XRP tests $0.50 resistance after Ripple CLO says pretrial conference with SEC did not take place
- XRP is stuck below $0.50 resistance after failing to close above this level since Monday.
- Ripple CLO Stuart Alderoty said late Tuesday there was no pretrial conference since the SEC dropped charges against executives.
- Alderoty says Ripple will file its response to the SEC’s request for penalties by April 22.
Ripple (XRP) is trading range-bound below $0.50 on Wednesday as it struggles to break this important resistance level for three consecutive days. While XRP holders speculated about the possibility of a settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple, the payment remittance firm’s Chief Legal Officer (CLO) Stuart Alderoty said that the pretrial conference, one of the last chances to reach an agreement between both parties before the formal trial phase begins, did not take place on Tuesday as previously expected.
Daily digest market movers: Ripple, SEC did not have a pretrial conference
- The SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit rages on with no end in sight. On Tuesday, CLO Stuart Alderoty said in a tweet on X that there was no pretrial conference between the two parties since the regulator dropped its charges against executives Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen.
Seeing some confusion on next steps with the SEC vs. Ripple case. To clarify - Ripple will file its response to the SEC’s request for penalties by April 22 and the SEC has until May 6 to reply. There is no final pretrial conference because the SEC dismissed the charges against… https://t.co/Jn5Pw5rM30
— Stuart Alderoty (@s_alderoty) April 16, 2024
- The news of the pretrial conference had XRP holders anticipating a settlement between the SEC and Ripple. This possibility looks unlikely as the payment remittance firm prepares to file its response to the regulator’s request for penalties by April 22.
- On March 25, Alderoty said that the SEC requested the judge to impose $2 billion in fines and penalties on Ripple. The CLO says that Ripple expects the court to approach the remedies phase fairly.
As you will see when the SEC’s brief is made public tomorrow, they ask the Judge for $2B in fines and penalties. 1/4 https://t.co/HM8dBbn7lp
— Stuart Alderoty (@s_alderoty) March 25, 2024
- The 60 days of XRPLedger hackathon ended early on Wednesday, with 55 projects launched on the Ledger’s EVM Sidechain, $20,000 in prize money and over 250 developers.
The @easya_app #60DaysofXRPL Hackathon was a HUGE success last weekend!
— RippleX (@RippleXDev) April 16, 2024
Thank you to all the gigabrains for showing up, building, and innovating! ⭐️ https://t.co/h8MAi1V6Pn
- The lawsuit developments and updates in the XRP Ledger ecosystem are likely the two catalysts influencing the price of XRP, Ripple’s native token.
Technical analysis: XRP stuck below $0.50 for third day in a row
XRP price is battling resistance at $0.50, which remains sticky for the altcoin, for the third day in a row this week. The $0.50 level holds significance for XRP since it has acted as a major support level since July 13. While the altcoin suffered breaks below this level for brief periods since July, $0.50 has remained a steady support at large.
On April 17, XRP price retested $0.50 resistance, attempting to break past this level. The altcoin has failed to close above $0.50 since Monday.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI), a momentum indicator that measures the magnitude of recent price moves, climbed from 28.29 (below 30, meaning oversold zone) on Saturday to 33.84 on Wednesday. The RSI is out of the oversold zone but remains well below the 50 mid-level, signaling that XRP’s climb from April 13 low of $0.4188 to $0.4983 on Wednesday lacks significant positive momentum.
The Moving Average Convergence/Divergence (MACD) indicator’s red histogram bars below the zero line also suggest negative momentum persists. XRP price could remain stuck below $0.50 until a daily candlestick close above this level occurs.
XRP/USDT 1-day chart
A daily candlestick close above $0.50 could send XRP price to its next resistances at $0.5310 and $0.6431, the 50% and 100% Fibonacci retracement levels of the decline from April 9 top of $0.6431 to April 13 bottom of $0.4188. This could invalidate the bearish thesis and support a recovery in the altcoin.
Ripple FAQs
Ripple is a payments company that specializes in cross-border remittance. The company does this by leveraging blockchain technology. RippleNet is a network used for payments transfer created by Ripple Labs Inc. and is open to financial institutions worldwide. The company also leverages the XRP token.
XRP is the native token of the decentralized blockchain XRPLedger. The token is used by Ripple Labs to facilitate transactions on the XRPLedger, helping financial institutions transfer value in a borderless manner. XRP therefore facilitates trustless and instant payments on the XRPLedger chain, helping financial firms save on the cost of transacting worldwide.
XRPLedger is based on a distributed ledger technology and the blockchain using XRP to power transactions. The ledger is different from other blockchains as it has a built-in inflammatory protocol that helps fight spam and distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks. The XRPL is maintained by a peer-to-peer network known as the global XRP Ledger community.
XRP uses the interledger standard. This is a blockchain protocol that aids payments across different networks. For instance, XRP’s blockchain can connect the ledgers of two or more banks. This effectively removes intermediaries and the need for centralization in the system. XRP acts as the native token of the XRPLedger blockchain engineered by Jed McCaleb, Arthur Britto and David Schwartz.
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.
