XRP climbs above $0.50 as Ripple files motion to seal documents in connection with SEC lawsuit
- Ripple filed to seal documents filed by the SEC in its motion for judgement and remedies, on May 13.
- The SEC has previously stated that it does not oppose Ripple’s request to seal documents.
- XRP climbed above $0.50, adding 0.51% to its value on Tuesday.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit against Ripple saw an update as the payment remittance firm filed a motion to narrowly seal documents related to the remedies-phase.
In its May 13 motion Ripple states that the SEC has previously said that it does not oppose the firm’s request to seal parts of documents in the remedies-phase, and protect interests of involved parties.
Daily Digest Market Movers: Ripple files motion to seal documents
- Ripple filed a motion by the May 13 deadline for Omnibus letter filings, seeking narrowly tailored redactions to the briefings of remedies motion and certain exhibits.
- The firm states that its sealing requests are reasonable and consistent with the sealing requests that court has granted during the summary judgment phase of the lawsuit.
- Ripple counsel conferred with the US financial regulator, prior to filing the motion on Monday.
- The SEC stated that it accepts some of Ripple’s requests and may contest others.
- Ripple seeks to redact information that could cause harm to the payment remittance firm, innocent-third parties and non-party Ripple employees if publicly disclosed, per the filing.
- The firm seeks narrow redaction of documents that contain its audited financial statements and related documents.
- The cross-border payment remittance firm’s argument is that its audited financial statements contain information that could reveal the company’s long-term plans, revenue streams and expense structures to its competitors and customers. Therefore the firm seeks narrow redactions to protect its interests.
- The fintech firm is looking to redact names of its investors, customers, employees and business partners and asks the court to weigh the decision heavily in the interest of the privacy of these entities.
Technical analysis: XRP recovers above $0.50
On the weekly timeframe, XRP/USDT exhibits bearish signs. The altcoin tackled resistance at $0.50, however Ripple faces a challenge in climbing higher. The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator shows negative momentum in XRP price trend, red histogram bars below the neutral line on the weekly timeframe.
XRP could sweep liquidity at the April 29 low of $0.4784, on the weekly timeframe. Relative Strength Index (RSI) is 43.35 with no significant divergence.
Ripple’s 1-day XRP/USDT chart shows potential for nearly 5% gains in the altcoin, with a target of $0.5294. XRP has established $0.5015 as support, breaking above this level on Monday. The $0.5015 level coincides with the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level of Ripple’s decline from its March 11 top of $0.7429 and April 13 low of $0.4269.
RSI reads below 50, with no significant divergence on lower timeframes.
XRP/USDT 1-day chart
On the downside, XRP could sweep liquidity at the May 1 low of $0.4784, in its decline.
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.
