Ripple continues to butt heads with SEC despite the former being a federal contractor

16 January 2024

in XRP

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Ripple, in a recent job opening, stated that it was a federal contractor or subcontractor.
This is the first public admittance, albeit indirect, of Ripple engaging with the US government.
XRP price is seeing a decline, invalidating the week-long uptrend that resulted in a 6% rally.

XRP price is seemingly losing the micro uptrend that it has been witnessing for the past few days amid mixed signals from the price indicators. On the other hand, Ripple has grabbed the attention of the crypto community for its rather unexpected affiliation with the United States government.

Ripple – A federal contractor

Ripple, in a job opening on its website, noted that the company was a federal contractor or subcontractor. This revelation came as the applicants for the open role were required to fill out a Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability form as per the law.

Ripple listing

A federal contractor are businesses or organizations that enter into a contractual agreement with any department or agency of the United States Government.

This was a very surprising revelation, given that Ripple has been the biggest name in the fight against reprimands from the government for the past three years. Its legal fight against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has detailed a lot about the regulatory body’s stand on cryptocurrencies, with the company even changing the status of XRP from a “nonsecurity” to “security when sold to institutional customer”.

Although Ripple is not alien to working with law enforcement, the company was reported to be expanding its collaboration with the government. According to Ripple’s Europe head, Sendi Young, the company was in talks with more than a dozen governments around the world to develop Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC).

Despite the partial win in the US, SEC and Ripple are still butting heads consistently, with another hearing on the entire SEC vs Ripple narrative set to take place in Q2 this year.

XRP price notes hint of bearishness

XRP price has been in an uptrend for the past couple of days on the micro timeframe. The 4-hour chart showcases that for the last week, XRP was making a recovery, albeit slowly, to reclaim a crucial resistance level.

Marked at $0.5847, this barrier has been unbreached for the last 14 days. Since the last ten days, this resistance level has remained unbreached, with only one instance of a successful breakout noted around the time when the spot Bitcoin ETF was approved, which pushed the altcoin beyond the $0.600 mark.

This barrier remained unbreached this time around as well, resulting in a dip below the uptrend line. Price indicators, Relative Strength Index (RSI) and Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) are also exhibiting slight bearishness at the time of writing. If this extends further, the altcoin could end up falling to $0.560.

XRP/USD 4-hour chart

However, if the broader market bullish cues have an impact on the altcoin, recovery is on the cards, and the uptrend will remain intact. This would also help in XRP price breaching the $0.587 resistance level, flipping which into support would help the altcoin cross $0.600.

SEC vs Ripple lawsuit FAQs

It depends on the transaction, according to a court ruling released on July 14:

For institutional investors or over-the-counter sales, XRP is a security.
For retail investors who bought the token via programmatic sales on exchanges, on-demand liquidity services and other platforms, XRP is not a security.

The United States Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Ripple and its executives of raising more than $1.3 billion through an unregistered asset offering of the XRP token.

While the judge ruled that programmatic sales aren’t considered securities, sales of XRP tokens to institutional investors are indeed investment contracts. In this last case, Ripple did breach the US securities law and will need to keep litigating over the around $729 million it received under written contracts.

The ruling offers a partial win for both Ripple and the SEC, depending on what one looks at.

Ripple gets a big win over the fact that programmatic sales aren’t considered securities, and this could bode well for the broader crypto sector as most of the assets eyed by the SEC’s crackdown are handled by decentralized entities that sold their tokens mostly to retail investors via exchange platforms, experts say.

Still, the ruling doesn’t help much to answer the key question of what makes a digital asset a security, so it isn’t clear yet if this lawsuit will set precedent for other open cases that affect dozens of digital assets. Topics such as which is the right degree of decentralization to avoid the “security” label or where to draw the line between institutional and programmatic sales are likely to persist.

The SEC has stepped up its enforcement actions toward the blockchain and digital assets industry, filing charges against platforms such as Coinbase or Binance for allegedly violating the US Securities law. The SEC claims that the majority of crypto assets are securities and thus subject to strict regulation.

While defendants can use parts of Ripple’s ruling in their favor, the SEC can also find reasons in it to keep its current strategy of regulation by enforcement.

The court decision is a partial summary judgment. The ruling can be appealed once a final judgment is issued or if the judge allows it before then. The case is in a pretrial phase, in which both Ripple and the SEC still have the chance to settle.

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