The post Ripple Legal Chief Says SEC Appeal Will ‘Backfire’—And Benefit the Crypto Industry appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

As the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) prepares to appeal a federal judge’s decision involving XRP, the agency is setting itself up for yet another high-profile failure, according to Ripple Labs’ Chief Legal Officer, Stuart Alderoty. “It will backfire on the SEC,” he told Decrypt in an interview. “I felt good about our case in the Southern District of New York. I feel even better about our case in the Second Circuit.” When the SEC first hit Ripple and two of its executives with a lawsuit in 2020, the company declared “very publicly and very loudly” that its legal fight was “on behalf of the entire industry,” Alderoty said. The move signaled that the SEC was “going to come for everybody,” he added. Nearly four years later, the industry-wide implications of Ripple’s legal fight have been heightened as the case moves to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The determination could establish precedent within the Southern District of New York, outlining how judges should apply securities laws to token issuers within the region’s financial hub, among other areas. While Ripple lauded U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres’ ruling last year, which found that XRP is “not necessarily a security on its face,” some of Torres’ peers have disagreed. In the SEC’s case against Terraform Labs, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff declined to “draw a distinction between […] coins based on their manner of sale,” rejecting Judge Torres’ application of the law weeks later. In all likelihood, the SEC’s appeal will fail, Alderoty said, noting that most rulings are affirmed in the Second Circuit instead of being reversed. An SEC spokesperson told Decrypt on Tuesday that Torres’ ruling “conflicts with decades of Supreme Court precedent and securities laws,” echoing arguments made by the regulator earlier this month. In August, Judge Torres ordered…

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Filed under: News - @ October 16, 2024 1:27 am