In an era of growing crypto regulation, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues to navigate the complex waters of crypto regulations. The ongoing battle between the SEC and Ripple, has sparked a dichotomy in opinions embodying the two sides shaping this nascent field.
A recent filing by Ripple has thrown a fresh round of light on this controversy. The SEC’s quest for federal intervention in its present skirmish with Ripple remains largely unwarranted, Ripple asserts. A court’s approval for appealing Ripple’s systematic XRP sales as non-violators of securities law is what the SEC is attempting to secure. With Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York presiding, the SEC must sway the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to take up the case if she decides to allow the appeal.
Refuting this request in a filing on a recent Friday, Ripple claimed a conspicuous absence of controlling law queries, stating its belief that an appeal would not sensibly expedite the resolution of the broader case. The regulator, Ripple insists in an argument layered throughout Friday’s filing, is yet to demonstrate that the ruling may face dissenting views from different judicial voices, or that an appeal could bring a quicker closure to the court case.
The July decision found Ripple guilty of breaching federal securities laws in selling XRP to institutional investors. However, it did not hold the same for availability of XRP to retail investors via exchanges. In similar proceedings against Terraform Labs, another presiding judge in the same court, Judge Jed Rakoff, expressed a divergent view, a point that the regulator promptly embedded in its appeal filed on August 18.
The counter-argument offered by Ripple points towards differing factual bases leading to these diverse rulings. The Court’s ruling in favor of Ripple highlighted a lack of ‘promises or offers’ to purchasers in systematic sales, a marked divergence from Terraform that accepted the SEC’s allegation of promising whopping returns to all purchasers.
The SEC now finds itself in the face of robust counter by Ripple. The current decision horizon is September 8. For those navigating the crypto-sphere, these current cases underline potential future regulatory challenges and underpin the complexity encased within the crypto regulation world incrementally surfacing in legal institutions.
Source: Coindesk
