Ripple Lawyers Challenge SEC’s Appeal in XRP Case

The legal team representing Ripple in the ongoing lawsuit with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has responded to the regulator’s appeal, arguing that the SEC has not satisfied the requirements necessary to request an appeal.

In a filing submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on September 1st, Ripple’s lawyers emphasized that the SEC’s grounds for appeal were primarily based on its dissatisfaction with the judge’s previous ruling that classified the XRP token as not being a security for sales to retail investors. The legal team contended that the exceptional circumstances necessary for an interlocutory appeal were absent, urging the judge to deny the SEC any request for an appeal or stay.

“The SEC has not made any effort to meet the standard for a stay, even after the Individual Defendants pointed out this omission in their pre-motion letter,” Ripple stated. “The Individual Defendants have separately submitted their opposition to the SEC’s request, and Ripple supports their opposition.”

In August, the SEC filed an appeal and requested a stay on a court decision made in July by Judge Analisa Torres, who concluded that XRP was generally not considered a security according to SEC guidelines. At that time, the SEC argued that there were significant differences of opinion regarding the applicable laws.

The SEC initiated the lawsuit against Ripple, CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and co-founder Chris Larsen in December 2020, causing many cryptocurrency exchanges to delist the XRP token in order to avoid potential legal complications. Following the ruling by Judge Torres, several of these exchanges expressed their intentions to relist the token or consider doing so in the future.

“It’s disappointing that a significant portion of the U.S. crypto community has had to resort to legal proceedings to demonstrate that the SEC is consistently wrong on the facts and the law,” commented Garlinghouse in a post on X’s official blog on August 29th.

Related: SEC v. Ripple: Attorneys leave SEC side, both groups add new lawyers

In 2023, the SEC has targeted various cryptocurrency firms with allegations of securities violations, including Binance and Coinbase. Additionally, on August 29th, asset manager Grayscale achieved a legal victory against the SEC when an appeal ordered a review of its application for a Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund.

The civil lawsuit between the SEC and Ripple is still ongoing, and Judge Torres has proposed that a jury trial for the case begin in the second quarter of 2024.

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