key takeaways:
- SEC Chair Gary Gensler stated that the agency was “assessing” the opinion issued in the long-running dispute against Ripple Labs.
- The SEC’s chairman expressed to be “disappointed” with the court’s decision in the Ripple case.
The ongoing legal battle between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple Labs Inc., the company behind the cryptocurrency XRP, recently saw a notable development. SEC Chair Gary Gensler has expressed his disappointment with a specific aspect of the judgement in the case.
During a recent public appearance, SEC Chair Gary Gensler shared his disappointment regarding a particular aspect of the judgment handed down in the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple Labs.
SEC Chair Gensler expressed satisfaction with the judgment’s protection of institutional investors and rejection of Ripple’s fair notice argument. However, he expressed concern about the judge’s decision regarding retail investors.
Gensler mentioned during a National Press Club luncheon that they were disappointed by the ruling’s impact on retail investors but are still examining and evaluating the opinion.
While Gensler did not delve into specific details or provide extensive commentary, his remarks indicate that the SEC may have expected a different outcome in that specific area of the case.
Last week, Ripple achieved a partial win in its legal battle against the SEC when a court ruled that institutional sales of XRP tokens were in violation of federal securities laws. However, the court determined that sales conducted on exchanges and programmatic sales did not qualify as the sale of securities.
This decision was based on the SEC’s inability to “establish that speculative investors had a reasonable expectation” of profits derived from the efforts of others.
Notably, SEC Chair Gensler will deliver a public talk shortly before his appearance before the Senate Appropriations Committee on July 19, 2023. The committee will be reviewing the fiscal year 2024 budget for the SEC, and Gensler will be answering questions on this matter.
Gensler has gained popularity for his staunch anti-cryptocurrency stance and his consistent emphasis on the “come forward and comply” approach of the US SEC. Among crypto traders, he is well-known for asserting that almost all cryptocurrencies, except for XRP, should be classified as securities.
