- XRP has risen over 10% since Ripple launched the RLUSD stablecoin.
- XRP investors booked nearly $1.5 billion in profits in the past 24 hours following its recent price rise.
- XRP struggles near the $2.58 resistance as investors maintain the $4.75 target.
Ripple (XRP) is up 3% on Wednesday after witnessing significant profit-taking among its investors following the launch of the RLUSD stablecoin. Whales have soaked up the selling pressure from profit-takers as XRP struggles near the $2.58 resistance level.
XRP investors realized $1.48 billion in profits following RLUSD launch
Ripple confirmed in an X post on Tuesday that its RLUSD stablecoin has gone live across exchanges, including Uphold, MoonPay, Keyrock, Archax, Bitso and CoinMENA.
Ripple USD (RLUSD) is now live on global exchanges.
An enterprise-grade stablecoin built for everyone, $RLUSD combines fiat stability with blockchain efficiency:
➡️ Instant global payments, 24/7
➡️ Seamless on/off ramps
➡️ Access value in real-world assets.… pic.twitter.com/lJ43GdoDGR— Ripple (@Ripple) December 17, 2024
After Ripple’s initial announcement of RLUSD’s launch on Monday, XRP began rallying, rising over 10% since the announcement.
Following the rise, XRP investors continued their profit-taking behavior, realizing over $1.48 billion in profits. This is the second-highest single-day realized profits XRP has seen in 2024.
The sustained high prices in the face of such significant profit-taking show buyers have been weathering the selling activity from profit-takers.
 [03.15.39, 18 Dec, 2024]-638700849553374849.png)
XRP Network Realized Profit/Loss | Santiment
However, it’s important to note that consistent profit-taking at elevated levels could signal local market tops. This potentially explains why XRP has been consolidating since December 2.
The buying pressure that has kept prices afloat must have come from whales, as Santiment data shows XRP whale holdings increased by over 800 million XRP, worth nearly $2 billion, in the past two days. The growing amount of whale holdings signals bullish sentiment is still dominant in the market.
 [03.16.44, 18 Dec, 2024]-638700850272401297.png)
XRP Whale Supply Distribution | Santiment
Despite the bullish whale activity, XRP’s Weighted Sentiment is at low levels, indicating the wider market doesn’t hold a bullish view on its price.
Ripple’s XRP struggles near $2.58 resistance amid quest for new all-time high at $4.75
XRP is up 3% after sustaining nearly $26 million in liquidations in the past 24 hours, per Coinglass data. The total amount of liquidated long positions accounted for $12.74 million, and short liquidations reached $13.22 million.
XRP continued validating a flag pattern on Wednesday after testing the resistance level near $2.58. The remittance-based token has established the upper boundary of the flag channel as a key support level.
XRP/USDT daily chart
If XRP manages to overcome the resistance level at $2.58 and $2.92 with a high volume move, it could smash its all-time high resistance and rally to $4.75.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) and Stochastic Oscillator are near their overbought regions, indicating prices are getting overheated.
A daily candlestick close below the support level at $1.96 will invalidate the thesis.
SEC vs Ripple lawsuit FAQs
It depends on the transaction, according to a court ruling released on July 14, 2023: For institutional investors or over-the-counter sales, XRP is a security. For retail investors who bought the token via programmatic sales on exchanges, on-demand liquidity services and other platforms, XRP is not a security.
The United States Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Ripple and its executives of raising more than $1.3 billion through an unregistered asset offering of the XRP token. While the judge ruled that programmatic sales aren’t considered securities, sales of XRP tokens to institutional investors are indeed investment contracts. In this last case, Ripple did breach the US securities law and had to pay a $125 million civil fine.
The ruling offers a partial win for both Ripple and the SEC, depending on what one looks at. Ripple gets a big win over the fact that programmatic sales aren’t considered securities, and this could bode well for the broader crypto sector as most of the assets eyed by the SEC’s crackdown are handled by decentralized entities that sold their tokens mostly to retail investors via exchange platforms, experts say. Still, the ruling doesn’t help much to answer the key question of what makes a digital asset a security, so it isn’t clear yet if this lawsuit will set precedent for other open cases that affect dozens of digital assets. Topics such as which is the right degree of decentralization to avoid the “security” label or where to draw the line between institutional and programmatic sales persist.
The SEC has stepped up its enforcement actions toward the blockchain and digital assets industry, filing charges against platforms such as Coinbase or Binance for allegedly violating the US Securities law. The SEC claims that the majority of crypto assets are securities and thus subject to strict regulation. While defendants can use parts of Ripple’s ruling in their favor, the SEC can also find reasons in it to keep its current strategy of regulation by enforcement.
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