With Bitcoin and Ethereum wobbling just below the flatline, Ripple-affiliated XRP cryptocurrency is once again stealing the thunder.
The token touched the $0.60 level for the first time since Feb. 23 at 6:19 p.m. on the Binance exchange before paring some gains.
XRP is currently 168 percent on a year-to-date basis, outperforming both Bitcoin and Ethereum in spite of Ripple’s legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that compelled multiple exchanges, including Coinbase and Binance U.S., to suspend XRP trading.
Alex DovbnyaA community-led effort
The momentum surrounding the cryptocurrency started gathering pace last week when Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn made a seemingly off-hand comment about XRP’s utility. As reported by U.Today, the SEC then tried to persuade her that the token was fundamentally different from Bitcoin and Ethereum with its questionable use cases.
Even though Netburn is not the main judge in the case, one quote more than enough to make the XRP community overly exuberant. On top of that, they appear to believe that it is safe for U.S. trading platforms to offer XRP simply because SEC attorney Jorge Tenreiro mentioned that only Ripple executives were accused of violating securities laws.
The holders of the token are now pressuring exchanges to resume trading with their “RelistXRP” campaign that managed to become one of the top-trending topics on Twitter in the Netherlands, the U.K., and Australia.
The community-led effort was also supported by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington.
Even though the ongoing rally is propelled by questionable quotes from a court hearing, it seems to have legs unlike the manufactured pump-and-dump on Feb. 1 that made the token soar and crash within the same day.
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin