Bitcoin touches 13-month high after US court rules in favour of crypto firm

Bitcoin hit its highest price in nearly 13 months so far this year on Friday following a major legal victory for crypto industry when a US judge ruled that Ripple Labs did not violate federal securities law by offering its XRP token on public exchanges.

Bitcoin rose to $31,818 , before edging down to trade around $30,935 at 1730 GMT on Friday.

Second-biggest token ether had its best session since March on Thursday and XRP, which the US judge ruled could be legally sold on public crypto exchanges, soared 73% on Thursday and held most of these gains on Friday.

"The regulatory environment is changing," said Matthew Dibb, chief investment officer at crypto asset manager Astronaut Capital. "And by what we have seen in the last 24 hours, it could be for the better."

Justin d'Anethan, head of business development in Asia at Keyrock, a digital assets market maker in Hong Kong, said finding that XRP tokens sold on public crypto exchanges were not securities under law "probably serves as a precedent".

"Ripple stakeholders were waiting for some regulatory clarity. Yesterday the court seems to have provided just that," he said.

Following the decision, several major cryptocurrency exchanges, including Coinbase and Bitstamp, resumed trading of XRP on their platforms, after having suspended trading of the token in 2021 due to the SEC's lawsuit.

Binance.US said on Friday it had also enabled XRP trading on its exchange.

Coinbase, which was sued by the SEC last month for alleged securities laws violations, saw its shares surge nearly 25% on Thursday as investors hoped that the ruling in the Ripple case would bode well for Coinbase.

The case marks the first win for a cryptocurrency company in a lawsuit brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Although the decision was specific to the individual case, it unleashed a wave of optimism among crypto investors that more cryptocurrencies may also not be deemed securities.

Still, the enthusiasm for some was tempered by a report from the Wall Street Journal that Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, has laid off more than 1,000 people in recent weeks. The lay-offs are ongoing and could result in the exchange losing more than a third of its staff, the report said, citing a person familiar with the matter.

— With additional input from Reuters