The price of bitcoin rose to its highest level in thirteen months on Thursday, July 13, after the publication of a judgment contrary to the American regulator, the SEC, in which some see a favorable precedent for cryptocurrencies. The world’s largest digital currency, with a global capitalization of more than $600 billion, rose to $31,818, a first since early June 2022.
All major cryptocurrencies surged in unison, including Ethereum, and its unit, Ether, which gained more than 6% in minutes. A Manhattan federal judge on Thursday partially dismissed the SEC’s attack on the creators of the XRP cryptocurrency, Ripple Labs, for marketing their currency without first registering it with the Wall Street constable.
The SEC has argued for several years that some digital currencies are financial securities, like stocks or bonds, and are therefore subject to its oversight as investment products, a much-contested view. Magistrate Analisa Torres felt that this argument could not hold for individuals who bought XRP, even though she sided with the SEC regarding institutional investors.
This judgment is a snub for the SEC, which has changed gears in recent months and sued the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, as well as the first American player, Coinbase. Since 2020, a dozen participants in the sector have been targeted by the regulator, decided to clean up what the chairman of the body, Gary Gensler, describes as the “Wild West”.
Critics of the latter, including elected members of Congress, accuse him of wanting to apply a new technology to an old and unsuitable regulatory framework. Requested by Agence France-Presse, the SEC did not respond immediately.
Thursday’s decision boosted the entire cryptocurrency and blockchain industry, the technology on which digital currencies are built. Coinbase thus gained 24.49% during the session on Wall Street, while the specialist in online payments, Block, very active on the blockchain, took 6.99%.