Ripple’s XRP is on a sharp downtrend on Tuesday, losing almost 9% of its value over the past 24 hours as the crypto market trades in shock from Bitcoin falling under the $30,000 mark. At the time of writing, XRP/USD is trading at around $0.

The legal drama between Ripple and the SEC is getting interesting with several key developments scheduled for this week, starting with former SEC executive William Hinman’s deposition. After originally being slated to happen on Monday, the court has postponed it until July 27 amid discussions between both parties on the privilege issues. The judge permitting Hinman’s deposition does provide a sliver of hope to XRP holders that the case may go in Ripple’s favor, especially as it could support the company’s fair notice defense, something the SEC has repeatedly tried to stop.

Meanwhile, lawyers of Ripple submitted a request in the previous session to the court to dismiss the ongoing lawsuit, citing SEC commissioners’ recent comments. In a statement made on July 14, SEC commissioners Hester Price and Elad Roisman had spoken out against actions taken by the SEC on Coinschedule, stating that there was lack of clarity on which of the tokens it promoted were securities in addition to how tokens are defined in general.

According to their statements, “Market participants have difficulty getting a lawyer to sign off that something is not a securities offering or does not implicate the securities laws; they also cannot get a clear answer, backed by a clear Commission-level statement, that something is a securities offering.”

Key Levels to Watch

On the 4-hour chart of XRP/USD, moving averages as well as leading technical indicators MACD and momentum are suggesting a bearish bias among investors. The price is well below the pivot point at $0.60 and has broken below the first support level at $0.54 as well.

The bearish pressure is likely to continue in Ripple’s XRP in keeping with the mood towards the overall crypto market. Watch out for the next support which sits at $0.50 as a breakdown of this level opens the door for XRP to crash towards $0.40 and lower.