Ripple Skyrockets: Legal Victory Sparks XRP Price Surge

In a significant development, Ripple XRP has surged to become the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization following a favorable outcome for Ripple Labs in its legal battle against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on July 13.

As per the court filing of July 13, Judge Torres’s summary judgment in favor of Ripple Labs determined that the XRP token is not a security, specifically concerning its programmatic sales on digital asset exchanges.

Nonetheless, the SEC also secured its own victory as the federal judge ruled that XRP qualifies as a security when sold to institutional investors, meeting the conditions outlined in the Howey Test.

The objective of the SEC lawsuit was to compel Ripple to cease offering its XRP token based on the argument that XRP should be classified as a security, thus necessitating additional regulatory measures.

Ripple (XRP) Price Surge

Within hours of the court ruling, XRP’s market cap skyrocketed by an astonishing $21.2 billion, reaching a new yearly high of $46.1 billion. This propelled XRP from its 7th position, surpassing Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) and Binance’s BNB token.

Currently, Ripple’s market capitalization has stabilized at $41.5 billion. The sudden surge in XRP’s value directly responded to the District Court for the Southern District of New York ruling that the sale and offer of XRP on digital asset exchanges did not constitute the sale of investment contracts, as alleged by the SEC.

According to data from CoinMarketcap, XRP is currently trading at $0.7892, with a surge of 67.36% in 24 hours, following the announcement.

The surge in demand for XRP was so intense that U.S. crypto exchange Uphold temporarily experienced an outage due to an unprecedented spike in trading volume.

Uphold is back up!

Yes, we went down but no platform could cope with the 50x spike in volume we saw today.

Uphold feels proud and vindicated to have been THE ONLY platform to stick with XRP through thick and thin over the past few years.

We’d love to give props to our law firm…

— Uphold (@UpholdInc) July 13, 2023

Uphold was among the few major U.S.-based exchanges that continued to offer XRP trading, while others chose to delist the cryptocurrency.

The court’s decision has also sparked renewed interest from prominent U.S. exchanges, such as Coinbase, Kraken, and iTrustCapital, which have started re-listing XRP for trading on their respective platforms.

Coinbase will re-enable trading for XRP (XRP) on the XRP network. Do not send this asset over other networks or your funds may be lost. Transfers for this asset remain available on @Coinbase & @CoinbaseExch in the regions where trading is supported.

— Coinbase Assets 🛡️📞 (@CoinbaseAssets) July 13, 2023

Additionally, Gemini, the crypto exchange owned by the Winklevoss twins, has hinted at its intention to re-list XRP in the near future.

Given today's ruling that the sale of XRP on exchanges is not a security, @Gemini is exploring the listing of XRP for both spot and derivatives trading.

— Gemini (@Gemini) July 13, 2023