Ripple’s XRP is one of the big gainers in the crypto market in early trading on Thursday, trading bullish on optimism after the company announced the deployment of its RippleNet On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service to improve cross-border remittances between Japan and the Philippines. At the time of writing, XRP/USD is trading at around $0.71, up by over 11% in the past 24 hours.

Despite the ongoing lawsuit with the SEC waiting to conclude whether the XRP is a security, Ripple is making considerable expansion of its business interests into Asia. The latest development in partnership with SBI Remit Co., Ltd, and mobile payments service Coins.ph will allow the use of Ripple’s blockchain technology for faster and cheaper remittances, valued at around $2 billion annually.

Earlier this year, Ripple had also partnered with Novatti Group to improve remittances between Australia and the Philippines. In addition, Ripple’s plans to acquire a 40% stake in Asia’s leading cross-border payments firm Tranglo further confirms the company’s strategy of expanding into the APAC region and expand cross-border payments using its ODL technology.

On the legal front, investors keenly awaited developments following the deposition of former SEC executive William Hinman which was scheduled for earlier this week. However, since the deposition is a sworn testimony and not a public hearing, it is unlikely that it would be released to the public in its entirety anytime soon.

Even as Hinman’s testimony remains unavailable at the moment, investors feel hopeful that the case could go in Ripple’s favor, especially after recent comments from two SEC commissioners on the uncertain definition of digital assets. The company’s executives Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen have filed to dismiss the case against them after SEC’s Hester Peirce and Elad Roisman acknowledged the lack of clarity on the regulatory status of digital assets in a separate instance relating to Coinschedule.

Key Levels to Watch

On the 4-hour chart of XRP/USD, moving averages as well as leading technical indicators MACD and momentum are signaling a strong bullish bias, so the uptrend could continue in the near-term. The price is well above the pivot point at $0.58 and has also broken past two resistance levels at $0.64 and then again at $0.68.

With buyers taking Ripple’s XRP above the key $0.70 level again, watch out for the next resistance they could encounter at $0.79. Overcoming this level can take XRP back above the $0.80 mark.