XRP, a digital asset by Ripple Labs, has surged past the $1 mark representing at least a 14% price appreciation within the last 24 hours. The current XRP price rally may be connected to a magistrate court ruling over SEC. The latter is demanding that Ripple grants it access to the legal advice received from its lawyers regarding its digital asset whether it constitutes a security.
Ripple and the SEC have locked horns regarding XRP for years, where the other tries to secure a landmark judgement to nail Ripple that it flouted United States securities laws in floating a security without regulatory approval.
While SEC remains dogged in indicting Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple Labs, and his team has been scoring major wins over the regulatory watchdog. In April, while cryptocurrency prices were pumping hard, Ripple secured a discovery motion against SEC forcing it to disclose documents revealing internal thoughts on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. It would score another point over SEC days later when the court ruled in its favour barring the SEC from requesting it to tender documents relating to its CEO.
Ripple touts itself as a payments settlement system and currency exchange network that can process transactions worldwide. It runs RippleNet, a network of institutional payment providers such as banks and money services businesses that use solutions developed by Ripple to provide a frictionless experience to send money globally. It has done everything to push XRP as a utility token of RippleNet, a network which it claims does not essentially need XRP to function.
SEC had made a plea to Judge Sarah Netburn on May 7, asking that the court support its position of asking Ripple to produce records of legal advice on whether its sales of XRP were compliant with federal securities legislation. The regulatory body was confident that if Ripple tendered such a document, it would support its case against the latter that it contravened the United States securities laws when it conducted its token sale.
Brad Garlinghouse, who serves as the current CEO of Ripple, has at many times criticised the SEC while complaining that the US are hostile to innovations such as the blockchain. He even threatened to relocate Ripple company headquarters overseas due to unfavourable regulations. He, however, walked back the relocation threat barely six weeks later, claiming he would wait and see how the Biden administration pans out.
XRP consistently ranked as top three cryptocurrency for months to years and reached an ATH of $3.17 in January 2018 before crashing to $0.33 a year later. After mass delisting from major exchanges across the world, it would experience another horrific crash in December 2020 subject to regulatory battle with the SEC. XRP later picked up, and during the height of major cryptos ATH in April 2021, it traded around $1.74 across exchanges.
Its recent rally comes fresh even while most crypto market prices dipped by more than half, with BTC falling to $30k level from its ATH at $63,500. As of press time, XRP was trading at $1.06.