The price of bitcoin rose to its highest level in 13 months on Thursday following the publication of a ruling against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which some saw as a favourable precedent for crypto-currencies.
The world’s most valuable digital currency, with a global capitalisation of more than $600 billion, rose to $31,818 on the heels of the ruling. This is the first time it has experienced such a rise since early June 2022.
All the major cryptocurrencies jumped in unison, including Ethereum and its unit, Ether, which gained more than 6% in a matter of minutes.
A Manhattan federal judge on Thursday partially dismissed the SEC’s case against the creators of the XRP cryptocurrency, Ripple Labs, accused of marketing their currency without first registering it with the market regulator.
The SEC has argued for years that certain digital currencies are financial securities, like stocks or bonds, and are therefore subject to its supervision as an investment product, a view that is hotly contested.
Magistrate Analisa Torres ruled that the SEC’s argument could not be upheld for individuals who bought XRP, although she agreed with the regulator regarding institutional investors.
Thursday’s ruling is a slap in the face for the SEC, which has changed tack in recent months and taken the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange platform, Binance, and the leading US player, Coinbase, to court.
Since 2020, a dozen industry participants have been targeted by the regulator, which is determined to clean up what SEC chairman Gary Gensler describes as the “Wild West”.
