Ripple’s rise could test all-time-highs

XRP/USD

Ripple (XRPUSD) has approached the $2.00 mark for the first time in three years. What is the reason for this, and what is the probability that the asset will breach its maximum historical value?

On Wednesday, April 14, the XRP token rate approached the $2.00 mark for the first time in three years. At its historical peak, the altcoin’s quotes reached $1.96. Over the past day, it has risen in price by 4%, and by 221% since the beginning of the month.

The growth of the altcoin is due to two factors – the growing cryptocurrency market (this week, Bitcoin posted a new historical maximum above $64.8k while Ethereum reached $2.4k for the first time) and another positive step in the confrontation between Ripple and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

On April 12, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and blockchain co-founder Chris Larsen filed a motion to dismiss the SEC’s liability claim. According to the company’s representatives, the regulator was unable to prove deliberate violation of the law by its management. The commission must respond by May 14, after which the defendants will have the opportunity to submit a counterapplication by June 4.

A certain decline in tension in the SEC and Ripple lawsuit has acted as a catalyst for purchases from speculative investors who are pushing the price of the XRP token up.

Sergey Zhdanov, CEO of the EXMO crypto exchange, added that the current explosive growth in XRP quotes is also associated with the popularity of the coin among traders and undervaluation during a time when the asset was under pressure due to the situation with the SEC.

XRP remains one of the riskiest assets among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by capitalization due to its vulnerability to the actions of the US judicial system. Further growth of the asset above the current historical maximum will determine its legal status and distribution according to the Ripple roadmap.

If altcoins continue to grow strongly, XRP could also rise in price. The Ripple coin is very susceptible to manipulation, and the movements of its quotes can be very unpredictable. According to Andrey Podolyan, CEO of the Cryptorg crypto exchange, the price of an asset is primarily controlled by the company’s leaders.

XRP has already been manipulated this year, when a chat called “Buy and hold XRP on February 1” appeared in Telegram messenger. It had about 200k participants and more than 90k subscribers in a group of similar topics. On February 1, the altcoin price reached $0.75 for the first time since November 2020, but at the appointed time, the price began to decline sharply. During the day, the drop exceeded 47%. Against the background of this, there were massive liquidations of traders’ margin positions – they suffered losses of $508 million.