XRP Soars After Judge Scores Big Win for Ripple in Its Case Against the Securities and Exchange Commission

Ripple’s XRP token surged more than 30% at one point on Thursday after a judge in the Southern District of New York ruled that it was “not necessarily a safety in the face.”

XRP price was last up 28.90% at around 60 cents a coin, as measured by Coin Metrics. The news gave hope to cryptocurrency investors, who breathed a sigh of relief that other altcoins might not be considered securities after all. Polygon token gained 11%, while litecoin and related token Solana jumped 8%, and Cardano token advanced 7%. Bitcoin and Ether also got support at 2% and 3%, respectively.

“The outcome will undoubtedly have direct and indirect implications for digital currency regulation here in the US and around the world — potentially marking a major turning point, for better or worse, for the future of crypto,” Eliot Hahn of Cantor Fitzgerald told CNBC. Also, it is likely to have an important impact on the Binance and Coinbase lawsuits.

The news marks the end of a three-year battle between Ripple and the Securities and Exchange Commission, which sued the company in 2020 for violating US securities laws by selling XRP without first registering it with the agency.

The decision was widely seen as a major hurdle to clear in the second half of 2023 as crypto assets have spent the past several weeks under massive pressure from US regulators and still face a challenging macro environment.

Coinbase shares most recently surged 8% following the ruling.