Why is XRP price up today?

XRP (XRP) price is up today following news that Federal District Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York ruled against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s contention that XRP is a security. 

XRP immediately reached $0.55, but subsequently gave away part of the gains on Oct. 4.

Ripple’s favorable court decision spurred mixed opinions from experts

In an Oct. 3 court order, Judge Torres claimed that the matter did not require an order that “involved a controlling question of law,” which is an essential condition for approving an interlocutory appeal. This decision sparked a debate among crypto law experts in the community.

Bill Hughes, a lawyer at blockchain firm ConsenSys, told Cointelegraph that the rejection of the SEC’s appeal was generally expected, given that appeals of this nature are not usual during this part of a trial. 

Similarly, Gabriel Shapiro, general counsel at Delphi Labs, warned XRP bulls to temper their enthusiasm, as the SEC could still appeal the case later. The regulator would need to wait until after the trial’s conclusion, which is scheduled to begin on April 23, 2024.

Ripple gets approval for a Singapore digital payments license

In an Oct. 4 statement, Ripple announced that its local entity, Ripple Markets Asia Pacific, was granted a Major Payment Institution license for digital payment token services in Singapore. This decision will allow the company to continue operations in the city-state after receiving in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore in June.

According to Ripple, the license allows its subsidiary to further scale its On-Demand Liquidity service offering, an enterprise solution that uses XRP as a bridge between two currencies. This eliminates the need for prefunding of destination accounts and reduces operational costs.

Ripple picked as a contender for Georgia’s CBDC pilot

On Sept. 28, the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) announced that nine companies, including Ripple, would take part in the research of its central bank digital currency (CBDC). Known as the digital lari, or GEL, the project aims to be programmable and support asset tokenization.

The Eastern European country, with a population of 3.7 million, intends to launch a limited-access live pilot environment, where only one of the participating companies will be selected to move forward. The NBG announced that it was considering issuing a CBDC in May 2021, without providing a timeline for it.

There was modest impact on XRP derivatives demand

The demand for XRP futures did not present meaningful changes, with the open interest — which measures the aggregate notional of contracts still in play — increasing by 13% versus the previous day. Furthermore, the current $590 million open interest falls short of the $794 million from one month prior.

Notice that the XRP futures funding rate has consistently stayed below 0.01% every eight hours, which is equivalent to 0.20% per week. Positive values indicate that long positions are covering the cost of leverage, but a funding rate below 1% per week is generally not considered expensive.

Considering the inability to surpass the $0.54 mark, which would have been the highest level in six weeks, and the lack of demand for leverage through futures contracts, it’s reasonable to doubt whether the recent positive news flow has convinced investors that XRP is about to enter a bull run.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.