Early on Thursday, Ripple’s XRP is enjoying some strength, supported by a bullish mood in the wider crypto sector, especially in Ethereum, as well as some interesting developments in the lawsuit between the firm and the SEC. At the time of writing, XRP/USD is trading at around $0.72.

Cryptocurrencies overall have been trading positive ever since market leaders Bitcoin and Ethereum received newfound interest among investors. While Bitcoin readies itself for another test of the key $40,000 level, Ethereum has been seeing strong bullish moves ahead of the release of the much-awaited EIP-1559 upgrade coming up soon. This sentiment has helped increase interest in trading the XRP token as well, helping it reclaim the key $0.70 level once again.

Meanwhile, on the legal front, the court has permitted Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse access to obtain documents from Binance pertaining to XRP’s transactions. Given that this data has to come in from overseas, as Binance is based in the Cayman Islands, it will go on to prove that XRP’s sales took place outside the US, and hence, cannot come under the jurisdiction of the SEC, a key point that works in Ripple’s favor in the lawsuit.

During the previous session, when speaking with CNBC, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler maintained that many crypto assets are considered securities, a comment that could potentially bring more digital assets under the regulator’s focus after it is done with Ripple’s XRP. Garlinghouse came down hard against Gensler’s outlook, stating, “In my judgment, if you’re dealing with an alcoholic that doesn’t want to admit they have an alcohol problem, to say that we have certainty, we have clarity, is like the alcoholic saying ‘I don’t have a problem’. This is the elephant in the room.”

He made these comments while speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, and also hinted that Ripple could be looking at moving its operations outside the US due to the lack of regulatory clarity. Not only has the company been expanding its staff across London and Singapore but has also onboarded new ODL customers to a company based outside the US.

Key Levels to Watch

The 4-hour chart of XRP/USD is showing mixed signals, with most of the smaller timeframe MAs as well as the MACD indicator are suggesting a selling bias. On the other hand, the larger timeframe MAs and the momentum indicator are flashing buy.

The price is holding above the pivot point at $0.70 and has some way to go to test the first resistance at $0.79. A break past this can propel XRP’s price above the $0.80 mark where continued buying can see investors face the next hurdle at the $0.87 resistance level.