XRP, which has been at the center of a key legal tussle for the crypto industry, has dipped today amid speculation that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had canceled the highly-awaited settlement with blockchain payments startup Ripple.
No Settlement In Sight
XRP has outperformed the broader crypto market rally in recent days, hitting a three-month high. The recent rally was attributed to a closed-door SEC meeting scheduled on the agency’s website for July 18. Many investors anticipated there would be a conclusion to the longstanding dispute with Ripple.
The Securities and Exchange Commission lodged a suit against Ripple in late 2020, claiming the company violated federal laws when it raised $1.3 billion by selling the token without registering it as a security.
The lawsuit is being closely watched because of its repercussions for the extent of the SEC’s jurisdiction. In what’s been considered an earth-shattering loss for the regulator’s turf, a US district judge declared last July that sales of XRP to retail investors on exchanges did not constitute investment contracts.
The latest point of conflict between Ripple and the SEC is the amount of remedies for unregistered sales to institutional investors. While the SEC has sought a multi-million-dollar fine against Ripple, the company maintains the court should impose a civil penalty of no more than $10 million.
For this reason, the XRP Army and crypto community members, in general, were looking forward to the conclusion about the status of XRP tokens today, but the scheduled meeting was canceled.
As such, the price of XRP plummeted in response to the bad news, losing 8.8% of its value as of publication time. The eighth-largest cryptocurrency was recently trading for $0.5666 after having reached $0.6355 just a day ago.
Pro-XRP lawyer Fred Rispoli has previously commented on the possibility of Ripple and SEC settling before the court’s ruling, noting that a pre-judgment settlement is unlikely at this point, although the pair could negotiate on unresolved arguments. Judge Analisa Torres is expected to give her decision on remedies soon, with Rispoli predicting this could come by the end of this month.
