XRP’s journey to $1: Could an appeal hinder things?

• SEC’s decision to appeal could negatively affect XRP’s trajectory.
• If Ripple wins again, then the ride above $1 could be all but confirmed.

Undoubtedly, the recent favorable ruling for Ripple [XRP] in its legal battle against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) injected fresh optimism into the XRP community. And of course, it propelled the token’s value upward. 

How much are 1,10,100, XRPs worth today?

However, recent developments like the SEC confirming it was going to appeal the court’s decision raises the question of whether XRP’s path to $1 could face disruption. 

Before the SEC’s decision to appeal the previous ruling, Judge Torres, the judge in charge of the case, had approved the motion for a pre-trial, which many predicted could slide the three-year-old case into 2024.

But now the regulatory agency’s action has changed the course of the case, will XRP be affected? Previously, when the euphoria around the XRP win was considerably high, there were several predictions that the token could surge much higher than its current value, with the first target at $1.

Posing risks to the ledger

However, XRP has not been able to meet up with the projection despite the impressive rally at some point. If the appeal goes in favor of the SEC, the optimism around the token could change to a gloomy nature. But what metrics could be affected?

First off, since XRP’s win, activity on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) has been quite impressive. And according to Whale Chart, there has been an average of 1.2 million transactions on the ledger since August began.

The XRPL is Ripple’s decentralized public blockchain which helps in the verification and confirmation of XRP transactions. Besides the law of demand and supply, XRP’s slightly deflationary nature means that the XRPL also impacts its value.

If the appeal ends in a judgment reversal, then the daily amount of XRPL trustlines, as shown below, may decrease. And if this happens, XRP may also fall from the $0.62 region it has been holding on to dearly.

Source: Santiment

Metrics need to align

Conversely, another win for the token might unilaterally push it to $1 or above.

XRP’s price volatility has fallen since its hike in April and mid-July. At press time, the volatility was 0.083. Thus, XRP’s price may not fluctuate within a wide range.

Realistic or not, here’s XRP’s market cap in BTC terms

Another metric that might be vital in influencing XRP’s price action is network growth. As a measure of adoption, the network growth shows the number of new addresses being created on a network.

Source: Santiment

At press time, the metric was down to 427, signaling a drop in traction. For XRP to escape a drawdown irrespective of the outcome of the appeal, these metrics discussed may need to align upwards.