The regulator alleges that the company conducted a $1.3 billion unregistered securities offering and failing to provide investors with adequate disclosures about XRP.
Industry leaders have been lamenting the demise of the company and some creative soul has even created a CNBC parody advising investors on how to short the asset.
This is SAVAGE.
CNBC’s @BKBrianKelly walks through how to short $XRP on https://t.co/NJwRrmnht6 pic.twitter.com/qGl9msB79Q
— Luke Martin (@VentureCoinist) December 22, 2020
To reiterate, the above video is a spoof and is not real.
RIP Ripple
What is real, however, is the torrent of commentary from crypto industry leaders and influencers lamenting the dire situation the company now finds itself in following the SEC ruling.
Chart guru and Bitcoin bull Willy Woo kicked off another bout of crypto tribalism with these comments;
Ripple Labs: We have stopped dumping our treasury of XRP onto the market. I know we have been doing it for 7 years, and its our business model, but you know, everything is cool. Nothing to see here.
XRP Army: Buy more, no sell pressure!
SEC: Speechless 😳
— Willy Woo (@woonomic) December 22, 2020
Compound Finance legal counsel Jake Chervinsky added;
“This is quite bad for Ripple. Not exactly worst case, that’d be securities fraud, but close. XRP is basically useless if deemed a security. Alleging violations through present day is a kill shot. Charging individual executives is remarkable.”
Meanwhile, Cinneamhain Ventures partner Adam Cochran noted that exchanges have started delisting XRP, beginning with the relatively obscure Beaxy exchange. He expressed surprise that bigger exchanges had not pulled the trigger first.
New York Times technology reporter, Nathaniel Popper, observed that some XRP investors and defenders now appear to be deleting some of their old tweets in support of the project.
In its feeble attempts to defend itself, Ripple accused Bitcoin and Ethereum of being ‘Chinese controlled’ to which Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin responded;
“Looks like the Ripple/XRP team is sinking to new levels of strangeness. They’re claiming that their shitcoin should not be called a security for *public policy reasons*, namely because Bitcoin and Ethereum are “Chinese-controlled”.”
Anderson Kill partner Stephan Palley took a deep dive into the lawsuit exposing how Ripple executives got fat off the profits.
So, this Ripple lawsuit, let’s talk about it, shall we? pic.twitter.com/kq8NLtrJ5x
— Palley (@stephendpalley) December 22, 2020
XRP Price Collapses
Unsurprisingly, the XRP selloff has accelerated today with the asset dumping a further 20% over the past 24 hours.
XRP prices have dumped to $0.387 at the time of writing, losing around 40% over the past five days. Since its 2020 peak of $0.73 in late November, the Ripple token has plunged almost 50%.
Investors and retail traders alike are dropping the beleaguered token like hot rocks today.
XRP is a great example of why you shouldn’t put all of your crypto eggs in one basket 🥚🧺
Diversify
— Dan | CCV | ⚡️ (@cryptorecruitr) December 23, 2020
In all likelihood, XRP will continue its retreat back to its bear market floor of around $0.20 or, in the worst case, even lower.
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