SEC Seeks to Appeal Court’s Decision in the Ripple Lawsuit
- The United States SEC has decided to appeal US District Judge Analisa Torres’ decision in the XRP lawsuit.
- The judge stated in July that the XRP token was not a security when sold on exchanges to retail investors.
- The agency asked the judge to put the case on hold as crypto firms with similar lawsuits are filing motions for dismissal.
- Coinbase and Do Kwon have filed motions for dismissal following the XRP lawsuit ruling by Judge Torres.
The partial win that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) secured in its lawsuit against leading blockchain firm Ripple is not enough for the regulator. The agency has decided to move to appeal the ruling made by the US district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Analisa Torres, in July, which stated that the XRP token was not a security when sold to retail investors.
As per a letter sent on August 9 by the SEC to the presiding judge in the XRP lawsuit, the regulator believes that the ruling needs a fresh look by an appellate court. Additionally, the agency also asked the judge to put the case on hold because the outcome of the case could potentially affect many other cases that have been established on similar foundations.
It is important to mention here that the agency is involved in a legal battle with exchanges like Binance and Coinbase, accusing them of operating as unregistered securities exchanges in the US. The regulator also named seven altcoins that it considered securities in its lawsuit against Coinbase.
After the ruling was made by Judge Torres, Coinbase decided to move to dismiss the case filed by the US regulator against the crypto exchange, claiming that it did not list securities on its platform. The XRP ruling is a strong foundation of this motion.
“Interlocutory review is warranted here. These two issues involve controlling questions of law on which there is substantial ground for differences of opinion as reflected by an intra-district split that has already developed,” the regulator wrote.
The regulator also seeks to certify whether programmatic XRP offers and sales on crypto trading platforms and individual sales are not securities. The agency also emphasized its ongoing case against Do Kwon, the creator of the Terra ecosystem, where the latter has moved to dismiss the lawsuit post-XRP ruling.
As reported earlier by BitcoinWisdom, Ripple secured a partial victory against the SEC after years of legal battles. The agency sued Ripple and its two executives, Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen, in December 2020 over claims the business was marketing unregistered securities.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
