Tag: Ripple

How Ripple Execs’ Grit & Litigation Forced SEC To Back Down

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By Aislinn Keely. (Law360). October 27, 2023.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission called off a looming trial against executives of blockchain firm Ripple this month after counsel at Cleary and Paul Weiss made clear their clients were eager to have their day in court and intended to force the SEC to face a record of evidence that didn’t support the claim the defendants knowingly violated securities laws when they sold Ripple’s crypto token.

It’s rare for the SEC to drop a case once it has brought a complaint, and the regulator made headlines when it did just that, dismissing claims that Ripple co-founder Christian Larsen and company CEO Brad Garlinghouse “aided and abetted” sales of Ripple’s digital token XRP to institutions.

Martin Flumenbaum of Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP, who represented Larsen, called the Oct. 19 dismissal an “unprecedented victory.”

Read more on the unprecedented victory here: Law360

SEC’s Motion to Appeal Loss in Ripple Case Is Denied

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By Nikhilesh De. (CoinDesk). October 4, 2023.

A federal judge has rejected the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s bid to appeal its ground-shaking loss against Ripple, the crypto company associated with the XRP token.

XRP’s price rallied about 5% on the news.

District Judge Analisa Torres said in a brief ruling Tuesday that the SEC had failed to meet its burden under the law to show that there were controlling questions of law or that there are substantial grounds for differences of opinion.

Read the full piece from CoinDesk here: “SEC’s Motion to Appeal Loss in Ripple Case Is Denied“

Ripple gets support from Blockchain Association in XRP lawsuit against SEC

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By Timmy Shen. November 17, 2022. (Forkast)

Fast facts

The Blockchain Association filed its amicus brief on Tuesday, saying: “The SEC’s extremely broad interpretation of the securities laws would have devastating effects on the industry (and even outside the industry).”

The Crypto Council for Innovation (CCI), an alliance of industry leaders, also filed an amicus brief on Tuesday in support of Ripple.

“To date, the SEC has largely chosen enforcement over rulemaking as the way to regulate this evolving ecosystem,” CCI wrote in its filing.

Cryptocurrency-related organizations and firms – Veri DAO, Cryptillian Payment System, Reaper Financial and Paradigm Operations – this week also submitted their briefs that challenged the SEC.

In December 2020, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple and its executives, alleging the sale of XRP constituted an offering of unregistered securities worth over US$1.38 billion.

An amicus brief is typically submitted by an individual or organization that is not a party to a case but intended to influence the court’s decision.

Read the full article here.

SEC Shouldn’t Win ‘Most Overbroad’ Ripple Suit, Court Told

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By Emilie Ruscoe. November 16, 2022. (Law360)

A group of investors in Ripple Labs Inc.’s signature digital assets XRP have argued the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s allegations in its suit against the blockchain company “are quite possibly the most overbroad, far-reaching claims ever made in an SEC enforcement action,” asking a New York federal judge to deny the regulator a win in its suit.

In a Wednesday amicus brief, the group of six individual XRP holders told U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres she should deny the SEC’s September motion for summary judgment, telling her the SEC seeks to have jurisdiction over “an entire digital asset ecosystem” by asking for her to rule in its favor on its claim the sale of XRP constitutes offering unregistered securities.

Read the full article here.

Crypto Law Experts Suggest SEC Likely To Lose Key Case And Discredit Howey Test

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As the cryptocurrency trial of the century draws to an close in a Manhattan federal court, there are increasing signs that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) faces a bruising defeat against the San Francisco-based enterprise blockchain innovator Ripple Labs. The verdict could drastically limit the SEC’s authority to regulate crypto in the United States. If that’s how it ends, it will have been a self-inflicted disaster from the start.

The SEC filed its bombshell lawsuit against Ripple and its two senior executives in December 2020, on the last day in office for ex-chairman Jay Clayton. The Republican voted with the two Democratic commissioners to allege that the cryptocurrency XRP is an unregistered security because its only utility since 2013 has been to be an investment contract in a company that uses it for its payment software.

