Bitcoin Soars Above $31,000 After Ripple’s Partial Victory Against SEC
Bitcoin made a strong surge on Friday, surpassing the $31,000 resistance level following Ripple Labs’ partial win in its lawsuit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Ripple was accused by the regulator of selling XRP as an unregistered security. The positive ruling for Ripple had a significant impact on the entire cryptocurrency market, with XRP leading the rally by gaining over 70%. Meanwhile, U.S. equity futures traded flat as investors awaited earnings reports from major American banks. The latest U.S. producer price index (PPI) data also indicated a slowdown in inflation in the country.
Bitcoin’s price climbed 3.45% in the last 24 hours to reach $31,463 as of 07:50 a.m. in Hong Kong, marking a weekly gain of 4.93%, according to data from CoinMarketCap. The world’s largest cryptocurrency reached a high of $31,814 early on Friday morning, its highest price since June 2022.
In a summary judgement on Thursday, New York Southern District Court Judge Analisa Torres ruled that Ripple’s programmatic sales of XRP on public exchanges should not be considered securities, providing a partial victory for Ripple against the SEC. The SEC filed its lawsuit against Ripple in 2020, claiming that XRP was a security. However, the court also ruled that Ripple’s sales to institutional investors did violate securities laws, setting the stage for further legal proceedings regarding those transactions.
Ripple’s CEO, Stuart Alderoty, celebrated the judgement as a “huge win” on Twitter, noting that the court only found past direct sales of XRP to institutional clients to be an investment contract. Despite the positive sentiment in the crypto community following the ruling, some industry experts expressed caution. Townsend Lansing, CoinShares’ Head of Product, stated that the SEC’s victory on the sales to institutional customers was significant and could lead to potential class-action litigation against institutional investors who were involved.
On a more positive note, Justin d’Anethan, head of APAC business development at crypto market maker Keyrock, believed that the ruling had shaken investors in a positive way. Additionally, Europe’s first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund is set to launch publicly this month, which experts believe could be another catalyst for the crypto market.
Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, also experienced a surge of 6.99% to $2,004, marking a 7.69% gain for the week. It is now trading above $2,000 for the first time since April. Other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies also saw significant gains in the past 24 hours, with Cardano’s ADA, Solana’s SOL, and Polygon’s MATIC leading the way.
XRP, the focus of the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple, jumped 72.75% to $0.8142 and gained 74.89% for the week. It replaced Binance’s BNB as the third-largest non-stablecoin cryptocurrency by market cap. The total cryptocurrency market capitalization rose 6.19% in the past 24 hours to $1.26 trillion, while trading volume increased by 95.72% to $60.3 billion.
In the non-fungible token (NFT) market, the Forkast 500 NFT index and other NFT market indices experienced mixed movements in the past 24 hours. Despite the rise in cryptocurrency prices following the Ripple ruling, total NFT sales volume decreased by 1.72% to $24.45 million. Bitcoin-based $FRAM BRC-20 NFTs recorded the highest sales volume, followed by Ethereum-based collections Bored Ape Yacht Club and the Captainz.
Dapper Labs, the developer behind popular NFT collections such as CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot, announced layoffs of 51 staff, constituting about 12% of its workforce. The layoffs aim to make the company leaner and more efficient. This is the third round of layoffs for Dapper Labs in the past year.
In the U.S. stock market, futures traded flat, while all three major indexes closed higher in Thursday’s regular trading session. The latest PPI data showed a 0.1% YoY rise in June, the smallest increase since August 2020. The data, coupled with weak consumer price index data, suggests a slowdown in U.S. inflation. While some economists believe the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in July due to lingering inflation concerns, others anticipate a possible rally in the bond market if the Fed’s monetary policy is reversed.
