Ripple Seeks Court Review in SEC Dispute

Fintech firm Ripple has filed a preliminary civil appeal statement in its legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

#XRPCommunity #SECGov v. #Ripple #XRP @Ripple has filed the Civil Appeal Pre-Argument Statement (Form C). The relevant pages are below. pic.twitter.com/usm3fCjG20

— James K. Filan ???? (@FilanLaw) October 25, 2024

This move was in response to a similar filing by the regulator under the same Form C procedure.

The parties have been in litigation since December 2020. The SEC accused Ripple of selling unregistered securities in the form of XRP tokens worth $1.3 billion. Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen were also named as defendants.

In July 2023, Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York ruled that Ripple’s programmatic sales and other distributions of the coin did not constitute an offer and sale of investment contracts. However, the ruling stated that sales of tokens to large players violated U.S. securities laws.

The court dismissed the SEC’s interlocutory appeal, finding insufficient evidence and determining that its consideration would not “materially advance the ultimate termination of the litigation.”

Subsequently, the Commission withdrew its case against Garlinghouse and Larsen. The parties reached a settlement, eliminating further charges on previous grounds.

In August 2024, Judge Torres issued a final ruling in the case, fining Ripple $125 million. The regulator had initially sought $2 billion. In October, the SEC contested the verdict.

The agency then filed Form C, proposing that the court review the rulings de novo (anew) from a legal application perspective.

In its response, Ripple also suggested a de novo approach to the decisions regarding the application of the Howey test. The company likely hopes to overturn sanctions related to institutional XRP sales.

Today, Ripple filed a Form C — listing the issues we plan to raise on our cross appeal. A few things to keep in mind as we move forward:

The case is not about whether XRP, in and of itself, is a security. XRP is uniquely situated as having clarity (alongside BTC) in not being… https://t.co/AmFocAnbPx

— Stuart Alderoty (@s_alderoty) October 25, 2024

“Today Ripple filed Form C with a list of issues we plan to raise in our cross appeal,” confirmed the company’s chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty.

According to him, the status of XRP as a non-security is no longer contested by the regulator. Additionally, Alderoty predicted that the SEC would face challenges with new arguments in the case.

Earlier, during the DC Fintech Week 2024 conference, Garlinghouse expressed confidence in a “reset” of the crypto industry following the U.S. elections in November.