The recent decision made by Judge Analisa Torres in the case against Ripple Labs has been criticized by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who pointed out that no court has followed this decision. This criticism was part of the SEC’s argument against Coinbase exchange’s appeal request.
It should be noted that in July of last year, the judge ruled that the programmatic sales of XRP through exchanges did not qualify as securities offerings. Additionally, the judge determined that XRP itself is not a security, and therefore, sales on exchanges should not be considered investment contracts.
In its recent action against Coinbase, the SEC argues that the platform operates as an unregistered intermediary for “crypto asset securities.” Contrary to Judge Torres’ ruling, the regulator maintains that digital assets listed on Coinbase are securities, and sales on the platform should be considered investment contracts.
In its response, the SEC emphasizes that “no court followed Ripple.” This claim highlights the fact that other courts did not adopt the precedent set in the Ripple case and therefore, it cannot be applied to the Coinbase case.
Commenting on these developments, pro-XRP lawyer Bill Morgan suggests that if other courts do not adopt the Ripple ruling and the SEC wins other crypto cases, Ripple’s victory would be isolated. He states, “If no court follows SEC v Ripple and the SEC wins all these other big crypto cases but fails to appeal or is unsuccessful in an appeal against Ripple, then Ripple’s programmatic sales will stand alone as not needing to be registered. If that happens, even if the case is ultimately not considered bad law, Ripple will be comfortable with programmatic sales.”
It is important to note that the opinions expressed in this article, including those of the author and individuals mentioned, are for informational purposes only and should not be considered as financial or investment advice. Investing or trading cryptocurrencies carries a risk of financial loss.