By George Ward
According to reports, the long battle between Ripple and the US SEC is ending. Ripple recently filed its last submission against the financial watchdog.
On December 2nd, both entities submitted redacted responses to each other’s objection to requests for summary judgment. In Ripple’s filing, the company stated that the regulator had failed to establish that its offering between 2013 and 2020 constituted an “investment contract” and was thus a security per federal security laws.
In the last section of the document, Ripple asked the court to favor its motion against that of the SEC. Ripple’s General Counsel, Stuart Alderoty, tweeted that Ripple’s latest submission is its last.
He asked the court to pass a judgment that would favor his client. Additionally, Alderoty said the company is optimistic about its defense against the regulator.
He noted that Ripple is fighting on behalf of the crypto sector. However, he remarked that the US SEC might not play straight in its court dealings.
In another tweet on December 5th, the General Counsel attacked the regulator tagging it a “bouncing regulator.” He also quoted two major statements in the tweet.
The first statement says the Howey test gives a clearly articulated criterion determining what characteristics make up an investment contract.
US Judge Might Be Give Verdict Latest March 2023
The two-year-long legal battle between Ripple and SEC started in December 2020. This was after the regulator accused Ripple of raising $1.3 billion by selling unregistered XRP securities.
On November 30th, James Filan, a past federal prosecutor, commented on the Ripple-SEC court battle in a Twitter thread. Filan noted that the case has only three issues yet to be resolved.
Meanwhile, the unresolved issues include expert challenges and issues surrounding the “expert reports” and the summary judgment motions. The last unresolved issue is the Hinman documents and other materials Ripple and the SEC used in their motions.
The Hinman papers refer to William Hinman’s lecture in 2018 at the Yahoo Finance All Markets Symposium. In this address, he said Ethereum did not qualify as a security.
Furthermore, Filan opines that Judge Torres would not address the three major concerns separately. Instead, he believes the judge will “decide on everything simultaneously.”
“Once she has decided on the requests for summary judgment, she will issue one hugely written judgment latest by March 31st, 2023,” Filan added.