Ripple versus SEC lawsuits has lingered for months without concluding. Recently, the regulator seeks further extension of the lawsuit which the San Francisco based blockchain company rejects.
Ripple Claims Extension Will Affect XRP Market
A recent motion filed by the cross border payment company on October 19, opposes the SEC filed motion for an extension of the court-ordered expert investigation period by two months.
Ripple noted that while it was agreed that the deadline for refuting expert opinions would be extended to November 12th, expert discovery should not be extended beyond December 10. Ripple claims that the extension of the expert discovery to January 2022 will unduly harm and continue to “freeze” the XRP market in the US.
With other tokens enjoying the ongoing bull market, XRP remains bearish due to the lawsuit. Ripple suggested that the court should consider whether to allow further changes to the schedule at this stage of the lawsuit because it would harm the defendant. The defendant argued that the pending day of the lawsuit is an additional day for each subsequent day that the XRP market remains frozen.
SEC Refute Claims Further Extension will Affect XRP Market
The SEC asserted that the proposed extension will in no way harm the defendant, ignoring the obvious facts. The pending lawsuit has severely damaged the XRP market, particularly in the US. Ripple’s Cross-Border Payments product is based on the liquid XRP market – the SEC understands that within days of its lawsuit, nearly 20 exchanges delisted or suspended XRP trading in the United States and one or more exchanges followed suit, causing serious damage to the XRP market.
Ripple also highlighted the SEC’s hypocritical acts in reaching a compromise with the defendant, who eventually consented but proposed an entirely different motion. The defense indicated that the plaintiff’s original proposal three days before filing this motion was to extend the deadline for the expert investigation to December 22nd. The day before the SEC filed its motion, Ripple offered the December 10 deadline, to which the SEC disagreed and proposed December 17. However, on the very day, the commission filed a motion appealing for an extension of expert discovery to January 14, 2022, it also represented to Ripple that discovery could be completed nearly one month earlier, by December 17.