Read the full article here.

SEC Treating Ripple Like a Ponzi Schemer, Not Shaper of Future

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By JW Verret. October 27, 2022. (Real Clear Markets).

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) case against Ripple, the largest case it has brought against a defendant working in the crypto industry to date, has been heating up this month with a series of summary motions and some big discovery losses for the SEC. The SEC alleges in that case that one test for a security required to register with the SEC, contained in the 1946 Supreme Court case SEC v Howey, applies to the XRP token that is used by Ripple.

The SEC should admit the secret it isn’t saying out loud to the court and everyone watching the case. The test used in SEC v. Howey is typically used by the SEC to sue hucksters, Ponzi schemers and other con men who sell fake securities. The Howey test is a way to stop them, not a means to facilitate registration with the SEC.

Read the full article here.

Ripple accuses SEC of ‘shameful’ conduct after obtaining key Ethereum emails

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By Jeff John Roberts. October 24, 2022. (Fortune)

Ripple provided a lively end to an otherwise sleepy week in crypto when its CEO and general counsel took to Twitter to tweak the Securities and Exchange Commission after the company obtained confidential emails the agency had fought to keep secret. The emails concern a 2018 speech in which a former senior official at the SEC declared that Ethereum was not a security on the basis of a novel legal test—a test the agency chose not to apply when it sued Ripple in late 2020.

We still don’t know the content of those emails, but the fact that the agency fought hard to conceal them suggests they contain unflattering information related to the SEC’s erratic and arbitrary behavior when it comes to the crypto industry. Ripple’s executives, who have seen the emails, used even harsher language to describe the agency, saying “the shamefulness…will shock you” and implying it has been operating in bad faith.

Read the full article here.

Ripple slams SEC bid to shield experts in high-profile crypto case

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By Jody Godoy. July 11, 2022. (Reuters)

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has made an “unprecedented” move to keep the names of its expert witnesses under wraps, Ripple Labs Inc said in a filing in the agency’s highly-watched case over the cryptocurrency XRP.

The San Francisco-based company told U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres on Sunday that the SEC had insisted Ripple’s challenges to three SEC experts be filed under seal, until the judge decides whether to shield the opinion of a fourth expert whom the SEC says has faced “threats and harassment.”

The experts play a key role in the SEC’s lawsuit alleging Ripple and its current and former chief executives have been conducting a $1.3 billion unregistered securities offering by selling XRP, which Ripple’s founders created in 2012.

Attorneys in the cryptocurrency sphere are following the case closely as it could have legal ramifications for other digital assets.

Ripple and the executives have denied the allegations, and the company has argued that XRP has traded and been used as a digital currency.

Read the full article here.

The Ripple-SEC legal brawl could be a game-changer for crypto

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By Benjamin Pinmentel. May 1, 2022. (Protocol)

It’s been more than a year since the SEC stunned the technology world by suing Ripple, kicking off what has become the most closely watched legal battle in crypto.

The case, in which the SEC accused the crypto powerhouse of violating securities laws, has morphed into a protracted brawl, with the future of crypto regulation potentially at stake.

The battle will likely drag on into next year after Ripple and the SEC agreed on a schedule for the next phase of the case: Filings and hearings on motions for summary judgment will extend to December. At that point, a federal judge will either decide the case or have it go to trial.

“It now looks like a resolution will come in 2023,” Ripple general counsel Stuart Alderoty said in a tweet.

Read the full article here.

Former SEC Director accused of corruption, how might this affect the Ripple case?

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By Samuel Wan. April 11, 2022. (Cryptoslate).

Whistleblower group Empower Oversight has released details of emails received in a freedom of information request related to the ongoing SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit.

Among the 200 pages or so, they say there is evidence that former SEC Director William Hinman had a conflict of interest while initiating legal proceedings against Ripple.

The point of contention centers around Hinman’s involvement with the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance via New York-based legal firm Simpson Thacher. This was originally reported by CryptoSlate in April 2021.

However, things take a more ominous spin this time as the emails reveal damning information not known last year.

Read the full article here