Ripple Labs’ very popular tokens had a rough year for most of 2024. But it was one of the biggest movers of the year as markets rallied after Trump’s election. Here are 8 important Ripple news headlines of the year.
Ripple Expert on XRPL’s DeFi powers (January 1)
Ripple has had a volatile start to the year with XRPL developer Wietse Wind clearing up some misconceptions about the platform. The developer, who launched XRP Ledger for decentralized finance using XRP tokens, cleared up the confusion for everyone. Wind also blasted the FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) around regulatory threats to XRP’s economics with a recap of Ripple Labs’ decisive victory against the US Securities and Exchange Commission in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. He made the following statements:
With XRP Ledger, native tokens can be used on a fully decentralized platform with smart contract issuance. This makes it more similar to Ethereum and Solana than many cryptocurrency traders even know today.
XRP Ethereum integrations launch (February 11)
One of the key drivers of XRP’s continued and strong growth in market capitalization is its aggressive expansion into new partnerships around the world and new integrations supporting XRP on other blockchain networks such as Ethereum. In February, the CEO of Peersyst Technology, a Ripple Partner, announced that a new Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) sidechain of XRP Ledger will begin rewarding validator nodes with XRP tokens. This was a good thing for hardcore XRP Army types who didn’t have to sell tokens to use them with Ethereum smart contracts.
XRP expands in Korea and Japan (July 21)
While battling SEC securities fraud allegations in US courts, Ripple Labs has continued to develop its platform with several new overseas partnerships this year. These partnerships will play a key role in growing Ripple’s economy and seriously competing with SWIFT for daily payment share. In July, Ripple Labs made two new international expansions in the Asia-Pacific region, one in South Korea and one in Japan. In Korea, Infinite Block, the country’s only state-licensed VASP (crypto asset service provider), announced support for the new XRP Ledger. The integration comes just days after Ripple Labs announced the creation of a new XRPL Japan and Korea Fund.
SEC case fine reduced from $2 billion to $150 million (August 8)
On August 8th, US Judge Analisa Torres handed Ripple a major victory in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan. The SEC had been seeking a $2 billion payment or fine for Ripple Labs over allegations of selling XRP as an unregistered security. Torres dealt a devastating blow to the government plaintiff in this case in August, after the judge handed the company three other landmark victories last year for both Ripple Labs and the blockchain industry in general. Instead of the $2 billion demanded by the SEC, Torres ordered Ripple to pay a relatively low payment of $125 million.
Grayscale launches XRP trust (September 12)
In September, the XRP economy took a big step towards market adoption by institutional players trading on Wall Street. Cryptocurrency asset management company Grayscale announced on September 12 the creation of a new US-regulated XRP trust product. This is similar to Bitcoin ETFs and Ether ETFs (exchange-traded funds), which the SEC greenlit on January 11 and May 23. However, the difference between ETFs and trusts is that the former are open funds while the latter are closed. According to Grayscale data, the new XRP trust will close 2024 with a 300% gain for investors.
SEC lawsuit accelerates proceedings for Ripple (Nov. 28)
Since the SEC first sued Ripple Labs in December 2020 for allegedly selling unregistered securities, Ripple has repeatedly prevailed against the US regulator in court. For example, the judge hearing the case ruled in July 2023 that secondary sales of XRP were not an investment contract and therefore not an unregistered security. Then, in October 2023, the SEC removed Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and founder Chris Larsen as named defendants in its multi-year lawsuit, leaving only Ripple Labs to fight in court. Finally, after the fine was reduced from $2 billion to $150 million this August, Ripple Labs won another battle on November 28 when Judge Torres decided to expedite the final decision in the case.
Ripple overtakes BNB and Solana
XRP tokens traded on crypto exchanges are neck and neck with two other altcoins in terms of total market capitalization, or the market capitalization of their economies. After Donald Trump’s re-election to the White House in November, XRP’s price surged up the price chart and surpassed BNB (Binance Coin) in terms of total market capitalization on December 1. It then overtook SOL (Solana) on December 2, making XRP the third largest cryptocurrency in the world (excluding stablecoins) behind Bitcoin and Ethereum.
XRP reached its highest price in 7 years (December 2)
In addition to flipping BNB and SOL tokens, XRP surged to a 7-year record price of almost $3 on December 2nd. This implies strong support for market prices going forward as Bitcoin continues to track the fourth four-year macro market cycle based on planned supply adjustments.
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