It was a particularly bullish start to the weekend for Ripple’s XRP. On Saturday, XRP rallied by 7.11% to end the day at $0.8136. The breakout session ended a 3-day losing streak that had seen XRP retreat from a Wednesday current year high $0.9154. Crypto market forces, driven by the NASDAQ 100 and market jitters over a possible Russian invasion of the Ukraine had weighed.
SEC v Ripple Progress Remains XRP Positive
SEC v Ripple news updates have continued to deliver XRP with much-needed support. On Wednesday, updates on the SEC v Ripple case had been XRP positive. The crypto markets reacted favorable to news of case judge Analisa Torres granting a number of motions in favor of Ripple. Court documents detail the motions in which Ripple motions were granted and denied. XRP struck its current year-high in response before succumbing to crypto market forces.
Following the mid-week news, Ripple filed a motion late last week to compel the SEC to share meeting notes from a November 2018 meeting between former SEC acting chairman Elad Roisman and Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse. The news delivered support on Saturday. The motion suggestions that disclosure of the meeting notes could favor Ripple’s position in the case.
Other Lawsuits Yet to Gain Traction
While the main area of focus is on the SEC v Ripple case, there have been a number of conflict of interest claims against the SEC.
Late last year, we reported on Empower Oversight filing a lawsuit against the SEC. Empower Oversight alleged that former SEC officials were biased against Ripple Lab and XRP in favor of Ethereum (ETH). To date, SEC Chair Gensler continues to dodge questions on whether Ethereum is a security.
Earlier this month, the SEC took another blow, with lawyers representing non-U.S XRP investors demanding an investigation into the SEC’s actions against Ripple Lab. As we reported, the petition claimed that “the SEC enforcement actions on cryptocurrencies have involved the appearance of improper ties and conflicts of interest among officials, and should be investigated”. Importantly, the petition also points out that petition attorney John Deaton “has compiled evidence that SEC officials may have colluded with outside parties to regulate cryptocurrencies in line with their personal financial interests”.
Both actions against the SEC focus on the conflict-of-interest issue that remains a key component to the Ripple case. Following the motions from early last week, the SEC has until 17th February to make public sealed documents that could shed more light on how the SEC viewed XRP back in 2012. Should the documents reveal that the SEC did not view XRP as a security, it could prove to be decisive.