Ripple’s XRP gained upwards of 6% in the last week up to December 27, following the announcement that the blockchain was working with Micronesia island nation Palau on a stablecoin project. During a cryptocurrency conference held in Singapore, the President of the Western Pacific nation, Surangel Whipps Jr., said his country was involved in various crypto projects, including a government-issued stablecoin in collaboration with Ripple.

With the cryptocurrency market going through a turbulent period this year, digital assets such as Ripple’s cross-border settlement token, XRP, has shown both unpredictable highs & lows. Recently, the price of XRP has been met with resistance at key places as the asset continues to be influenced by a variety of variables, ranging from legal considerations to the general tone of the market.

According to a recent announcement, cryptocurrency exchange Bitget has added XRP/USDT and LTC/USDT pairs for cross and isolated margin spot trading.

It’s been a challenging year for many in crypto, but for Ripple Labs and chief executive Brad Garlinghouse, 2022 has brought a number of successes.

Bitcoin and Ether prices gained on Friday morning in Asia, while other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization were mixed. XRP led losses with 3.87%, followed by Cardano. Weekly unemployment claims in the U.S., an indicator for job cuts, rose slightly by 9,000 to 225,000 last week despite the Federal Reserve’s aggressive attempts to cool inflation, the U.S. Department of Labor reported on Thursday. The four-week average aid applications dropped by just 250 to 221,000. Recession fears have been rising with the Fed’s series of interest rate hikes in 2022, and a spike in layoffs can be an early warning of a recession. (forkast)

In recent updates, Ripple ally LBRY’s request that the court hear an oral argument for its motion to limit the SEC's remedies was granted, and the date was fixed for Jan. 30.

XRP holders believe the SEC will seek a settlement in the 2-year-long legal battle.

A greater percentage of the XRP community believes the legal tussle between the SEC and Ripple would end in a settlement. Whereas some expect the lawsuit to be concluded with a verdict from the presiding Judge. Out of the 17,231 voters, 10,200 users (59.2%) said the case would be settled while 7,030 (42.9%) participants expect the case conclusion to come as a verdict from the judge, at the time of writing. 

The Ripple and SEC case continues to take new turns as it approaches settlement. Crypto-focused investment firm Paradigm Operations LP’s application to join the case as an amicus curiae has gotten further backing from an interested attorney.

On Tuesday (27 December 2022), entrepreneur David Gokhshtein, who is Founder and Chairman of crypto-focused media outlet Gokhshtein Media, talked about his plans to buy more $XRP, the native token of the XRP Ledger (XRPL).

The asset has gained over 3% in the past week, with technicals showing some bullish signs.

Palau, the tiny Pacific island nation is on an aggressive campaign to establish the official adoption and acceptance of cryptocurrency.

Thailand FinTech giant and Ripple partner DeeMoney has entered a partnership with Visa to integrate Visa Direct with its international payments platform, per a report from Bangkok Post yesterday.

Some countries are looking to jump on the crypto bandwagon and are mulling the creation of national stablecoins, despite occasional setbacks, such as the bankruptcies and arrests among some of its previously prominent players.

In an exciting turn of events, data available on CoinMarketCap shows that XRP has flipped the Binance stablecoin (BUSD) to become the sixth most significant cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has requested to seal the infamous Hinman Speech documents, claiming that they are not relevant to the court’s summary judgment decision.

The XRP Ledger will soon have a crucial feature, according to the former chief developer advocate of San Francisco-based payments company Ripple (XRPL).

Hogan & Hogan law firm partner attorney Jeremy Hogan reiterates that the Securities and Exchange Commission has lost its “privilege” argument over the drafts of Director William Hinman’s June 2018 controversial speech.

The case between Ripple Labs Inc. and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues to wrap up. In a new joint motion, both parties filed for an extension to file Daubert Motions until Jan. 13, 2023. The extension will also affect the filing accompanying redacted exhibits on the public docket.

Ripple and US SEC filed their motion to seal several documents linked to the motions for Summary Judgement. However, filings suggest that the commission is still in pursuit of shielding the vital Hinman documents. Meanwhile, crypto whales are still moving millions of XRP tokens.