Ripple (XRP) Poised for a Significant 15% Correction but The Future is Still Bright

Ripple’s (XRP) price appears to be on the brink of a notable drop on the daily chart, unable to break through a critical resistance point. The absence of recovery may be prompting investors to sell, potentially leading to further price declines and complicating any rebound efforts.

That being said, it is not all grim for Ripple. The network is continuing on its path to get further integrated into the financial sector, which makes any kind of drops, simply temporary. We investigate the current XRP price dynamics and check on the latest lawsuit cases that Ripple is often a guest of. 

Ripple Investors Show Caution

The fall in XRP’s price to $0.42 on Gate.io has fueled a sense of pessimism among token holders, as reflected in their recent actions. The divergence between price and daily active addresses (DAA) is indicating a sell signal.

This divergence occurs when either the price is rising while participation declines, or both are trending downward. The latter scenario is what XRP currently faces, suggesting that holders might offload their assets to avoid deeper losses.

The inclination to sell is also impacting potential new investors. This is evident from the network growth metric, which is at its lowest point in four years. Network growth measures the rate at which new addresses are created, providing insights into a project’s popularity in the market.

Ripple’s declining network growth indicates that the project is losing traction, likely deterring new investors. As a result, XRP’s price could face further downward pressure due to this broader bearish sentiment.

Key Support Level for XRP

XRP’s price at $0.51 is currently hovering around the 23.6% Fibonacci Retracement level between $0.73 and $0.42. This level is known as the bear market support floor. As long as this support holds, there’s a chance for the asset to recover.

However, given the bearish sentiment among investors, there’s a real risk that XRP might drop below this key support. If this happens, the altcoin could fall to test support at $0.47, leading to an 18% drop as the Ripple token heads toward the lower bound of $0.42. However, price prediction of XRP models portrays a picture of an imminent rise in value and hence, any price drops are temporary. 

Trials and Tribulations of XRP

Ripple Labs is known for being the usual in the courtroom. Most of it is not by design and hence, the firm recently submitted its response to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) demand for the firm to pay nearly $2 billion in penalties in a court document filed on Monday night.

The SEC had previously claimed that Ripple should face substantial fines for selling XRP to institutional investors. However, Ripple countered this claim in its rebuttal, suggesting that a more appropriate penalty would be about $10 million, significantly less than the SEC’s initial estimate.

Stuart Alderoty, Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer, mentioned in a post on X on Monday that Ripple’s rebuttal to the SEC’s request for $2 billion in penalties for legacy institutional sales is now public. He stated that in a case where there were no allegations or findings of recklessness or fraud and where Ripple won on key issues, the SEC’s request is another sign of its ongoing efforts to intimidate the entire crypto industry in the U.S.

Alderoty also expressed confidence that the judge would be fair during this final phase of the case. He indicated that Ripple trusts the judge will handle the remedies phase with objectivity.

Ripple vs SEC’s Legal Battle

The legal conflict between Ripple and the SEC has persisted for years. It began when the SEC accused Ripple of raising $1.3 billion through the sale of XRP, alleging it was an unregistered security. Last year, Judge Analisa Torres ruled that Ripple’s programmatic sales of XRP were not securities because they were conducted through a blind bid process. However, she found that direct sales of XRP to institutional investors were considered securities.

The SEC argued that Ripple had profited from these institutional sales and that it still held the largest quantity of XRP among any individuals or entities. As such, the SEC contended that Ripple continued to sell XRP without proper registration to institutional purchasers.

Ripple stated that it had adjusted its XRP sales practices following last year’s court ruling. The company has also revised its contracts to address the issues identified by the court, as noted in its Monday filing.

The SEC’s demand for Ripple to pay $2 billion included $876 million in disgorgement, $198 million in prejudgment interest, and a civil penalty of $876 million. It urged Judge Torres to consider the seriousness of Ripple’s alleged misconduct.

However, Ripple contended that the SEC had not demonstrated that disgorgement was necessary and argued that prejudgment interest should be excluded. Additionally, the firm suggested that the civil penalty should not exceed $10 million.

Ripple’s defence in its filing emphasized that the firm’s behaviour wasn’t egregious. The company stated that its Institutional Sales involved 41 sophisticated individuals and entities over an eight-year span, all of whom were fully aware of the transactions and made their own financial choices. Ripple insisted that it had not misled or deceived these parties.