The Year in XRP: 7-Year High Price, Ripple vs SEC, and ETF Hopes Grow

It’s been a pivotal year for the Ripple ecosystem, marked by significant launches and renewed regulatory optimism. That optimism comes despite an ongoing battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which will soon enter its fifth year.

Anyway, XRPa Ripple-linked asset, achieved prices not seen since 2018. In the process, it climbed back into the top three crypto assets by market capitalization – and now multiple asset managers have filed to initiate the regulatory process for an XRP ETF. .

Dive into that and more this year in XRP and Ripple.

Ripple and SEC continue to spar

It’s been almost four years since the SEC alleged that Ripple was conducting an unregistered securities salewhich launched a $1.3 billion lawsuit against the company.

A court ruling last year concluded that sales of XRP to retail investors did not violate U.S. securities laws, a favorable ruling for Ripple. Yet the saga is still unfolding this year.

In October, the SEC filed an appeal against aspects of last year’s ruling. instead focused on XRP sales on digital asset trading platforms and personal sales by Ripple executives. It was fast followed by a cross-appeal from Rippleafter which Stuart Alderoty, Chief Legal Officer of Ripple Labs, explained Declutter of the initial appeal: “It will backfire on the SEC.”

When can we know? Alderoty believes it won’t take long to reach a conclusion this time, suggesting a decision could be made in 2026.

XRP ETFs inevitable?

Billions of Dollars Flown into Exchange Traded Products for Bitcoin and Ethereum, and XRP in 2024 joining the party in the US is “inevitable” said Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple.

Exchange-traded products for XRP already exist in markets outside the United States, but some asset managers have initiated the regulatory process in the US in an effort to provide investors with similar options.

Managers WisdomTree And Bitwise has applied for ETFs through the state of Delaware, while 21Shares has submitted its XRP ETF application to the SEC. Analysts say the potential of these ETFs has helped record-breaking inflows in those products, which also contributes to an XRP price increase.

XRP hits seven-year high

XRP has attracted a lot of attention in recent months, reaching price levels it had not seen in almost seven years in the process.

After peaking at $1.92 during the 2021 crypto cycle, XRP broke through the threshold in late November and then extended its gains to a local high of $2.82 earlier this month. In the process, it turned Tether around for a moment to become the third largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

That rise pushed Coin gecko.

Although the token has since retreated from its local highs, it remains one of the best-performing major crypto assets of the year, gaining more than 250% in that time frame.

RLUSD is launched

After a long wait, Ripple’s stablecoin, RLUSD, arrivedlaunched on December 17. Backed by US dollars, US Treasuries and cash equivalents, RLUSD was launched in a year when stablecoins, or tokens tied to the value of fiat currencyincreased in circulation by 56% from $130 billion to $204 billion, according to DefiLlama.

RLUSD is designed to provide users with cross-border payment solutions and is live for trading on Ethereum and the XRP Ledger.

The Ripple stablecoin is regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services and can be traded on MoonPay, Uphold, Bitso, Archax and CoinMENA, with more options expected to be available to consumers in the future.

Nasty avoid the controversy surrounding other stablecoin issuersRipple will publish third-party attestations on a monthly basis to maintain transparency about the stablecoin’s support.

XRP Ledger joins the meme party

Meme coins made a big splash on the blockchains in 2024, led by Solana and the more than 4 million tokens deployed on the token launch pad Pumping fun.

But for a brief period, the XRP Ledger joined the frenzy, allowing some traders to turn a few thousand dollars into a few hundred thousand. One user for example trading the meme coin ARMY recorded more than $100,000 in gains and $400,000 in unrealized gains on a $478 purchase just two weeks earlier.

The craze sparked major activity on the XRP Ledger, amid validators agreed to reduce reserve feesor the amount of XRP required to maintain an account on the ledger.

On December 2, XRP Ledger broke all records for new accounts activated and the number of unique active accounts, peaking at over 105,000 – nearly double the previous all-time high. according to data from XRP Scan.

While most of the meme coins on the XRP Ledger have been fully recovered, it was a (brief) glimpse into life on the more meme-happy blockchains for participants.

Edited by Stephen Graves