Genesis Trading Saw 'Uptick' in Altcoin Activity After Ripple SEC Decision

Institutional trading platform Genesis Trading claims to have seen increased activity in altcoins following the latest developments in the Ripple SEC case.

Less than a week ago, federal district judge Analisa Torres ruled that programmatic sales of XRP do not qualify as securities, but institutional sales of XRP do qualify the coin as a security.

"We've seen a little bit of an uptick in activity for alts, after the XRP decision," Joshua Barkhordar, head of sales at Genesis Trading, told Decrypt. "We're also seeing a lot of clients showing interest in alts, where they may not have shown it otherwise, before."

What are altcoins?

Altcoins refer to any cryptocurrency outside of Bitcoin and Ethereum; which Barkhordar mentioned has also seen "a lot of activity" following the XRP ruling. 

"In the months prior to this, when Bitcoin was trading around $25,000 to $27,000, clients were opening up strike prices around $30,000 to $33,000," Barkhordar said, adding that, "we've seen institutional clients position themselves for potential upside.” Following the judge’s ruling on XRP, “we started to realize some of that upside—and, if anything, clients are kind of jumping on the bandwagon and getting more bullish now."

A strike price gives the holder the right to buy or sell an asset, at a later date, at a predetermined price.

The XRP ruling was only the latest in a "series of bullish events" for crypto, Barkhordar said. He pointed to Blackrock's progression in launching a spot Bitcoin ETF and the FED pausing on the last interest rate hike as two events that also caused a "tailwind for digital assets."

"I think that we're going to probably see more bullish sentiment in the foreseeable future," Barkhordar said.