The price of Ripple’s XRP coin has dropped after it was announced that some Australian banks and the country’s Reserve Bank were launching legal proceedings against Ripple Labs for apparently copying their payments brand.
Ripple Labs launched a crypto-based “PayID” platform in June, alongside 40 partners, but this product’s viability is being challenged by the New Payments Platform Australia (NPPA), which is owned by 13 Australian banks including ANZ, NAB, Westpac and the Reserve Bank.
NPPA launched its version of PayID in February 2018, which was designed to facilitate instant payments between 68 million Australian bank accounts using identifiers such as phone numbers and email addresses instead of standard bank account numbers. The group see Ripple’s offering as very similar and wants to protect Australian businesses and the public from potential confusion or losses.
The action is a blow for Ripple Labs which could see it lose Australian businesses and consumers for its PayID service. The court hearing accepted Ripple’s move to block Australian IP addresses by Friday and the case will continue.
Drawing Fibonacci retracement levels on the XRPUSD chart gives an idea of potential pullback levels. The Ripple price is now eyeing the 38.2% support level at 0.2456 and the 50% level sits at 0.2200. A move back the 0.2772 level would remove the bearish mood and see the coin target the 0.3283 highs from the 17th August.