The cryptocurrency community is predicting that the price of $XRP, the native token of the XRP Ledger, is set to move sideways throughout the month of February to end it just slightly below its current level, likely as investors await regulatory clarity.
According to CoinMarketCap’s price estimate feature, which saw over 1,000 users vote on their predictions for the month of February, the average response points to a prediction of $0.4142 per $XRP, just 0.16% above the cryptocurrency’s current price level.
It’s important to point out that the cryptocurrency community’s predictions may not come to life at all. According to the platform, the community’s historical accuracy is of little over 76%, with recent data showing it was at around 98% in October 2022 to hit 80% in December. In January it surged to over 96%
The price of $XRP has notably moved up around 19% over the last 30 days amid a wider cryptocurrency market recovery that saw other top cryptocurrencies explode to levels that hadn’t been seen in months. The market’s total capitalization has risen to nearly $1.1 trillion over the same period.
The uncertainty surrounding $XRP’s future price movements likely surrounds the ongoing legal battle between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple Labs.
The SEC sued Ripple and two of its executives in 2020, alleging they sold unregistered securities when they issued $1.3 billion worth of XRP tokens. Ripple denies XRP is a security.
Earlier this year, Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse noted that he believed the company would prevail in its legal battle against the regulator. Over the past few weeks, a number of influential cryptocurrency firms, including Coinbase and the Blockchain Association, filed to support Ripple.
In a recent reply in support of a motion for summary judgment, Ripple’s lawyers argued that the regulator has failed to show that any offer or sale of XRP was an investment contract under federal securities laws.
Ripple’s lawyers added that even for transactions “that involved an exchange of money,” the SEC failed to “show that purchasers invested that money in a common enterprise” rather than “simply buying an asset,” as the Howey test requires.
Ripple settling the lawsuit could lead to an XRP supply shock, which presumably would lead to a price surge as demand would remain the same, while supply plunged. That’s according to legal expert and XRP supporter Jeremy Hogan, who has been following the case.
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