XRP Price Shows Growing Excitement As Brad Garlinghouse Discloses SEC Agreement

XRP price enjoyed an extra boost of bullish momentum in the last 24 hours. The cryptocurrency concluded the week by regaining most of the losses that it experienced in the first half.

One of the main reasons for the bullish expectations on XRP price action is the favorable conclusion of the SEC lawsuit against Ripple. Fresh data confirmed that the highly publicized and lengthy legal battle is on track to have one of the best possible outcomes.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse previously revealed during an interview that the SEC was dropping the case. He revealed that they might only be fined $50 million which could actually be paid by the $125 million paid upfront and held in escrow. This also means Ripple could receive a refund from the U.S financial watchdog.

More importantly, Garlinghouse revealed that Ripple and SEC staff reached an agreement to drop the lawsuit. He also acknowledged that the SEC’s new leadership is pro-innovation, hinting that crypto businesses in the U.S may have an easier time. Especially compared to Gary Gensler’s anti-crypto regime.

Will XRP bulls take advantage of the SEC-Ripple lawsuit conclusion?

XRP achieved a 6.74% gain in the last 24 hours at its $2.15 press time price tag, which was a bigger gain than its Friday uptick. This suggests the possibility that the Ripple-SEC news may have contributed to the bullish momentum. XRP price hit a weekly low of $1.61 before achieving a 33% plus recovery since then.

XRP price action | Source: TradingView

Can XRP sustain the bullish momentum? Its performance could potentially kick off with a bit of a retracement due to short-term profit-taking. This is because the market sentiment was still in fear territory despite the latest recovery, suggesting a higher likelihood of a short-term focus.

The short-term profit-taking expectation was further backed by a noteworthy shift from biggest spike in negative funding rates, to a sizable spike in positive funding rates. This confirms a that there was a growing appetite for leverage, which could pave the way for long liquidations ahead.

XRP funding rates | Source: Coinglass

The possibility of a short term pullback and surge long liquidations was due to multiple factors. Price concluded the week at its RSI mid-point. In addition, the surge in options open interest by 15.8% in the last 24 hours, may signal an opportunity for a leverage shakedown.

XRP reserves and whale activity reveal this about XRP Price

XRP exchange reserves have been on an overall decline over the last few months. However, there were instances where reserves surged such as at the start of March where price registered a sharp spike before pivoting .

The shift in guard occurred after XRP was highlighted as one of the coins that would be added to the list of coins to be added to the U.S crypto stock pile. Fast forward to the present and XRP exchange reserves were down to the same bottom range observed at the end of February.

XRP reserves | Source: TradingView

The retest of this bottom range could offer a psychological sell zone especially coupled with the RSI mid-level retest. The possibility of a reversal was further supported by XRP orderbook statistics which revealed that whale orders were predominantly negative on top exchanges.

Both derivatives and spot markets saw sizable outflows from whales, further confirming that the short-term profit-taking scenario was in play. In other words, XRP was on track to face the bears at the start of the week. However, this is does not necessarily negate the possibility of more bullish recovery.

The crypto market can be quite volatile and unexpected. Pro-Ripple developments or even market-related developments could possibly fuel more XRP price recovery in the next few days.