It is very discouraging for one to stumble while one’s peers are running. This was the quagmire XRP found herself in the early weeks of 2021. The catalysts of XRP’s recovery to a new high in 2021, market performance and the future price will be expounded, thereafter, in this article.
Another thing “up” with XRP in 2021 is its Tradingview chart. Ripple’s token has been quite bullish in 2021. It is actually safe to say that testimonies abound this year because XRP hits a new high of $1.96 on the 14th of April.
Isn’t that, quite, an antithesis to popular expectation? That a somewhat “dumped and haunted” coin could hit an epoch position on the chart in less than five months after a heavy dump?
The effect of SEC lawsuit on Ripple
The United States SEC has not backed down on its litigation against Ripple. However, while it seems XRP’s HODLers have developed a thick against this issue, Ripple now has a legal hedge in her threshold.
Ripple’s case with the SEC is a dicey one. It is a problem of semantics (to some extent) because the SEC’s litigation jurisdiction is in the area of security. On the other hand, Ripple vehemently claimed that XRP is not a security and that the token (which is XRP) is a currency; a digital currency.
Of course (like most gatekeepers) SEC does not agree with the defendant’s claim. Based on (Howey’s Tests) portrayal of security as an investment in a common enterprise with expectations of making profit thereafter. This is what the regulatory body regards as buying crypto– particularly, the initial sales of XRP in 2013).
Perhaps, one should ponder a little. Is XRP a security? Can securities serve as digital currencies? Maybe securities can be used for speed-of-light transactions that do not discriminate against geo-political zones?
About updates on this legal tussle, it is still ongoing. Certain events are fixed for the month of May. Ripple Lab has submitted a response to the SEC already. The response is for a motion for privileged document examination and discovery conference. Afterward, the regulators are to provide a response on the day after Children’s Day.
The outcome of the lawsuit is somewhat like TA (Technical Analysis), one can’t predict it 100%. By June, there will still be some strategic reply to the SEC’s motion.
While it is apparent that the digital currency (crypto) ecosystem iterates at the speed of light, regulators are metaphorically throwing clogs at its wheel through lawsuits, sanctions, and regulations.
Stuart Alderoty, the General Counsel at Ripple, “lends” his two-cent (to the authorities, presumably) on how the regulatory atmosphere ought to be. According to him, instead of arbitrary lawsuits “in an environment of regulatory uncertainty”, there should be clear and defined rules, laws, or regulations that will guide crypto. Thus, the SEC should make the ecosystem healthy by not using force on crypto organizations in the United States. Instead, they should adopt clear laws and regulations so that everyone would know what the rules are. That this will guide development and innovation in the crypto space.
Stuart strongly believes that the government would be the major beneficiary of clearly setting up rules and regulations for crypto in America. The General Counsel urged the US government to emulate countries like Japan, Singapore, the UK, and Switzerland. These countries have a healthy and thriving crypto ecosystem because of their transparent and available crypto laws and regulations. Hence, the regulation of crypto is expedient; compared to forceful litigations in an environment of regulatory uncertainty that are counterproductive.
Many fingers are crossed in anticipation of what will be the outcome of this case. An important factor that should be taken note of is what befalls whichever side that loses this case. Evidently, it will be a slippery slope of vindication for whoever wins this legal battle.
Time to slip away from talks about slippery slopes and legal jargon. What’s up with some forecast on the price of XRP in 2021?
Fundamental Analysis of XRP (Not a Financial Advice)
The adoption of RippleNet’s solution by new financial organizations, XRPL’s (XRP Ledger) iteration and improvement of XRPL engineers, development of CBDC, and making it open-source, plus the previous bullish run of Bitcoin is a good sign for XRP.
Everyone is aware of the bromance between Bitcoin and Altcoins. That, oftentimes, when BTC dumps Alts dumps thereafter, and vice versa. Bitcoin price INR is just recovering from a bearish trend that hit the crypto market for almost two weeks. As a “loyal” altcoin, XRP also dumped.
The dump was a result of (FA) factors such as Elon Musk’s tweet that Tesla won’t accept BTC as a legal tender anymore. China also cracked down on major/largescale/industrial mining of BTC. These caused a raucous in the market. People going short here and there on BTC, and XRP was dragged along too. There seems to be calm after this storm now, and Bitcoin appears to have resumed its bullish trend for the year. The good news: XRP will follow this trend. Time to go long on XRP guys!
RippleNet has not relented in spreading her gospel of fast and borderless payment to financial organizations. With a track record of success in southeast Asia, RippleNet is currently gaining ground in the Middle East and Latin America. More customers more value to XRP. Should XRP HODLers constantly intercede for the XRP evangelists?
Unlike Bitcoin, Ripple keeps its transaction records on a ledger (XRPL) instead of a blockchain. Since XRPL is centralized, Ripple has ventured to improve this system and aid the software engineers on the platform to perform their tasks optimally. This is a plus on the XRP user experience (UX) and a plus to the crypto network.
The big innovation is the development of CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency). It does not stop here; Ripple has decided to make it open source.
With this, transactions, liquidity, and payments will definitely be pain points-free. It is apparent that Ripple is a continuum, a grey area, that bridges the gulf between Fiat and Crypto.
NFT is rapidly gaining traffic on the internet. Hence, RippleNet is working on supporting Non Fungible Tokens on the XRPL. What this means is that artists and creatives can now sell their digital artworks and get paid in XRP. Digital artworks entail GIFs, videos, graphics design, songs, etc. Analogously, won’t artists and creatives want to create their own XRP wallet? Is that an increase in demand for Ripple? Did someone just say brilliant over there?
What’s the buzz on Bitcoin in India?
In other news, before we draw the curtain, 1 bitcoin price in India has trickled to 2.5 million Indian Rupees. It’s not dark times; it’s just the weather. You heard right, at the moment, it is INR 2.5 million.
Conclusion
To round things off, the effect of the SEC lawsuit on Ripple was deeply felt. Like a bull in a fight, XRP, however, was plunge further from the (price) receding. Not only did Ripple absorb and react well to the litigation, but their token (XRP) has also been able to retrace back to the initial price it fell from in December 2020 ($0.55) and even surpass it. While Ripple has not regained its previous position (as the fourth largest coin by market cap.) on Coinmarketcap, it seems Ripple is closer to the moon.
