Ripple CEO declares strategy for 2024, and XRP price invalidates short-term downtrend
- XRP price bounced back from $0.600 to invalidate the short-term downtrend, which caused 10% corrections.
- Ripple has achieved success in 2023 with its lawsuit win against the SEC and with Ireland's central bank registering it as a VASP.
- CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated that the payment processor will maintain a compliance-first mindset going into 2024.
Ripple witnessed another milestone on Wednesday as the year comes to an end in the form of registering as a VASP with the Central Bank of Ireland. The event also happened to act as a bullish catalyst for XRP price, which broke through the recent downtrend. This also invoked Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse's thoughts, who discussed what the plan for 2024 is.
Daily Digest Market Movers: Ripple in 2024
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, in a tweet, stated that the payment processor will be heading into 2024 with a compliance-first mindset as they always have. This tweet was in reference to the recent regulatory win in Ireland.
Earlier in the day, the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) approved Ripple as a registered VASP (Virtual Asset Service Provider). This made the XRP parent company offer crypto services in the country in compliance with the necessary regulations.
Earlier this year, Ripple received a similar license in Dubai as well from the Dubai Financial Services Authority. Along with the win against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ripple has noted a successful 2023 in terms of regulatory milestones.
Going forward, this stance of the payment processor will prove to be a major catalyst for price action since Bitcoin receiving approval for spot ETFs from the SEC will usher in the need for regulatory compliance across the crypto space, and having an advantage on that front will prove to be beneficial for the price too.
Technical Analysis: XRP price notes a breakthrough
XRP price, trading at $0.619 at the time of writing, is observing a bounce back from the key support level of $0.600. This price point has been acting as a support for the altcoin for nearly a month now, and a fall through it would confirm the beginning of a bearish momentum.
However, the regulatory developments noted on Wednesday proved to be a bullish catalyst for XRP price, which managed to breach the downtrend line it had been trading under for the past two weeks.
The altcoin, per the price indicators Relative Strength Index (RSI) and Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD), is observing waning bearishness, and another green candlestick would confirm a bullish momentum picking up. This will be key in pushing the price to $0.644 to flip it into a support floor.
XRP/USD 1-day chart
But another failed breach might prove to be a bearish signal, which would be confirmed if XRP price falls through $0.600 as well. This would invalidate the bullish thesis, bringing the altcoin to test $0.551 potentially.
SEC vs Ripple lawsuit FAQs
Is XRP a security?
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.
How does the ruling affect Ripple in its legal battle against the SEC?
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.
What are the implications of the ruling for the overall crypto industry?
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.
Is the SEC stance toward crypto assets likely to change after the ruling?
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.
Can the court ruling be overturned?
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
Aaryamann Shrivastava
FXStreet
Aaryamann Shrivastava is a Cryptocurrency journalist and market analyst with over 1,000 articles under his name. Graduated with an Honours in Journalism, he has been part of the crypto industry for more than a year now.
