Ripple Chief Legal Officer: SEC appeal will be "counterproductive" and benefit the crypto industry

Ripple Labs Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is bracing for another defeat as the agency prepares to appeal a federal judge's decision involving XRP. "This will backfire on the SEC," he said in an interview. "I feel good about our case in the Southern District of New York, and I feel even better about the Second Circuit." When the SEC first filed a lawsuit against Ripple and two of its executives in 2020, the company publicly announced that its legal fight was "on behalf of the entire industry," Alderoty said. The move showed that the SEC "will take action against the entire industry," he added. Nearly four years later, the impact of Ripple's legal fight on the entire industry has intensified as the case moves to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The decision could set a precedent in the Southern District of New York outlining how judges should apply securities laws to XRP. In August, Judge Torres ordered Ripple to pay a $125 million fine for violating securities laws with XRP trading. The SEC previously claimed that Ripple had raised $1.3 billion through unregistered securities offerings since 2013, and later demanded a $2 billion fine. While Ripple praised Judge Torres' ruling that XRP "is not necessarily a security on its face," other judges disagreed. The SEC has not yet indicated which parts of Torres' ruling can be appealed, and in the meantime, Ripple has taken its own legal action. (Decrypt)