- XRP price trades sideways on Monday after yielding 3.66% weekly losses for holders.
- Following the recent developments in the SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit, the next key date is February 12.
- Legal expert John Deaton notes that Ripple could show an exemption to a vast majority of institutional sales in the lawsuit.
XRP (XRP) price trades broadly unchanged on Monday at $0.5046, up 0.30% on the day, after recording a 3.74% loss in the past week. The next key date in the SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit is February 12, when the remedies-related discovery period ends. According to legal expert Bill Morgan, presiding Judge Analisa Torres might need to rule on the regulator’s motion to compel before the deadline.
Also read: Ripple Price Forecast: XRP can revisit $0.696 if these conditions are met
Daily digest market movers: Ripple settle for nearly $10 million, Deaton says
- The SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit has weighed heavily on XRP price since its beginning. Ripple was handed a pivotal victory in July as Judge Torres ruled that XRP was not a security by itself.
- The latest development in the lawsuit is the US regulator’s motion to compel Ripple to share detailed financial statements for 2022 and 2023 and post-complaint contracts governing XRP sales to institutional investors.
- Ripple has condemned the move and filed a response letter arguing against the motion to compel, stating that the regulator’s lawyers have made factual mischaracterizations.
- XRP holders look forward to the February 12 deadline for the completion of the remedies-related discovery.
- Legal expert Bill Morgan expects Judge Torres to rule on the motion before the February 12 deadline and Attorney John Deaton (associated with the SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit as amicus curiae or friend of the court) notes that Ripple could pay nearly $10 million and settle the lawsuit, in a recent YouTube video.
- Deaton says that Ripple is likely to show how a vast majority of its institutional sales were to accredited investors, in an exception to Section 5 of the Securities Act.
- Deaton states that Judge Torres is likely to fine Ripple significantly less than its $200 million legal fees, a fine of $10 million is likely.
Technical Analysis: XRP could retest support at $0.468 before recovery
Akash Girimath, technical analyst at FXStreet, notes that the short-term outlook for XRP price is bearish. The altcoin is likely to sweep its support at $0.468 before posting a recovery from the $0.532 support line. Once these two conditions are met, the long-term outlook turns bullish, and investors can expect XRP to resume its uptrend, eyeing $0.696 as the main target to the upside. 
XRP/USDT 1-day chart
A retest of the $0.468 support level and a failure to bounce from it could signal weakness in the trend and invalidate the bullish thesis. XRP price could crash nearly 18% and hit the $0.379 support.
Cryptocurrency metrics FAQs
The developer or creator of each cryptocurrency decides on the total number of tokens that can be minted or issued. Only a certain number of these assets can be minted by mining, staking or other mechanisms. This is defined by the algorithm of the underlying blockchain technology. Since its inception, a total of 19,445,656 BTCs have been mined, which is the circulating supply of Bitcoin. On the other hand, circulating supply can also be decreased via actions such as burning tokens, or mistakenly sending assets to addresses of other incompatible blockchains.
Market capitalization is the result of multiplying the circulating supply of a certain asset by the asset’s current market value. For Bitcoin, the market capitalization at the beginning of August 2023 is above $570 billion, which is the result of the more than 19 million BTC in circulation multiplied by the Bitcoin price around $29,600.
Trading volume refers to the total number of tokens for a specific asset that has been transacted or exchanged between buyers and sellers within set trading hours, for example, 24 hours. It is used to gauge market sentiment, this metric combines all volumes on centralized exchanges and decentralized exchanges. Increasing trading volume often denotes the demand for a certain asset as more people are buying and selling the cryptocurrency.
Funding rates are a concept designed to encourage traders to take positions and ensure perpetual contract prices match spot markets. It defines a mechanism by exchanges to ensure that future prices and index prices periodic payments regularly converge. When the funding rate is positive, the price of the perpetual contract is higher than the mark price. This means traders who are bullish and have opened long positions pay traders who are in short positions. On the other hand, a negative funding rate means perpetual prices are below the mark price, and hence traders with short positions pay traders who have opened long positions.