Investing.com — Bitcoin price was little changed on Thursday as broader market volatility kept traders largely wary of cryptocurrencies, though XRP rose sharply after Issues ordered Labs to pay a fraction of the penalties sought by the SEC.
At 01:48 ET (05:48 GMT), the token was up 0.2% to $56,934.9. While the token recovered from lows of around $49,000 hit earlier this week, it still remained below levels seen before Monday’s devastating drop.
XRP surges after Ripple ordered to pay $125 million fine to SEC
rose 18.2% to $0.6047, having risen as much as 26% after Ripple Labs, the token's issuer, was ordered to pay $125 million in fines to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Jude Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York imposed the fine on Ripple after finding that the company violated securities law in its institutional sales of XRP.
Ripple has also been ordered by courts not to register any future sales of securities.
However, the fine was a fraction of the $2 billion fine sought by the SEC, and was seen as a “victory” by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse.
“We respect the Court’s decision and have the clarity to continue growing our company. This is a victory for Ripple, the industry, and the rule of law,” Garlinghouse said in a post on social media.
It was not immediately clear whether the SEC would appeal the decision.
Despite Thursday’s gains, XRP has yet to fully recover the losses suffered over the past week.
Bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices suffer sharp losses as risk appetite remains fragile
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices have generally been range-bound and posting sharp losses this week as concerns about slowing U.S. economic growth and rising Japanese interest rates hit risk-driven markets.
While the SEC-Ripple ruling clarified a major and long-standing point of contention for cryptocurrency markets, it still failed to provide clarity on what U.S. regulations will mean for the industry.
Weak sentiment towards risk-driven assets also kept traders averse to cryptocurrencies, given their highly speculative nature.
The world's No. 2 token fell 2.9% to $2,430.80, while ADA and SOL rose slightly.
Among meme tokens, they rose 1%, while they lost 1.8%.
