It’s like 2021 again as crypto altcoins soar as much as 66%

Ripple’s XRP token went up 68% in the last 24 hours, leading a wider rally of major-cap altcoins, as crypto traders digest a key ruling that could stifle U.S. regulator efforts to stamp out digital asset trading.

Solana’s SOL and Cardano’s ADA tokens are 26% and 21% higher, while Algorand’s ALGO and Polygon’s MATIC coins are up 12% and 9%, respectively. All four tokens were recently singled out as securities in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s formal suits against popular crypto retail trading exchanges, including Binance and Coinbase.

But the Thursday summary judgement from U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres calls that classification into question.

For three years, the SEC and Ripple Labs — who developed the Ripple blockchain and issues the XRP token — have been locked in a protracted courtroom battle over whether the XRP, the world’s fourth-largest cryptocurrency, constitutes a security.

In 2020, the SEC alleged that Ripple, its CEO Brad Garlinghouse and the company’s executive chairman violated securities laws when it sold $1.4 billion worth of XRP. Ripple maintained that its token is not a security — triggering ongoing confusion over which digital coins fall into which regulatory bucket.

Many viewed the agency’s lawsuit against the San Francisco-based startup Ripple as a bellwether case for the wider industry — which could potentially force the SEC’s hand on defining which of the nearly 20,000 crypto tokens fall under its jurisdiction.

In her judgment on Thursday, U.S. Southern District of New York District Court Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP in itself is “not necessarily a security on its face.”

That elated industry participants, who saw the decision as a victory for both XRP and other coins.

“The ruling by federal Judge Analisa Torres is a landmark decision because she challenged the SEC in holding that Ripple’s XRP token is not a security subject to SEC regulation,” said Renato Mariotti, a former prosecutor in the U.S. Justice Department’s Securities & Commodities Fraud Section and now a trial partner in Chicago with Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner.

“The ruling undercuts the SEC’s assertion that nearly every token is a security and puts at risk some of the Commission’s recent enforcement actions.”

The industry hopes that the Thursday move “could lead Congress to adopt a more rational regulatory scheme,” Mariotti said. But uncertainty will continue to reign, in the absence of clear regulation, he added.

The development has nevertheless caused excitement in the crypto market. Coinbase has already moved to re-list XRP since Thursday.

The response from crypto markets harks back to the heydays of the crypto boom in 2021, when several bitcoin “alternatives,” or altcoins, rallied sharply, following on from a bounce in the largest cryptocurrency’s price.