By Jody Godoy. December 5, 2022. (Reuters).
Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused one another of stretching the law, as they argued for a ruling on whether the XRP, the world’s seventh-largest cryptocurrency, is a security.
Both sides urged U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres to rule in their favor without sending the case to trial in papers filed on Friday.
The final round of briefs seeking summary judgment brings the case closer to a ruling that could further define what digital assets are considered securities in the U.S.
The judge could grant either side a win without a trial, or decide to narrow the issues that go before a jury.
Ripple’s founders created XRP in 2012. The SEC sued the San Francisco-based company and its current and former chief executives in December 2020, alleging they have been conducting a $1.3 billion unregistered securities offering since the token’s creation.
Ripple argued in its brief that the SEC was seeking a ruling that XRP was an investment contract, but “without any contract, without any investor rights, and without any issuer obligations.”