Ripple (XRP/USD) Price, Analysis And Chart:

• Ripple in the gunsights of the SEC.
• XRP gives back all of its recent gains

Ripple (XRP-X), the third-largest cryptocurrency by market value continues this week’s slump after the US SEC said that the company’s sale of XRP broke securities regulations. The SEC sent out a release alleging that,

‘Ripple; Christian Larsen, the company's co-founder, executive chairman of its board, and former CEO; and Bradley Garlinghouse, the company's current CEO, raised capital to finance the company's business. The complaint alleges that Ripple raised funds, beginning in 2013, through the sale of digital assets known as XRP in an unregistered securities offering to investors in the U.S. and worldwide. Ripple also allegedly distributed billions of XRP in exchange for non-cash consideration, such as labor and market-making services.’

The SEC also alleged that Larsen and Garlinghouse also effected personal unregistered sales of XRP totaling approximately USD 600 million. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse sent a reply saying that the SEC is ‘completely wrong on the facts and law’ and that XRP is a currency like Bitcoin or Ether and is not ‘an investment contract’.

The SEC’s Attack on Crypto in the United States – Brad Garlinghouse

XRP/USD touched a recent high of $0.78 just under one month ago as the cryptocurrency market rallied strongly after months of inertia. Ripple has now given back all of those gains and has broken below both the 20- and 50- day simple moving averages, highlighting the current market weakness. Volatility, measured by ATR, has soared in the past month and Ripple is now sitting deep in oversold territory. While wild market price swings are commonplace in the cryptocurrency space, regulatory price swings are different and warrant a large degree of caution. Ripple is down nearly 18% today.

XRP/USD Daily Price Chart (June - December 23, 2020)