The Ripple price is sensitive to what Ripple, a $10 billion company, does. That’s not forgetting changes around XRP ownership.
At the moment, there is a decentralization strategy where over time, the coins under Ripple will be effectively distributed to the community and investors.
Part of the slack received by the Brad Garlinghouse-led, ambitious remittance firm its level of decentralization and the company’s admission of their dependence on XRP liquidation. Without these precious coins, of which they own 55 billion, Ripple books won’t be in green.
Building XRP use cases
Consequently, they won’t fund operations that build on XRP use cases. Therefore, it represents a challenge for Ripple—the majority, and investors and traders.
A majority of the latter strongly believe that Ripple has been dumping down on them by deliberately keeping prices low.
Here is a fun quote from the CEO of Ripple:@bgarlinghouse clarified “We would not be profitable or cash flow positive [without selling XRP], I think I’ve said that. We have now.”
Dumping $XRP on you is how Ripple stays alive. https://t.co/H2KwsANDVo
— Luke Martin (@VentureCoinist) March 1, 2020
Back in 2019, a faction calling for the forking of the XRPL was formed by Brad Garlinghouse too to the media and said it won’t be in their best interests to keep prices low or even “dump” on holders.
That will be an anti-thesis of free markets and yes, an element of manipulation.
Ripple Lawyers: there is no proof Brad Garlinghouse committed fraud
Still, this hasn’t stopped aggrieved holders from suing Ripple. The plaintiffs accuse Ripple and Brad Garlinghouse of marketing and selling unregistered securities.
If XRP is classified as a security, it would harm price and could mean the end of XRP.
Whether this is fraud is debatable but now, in a court filing, Ripple lawyers say fails to unequivocally demonstrate that Brad Garlinghouse committed fraud as per the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b) of U.S. Laws.
Ripple price analysis
At the time of writing, the Ripple price is under immense pressure. In the last trading week, it is down eight percent against the greenback. Besides, it has ceded ground against both BTC and ETH.
Although there is a flicker of hope that XRP prices may recover and snap-back from current doldrums, the failure of bulls to close above June 11, 2020 highs could embolden bears this week.
A look in the daily chart shows that XRP is trading below a three-month support trend line following June 11, 2020, conspicuous breakdown. The breakout bar had high trading volumes which also confirmed the double bar bear reversal pattern of June 1-2, 2020.
Notably, XRP is consolidating inside May 10, 2020 bear candlestick. This is the main candlestick from where XRP prices are currently oscillating within its trade range. Any breakout above or below this trading range would shape the medium to long-term trajectory of XRP prices.
A close below its lows—at 17 cents, as it may pan out, could see XRP crater to 11 cents. On the flip side, a strong recovery above 20 cents, or June 2020 highs, with high trading volumes exceeding those of June 11, 2020, could spur another wave of bulls, driving XRP back to 25 cents.
Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. Opinions expressed here are those of the author and not the view of the publication.