By Michael Scott
The Ripple Labs chief executive reflected on the 2020 offer by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to declare XRP security. Stuart Alderoty revealed that the SEC tabled an offer to Ripple that would allow the securities watchdog to announce that XRP is a security.
Ripple’s chief spilled the truth that SEC’s offer would feature a short window urging the digital assets market to comply. Ripple’s executive indicated that the team turned down the offer and instead chose to lodge a vigorous defense to dismiss the security tag on XRP.
Ripple Boss Spills Details of SEC’s Settlement Offer in 2020
The revelation by Ripple’s boss comes at a time when the payment remittance firm has been embroiled in endless legal tussles with the US SEC since 2020. The reflection by the experienced legal expert downplayed the viability of the SEC’s offer three years ago.
Alderoty took to the media to share the details harbored in the settlement offer by the SEC three years ago. He clarified that the offer by the SEC was before the American remittance network faced charges leveled by the regulator.
Ripple Labs boss indicated that the SEC’s offer was deficient for the California-based crypto firm to consider. The long-serving attorney for Ripple faulted SEC’s rushed move to the settlement.
Alderoty indicated that Ripple Labs dismissed the offer by advancing two arguments. The executive indicated that XRP lacks security qualifications. Also, Ripple downplayed the offer by the SEC, accusing the regulator of never building a framework to bolster crypto compliance.
Reflection on XRP Victory Over SEC
Alderoty argues that regardless of the spin former SEC officials imposed on the lawsuit, Ripple desired to prove that XRP is not security. The lawsuit would culminate in Judge Anelisa Torres from New York’s Southern District court ruling that retail investors identified as programmatic buyers hardly invested in XRP as security.
Judge Torres observed that programmatic buyers were unaware if their payments were destined for Ripple or other XRP sellers. Also, the judge noted that most of those who acquired XRP from digital asset exchanges hardly invested in Ripple.
The ruling delivered a partial victory where institutional buyers knowingly acquired XRP directly from Ripple per the contract, thus security.
Judge Torres ruled out the existence of such economic reality for programmatic buyers, whom she linked to the secondary market purchases as unaware of the recipient receiving the money.
Ripple’s Alderoty reflection on the case development comes after a series of SEC losing landmark cases involving Grayscale Investments challenging the repeated denial of its bid to convert the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF). The case prompted the digital assets community to label the SEC as regulating through enforcement.
California-based crypto exchange Coinbase has echoed Ripple’s argument that the SEC lacks a clear regulatory framework. The US largest crypto exchange initiated a rulemaking petition that was recently denied by the SEC, restating the existence of pertinent security laws in the US. The petitioner expressed dissatisfaction with the no-answer conduct, declaring an imminent return to challenge SEC’s decision in court.
XRP Market Activity as Bitcoin and Ethereum Tie in Week’s Rally
A reflection of the XRP’s market performance shows the token is exchanging hands at $0.616962 to portray a mild 0.4% increase in the past 24 hours. The XRP ranks as the sixth largest crypto asset with a market capitalization of $33.347 billion, as per CoinGecko data.
The XRP daily trading volume rallied 39% to approximately $1.071 billion, indicating increased market activity. While the XRP price is 76.1% up this year, it is still trailing the all-time high of $3.40 realized in 2018 by 81.90%.
The expectations of market buoyancy are high, particularly with the Ripple Whales adding 360 million XRP tokens to their existing holdings in the last week.
The addition coincides with the surge witnessed across the crypto landscape to realize a $1.75 trillion market capitalization in the past 24 hours.
Market leader Bitcoin matched Ethereum’s 5% seven-day rally to realize $43,291.42, while the latter is exchanging hands at $2,286.97. Nonetheless, both trailed Solana’s 63.2% weekly rally to $114.02. XRP holders are optimistic about a sustained rally, a perspective shared across the digital assets ecosystem.