The Ripple Q4 report shows a decline in key KPIs. XRP decreased by 5% as of press time, after solid gains in January.
Prior to a potential settlement in the SEC complaint, Ripple Labs [XRP] looked optimistic about its prospects in the two-year-long dispute over the status of XRP in its fourth-quarter results report. The report concluded:
“After two years of battling this lawsuit on behalf of the whole cryptocurrency sector and American innovation, Ripple is proud of its defense and more confident than ever as it awaits the judge’s judgement.”
Additionally, Ripple accused the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of ‘regulation by enforcement.’
The on-chain activity on the XRP ledger [XRPL] decreased significantly year over year. While the number of wallets decreased by over 63%, the total number of transactions decreased by 18%, from around 130 million in Q4 2021 to 106 million.
Nevertheless, the same set of measures improved over the prior quarter. In addition, Ripple emphasized the development of its on-demand liquidity (ODL) client base as a result of its entry into more collaborations in the European and African markets. Despite this, quarter-over-quarter sales of the platform’s cryptocurrency, XRP, decreased by 27%.
The research also showed that XRP’s trading volume decreased by 11% from Q3’s $72.65 billion to just over $64 billion.
The quarterly report might be detrimental to XRP investors’ interests. According to statistics from CoinMarketCap, at the time of publication, the coin’s value had decreased by over 5%, with a corresponding decrease in its market capitalization.
This followed a rather strong start for XRP in 2023, during which it secured gains of 18% and recaptured its pre-FTX market capitalization level of $20 billion.
The market indicators displayed cautionary signs. From recent highs, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) dropped rapidly to its neutral level. In addition, the Awesome Oscillator (AO) was in the red, and the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) showed a bearish crossing, which might result in a big pullback for XRP.
At press time, the weighted sentiment for XRP was low, having reached the positive region following a week of investor pessimism. Network growth and daily active addresses have slowed, suggesting a decline in network activity.
The outcome of the SEC’s action against Ripple over the status of XRP may have huge ramifications for the whole cryptocurrency industry. As of now, the regulations regulating the classification of cryptocurrencies as commodities or securities remain unclear.
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