The US Securities and Exchange Commission Fails to Convince Judge in Ripple Case
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been unsuccessful in convincing a federal judge that its recent courtroom loss against crypto firm Ripple Labs should be overturned, according to a court ruling issued on Tuesday.
US District Court judge Analisa Torres—who ruled in July that Ripple’s sale of cryptocurrency tokens directly to consumers did not constitute an illegally unregistered securities offering—wrote in a letter on Tuesday that the SEC had failed to show in its appeal that the decision was sufficiently faulty or problematic. The regulator was hoping to overturn the ruling before final judgment is entered in the case next spring.
This news effectively constitutes another victory for Ripple, and the market responded. The company’s XRP token jumped 6.8% to just over $0.54 before settling at $0.53 at the time of writing, according to Concko.
Opportunity for Appeal
The SEC will still have the opportunity to appeal Judge Torres’ decision, but only once the case formally concludes after a trial on remaining issues is held next year.
don’t get too excited about the denial of SEC’s interlocutory appeal in Ripple…it doesn’t mean that the SEC “lost its appeal”…it means that if the SEC wants to appeal it has to appeal everything at once after the trial…
still, some useful clarifications of Torres’ opinion— _brlShpr0 (@lx_nod) October 3, 2023
That news is certainly a disappointment to the SEC, which was hoping to test the boundaries of its headline-grabbing loss to Ripple by arguing that Torres’ decision created so many “knotty legal problems” that it ought to be reviewed by a federal appeals court before the case is concluded.
The case has likely received so much attention—both from pro-crypto advocates and from the SEC itself—because it constitutes perhaps the most full-throated refutation to date of the SEC’s current position that most cryptocurrency tokens are participation in illegal securities schemes.
Judge Torres, in her July decision, had stated that Ripple’s XRP token “is not necessarily a security on its face.”
In the days following that judgment, the crypto market collectively soared $73.5 billion, to a market capitalization of $1.3 trillion. XRP skyrocketed over 66% in that span.
Hot Take: Ripple’s Courtroom Victory Shakes Up Crypto Market
The recent courtroom victory for Ripple against the SEC has sent shockwaves through the crypto market. The judge’s ruling, which stated that Ripple’s XRP token is not necessarily a security, has dealt a blow to the SEC’s stance on cryptocurrency regulation. This decision is seen as a significant win for Ripple and has resulted in a surge in the price of XRP. However, it is important to note that the SEC still has the opportunity to appeal this ruling once the case concludes next year. Nevertheless, this ruling marks a major milestone in the ongoing battle between regulators and crypto companies like Ripple.