XRP Trading Volume Surges 1,351% as Major Crypto Exchanges Embrace the Token
The spike in trading activity came after a partial win in a lawsuit against the SEC.
Trading with XRP ballooned in the past 24 hours, propelled by an euphoric price rally, and major crypto exchanges that embraced trading of the token, after a partially favorable court decision on Thursday.
The trading volume of XRP pairs on centralized exchanges grew by a staggering 1351% on Thursday compared to the previous day, Josh de Vos, research lead of crypto analytics firm CCData, noted. The spike came as XRP’s skyrocketed by nearly 100% at one point Thursday. XRP was recently trading at 73 cents, still up 51% from a week ago.
On a running basis, the token’s trading volume totaled around $12 billion through the last 24 hours, compared to below-$1 billion 24-hour volumes earlier this month, according to CoinGecko.
The trading frenzy happened as Coinbase, Kraken and other exchanges re-listed or announced plans to reopen trading with the token on their platforms after a U.S. court’s long-anticipated ruling on Thursday in a lawsuit between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple Labs.
Read more: Ripple, Crypto Industry Score Partial Win in SEC Court Fight Over XRP
The judge said that sale of XRP tokens on exchanges and through algorithms did not constitute investment contracts, which eschewed risks for trading venues to allow users trade with the token.
“The role of Coinbase in distributing the XRP coin is a secondary one and with the clarity from the ruling, all fears of regulatory reprisals have now been allayed,” Greg Waisman, co-founder and COO of global payments platform Mercuryo, said in an email.
Kraken and Bitstamp relisted XRP on Thursday soon after the ruling. Coinbase and Gemini said that they were planning to reintroduce trading with the token. Embattled exchange Binance.US opened trading with XRP on Friday.
South Korean exchange UpBit, a popular venue for XRP traders, recorded $2.5 billion of trading volume with the token.
Krisztian Sandor
Krisztian Sandor recently graduated from NYU's business and economic reporter program as a Fulbright fellow and worked with Reuters and Forbes previously. Originally from Budapest, Hungary, he is now based in New York. He holds BTC and ETH.