The ongoing legal dispute between Ripple (CRYPTO: XRP) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is nearing its conclusion, triggering a surge in the associated cryptocurrency's value.

As of Tuesday morning, XRP has surpassed the 50-cent threshold, attaining its highest price since April before a slight drop.

By midday, the coin was trading around 49 cents, reflecting a 3.5% increase, 

Recent developments in Ripple's court case with the SEC have fueled an uptick in enthusiasm for the cryptocurrency.

In 2020, the SEC, under Chairman Gary Gensler, initiated legal action against Ripple and two of its executives, including CEO Brad Garlinghouse.

The agency charged them with illegal sales of $1.3 billion in XRP, arguing that it should have been registered as a security, a claim Ripple disputed.

Contrary to crypto companies such as Kraken and BlockFi, which chose to settle with the SEC, Ripple took its fight to court.

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This decision won them support from various industry stakeholders, many of whom criticize Gensler and the SEC for resorting to "regulation by enforcement."

Although the legal battle has been ongoing since last year, Garlinghouse said in a recent interview that he expects a resolution in the "weeks not months."

Over the past week, XRP has seen a nearly 8% rise, after several weeks of struggling to breach the 50-cent barrier. Meanwhile, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) saw a less than 1% decrease, trading at $27,332 just before midday on Tuesday, while Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) experienced a slight 0.35% increase, trading at $1,903.

CoinShares' recent report suggested that while eight of the top crypto-tracking investment products experienced more than $39 million in outflows last week, investment products' allocations to XRP rose by $100,000 and have increased by $3 million since the start of the year.

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