XRP tanks 7% despite the Dubai License, why?

Ripple is having a good and a bad October at the same time. So much is working to Ripple’s advantage. So, why is XRP not responding to the positive market swing? According to on-chain data from CoinGecko, XRP is down 7.2% in the last 24 hours now trading at $0.5846.

XRP tanks, despite the Dubai license

According to recent reports, Ripple secured in-principle approval from Dubai’s regulators, giving it the green light to roll out its financial services across the UAE. The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) approval allows Ripple Labs to promote its payment solutions through the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). 

At the same time, Bitwise has registered an XRP exchange-traded fund trust entity that appeared on Delaware’s Division of Corporations website.

According to the filing, the Bitwise XRP ETF was registered on Sept. 30. The Delaware registration does not necessarily mean an application with the US SEC is imminent. A formal SEC filing could take months.

The registration comes just months after Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, hinted about such a financial product, describing an XRP ETF as “inevitable.” So, why is XRP on the bad receiving end despite the market progress? That would be October 7th.

There have been increased discussions around a potential SEC appeal in the courts. After the July ruling with Ripple, the securities regulator had until October 7 to appeal the verdict. Alex Thorn, Head of Research at Galaxy Digital, believes the XRP ETF will fail if the SEC files a countermotion on October 7th.

“[The] SEC has until next week (Oct. 7) to appeal Judge Torres’ July 2023 ruling (which held that secondary sales of XRP through exchanges were not securities),” Thorn said. “[The] likelihood of this ETF filing succeeding drops to near zero if they do appeal.”

In addition,  Marc Powers, a blockchain professor and former SEC enforcement attorney, told Fox Business that the SEC will likely appeal. He said, “I would think it would not want to have the programmatic trading analysis stand.” 

This looks like a very dark path ahead for Ripple Labs. However, XRP fanatics have kept the market afloat despite earlier legal challenges and the lawfare against the crypto industry.