What the numbers say: Payment protocol Ripple's native token XRP recently jumped by nearly 90% in price after the company won a partial victory in the court against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP is not a security as long as it is sold to the general public. Following the ruling, the token's price increased to as much as $0.87, up from $0.47. Besides, the popular cryptocurrency has overtaken Binance Coin (BNB) on the ranking, becoming the world's fourth-largest digital asset by market cap. However, the token is still 76% below its all-time high in 2018. Relevance: The judge's recent ruling was considered a preliminary victory for Ripple since the SEC classified XRP as a security in a lawsuit filed in December 2020. In the case, the agency accused Ripple and some of its executives of the unregistered sale of nearly $1.3B of XRP tokens, which it labeled as securities. However, the release of the long-awaited Hinman documents to the public in June paved the way for the recent partial victory. The documents, which Ripple requested to unveil, involve the SEC's former director of corporate finance division Bill Hinman's 2018 speech on crypto securities. In the speech, Hinman stated that Ether (ETH) is not a security, contradicting current chair Gary Gensler's argument that all crypto assets other than Bitcoin (BTC) are securities. Hinman's view strengthened Ripple's legal arguments claiming that XRP should not be considered a security. Brands that should care: Following Judge Torres' ruling, many crypto exchanges, including Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, Bitstamp, and Crypto.com, have announced that they would list XRP again on their trading platforms. |
