The XRP community is asking the U.S government to recognize XRP as a cryptocurrency. To achieve this, the community has started a petition which already has over 21,00 signatures at the time of this report.
The SEC has for years contended that XRP is not a currency but rather a security. The XRP community obviously has a different perspective as they have also insisted that XRP is a currency like BTC and ETH. The case has been in court for years but has not yielded any results in making the SEC change their mind on XRP’s status.
The petition may have been triggered by the recent lawsuit the commission filed against Ripple and its CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Co-Founder Chris Larsen. The suit alleges that Ripple and its executives have been swelling XRP, an unregistered security, and made more than $1.5 billion in profits from the sale.
Ripple’s CEO has since alleged that the suit is not just a fight against Ripple but against the entire crypto space. He blamed the matter on the lack of clear regulations for the crypto space, particularly in the U.S. He also said that Ripple is determined to fight the case to the end and get justice for the company.
Meanwhile, a number of major crypto exchanges including Coinbase have delisted XRP. The combined effects of the delisting and the lawsuit have caused major declines in the price of the cryptocurrency, taking it below $0.2. Earlier in November 2020, the price rose as high as $0.6 before the lawsuit.
Investors also seem to be losing interest as the biggest digital assets management platform Grayscale allegedly sold over 9 million XRP recently. The petition target is to reach 100,000 signatures by the end of January. Whether this will regain investors’ confidence and set XRP on the path to success however remains to be seen.