TL;DR
- Ripple secured a partial win against the SEC, but the regulator has until October 7 to appeal the decision.
- XRP’s price holds steady at $0.59, with some predicting an astronomical surge in the near future.
What Could be Next?
The legal battle between Ripple and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) goes on. Back in August, Judge Torres ruled that the sales of XRP on secondary markets to retail investors did not constitute securities transactions. However, she ordered Ripple to pay $125 million for violating certain securities laws.
While the amount may sound substantial, it actually represents a whopping 94% discount on the SEC’s initial request. As such, many industry participants labeled the development a major victory for Ripple, suggesting that the company will pay the penalty. On the other hand, some believe the agency is more likely to contend. The deadline for such a move is October 7.
Most recently, Eleanor Terrett (a journalist working for Fox Business) said a former SEC lawyer told her that the regulator will “probably” appeal Judge Torres’ ruling from July 2023 concerning “the XRP programmatic sales in the Ripple case.” The attorney supposedly claimed that “everyone over there [at the SEC] truly believes that the decision is wrong, that it’s not good law, and should be appealed.”
The rumors of such a potential move by the watchdog sparked heated debates on X, with several users disagreeing with that scenario. The popular attorney Jeremy Hogan argued that the SEC should think carefully whether an appeal “furthers its mandate of investor protection and capital formation.”
“Why isn’t that top of mind? More evidence the SEC has lost the plot,” he added.
XRP Price Outlook
The uncertainty surrounding the Ripple v. SEC case might be one factor putting the breaks on XRP to follow the cryptocurrency market’s recent resurgence. The asset’s price is hovering around $0.59, roughly the same figure observed a week ago.
However, numerous analysts are optimistic that it will soon experience a bull run and reach a new all-time high. JackTheRippler, for instance, recently assumed that October could be “a life-changing month” for the token’s holders.
EGRAG CRYPTO was even more bullish, claiming XRP could skyrocket to as high as $13 in the following months. Such an explosion would require its market capitalization to hit over $670 billion, making the forecast quite unlikely (to say the least).