XRP flips BNB for first time in 2 years after court ruling

XRP has flipped Binance’s BNB for the first time in over two years, jumping into fourth spot in crypto market cap rankings behind tether (USDT), ether (ETH) and bitcoin (BTC).

BNB was worth double XRP at the beginning of the year — $44 billion to $17.4 billion. Despite coming under repeated fire from regulators globally, Binance’s flagship token had, throughout all of 2022 and 2023, held its ground.

All that changed when the markets digested a New York judge’s ruling that XRP sales were not securities through secondary markets (crypto exchanges and the like). 

BNB now commands a $40.1 billion valuation, 4.7% shy of XRP’s $42 billion, per CoinGecko.

The judge also ruled institutional sales may well be securities, leaving room for further clarity as the case moves on.

Derivatives markets immediately went into overdrive, swelling open interest for XRP futures by 99%. The figure currently stands at $1.02 billion in outstanding contracts, Coinglass shows.

XRP was last seen trading at $0.79, up more than double from its previous daily closing price of $0.47. The last time XRP’s market cap was higher than BNB’s was in April 2021 (briefly, for one day), after it was flipped for the first time two months earlier.

Regulatory pressure against global crypto exchange Binance has brought BNB considerable sell-side activity. BNB is up about 5% year to date compared with BTC’s 70%. XRP has now gained more than 130% this year.

All while Ripple has been embroiled in a three-year-long legal battle with the SEC over whether it — along with executives Brad Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen — illegally offered securities in the form of XRP.

Thursday’s ruling has shed some light on the situation, with Coinbase and Kraken quickly pledging to relist XRP after dropping it in light of the SEC’s case. 

Still, some legal experts have warned the ruling is far from definitive. 

Updated Jul. 14, 2023 at 2:00 am ET: Open interest amounts.

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