Crypto Market Surges On Ripple Effect

A partially favorable court ruling in the long-drawn legal dispute between Ripple Labs and the Securities and Exchange Commission over whether the sale of XRP tokens constituted an unregistered securities offering has caused crypto market capitalization to surge more than 4 percent over the past 24 hours. The XRP cryptocurrency skyrocketed, gaining more than 63 percent in the past 24 hours. The payments-oriented cryptocurrency also touched a high of $0.8875 in the aftermath of the ruling.

Overall crypto market capitalization has surged to $1.25 trillion, rising from the $1.19 trillion level a day earlier.

With the brilliant overnight rally, XRP has added 65 percent in the past week and 130 percent on a year-to-date basis. XRP also jumped to the 4th rank overall, relegating BNB (BNB) to the fifth position. The current price of $0.7733 is however almost 80 percent below the all-time high of $3.8419 touched in January 2018.

Other top gainers are 21st ranked Stellar (XLM) that surged more than 49 percent, 63rd ranked Synthetix (SNX) that gained more than 30 percent, 8th ranked Solana (SOL) and 30th ranked Lido DAO (LDO) that both added 23 percent and 7th ranked Cardano (ADA) that gained more than 20 percent. Riding on the XRP rally, 9 other cryptocurrencies have surged more than 10 percent on an overnight basis.

Bitcoin added 1.8 percent overnight and is currently trading at $31,120.98. The 24-hour high was $31,814.51. The altcoin rally also caused Bitcoin to slip in dominance to 48.5 percent.

Ethereum rallied 5.6 percent in the past 24 hours and is currently trading at $1,989.71. The leading altcoin had touched a high of $2,026.20 earlier in the trade.

5th ranked BNB (BNB) gained more than 3 percent overnight and more than 8 percent over the past week.

9th ranked Dogecoin (DOGE) added more than 7 percent overnight and in the past week.

A more than 10-percent overnight rally helped Polygon (MATIC) regain the 10th position overall, relegating Litecoin (LTC) to the 11th rank.

The Ripple-SEC dispute was keenly watched within the crypto industry as well as outside, considering the wide ramifications. The SEC had of late classified several cryptocurrencies as securities in its actions against various crypto industry players. The recent SEC lawsuit against Coinbase included as many as 13 cryptocurrencies which were classified as security. These included Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC), Filecoin (FIL), The Sandbox (SAND), Axie Infinity (AXS), Chiliz (CHZ), Flow (FLOW), Internet Computer (ICP), NEAR Protocol (NEAR), Voyager Token (VGX), Dash (DASH) and Nexo (NEXO).

The ruling, which implies that selling cryptocurrencies through a cryptocurrency exchange or as programmed sales using a trading algorithm may not constitute a securities offering is perceived as a major landmark for the cryptocurrency industry.

The developments have also triggered a race for listing of the XRP token. Many cryptocurrency exchanges including Coinbase, Kraken and Bitstamp have announced the relisting of the XRP token, adding to the momentum in the crypto market.

On Thursday, Judge Analisa Torres of the United States District Court of the Southern District of New York, delivered a mixed verdict granting in part the motion of plaintiff SEC and granting in part the motion of defendants viz Ripple Labs Inc, Bradley Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen.

The SEC in its lawsuit initiated in 2020 against Ripple Labs Inc had alleged that the defendants had engaged in the unlawful offer and sale of securities in violation of Section 5 of the Securities Act of 1933. The SEC had alleged that Ripple engaged in three categories of unregistered XRP offers and sales viz Institutional Sales under written contracts; Programmatic Sales on digital asset exchanges; and Other Distributions under written contracts for “consideration other than cash.” The SEC also alleged that Larsen and Garlinghouse engaged in unregistered individual XRP sales and also aided and abetted Ripple’s violations.

The Court examined the above allegations in detail and concluded that Ripple’s Institutional Sales of XRP constituted the unregistered offer and sale of investment contracts in violation of Section 5 of the Securities Act. For arriving at the verdict, the court analyzed the three prongs of Howey test viz investment of money, existence of a common enterprise, and reasonable expectation of profits to be derived from the entrepreneurial or managerial efforts of others. Based on the totality of circumstances, the Court concluded that reasonable investors, situated in the position of the Institutional Buyers, would have purchased XRP with the expectation that they would derive profits from Ripple’s efforts.

In respect of Ripple’s Programmatic Sales or sales through the use of trading algorithms, the court held that the sales were blind bid/ask transactions, and that Programmatic Buyers could not have known if their payments of money went to Ripple, or any other seller of XRP. Accordingly, the Court concluded that Programmatic Sales of XRP did not constitute the offer and sale of investment contracts.

Ripple’s Other Distributions comprised distributions to employees as compensation and to third parties. In respect of this, the Court concluded that it did not constitute the offer and sale of investment contracts.

Like Ripple’s Programmatic Sales, the court also held that Larsen’s and Garlinghouse’s XRP sales also were programmatic sales on various digital asset exchanges through blind bid/ask transactions and that Larsen and Garlinghouse did not know to whom they sold XRP, and the buyers did not know the identity of the seller.

The court also denied SEC’s motion for summary judgment on the aiding and abetting claim against Larsen and Garlinghouse.

However, the court differed with the Ripple Labs’ claim that the SEC failed to issue guidance on digital assets and gave inconsistent statements and approaches to regulating the sale of digital assets as investment contracts. The court has opined that the SEC’s approach to enforcement, at least as to the Institutional Sales, was consistent with the enforcement actions that the agency had brought relating to the sale of other digital assets to buyers pursuant to written contracts and for the purpose of fundraising.

The court also rejected Ripple Labs’ claim of fair notice and vagueness in its defense of the Institutional Sales. The court stated that the law does not require the SEC to warn all potential violators on an individual or industry level.

Though the ruling can be appealed, and though institutional sales have been deemed as unregistered securities offering, the Ripple effect has triggered a tsunami of excitement across the crypto industry.

For More Cryptocurrency News, visit rttnews.com

Source: Read Full Article