 
 
XRP, the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has slumped below the $3 psychological mark amid a sharp crypto market sell-off as macroeconomic uncertainty persists.
Well-known attorney Bill Morgan has asserted that the dull price action of the cross-border payments token can no longer be attributed to Ripple’s legal troubles with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“Lawsuit Excuse Has Run Its Course”
It all started when one X user, going by the name Jake Claver, asked in a post whether the $125 million in escrowed funds from Ripple for the penalty imposed by the court in the SEC lawsuit had been settled with the Treasury.
Prolific XRP commentator Marc Fagel responded that the fine was paid to the US Treasury last month, essentially closing the nearly five-year battle against the Securities and Exchange Commission.
As such, lawyer Bill Morgan believes XRP community members cannot blame the legal battle for suppressing XRP’s price.
 
“The lawsuit excuse has run its course for any further lack of XRP adoption or flat price action,” Morgan wrote on X.
The SEC, under then-chairman Jay Clayton, filed a lawsuit against Ripple in 2020, accusing it of raising $1.3 billion via an unregistered securities sale offering. The case dragged on for years, putting a regulatory cloud over XRP.
But in July 2023, Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP sold through exchanges did not qualify as securities, while some sales to institutional investors did. The mixed ruling gave XRP breathing room but stopped short of a full victory.
The legal fight officially ended in August when both sides agreed to dismiss their respective appeals. By then, XRP holders had enjoyed some of the most spectacular gains in years. The asset rocketed over 70% after the 2023 Ripple win, climbing from around 47 cents to 80 cents. It popped to its current lifetime high of $3.65 earlier in July before recoiling.
XRP was changing hands at $2.85 as of publication time, down 4.5% over the last 24 hours. The correction coincides with the debut of the first U.S.-listed XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF), which smashed records with $37.7 million in day one volume, but heavy profit-taking seems to have overpowered the bullish tailwind.