Key takeaways:
- In its complaint against the US SEC, lawyers for Ripple have argued that the authority hasn’t satisfied the prerequisites to ask for an appeal.
- The SEC claimed there was “substantial ground for differences of opinion” about the statutes in question at the time.
In its complaint against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), lawyers for Ripple have argued that the authority hasn’t satisfied the prerequisites to ask for an appeal.
The SEC’s grounds for an appeal, according to Ripple’s legal team, mostly center on “dissatisfaction” with a judge’s ruling that the XRP coin did not meet the requirements of security for sales to retail investors, according to a document made on September 1 with the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The attorneys argued that the case lacked the “exceptional circumstances required for interlocutory appeal” and urged the judge to reject any appeal or stay requests. Ripple stated:
“The SEC has not even attempted to meet the standard for a stay, even after the Individual Defendants identified that omission in their pre-motion letter,”
Judge Analisa Torres’ ruling that XRP mainly did not qualify as a security under SEC regulations was the subject of an appeal request by the commission in August, and the stay request was granted. The SEC claimed there was “substantial ground for differences of opinion” about the statutes in question at the time.
In December 2020, the SEC sued Ripple, its CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and co-founder Chris Larsen. As a result, numerous exchanges delisted the XRP coin to avoid potential legal entanglements. Many of the same companies declared they would relist the token after the Torres decision or would consider doing so in the future. In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on August 29, Garlinghouse said:
“It’s sad that so many in the US crypto community have to resort to the legal process to prove this SEC is out of control and consistently wrong on the facts and the law,”
In 2023, the SEC allegedly targeted several cryptocurrency companies, including Binance and Coinbase, for securities breaches. Asset management Grayscale won a legal battle with the SEC on August 29 after an appeal ordered a reconsideration of its application for a spot Bitcoin ETF.
The SEC and Ripple are still engaged in their civil case. In the case, Torres suggested that a jury trial begin in the second quarter of 2024.
