Between Triumph and Setback: XRP Comes Under Pressure Again

The rollercoaster ride of the cryptocurrency XRP continues: After the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed an appeal against an earlier court ruling in favor of Ripple Labs, XRP's value dropped by up to 11%. This decision represents another setback for Ripple, after the company was sued in 2020 for allegedly selling XRP as an unregistered security. Last year, Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP only falls under securities law when sold to institutional investors—a ruling celebrated as a milestone for the crypto industry. Nevertheless, the same ruling ordered Ripple to pay a civil penalty of $125 million, far from the $2 billion initially demanded by the SEC. Interestingly, the SEC's appeal came just one day after Bitwise Asset Management filed with the agency to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) directly investing in XRP for the first time. Zaheer Ebtikar, founder of the crypto fund Split Capital, noted that many traders had taken long positions in anticipation of the introduction of XRP ETFs, which now need to be unwound. On Thursday, XRP fell by as much as 11% to around 51 cents, later stabilizing at about 52 cents. Over the last four trading days, the token has lost nearly 20% of its value and, according to current CoinMarketCap data, has a market capitalization of approximately $29 billion.