XRP Faces Sharp Drop as Battle With Heats Up

• The SEC cancelled a closed-door meeting on Thursday, July 17, where the officials were expected to discuss key crypto issues, including the looming settlement with Ripple.
• The meeting seems rescheduled for next week, reigniting hope that the end is near for XRP, which has gained over 25% in the past week to hit three-month highs.

XRP has been one of the stellar performers in the past month, and a closed-door meeting by top SEC officials scheduled for yesterday was among the reasons for the pump. Its cancellation impacted the token, but it has since then shrugged the fears aside and is on the green once again.

The SEC had slated the meeting for Thursday, as we reported, and while some in the industry have misrepresented it as an SEC-Ripple meeting, it wasn’t implicitly branded as such. However, the top securities regulator was expected to discuss some of the more pressing matters in crypto, from Ethereum ETFs to Binance to Ripple’s lawsuit.

On the subject matter for the meeting, the SEC included “institution and settlement of injunctive actions” and “resolution of litigation claims.”

In the run-up to the meeting, XRP shot up to hit $0.635, its highest price since the end of March. Since July 8, the token gained over 50%, surging from $0.4198 to hit a new local high. However, yesterday, the SEC published a notice on its website revealing that the meeting had been cancelled.

“The Closed Meeting scheduled for Thursday, July 18, 2024, at 2:00 p.m., has been cancelled,” Secretary Vanessa A. Countryman said in the brief notice.

The cancellation dealt a blow to XRP. From its $0.635 high, the token dipped to trade at $0.5448. However, it has since recovered and in the past six hours, it has gained 6.4% to trade at $0.5776.

The SEC has since announced yet another meeting on July 25 where similar issues will be discussed. Many interpreted it as a postponement of this week’s meeting and believe that XRP and a settlement with Ripple will be top of Gensler’s agenda on the day.

🚨BREAKING NEWS:

The canceled SEC meeting from yesterday, July 18, has been postponed to Thursday, July 25!

Will this finally be the end of the #Ripple vs. SEC case? ⚖️https://t.co/TZ8APTjx7y pic.twitter.com/r9nL5i5dGz

— 𝓐𝓶𝓮𝓵𝓲𝓮 (@_Crypto_Barbie) July 19, 2024

A settlement between Ripple and the SEC to end the biggest lawsuit in the crypto industry would offer the biggest tailwind yet for XRP. At this point, it’s clear Ripple has the upper hand in the negotiations, and the SEC has confirmed this by its ever-softening stance, which Ripple hopes to drag down to $10 million in settlements. This would be a massive scaling down from the billions of dollars that the agency was previously demanding.

Most experts agree that the conclusion is nigh and say that the outcome could set a precedent for the industry. Zaheer Ebtikar, the founder of crypto investment firm Split Capital, told Bloomberg:

Investors and traders are anticipating there will be a conclusion about the status of XRP tokens. The entirety about XRP is anything attached to what the regulations will be

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