- XRP trades sideways near $2 for five months despite legal clarity gains.
- Market already factored in Ripple lawsuit resolution during early 2025 surge.
- Institutional partnerships could trigger next price movement by September 2025.
XRP has maintained trading levels around $2 for the past five months, confusing investors who expected continued gains following positive legal developments. The cryptocurrency reached $3.40 in January 2025 but has since retreated and consolidated within a narrow range.
Market participants had anticipated that the ongoing resolution between Ripple and the SEC would fuel sustained upward price action. However, XRP has registered only modest gains since the legal proceedings began moving toward conclusion in March 2025.
Vincent Van Code, a software engineer and XRP community analyst, attributes the current price stagnation to market timing rather than fundamental weakness. He points to Judge Analisa Torres’ summary judgment decision from July 2023 as the pivotal moment that established XRP’s legal status.
Legal clarity already reflected in current pricing
The ruling determined that XRP functions as a non-security when traded on secondary markets, providing the regulatory clarity investors had sought. Van Code argues that this legal resolution drove the rally that occurred earlier in the year rather than recent developments.
Investors positioned themselves ahead of the expected lawsuit resolution even before Donald Trump’s re-election became certain. The anticipation of favorable regulatory changes under the new administration prompted early accumulation strategies throughout late 2024.
Following Trump’s victory, market participants recognized that a settlement was imminent. This realization triggered massive XRP purchases during the final months of 2024 and early 2025, pushing prices to the January peak before the current consolidation phase began.
Van Code believes the next price surge will begin when financial institutions announce partnerships with Ripple and implement ODL technology for cross-border payments. While some organizations have already revealed these integrations, others continue developing solutions behind the scenes.
The analyst identifies insufficient demand infrastructure as XRP’s primary challenge rather than lingering legal uncertainty. He notes that institutional adoption requires extensive preparation periods before becoming operational.
“The rails aren’t fully live yet,” Van Code stated, explaining that regulated entities typically need 24 months from initial approval to complete enterprise deployment processes. Using the July 2023 summary judgment as a reference point, most institutions began their Ripple integrations toward the end of 2024.
