The lawsuit between Ripple Labs and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has garnered a significant amount of attention within the cryptocurrency industry. At the core of the complaint lies the question of whether the cryptocurrency XRP, created and sold by Ripple Labs, constitutes a security subject to the SEC’s regulatory jurisdiction.
As a result of the lawsuit, the price of XRP has become highly volatile. Recently, there has been one particular transaction that has caught the attention of many.
Whale Movements
Recently, Ripple transferred 50 million XRP (worth approximately $17.4 million) during its ongoing effort to regain the $0.35 price point. On January 9th, 50 million XRP (worth $17.4 million) was transferred from Ripple’s wallet to an unidentified wallet. At this time, there is limited information available about the recipient wallet, but around 15 million XRP was routed through two additional addresses to a Bitso wallet within mere minutes of being received.
This was Ripple’s second large transaction within the last two days; on Sunday, it was reported that the technology company had sent 100 million XRP (worth approximately $34 million) to an unidentified wallet.
The recent Ripple transaction was followed by two more large movements of XRP. On January 9th, a large amount of 40 million XRP (worth $13.9 million) was deposited to Bitstamp as the first transaction. The second transaction took place ten minutes later and consisted of an internal transfer of funds worth 32.7 million XRP (worth $11.4 million) between two Bitso addresses.
Significance of the “Hinman Speech”
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has requested for certain materials, commonly referred to as the “Hinman Speech,” to be sealed in the ongoing lawsuit with Ripple Labs. These documents pertain to a speech given by William Hinman, a former director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, in June 2018 at the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit, where he stated that the cryptocurrency Ether, the native token of the Ethereum blockchain, is not considered a security by the SEC.
Ripple Labs believes that these materials are crucial evidence in its case against the SEC and has argued that the documents are “judicial documents” and therefore should not be sealed.
Despite the ongoing legal proceedings, Ripple Labs has continued to make large transactions of XRP in an effort to regain its value at $0.35. However, the token has encountered a setback in this quest, with its price fluctuating between a high of $0.3576 and a low of $0.3437, and currently trading at $0.3488.
It is not clear what further developments may occur in the case between Ripple Labs and the SEC, but it is possible that the outcome of the lawsuit could have a significant impact on the future of the XRP token and the cryptocurrency industry as a whole.
