XRP price soars by over 20% in anticipation of today’s Ripple SEC hearing

• Speculation that the SEC could provide clarity for crypto exchanges in today’s hearing is fueling the XRP rally. 
• The telephonic discovery conference starts at 20:00 CET.

Numerous analysts have predicted an “altcoin season” for April and a look at the top-100 by market cap shows just that. At the top of the best performing altcoins within the top-30 is currently XRP. The price has risen by over 21% within the last 24 hours and now stands at $0.88.

One possible reason for this seems to be today’s hearing in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) lawsuit against Ripple. As CNF reported, this is the next big event. A telephonic discovery conference will be held at 20:00 CET to discuss Ripple’s request for disclosure of SEC documents regarding the classification of Bitcoin and Ethereum as non-securities.

Members of the public
interested in listening to the conference should dial (877) 402-9757 and enter Access Code
7938632, followed by the pound (#) key.

— Jeremy Hogan (@attorneyjeremy) April 5, 2021

Moreover, the XRP community is nursing hopes that the SEC will clarify today that third parties selling XRP, such as exchanges or retail investors, cannot be sued by the SEC for any future activity. If this happens, all exchanges and investment funds that have suspended trading XRP for U.S. customers would likely resume trading within a week or two.

As a result, the XRP price could experience a strong pump, similar to the “Coinbase effect,” only doubled, as has been voiced several times recently in the community. The pump thus seems to be a speculation that the SEC will provide clarity today.

Whether this will really happen, however, seems at least questionable. In its response to attorney John E. Deaton’s motion to intervene, the SEC made it relatively clear that it is pursuing a two-pronged strategy. It apparently does not want to commit at this time whether it is only talking about past XRP sales or also post-suit (future) sales. Moreover, the SEC claims that Deaton and the intervenors are only concerned with a relisting on crypto exchanges in order to “resume speculative trading” of XRP.