Editor's note: This article was updated to reflect how XRP's price dropped after the SEC sued Ripple Labs for, it alleges, raising XRP through unregistered securities sales. 

All major coins by market capitalization have recovered from yesterday's short, sharp crypto-crash—apart from XRP, whose price continues to decline as traders grapple with a lawsuit that the US Securities and Exchange Commission today dropped on the coin's progenitor, Ripple.

The crypto crash started yesterday morning. At about 8 am UTC, the price of Bitcoin dropped from $23,900 to lows of $22,289. Other major coins followed in its wake. By 6 pm UTC yesterday, Ethereum had fallen by 6% from its daily peak; XRP by 8%; Litecoin by 10%; Bitcoin Cash by 11% and Chainlink by 8%. 

Bitcoin
BTC
-5.96%$101,152.19
24H7D1M1YMAX
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Price data by
BTC price

Today, most major coins—excluding XRP, and to a lesser extent, Bitcoin Cash—recovered or at least bandaged their wounds. Bitcoin rose by 0.76% to $23,331, Ethereum rose by 1.84% to $626, Litecoin by 1.65% to $110 and Chainlink has increased by 2.8%. Bitcoin Cash has fallen by 3.24% to $314. 

Ethereum
ETH
-11.92%$2,236.93
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Price data by
ETH price

But in the past 24 hours, the price of XRP has fallen by 16% to its current price of $0.43. It also slid from its position as the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. 

XRP
XRP
-13.32%$2.017
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Price data by
XRP price

One reason for the bloodletting could be the court case that the SEC slapped on Ripple Labs, the payments company associated with XRP.

SEC Files $1.3 Billion Lawsuit against XRP Creator Ripple

The US Securities and Exchange Commission today filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs, the company that created XRP, as well as co-founder Christian Larsen and incumbent CEO Brad Garlinghouse. The lawsuit, filed today in a Manhattan court, alleges that Ripple has raised $1.3 billion in unregistered securities offerings since 2013. SEC charges Ripple and two executives with conducting $1.3 billion unregistered securities offering https://t.co/3VP23RpSyV — SEC_News (@SEC_News) December 22, 2020 A...

NewsBusiness
2 min read
Robert Stevens

Garlinghouse told Fortune yesterday that the court case, which alleges that Ripple illegally distributed securities, is "an attack on the entire crypto industry and American innovation.”

Today, however, the attack honed in on one thing—the price of XRP. 

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.

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