XRP fails to close above $0.65 support, while Ripple CEO offers optimistic outlook on crypto market cap
- XRP fails to close above $0.6500, a key psychological barrier for the altcoin’s holders.
- Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse offers his $5 trillion prediction for the market capitalization of crypto in 2024.
- XRP trips down to $0.6274, corrects 2% on Monday.
Ripple (XRP) made an unsuccessful attempt to close above $0.6500 on Monday, a key level for the altcoin. XRP held steady above $0.6500 early on Monday and corrected to $0.6274 later. The top Ripple executive made headlines for comments on the market capitalization of crypto expanding.
Daily Digest Market Movers: Ripple CEO raises prediction for end of year growth in crypto market cap
- Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse made headlines for his optimism on the growth in crypto market capitalization. During the Consensus 2024 event, Garlinghouse said that a gain in crypto market cap is inevitable and set a target of $5 trillion.
- In a recent interview with Fox Business, Garlinghouse said that he may have understated the end-of-year market cap for cryptos.
Breaking News: Brad Garlinghouse raises his 5 Trillion into crypto by the end of the year!
— Ripple Van Winkle | Crypto Researcher (@RipBullWinkle) September 30, 2024
Regulations and policy are coming
Listen to this! #xrp
pic.twitter.com/IGNJRdAaIQ
- Garlinghouse and Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen are reportedly attending an annual fintech conference. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s event is slated to occur on October 22 and October 23 and other notable attendees include Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal.
- The Ripple lawsuit and whether the Securities & Exchange Commission chooses to appeal the final ruling is the other key market mover for the altcoin on Monday.
Technical analysis: XRP eyes return above $0.6602
Ripple (XRP) noted a decline from its July 2023 top of $0.9380 to the July 2024 low of $0.3823, as seen in the XRP/USDT daily chart. It appears that the altcoin has ended its downward trend on September 28, closing above $0.6138.
XRP trades at $0.6232 at the time of writing, and the altcoin could rally 5.8% to hit its $0.6602 target. This target coincides with the 50% Fibonacci retracement of the decline between July 2023 and 2024.
The momentum indicator supports the bullish thesis. The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) shows green histogram bars above the neutral line.
XRP/USDT daily chart
XRP could find support in the Fair Value Gap (FVG) between $0.5972 and $0.6076. The imbalance zones are important for XRP traders as the altcoin is likely to sweep these levels to collect liquidity.
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 had to pay a $125 million civil fine.
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 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.
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.
