Ripple (XRP) faces legal uncertainty in its battle with the United States (US) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the XRP price continues to slide. At the time of writing, XRP is trading at $2.1540, down 1.20% in the day.
Bitcoin’s consolidation has led to uncertainty among crypto traders, and the risk-off sentiment is evident from outflows piling into XRP investment products.
XRP traders need to watch the daily price chart closely for signs of reversal in the altcoin’s price trend this week.
While Ripple tackles its legal battle with the SEC, an unexpected third party has submitted a filing questioning the interpretation of the Howey Test, raising concerns in the lawsuit. The daily price chart suggests further decline is likely in XRP amidst legal issues.
XRP has consolidated under the $2.7000 resistance for nearly three months. Key support levels are $2.0350, the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement of the decline from the $3.4000 top to the $1.6134 low, and $1.7600, a key support that held for nearly six months.
An 18% drop could see XRP test support at $1.7600 if the altcoin extends losses this week.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) and Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) support a bearish thesis for XRP. RSI reads 39 and is sloping downward, and MACD flashes red histogram bars under the neutral line.
XRP/USDT daily price chart | Source: TradingView
Conversely, key resistances are 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level and the 50% Fibonacci placeholder at $2.2959 and $2.5067.
The new filing that emerged in the SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit has prompted pro-crypto attorneys to comment on the uncertainty in the legal battle’s resolution.
Other factors like rising outflows in XRP-focused investment funds, $28 million last week, as recorded by the CoinShares Digital Assets fund flows report, are influencing the sentiment among XRP holders and market participants.
The report shows that XRP led losses among altcoins while Ethereum led the gains.
Crypto asset weekly flows | Source: CoinShares
Typically, outflows support a bearish thesis and represent a declining interest and investor participation, while inflows signal rising demand and support a bullish thesis.
Ripple is a payments company that specializes in cross-border remittance. The company does this by leveraging blockchain technology. RippleNet is a network used for payments transfer created by Ripple Labs Inc. and is open to financial institutions worldwide. The company also leverages the XRP token.
XRP is the native token of the decentralized blockchain XRPLedger. The token is used by Ripple Labs to facilitate transactions on the XRPLedger, helping financial institutions transfer value in a borderless manner. XRP therefore facilitates trustless and instant payments on the XRPLedger chain, helping financial firms save on the cost of transacting worldwide.
XRPLedger is based on a distributed ledger technology and the blockchain using XRP to power transactions. The ledger is different from other blockchains as it has a built-in inflammatory protocol that helps fight spam and distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks. The XRPL is maintained by a peer-to-peer network known as the global XRP Ledger community.
XRP uses the interledger standard. This is a blockchain protocol that aids payments across different networks. For instance, XRP’s blockchain can connect the ledgers of two or more banks. This effectively removes intermediaries and the need for centralization in the system. XRP acts as the native token of the XRPLedger blockchain engineered by Jed McCaleb, Arthur Britto and David Schwartz.