Ripple v SEC Lawsuit Update Sep. 18

The lawsuit between Ripple and America’s securities regulator – the US SEC – is undoubtedly one of the trendiest topics in the cryptocurrency space. The legal battle started in 2020 when the watchdog accused the former and its management team of breaching laws and using the alleged unregistered security XRP to raise funds.

Since then, both parties have fired shots at each other, with Ripple currently having the upper hand. In the following lines, we will observe what exactly happened in the last few months.

The crypto company secured a massive victory in mid-July when a US Judge ruled that most of its XRP sales did not constitute an offer of unregistered securities. This resulted in an overall excitement in the entire digital asset sector.

The partial win has also positively affected the price of Ripple’s native token, XRP, which skyrocketed shortly after the magistrates’ decision. 

However, the US SEC was unhappy, to say the least, with the ruling and formally appealed it several days ago. Its disagreement touches upon two particular sales – “programmatic” (which were offered to public buyers) and such classified by the court as “other distributions.” Judge Torres has already determined that the former did not violate securities laws.

The ongoing uncertainty regarding the outcome of the case has prompted Ripple to shift its attention towards other countries. Not long ago, CEO Brad Garlinghouse said that the majority of new company employees will be based in nations like Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, and the UK instead of its homeland. 

Ripple’s President Monica Long also spoke on the ongoing battle between the two entities, assuring that her firm is ready to fight until the very end:

“We are planning to continue to fight the case all the way through.”

Subsequently, she outlined the importance of the court’s decision, saying it will enable Ripple to expand across the globe:

“We also got clarity in that lawsuit. And the judge’s order in that case said very clearly XRP in and of itself is not a security, which kind of opens the doors to us to really expand our business – not just in the US but even more globally.”