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XRP’s price hit an all-time high on Wednesday, potentially opening a path for the cryptocurrency to reach as high as $4.40, one technical analyst said.

The third-largest crypto by market capitalization XRPUSD climbed as high as $3.02 on Wednesday, an all-time record, according to Dow Jones Market Data. It was up 10.5% on Wednesday to trade at around $2.94 late Wednesday morning.

XRP surged as investors closely eyed developments in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s appeal of a court ruling against Ripple Labs Inc., which developed the cryptocurrency and its namesake blockchain platform.

The SEC sued Ripple Labs and its chief executive Brad Garlinghouse in 2020, alleging that XRP is a digital-asset security that Ripple sold illegally without registering with the regulator.

In July 2023, a federal judge ruled that XRP is not a security when sold on digital-asset exchanges to the general public, but that Ripple’s sales to sophisticated institutional investors did qualify as an unregistered sale of investment contracts, in violation of federal law.

The SEC later appealed the court ruling, and the agency faces a deadline to file an opening brief on Wednesday.

Crypto bulls have been hoping that after President-elect Donald Trump returns to the oval office on Jan. 20, the SEC may eventually drop the case. Many crypto industry participants consider current SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s stance on crypto as “hostile,” while Trump said he would nominate former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins, who is known to be friendlier to the crypto sector, to succeed Gensler as SEC chair.

From a technical perspective, as XRP rises above its December highs, it may trigger a so-called Fibonacci extension pattern with a potential target of $4.40 for the crypto, according to Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at foreign-exchange broker FxPro.

A Fibonacci extension pattern is a technical-analysis tool traders use to predict potential support or resistance levels after an asset experiences a significant price movement.