By Alicia Maher
Ripple Labs and the US SEC have filed a summary judgment calling the federal Judge to give an immediate verdict on whether Ripple violated SEC’s securities law. Hence, it seems the long battle between both parties could be ending soon.
Ripple And SEC’s Legal Battle About To End
On September 17th, the US SEC and Ripple individually filed a summary judgment with the U.S. District Court in New York. This could be the end of the case in the forthcoming weeks.
Summary judgments are filed to the court whenever a party feels there is sufficient proof to decide without having a trial.
In the filing, both parties asked Analisa Torres, the presiding judge over the case to give an immediate verdict. SEC believes it has enough proof that Ripple violated its law with its XRP sales.
On the other hand, Ripple argues that the regulator does not have proof that its XRP sales count as an “investment contract.” On September 17th, Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, tweeted that recent filings reveal that the watchdog does not want to apply the law.
According to Garlinghouse, the US SEC wants to remake the law. This would allow it to expand its jurisdiction to more digital assets. Moreover, this will go far beyond the authority the US Congress granted the regulator.
Meanwhile, Stuart Alderoty, Ripple’s general counsel argued that the regulator has been unable to identify any contract investment. Hence, this has made it difficult for the regulator to satisfy any part of the Howey test.
SEC Vs Ripple’s Summary Judgment
In Ripple’s summary judgment, it claimed that SEC’s case is based on its asserted jurisdiction over the transfer of any assets. Conversely, SEC’s motion argued that an “investment contract” can exist without a contract, issuer obligations, and purchaser rights.
The recent filing by both parties drew positive comments from the Ripple community on Twitter. One Twitter user exclaimed that the case is finally coming to an end.
The recent summary judgment flings are coming two years after the watchdog charged Ripple to Court in December 2020. The regulator accused Christian Larsen, Ripple CEO in 2020 and the present CEO of selling unregistered securities.
According to the SEC, Ripple raised over $1.3 billion by selling unregistered securities. Meanwhile, the court’s upcoming verdict on the matter has a huge bearing on the crypto community.
The ruling would determine which cryptos fall under securities and those under commodities. All cryptos that are securities would fall under the jurisdiction of the United States securities law.
As of the time of writing, CoinGecko revealed that XRP is trading at $0.34. The token has fallen by over 10% in the past 24 hours.