Ripple's XRP Holds Steady Amid SEC Drama and Thacher's Role

• XRP trades at $0.6133 and has held steady at this range for the past month, signalling accumulation among investors, despite all the uncertainty around the token and Ripple.
• The latest on the case is former SEC director Bill Hinman’s link to a US listing by Chinese company Weibo which was accused of financial crimes that the SEC refused to investigate.

The crypto market shot up on Monday to hit an overall market cap of $1.62 trillion for the first time since April last year. Bitcoin hit a new 18-month high as other cryptos recorded sudden surges. XRP also recorded a price rise, but unlike its peers, its gains were subdued and at press time, most of the gains had been eroded.

At press time, XRP trades at $0.6133, losing close to 4 percent in the past day. This places its market cap at $33 billion, maintaining fifth spot on the charts. But while the price has yet to pick up the pace, the trading volume shot up by 24 percent to hit $1.8 billion in the past day.

XRP’s lacklustre performance is out of place at a time when the market is on an uptrend. One of the factors that analysts have pointed to is the token’s inability to attract institutional investors.

According to CoinShares, XRP has only brought in $13 million in institutional flow since the year started. Bitcoin is the runaway market leader at $1.3 billion. However, XRP’s peers like Solana have performed better on this front, with SOL attracting $143 million this year, more than 10x of XRP’s investment. On institutional assets under management, XRP stands at $71, trailing Litecoin at $116, Solana at $455 million and Ethereum at $3 billion.

This lack of institutional interest has been attributed to Ripple’s legal struggles. However, the California company is on the verge of winning its case against the SEC and being the only crypto in the market with regulatory clarity from the US justice . But investors continue to shy off the crypto, revealing just how damaging the lawsuit by Jay Clayton was to the future of XRP.

SEC vs Ripple Continues to Hurt XRP

Speaking of the SEC, former director of the agency’s Division of Corporate Finance Bill Hinman is at the heart of it again. Hinman has been caught up in the thick of the legal battle, with each side fighting to have his controversial speech interpreted to favour their narrative.

In the latest event, Hinman was discovered to be about to earn millions of dollars in fees from the US offering of Weibo, a Chinese microblogging site akin to Twitter. The company plans to list American Depositary Shares for $0.00025. The curious aspect of the offering is that one of the companies offering legal guidance is Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett LLP, the same firm that Hinman is a part of.

As observed on Twitter, Hinman and his firm are set to cash in millions of dollars from the offering. While a director at the SEC, Hinman reportedly “ignored substantial financial misconduct allegations involving Weibo and its Chairman Charles Chao. Neil Shen from Sequoia, closely linked to Chao, was also involved in these suspected fraudulent activities.”

Bill Hinman’s law firm, Simpson Thacher, is poised to earn big fees from a new Weibo US offering. While at @secgov, Clayton/Hinman were malfeasant and ignored substantial financial misconduct allegations involving Weibo and its Chairman Charles Chao. Neil Shen from Sequoia,… pic.twitter.com/vGwvjORboj

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This and other accusations against Hinman and Clayton have led the XRP community to accuse the agency of having an agenda against Ripple.