiment tracker identified a positive sentiment among XRP traders on Friday. The tracker calculates the sentiment through the asset’s mention in media and social media platforms.
- The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) vs. Ripple lawsuit has no further update since Attorney Fred Rispoli predicted that the legal battle will end in July 2024.
- SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit ruling could come out as early as July 13, according to this pro-crypto attorney
Technical analysis: XRP breaks past key resistance, extends gains
Ripple is in an upward trend, extending gains by nearly 5% on Friday. As sentiment among XRP traders stays bullish, the altcoin could rally towards resistance at the psychological barrier at $0.50.
At the time of writing, XRP trades at $0.4719.
Further up, XRP could rally towards $0.5205, nearly 10% gains from the current level, as seen in the XRP/USDT daily chart. The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator shows a positive momentum of the Ripple price trend.
XRP/USDT daily chart
If XRP corrects, the altcoin could collect liquidity in the Fair Value Gap (FVG) between $0.40 and $0.44, as seen in the chart above. Further down, Ripple’s price could find support at the July 5 low of $0.3823.
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.
Author
Ekta Mourya
FXStreet
Ekta Mourya has extensive experience in fundamental and on-chain analysis, particularly focused on impact of macroeconomics and central bank policies on cryptocurrencies.
