In a lawsuit with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Ripple launched another violent attack, this time citing the SEC commissioner’s own remarks to dismiss the case. In a letter to Judge Analisa Torres, Ripple’s attorneys stated that they had additional powers to dismiss the case against Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and CEO Christian Larsen.
SEC Settlement Against Coinschedule
The letter refers to comments made by SEC members Hester Peirce and Elad Roisman in their recent settlement against Coinschedule. The case is related to securities violations. Coinschedule is a website that advertises token products for use by US citizens.
In particular, Peirce and Roisman stated that the SEC had not made a statement.
“Those digital assets touted by Coinschedule were securities, an omission which is symptomatic of our reluctance to provide additional guidance about how to determine whether a token is being sold as part of a securities offering or which tokens are securities.”
Ripple’s lawyers argued that this uncertainty in determining which assets can be classified as securities was related to the lawsuit. Committee members noted that there is an apparent lack of clarity among market participants when it comes to the application of securities law to digital assets.
The commissioner’s opinion on this issue included more views on regulation, but the council focused on the above-mentioned view on uncertainty. Instead, they found that clear regulatory guidelines “are a better approach than current law enforcement methods currently used on a case-by-case basis”.
The council also requested that the SEC’s eligibility evidence be informed or recklessly ignored that XRP sales require registration and the transaction was improper. The letter ended by stating that the US Securities and Exchange Commission failed to prove the existence of such knowledge or reckless behaviour on two occasions.
What will be the Outcome of the Ripple vs SEC Case?
The Ripple and SEC case has always been one of the largest roller coaster and high-profile cases in the industry. The company consistently defended its position of innocence and repeatedly called on the US Securities and Exchange Commission to provide clear evidence of misconduct.
Last week, Judge Sarah Netburn denied the SEC’s motion to nullify the testimony of William Hinman, a former director of the SEC’s corporate finance division. However, the court allowed the SEC to extend the investigation period in the Ripple case. In addition, the company had to provide evidence of legal advice on the sale of XRP.
The fight is still going on and Ripple will be delighted with its ending, which should happen sometime this year. Garlinghouse has announced that the company could go public at some point, and it is very likely that there will be an IPO. He also said that XRP is a commodity.
