XRP, the cryptocurrency closely associated with Ripple Labs, experienced its largest one-day increase in three months on Friday, October 20, 2023. This surge followed the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dropping its lawsuit against Ripple's leaders, CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen. The SEC had previously accused these executives of misleading investors over the sale of more than $1 billion in unregistered XRP tokens.
Data from CoinGecko indicated that XRP's price jumped from 47 cents to a peak of 52 cents on Thursday, marking an increase of over 7% within 24 hours. This rally was predominantly powered by the spot market, as suggested by an upsurge in the cumulative volume delta (CVD) in spot exchanges, according to Coinalyze data.
The SEC's initial allegations had claimed that Ripple Labs violated securities law by securing $1.3 billion through XRP sales to investors. However, this stance was challenged when the Southern District of New York clarified that these transactions did not equate to offers and sales of investment contracts as per SEC's claims.
Ripple had already achieved a partial victory in July 2023 when a federal judge ruled that the sale of XRP on exchanges did not constitute a security offering. This ruling blocked the SEC's immediate appeal option. With the lawsuit now dismissed, Garlinghouse and Larsen have avoided a jury trial initially scheduled for 2024.
Despite this significant gain, XRP's price still remains within a two-month consolidation range between 49 and 45 cents. This suggests a volatility meltdown, which typically precedes a substantial move in either direction.
Prior to this development, XRP had shown an underwhelming performance during the crypto bull market of 2021 and has been described as "sleepy" throughout 2023. However, it had spiked to 82 cents following a positive lawsuit ruling in the past. Other leading cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ether, also recorded gains on Friday.
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