For a while, it seemed like a no-brainer that the US Securities and Exchange Commission had the upper hand in the legal battle. But the scenario changed in recent months as Ripple cinched a series of procedural wins. Following the shake-up, legal experts believe the upcoming rulings will clear the uncertainty over the nature of XRP.
Ripple community defense lawyer James K. Filan recently took to twitter to announce that the motion of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to seal has been denied by the court.
According to the tweet, the court concurs with Ripple’s argument that the SEC was attempting at sealing more than is essential and ordered a letter to be filed by SEC, stating the specific exhibits it proposes to seal and explaining the reason behind the redactions ‘to the extent necessary to safeguard information sought to be filed under seal.’
Actions taken by the Ripple team so far
Initially, it took more than five weeks to get a retort from Ripple Labs after the US SEC filed the suit, but the legal team for the blockchain innovators, in conjunction with CEO Brad Garlinghouse, have been taking very coordinated steps to counter the attack of the SEC on their integrity as a company.
Garlinghouse, since the beginning of the entire case has been confident that Ripple is on the right side of the law and that the SEC is just trying to pick an unnecessary fight with the entire crypto industry.
Judge Sarah Netburn, the presiding Judge over the case, has received numerous legal notes from Ripple’s team in the courtroom. Ripple has argued that they’ve always endeavored to work with the SEC in the previous years to prevent regulatory infringements, and how the US SEC has been ‘deliberately misreading’ their RFAs, amongst other things.
Possible outcome of the SEC-Ripple case
The verdict of the 18-month-long case is very crucial to crypto proponents, lawmakers and the blockchain industry at large. If judgement sways in support of the US SEC, then the native currency of Ripple Labs, XRP, will be considered a security and a stormy precedent would be set for the crypto-world.
Ultimately, it could set up a chain reaction of lawsuits being filed to similar establishments in the crypto space to label their respective crypto assets as securities.
Notably, XRP’s liquidity in the United States dried up after many crypto exchanges were forced to boot it off their platforms. Nevertheless, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse noted that the company’s exceptional growth comes outside of the U.S. In particular, 95% of Ripple’s clients are non-U.S. payment providers.
A win for Ripple would be welcome news for cryptos that have been facing the walls of uncertainty