Aside from Ripple and its employees, no investors, exchanges or other platforms violate the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) guidance by selling XRP tokens. This was stated by the regulator’s lawyer in court, according to attorney Jeremy Hogan.
He called this statement one of the ‘bombshell surprises’ during the hearings.
As promised, stayed up late to shoot the video on today’s bombshell dropping discovery hearing. Enjoy and I am going to sleep! https://t.co/CcEQoM0TKe
— Jeremy Hogan (@attorneyjeremy) March 20, 2021
Magistrate Judge Sara Netburn asked the Commission’s representative whether everyone who sold the tokens violated the law.
‘No, under Section 4 only Ripple and its affiliates may illegally sell XRP’, Hogan quoted the response.
In his view, the SEC attorney’s statement opens the possibility for platforms that had previously suspended trading of the asset to resume supporting it.
The second key moment of the hearing, Hogan said, was the judge’s view that, in her understanding, XRP is not only a monetary unit but differs from Bitcoin and Ethereum in having ‘utility’.
SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple in December 2020. The regulator accused the company, its CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and co-founder Chris Larsen of the unregistered sale of securities totaling $1.3 billion in XRP.
In February the Commission filed an amended version of the complaint, placing the main emphasis on Larsen’s and Garlinghouse’s actions. The SEC contends that they manipulated the asset’s price and personally benefited from sales of $600 million.
Earlier the regulator requested data from six banks on the personal financial transactions of the company’s executives over the last eight years.
As reported, after Ripple faced allegations by the SEC, XRP trading for US residents was halted by platforms Galaxy Digital, Bitstamp and B2C2, as well as exchanges Coinbase and OKCoin. A similar move was taken by trading venues Kraken and PayBito.
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