The US financial watchdog has decided to take its case against Ripple to the next level, filing a formal appeal with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. This move comes just shy of two months after Judge Analisa Torres handed down her final verdict in the long-running dispute, which has been ongoing for nearly four years.
In July, Judge Torres ruled that Ripple had indeed broken federal securities laws through its sales of XRP to institutional investors, but cleared the company of wrongdoing in its programmatic sales to retail exchanges. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had attempted to appeal this decision earlier, but was rebuffed by the judge.
In August, Judge Torres imposed a $125 million fine on Ripple, significantly lower than the nearly $2 billion the SEC had sought in damages and penalties. The judge stayed enforcement of the fine pending the outcome of the SEC’s appeal.
The SEC believes that Judge Torres’ decision flies in the face of decades of legal precedent and securities laws, and is eager to make its case to the appeals court. In response, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse tweeted that the SEC had “lost on everything that matters,” and that XRP’s status as a non-security is now enshrined in law. Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty expressed disappointment but not surprise at the SEC’s decision to appeal, having predicted earlier that the regulator would face an uphill battle in overturning the district court’s ruling.
While the SEC has filed its notice of appeal, the actual appeal itself has yet to be submitted. In a separate development, Bitwise has applied to list an exchange-traded fund that would invest in XRP, a move that could further cement the cryptocurrency’s status as a non-security.
Leave a Reply