XRP, the cryptocurrency that powers the payments-focused decentralized XRP Ledger, a layer-1 blockchain, is the best-performing cryptocurrency in the top 20 by market capitalization on Wednesday.
According to CoinGecko, XRP is up over 8.5% in the last 24 hours.
XRP/USD is currently changing hands in the $0.53s per token, having pared back from ten-month highs hit earlier in the session in the $0.58s.
XRP’s surge comes as optimism builds that fintech payments company Ripple, the cryptocurrency and XRP Ledger’s creator, will win an ongoing lawsuit against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Ripple has been battling the SEC in court after the agency sued Ripple back in December 2020, claiming the company issued XRP as an unregistered security.
Ripple has been arguing that it can’t have issued XRP as an unregistered security as XRP is actually a digital commodity, meaning its falls under the regulatory oversight of the Commodity Futures and Trading Commission (CFTC).
That argument seems to have gotten a boost this week, after the CFTC announced a new lawsuit against Binance for operating as an unregistered exchange in the US.
The key part of the lawsuit for XRP is the CFTC’s claim that Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, Tether and Binance USD are all commodities.
Traders are hoping that this means the CFTC will also view XRP as a commodity, undermining the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple, and reducing the regulatory risk that has been capping XRP’s price.
Amid anticipation that Ripple will win its lawsuit versus the SEC, alongside a broader crypto market surge that has seen Bitcoin gain more than 70% this quarter, the XRP market is really heating up.
Futures open interest and trading volumes have also been surging. Daily XRP trading
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