Ripple counts another big win as Phemex moves to relist XRP

• Ripple and the XRP community can celebrate a win today after Phemex’s decision to relist XRP, a move that follows a vigorous #relistXRP campaign.
• This relisting could be the first one of many as institutions gain confidence that Ripple might win the case brought against it by the SEC.

Phemex, one of a number of exchanges that delisted XRP after the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple has announced it is relisting XRP. Afraid of the repercussions that would result from a US court ruling XRP as a security rather than a token, a majority of US-based exchanges, and a few abroad, delisted XRP. The move led to an XRP price plunge at the time, but prices have since recovered.

The exchange, founded by former Wall Street traders and investors, made the announcement in a blog post in which they further introduced 8 other spot trading coins. These are Basic Attention Token (BAT), Chiliz (CHZ), Decentraland (MANA), Enjin Coin (ENJ), SushiSwap (SUSHI), Synthetix (SNX), Graph (GRT), and Maker (MKR).

Why relist XRP now?

When it delisted XRP, Phemex stated that the action was motivated by the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple Labs, Inc. and the resulting actions by a number of other exchanges. In its relisting, the exchange has said that there has been high demand. Just a couple of weeks ago, the XRP community began a vigorous campaign on social media, urging all crypto exchanges to relist XRP. With a huge following, the campaign gained great traction.

Is the social media campaign getting to exchanges? It might very well be.

Additionally, with prices in recent weeks performing exceptionally and volume growing fivefold in the first two weeks of April, exchanges are missing out on huge profits.

Unfortunately for XRP enthusiasts, no major US-based exchange has shown any intention to relist the digital asset. There are however recent court proceedings that have renewed confidence among XRP holders that Ripple can win the lawsuit.

Ripple still attracting new partners

Beyond delistings, the lawsuit was also a major controversial issue with Ripple’s partners and in the weeks that followed, it lost a few. The biggest of them was MoneyGram who despite initiating the split, expressed a desire to partner in the future. Despite the fallouts, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinhouse has recently stated that since the lawsuit, the company has gained over 20 new partners.

In the latest partnership, Ripple has onboarded three new universities to its University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI). This is a blockchain accelerator program by the company from back in 2018. Of the three is the first university partner in Africa – the University of Capetown. The other two are Reykjavik University, and New York University Abu Dhabi (NYU Abu Dhabi).

XRP price update

Since topping mid-month, both price and daily trading volume have sunk. At the time of press, XRP is exchanging for $1.38 from earlier highs of $1.95. The volume on the other hand has dropped to the $10B levels after earlier peaking at $35B.

In a move that could boost XRP adoption, Ripple CTO David Schwartz has confirmed on Twitter that he is now advocating for lowering of XRPL reserves. Currently, users need a minimum of $20 to open an XRP wallet, he suggests that this be slashed to $5. Earlier in the year, Schwartz floated the idea saying he would begin supporting this if XRP stayed above $1.

This however remains in the hands of validators to vote to push for the change or not.