XRP's Price Dips to $0.26 in Sudden Crash Following SEC Lawsuit

The price of XRP has fallen to $0.26. This marks a decline of 42% in the past day, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

XRP's price started to crash on Monday, when Ripple Labs, the company linked to XRP, announced that the US Securities and Exchange Commission was about to slap it with a lawsuit.

Then fell even further yesterday after the SEC officially announced the lawsuit.

The suit alleges that Ripple has raised $1.3 billion worth of XRP in unregistered securities sales since 2013—and continues to do so. Ripple has long maintained a huge amount of XRP in escrow wallets, which it sells periodically to manipulate the supply of XRP in circulation, a little like a central bank. The SEC alleges that such activities are illegal. The suit also named Ripple's co-founder Christian Larsen and incumbent CEO Brad Garlinghouse as defendants.

The price of XRP had settled at about $0.3 this afternoon but fell a further four cents this evening to its current price of $0.26.

Since the SEC announced the charges, three exchanges have since stopped trading the cryptocurrency and Bitwise has liquidated all XRP from its fund. The Block reported today that two of the largest crypto trading desks, Jump Trading and Galaxy Digital, will no longer act as market makers for the coin.