XRP Price Explodes As Judge Rules Ripple’s Programmatic Sales of Crypto Asset Are Not Securities

The price of XRP has surged 59% after a judge issued a highly anticipated ruling in the intensely scrutinized case of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission vs. Ripple.

XRP began trading the day at $0.47 and is now at $0.75 after Judge Analisa Torres ruled Ripple’s automated, open market sales of XRP are not securities.

“Indeed, Ripple’s Programmatic Sales were blind bid/ask transactions, and Programmatic Buyers could not have known if their payments of money went to Ripple, or any other seller of XRP. Since 2017, Ripple’s Programmatic Sales represented less than 1% of the global XRP trading volume. Therefore, the vast majority of individuals who purchased XRP from digital asset exchanges did not invest their money in Ripple at all.”

Judge Torres also tossed out the SEC’s allegations that Ripple executives Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen personally conducted an unregistered securities offering by selling XRP.

However, the judge sided with the SEC in its assertion that Ripple’s direct sales of XRP to institutional participants did represent a securities offering.

“An Institutional Buyer knowingly purchased XRP directly from Ripple pursuant to a contract, but the economic reality is that a Programmatic Buyer stood in the same shoes as a secondary market purchaser who did not know to whom or what it was paying its money…

Lastly, the Institutional Buyers were sophisticated entities, including institutional investors and hedge funds. An ‘examination of the entirety of the parties’ understandings and expectations,’ including the ‘full set of contracts, expectations, and understandings centered on the sales and distribution of’ XRP supports the conclusion that a reasonable investor, situated in the position of the Institutional Buyers, would have been aware of Ripple’s marketing campaign and public statements connecting XRP’s price to its own efforts.”

The results of the case have triggered a surge in the altcoin markets at large.

At time of publishing, Ethereum is up 6% in the last 24 hours, Cardano is up 16% and Solana is up 19%.

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Featured Image: Shutterstock/Zaleman/INelson