Ripple Supporters Appeal to the White House to Classify XRP as a Digital Currency

In a move to support Ripple, XRP advocates have decided to file a petition with the White House asking it to declare the asset a virtual currency.

Demands of the Ripple community

The movement was led by an anonymous supporter going by the initials of “J.W.” Per the petition, some individuals in the cryptocurrency industry believe that the Securities and Exchange’s lawsuit pursuing Ripple for XRP sales is uncalled for.

In the petition, Ripple supporters argue that XRP has already previously been classified as a currency by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). They also evoke the fact that the SEC’s lawsuit alleging that XRP should be registered as a security has been damaging to the US market, wiping out billions of investments. This is criticized as the SEC not fulfilling their line of duty – to protect Americans. Per the official petition:

“Billions of dollars of value is (sic) being wiped from the market in rapid succession and most critically, hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans – the very Americans that the SEC is tasked to protect – are suffering irreparable harm and damages.”

In order for the petition to go through and be reviewed by the White House, a total of 100,000 signatures need to be collected by January 28, 2021. Currently, 24,330 XRP advocates have joined the cause and signed. The petition still needs 75,670 signatures before White House executives will review it.

SEC puts Ripple on the naughty list for Christmas

The petition comes at the nick of time, as Ripple’s first court date is set for February 22, 2021. The pretrial between the SEC and Ripple will be held via video call and the United States District Judge Analisa Torres has demanded that both parties present arguments for the case, including potential motions and the likelihood of a settlement.

The Securities and Exchange Commission slapped Ripple with a lawsuit for selling XRP as unregistered securities right before the holidays in December. Per the suit, the Commission alleges that Ripple earned $1.3 billion from selling XRP tokens and that both the company’s CEO and co-founder pocketed around $600 million each. Ripple is determined to fight this and is confident that it will win.

Why it may be a good time to buy XRP

Needless to say, the lawsuit against Ripple has served to defame XRP. However, should Ripple win, this may benefit the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. Digital currencies will not be as easily classified as securities if Ripple is able to fight the lawsuit.

Additionally, for investors who have benefitted from XRP’s massive drop on the market by buying the token at a lower price, they may be able to reap a profit from XRP if they hold onto the asset on a long-term basis and wait for XRP’s price to return to “healthy levels.”

Previously, before the lawsuit, XRP was trading at around $0.60, even hitting $0.90 on Coinbase.