Early on Friday, Ripple (XRP) is exhibiting signs of bearish moves, continuing to trend lower from the previous session when it lost over 5% of its value. At the time of writing, XRP/USD is trading around $0.86.

With the crypto market itself experiencing somewhat sluggish moves, moves in the XRP are likely to be dictated by the progress in the ongoing lawsuit between Ripple and the SEC. Unfortunately, the latest developments indicate a lack of clarity on which way the case could head, and whether Ripple could win the legal battle.

Both the SEC and Ripple continue to drag the tussle on in the court-room, with the Commission wanting to strike the company’s Fourth Affirmative Defense. Meanwhile, Ripple maintains its stance on ‘fair notice’, filing a sur-reply in court stating, “In its Reply, the SEC relies on a report by Cornerstone Research, a private consulting firm, to argue for the first time that Ripple’s fair notice defense “fails” because, “[p]rior to suing Ripple, the SEC had already brought more than seventy cases that subjected other digital assets to the application of the federal securities laws.”

Despite the legal uncertainties, analysts remain bullish about XRP’s long-term prospects, forecasting its value to rise above the key $1 level and ending 2021 anywhere between $1.20 and $1.50. The bullishness is supported by the increased adoption of Ripple’s technology by firms around the world and the rising interest by the company in the Asian markets.

Key Levels to Watch

On the 4-hour chart of XRP/USD, most of the moving averages as well as the momentum indicator are suggesting a bearish bias in the near-term. The price has fallen below a key support area at $0.89 and the next test would be at the $0.84 level, which is still holding as support for now.

In case this level holds and the sentiment improves, Ripple’s XRP will have to move past the pivot at $0.97 and break beyond the $1 level for the uptrend to strengthen. Increased buying interest could then take the price to test the resistance at $1.05 and push its price higher in the coming sessions.