In a surprising twist, XRP, the payments-focused cryptocurrency has snatched the fourth place on the worldwide digital assets charts by exceeding BNB token’s market cap. Garnering a market cap of $41.44 billion, XRP’s success can be attributed to an extraordinary 66% spike within the past 24 hours, as mentioned in CoinDesk’s report. Even though BNB marked an increase of 6.5%, it pales in comparison to XRP’s dramatic surge to reach $40.57 billion in market value.
A partial victory in the legal tussle against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seems to be driving XRP’s ascent. The District Court of Southern District of New York had declared that XRP’s offering on digital asset exchanges did not fall within the SEC stipulated ‘Investment Contracts’ framework. This ruling points towards a potential revival for a renewed listing of XRP on centralized exchanges.
Crypto.com has already paved the way, with Gemini also considering a listing for XRP for both spot and derivatives trading. However, the District Court also stated Ripple Labs’ direct sale of XRP, amounting to over $700 million to various institutions, hedge funds and other parties, transgresses securities laws. This unquestionably lays down the law for XRP as a security and grave questions over its legitimacy to launch its offering have sprung up.
Ripple Labs had faced a lawsuit adorned with allegations of unregistered securities sale, as they traded $1.3 billion worth of XRP in late 2020. This legal grievance saw various exchanges unlisting XRP, while other cryptocurrencies wrapped up the year on a high note. The unfolding of events since has led the cryptospace to pay attention to the first part of the ruling, disregarding the fact that XRP was in violation of securities laws and had become subject to class-action litigation as potential underwriters.
Traders are witnessing a bullish trend in the perpetual futures market, as demonstrated by a drastic rise in aggregated volume-weighted perpetual futures’ funding rates. Perpetual futures, simply put, are standard futures contracts that forego an expiry or settlement date. For perpetual futures, funding rates are fixed intervals at which asset payments occur between long (bullish) and short (bearish) position holders. These recent, record-breaking funding rates, driven predominantly by the bullish side, suggest longs are covering shorts to maintain their positions open. The world is watching with bated breath as XRP presses against the tide of legal turmoil, scaling to fresh heights in the process.
Source: Coindesk
