Ripple scores another court win

XRP rallied by as much as 5% to $0.53 after a federal judge denied an SEC motion to fast-track an appeal of the agency's partial loss in its lawsuit against Ripple, the ledger technology company closely associated with XRP.

Their fight still isn't over. The crux of the federal regulator's claim – that Ripple unlawfully offered/sold XRP as an unregistered security – came down to whether, in fact, in the eyes of the law, XRP is indeed a security. The SEC insisted it is; the defendant argued otherwise.

The judge already ruled in July that XRP isn't considered a security in the context of retail offerings done via programmatic sales to exchanges. This decision was huge. "It cast doubt on how strongly securities regulators would be able to police crypto," CoinDesk said.

XRP soared from $0.46 to $0.81 in the wake of the ruling.

However, the judge, in a flourish of nuance, at the same time also ruled XRP was an illegal security in the context of Ripple's direct sales of it to institutions. This consequential wrinkle in the court decision was seen as a win for the SEC. That the agency then dug in its heels, filing an interlocutory appeal a short time after the split-decision, turned out to be a full-on headwind for the fifth-largest crypto which, as of early September, plunged back down to $0.47 or near, where it sat prior to the summertime ruling that set it off on a run.

Other ancillary issues related to this case are still to be decided in a trial which is now set for April of 2024.

Further down the road, the SEC could ultimately seek to appeal the overall case once it’s fully concluded.

As of 7:01 a.m. (EST) today, XRP was $0.534415 on a 4.9% gain over 24 hours.

Bitcoin and Ethereum remained basically flat to slightly down over that same period.

The colossal fog bank surrounding crypto regulation has in itself become a beacon of contention in the government's criminal case against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. His attorneys are pointing to the "apparent absence of relevant law or guidance" as relevant to the question of whether the alleged use of customer deposits would constitute misappropriation; federal prosecutors are not having it, arguing in a fresh filing today that there are clear prohibitions on misappropriating customer assets. Allowing evidence about the absence of crypto regulation is “only likely to confuse the jury," asserted the Department of Justice.

Yesterday, Bankman-Fried's trial kicked off with the selection of those jury participants instructed to neither research the case nor to discuss it.

"It seemed unclear whether jurors had a sense of the scale of the case before them," The Block reported.

Ripple just received some more good news. It officially secured a license to provide regulated digital payment token services in Singapore.

“Since establishing Singapore as our Asia Pacific headquarters in 2017, the country has been pivotal to Ripple’s global business," CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in a public statement.

Ripple has been engaging with policymakers and regulators across Asia to support Singapore’s development as a crypto hub (CryptoNews).

Double-honey-dipped Ripple headlines today sent XRP, the coin associated with Ripple, on a joyride.

XRP jumped above its 200-day simple moving average (SMA) of $0.52; but, as of this morning, it was still below its 100-day SMA of $0.56, which now becomes a crucial level of resistance in the days ahead, per Finbold.