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- A pending SEC closed-door meeting is fueling settlement talks within the Ripple community.
- The price of XRP is in recovery mode amid global macroeconomic trends.
The crypto market continues to feel the effect of recent updates on the ongoing Ripple vs SEC legal battle and monetary policies from the Bank of Japan (BoJ). Notably, XRP has now recovered back to the $0.5 price range after falling to $0.4661 on Monday.
New Development on Ripple vs SEC Case
Attention was recently drawn to the ongoing case between Ripple Labs and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC’s announcement of a closed-door meeting renewed hopes of a settlement.
The meeting scheduled for Thursday, August 8, is important in determining the next step to conclude the multi-year legal battle. The subject matter of the meeting will consist of topics ranging from injunction, settlement, and resolution of litigation claims.
It is worth noting that the SEC had canceled its August 1 closed-door meeting with Ripple on July 31. As noted in our earlier article, this dwindled the hopes of a settlement and resulted in XRP falling.
However, the recent scheduled meeting has ignited a renewed hope for a possible settlement. Speculations of a settlement intensified following an interview with Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, in mid-July. As our previous report highlighted, the CEO was optimistic about a quick case resolution. Garlinghouse cited a previous court victory in the company’s favor that ruled XRP trading by retail investors on exchanges is not an investment contract.
A settlement would prevent the SEC from appealing this ruling. This will bring clarity to XRP and set a legal precedent for the classification of other cryptocurrencies. The impact of the settlement for XRP cannot be overemphasized as the digital asset rallied to a high of $0.9327 in July 2023 following the ruling.
BoJ Implements Tighter Monetary Policy
Meanwhile, the expectations of a settlement between Ripple and the SEC coincide with tighter monetary policy implemented by the BoJ. The bank recently increased interest rates and reduced purchases of Japanese Government Bonds (JGB).
Although the BoJ’s monetary policy tightening triggered a wave of criticism, the Japanese yen is now relatively stronger. This has forced investors to unwind Yen carry trades. The BoJ’s hawkish stance led to investors becoming less inclined to borrow Yen as the cost of borrowing increased. This reduced the supply of Yen in the foreign exchange market, leading to an appreciation of the Yen.
Steve Sosnick, Chief Strategist at Interactive Brokers, commented, “And now the risk-off, unwinding carry trade has come for Bitcoin and crypto.”
Simply put, many investors likely borrowed Yen at low interest rates to invest in assets like XRP and other cryptocurrencies. With the Yen strengthening, these investors faced losses as they had to repay their Yen loans with a stronger currency.
So far, the community’s response has positively impacted the price of XRP. The cryptocurrency quickly climbed to $0.51 following a 24-hour increase of 8%. However, the trading volume is still down by 38% to $2.3 billion following the broader market selloffs.
