Just two years ago, Ripple Labs (XRP) was headed towards becoming an essential stepping stone for the traditional banking system to leverage blockchain capabilities to facilitate global money transfers. Fast-forward to the present and the organization is locked in a legal battle with the SEC.
The SEC claims that Ripple Labs launched an unregistered security through XRP. The lawsuit has been a major drawback to Ripple’s plans and has subsequently been one of the major reasons for XRP’s subdued price performance. Working with a company while it is in the middle of a lawsuit is a no-go zone for many financial institutions due to the uncertainty involved, which explains why Ripple Labs’ offerings such as Xcurrent have not been executed as expected.
The legal battle has had a pronounced impact on the price of XRP, and that has been evident by the blows that the SEC and Ripple Labs have been trading against each other. XRP’s price registers a substantial uptick whenever the presiding judge made a ruling in Ripple’s favor and the price drops every time a ruling is in favor of the SEC.
XRP is currently trading at $0.66 and is up 1.52% in the last 24 hours. Its current price is a far cry from its May all-time high of $0.96, although it is performing well compared to its January 1 price level which went as low as $0.21.
Source: Binance
XRP’s price action has for the most part been following the rest of the market’s performance, which has been influenced by Bitcoin’s price movements. However, there are some factors that will undoubtedly have a major impact on XRP’s performance in the short and long term. One of them is the end of the legal battle with the SEC.
Although it is not clear when the legal brawl will eventually come to an end, experts believe that it has dragged on long enough and analysis of the legal proceedings suggests that it might be in the tail end. A positive outcome for Ripple Labs could fuel a massive rally while a negative one might further subdue the price at least in the short-term.
The lawsuit has not stopped Ripple Labs from planning ahead. The company is still committed to playing an important role in the future of banking. Ripple is currently a part ISO-20022, which aims to introduce a new global standard for financial institutions. In other words, a faster and more secure digital clearing house for banks to facilitate a more robust international finance structure.
Ripple will be involved alongside other major companies such as Oracle and Visa among others. XRP is one of about 6 cryptocurrencies that will be involved in the new standard. Some of the others include Stellar’s XLM, IOTA’s MIOTA token, Algorand and XDC. They are highlighted in the ISO-20022 whitepaper.
It is likely that the involved cryptocurrencies will be used to attain quick transfers and low fees in the banking system. They will also allow the network to interact with the rapidly developing decentralized online ecosystem while facilitating the conversion of fiat currencies from one currency to another.
The implication of the new standard is that it will lead to an incredibly high utilization for XRP, which will provide substantial demand for the cryptocurrency. The standard will likely be a major catalyst for XRP’s price performance because demand will come from markets that move trillions of dollars. Meanwhile, Ripple just hired Sendi Young, a MasterCard executive to oversee RippleNet’s expansion strategy in Europe. This suggests that Ripple Labs plans to continue rolling out its offerings.
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