It first appeared obvious that the US Securities and Exchange Commission would prevail in the court case. But after Ripple secured a string of procedural victories in recent months, the situation shifted. Following the upheaval, legal experts predict that the impending decisions will put any confusion about XRP’s nature to rest.
James K. Filan, an attorney representing the Ripple community, recently announced on Twitter that the court has rejected the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) request to have documents sealed.
The court agreed with Ripple’s argument that the SEC was trying to seal more information than was necessary, according to the tweet, and it ordered the SEC to file a letter outlining the specific exhibits it intends to seal and providing an explanation for the redactions “to the extent necessary to safeguard information sought to be filed under seal.”
The Ripple team’s current actions
After the US SEC filed the lawsuit, it took more than five weeks for Ripple Labs to respond. However, the blockchain pioneers’ legal team has been working closely with CEO Brad Garlinghouse to respond to the SEC’s attacks on their corporate integrity.
Garlinghouse has been adamant from the start of the case that Ripple is following the law and that the SEC is only looking to start a war with the broader crypto industry.
In the courtroom, Ripple’s legal team has provided Judge Sarah Netburn with a number of legal memoranda. Ripple has asserted that, among other things, the US SEC has been “deliberately misunderstanding” their RFAs and that they have always worked with the SEC in the past to prevent regulatory infringements.
The SEC-Ripple case’s potential resolution
For advocates of cryptocurrency, policymakers, and the blockchain sector as a whole, the outcome of the 18-month-long lawsuit is critical. The native currency of Ripple Labs, XRP, will be deemed a security and a stormy precedent would be set for the crypto-world if the court rules in favor of the US SEC.
In the end, it might trigger a cascade of legal actions taken against businesses in the cryptocurrency industry to declare each one’s crypto assets to be securities.
Notably, once numerous crypto exchanges were compelled to remove XRP from their systems, its liquidity in the United States dried up. But according to Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, the company has experienced tremendous growth outside of the United States. In particular, non-U.S. payment companies make up 95% of Ripple’s clientele.
For the cryptos that have been struggling with the walls of uncertainty, a victory for Ripple would be much-needed.
