The Southern District of New York Court reached the conclusion that programmatic sales and other distributions of Ripple’s XRP token do not constitute offers or sales of investment contracts.
Judge Analisa Torres issued a ruling in favor of the California blockchain company in a case ongoing since 2020. In the SEC lawsuit, it was alleged that for seven years Ripple sold unregistered securities in the form of XRP tokens to retail investors.
However, according to the court’s decision, the sale of coins to large industry players violated U.S. securities laws.
The SEC’s motion for summary judgment was granted in relation to institutional sales, as stated in court documents.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse expressed optimism about future crypto innovations in the United States.
“In December 2020 we said we were on the right side of the law and would stay on the right side of history,” he wrote.
XRP prices rose on the back of the outcome.
Prices of other crypto assets also rose noticeably.
Earlier in the Ripple v. SEC case, the court disclosed documents, relating to the 2018 speech by former regulator William Hinman.
In a 2018 speech, the former director of the agency’s corporate finance division stated that for certain reasons Bitcoin and Ethereum are not securities.
Ripple management welcomed Hinman’s statements, expressing resolve to win the case.