A visual representation of the digital cryptocurrency, XRP.
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undulation XRP token surged on Thursday after a judge in the Southern District of New York ruled that it is “Not necessarily an in-your-face assurance.”
The XRP price was last 70% higher at around 80 cents per coin, according to Coin Metrics. The news gave hope to crypto investors, who sighed with relief that other altcoins might not be considered securities after all. polygon matic token gained 11%. Litecoin and the token attached to Solarium jumped 8%, and cardano token advanced 7%. Bitcoin and ether also received a boost, of 4% and 6.5%, respectively.
“Today’s trials are a huge step forward for the industry,” Chris Martin, Amberdata’s head of research, told CNBC. “By adjudicating that XRP is not a security, we are beginning to clarify what constitutes a security and what constitutes a commodity: the SEC will have to review its tactics in several of its ongoing cases and I expect this lawsuit to implicate several other tokens such as not values”.
Coinbase, which had previously removed XRP from its trading platform, tweeted on Thursday afternoon which would allow the asset to be traded again. Gemini saying is to “explore the XRP price for both spot and derivatives trading.”
“The judgment that Ripple’s institutional sales of XRP constitute securities also has massive implications for the industry with various ICOs now likely in the spotlight,” he added. “For exchanges caught up in ongoing SEC cases, it’s unclear how this lawsuit will affect them; for the most part, they’ve only been involved in secondary sales. But as we can see with pricing today, the market is very bullish on the judgments .”
XRP rises after a judge rules that it is not a security
The news marks the end of a three-year battle between Ripple and the Securities and Exchange Commission, although this is a lower court decision and there is a good chance that some of these elements will be appealed and could be reversed. In 2020, the SEC launched a lawsuit against Ripple for violating US securities laws by selling XRP without first registering it with the agency.
The decision was widely seen as a key hurdle to overcome in the second half of 2023, as crypto assets still face a challenging macro environment and have spent the past few weeks under immense pressure from US regulators. That scrutiny includes lawsuits filed by the SEC against Coinbase and Binance in June.
coin base shares rose 18% after the ruling on optimism that the company could prevail in its own battle with the SEC. Robin Hood and Block, which offer cryptocurrency trading services, increased by 4% and 7%, respectively. bitcoin proxy microstrategy gained 6%. Miners increased double-digit percentages.
A complex failure
Investors are optimistic about Thursday’s ruling, but it’s not a clear victory. The notion that XRP is clearly not a security is incorrect, according to Stephen Palley, a partner at Brown Rudnick.
Still, he added, “if I were an XRP holder, I’d be happy right now.”
The ruling breaks down into three sets of factual circumstances regarding XRP sales: institutional sales, programmatic sales, and “other distributions” such as employee compensation.
The court sided with the SEC in regards to Ripple’s “Institutional Sales of XRP to Sophisticated Individuals and Entities,” saying they were securities transactions and constituted an investment of money. However, Ripple won when it came to “programmatic” sales, or sales made through trading algorithms, as well as other distributions.
“Having considered the economic reality and the totality of the circumstances, the Tribunal concludes that Ripple’s programmatic sales of XRP did not constitute the offer and sale of investment contracts” and “the other distributions do not satisfy Howey’s first point that there were an ‘investment of money'”. ‘ as part of the transaction or plan”, the presentation saying.
Palley highlighted another major issue: whether or not crypto exchanges like Coinbase need to register as security exchanges. The SEC has made it clear that most crypto assets that are traded should be considered securities. However, the court did not reach a conclusion on the matter, which is another victory for Ripple, Palley said.
