Ripple lawsuit could settle soon, says Brad Garlinghouse, XRP trades around $0.60
- Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse commented on what to expect from the SEC lawsuit in a recent Bloomberg interview.
- Garlinghouse expects the lawsuit to end soon, when asked about a settlement, the Ripple CEO says a resolution is expected.
- XRP hovers around $0.60, sustains over 21% gains from the last seven days.
Ripple (XRP) trades around a key psychological level of $0.60, early on Monday. The altcoin recently made headlines for its highest weekly gain of 2024, over 40%. XRP sustained nearly 21% of the gains from the last seven days.
Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) vs. Ripple lawsuit and Bitcoin price trend have been the key market movers for the altcoin in July. The correlation between Bitcoin and XRP is 0.67, considered as moderate.
Daily digest market movers: Ripple CEO comments on settlement talks in SEC lawsuit
- Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse recently appeared in a Bloomberg interview and shared his thoughts on SEC lawsuit and the process of litigation that the payment firm has spent over $150 million on.
- The executive hinted that the company’s long legal battle with the US financial regulator could settle during a private meeting with the SEC on July 25.
- Throughout the lawsuit, Garlinghouse said XRP is not a security and in her ruling, Judge Analisa Torres upheld the same. XRP is not a security in secondary-market sales or sales across exchange platforms.
- The Ripple CEO says they want “regulation and clarity.”
- Garlinghouse holds SEC Chair Gary Gensler responsible for making the situation worse than it was five years ago, when Ripple seeked clarity from the regulator.
- While the CEO cannot comment on the SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit settlement directly, he was quoted as saying, “we can expect a resolution soon.”
- XRP traders are awaiting the meeting and the end of the SEC lawsuit.
Technical analysis: XRP hovers around $0.60
Ripple is currently in an upward trend, forming higher highs and higher lows on the daily chart. XRP could extend its gains by nearly 15% and hit $0.70, a key level for the altcoin. Ripple faces resistance at $0.6666, the 78.6% Fibonacci resistance of the decline from the March 11 top of $0.7440 to the July 5 bottom of $0.3823.
The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator suggests there is underlying positive momentum in Ripple’s uptrend.
XRP/USDT daily chart
Ripple could find support at $0.5632, the 50% Fibonacci retracement level of the decline. A daily candlestick close under $0.60 could invalidate the bullish thesis for the altcoin.
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.
