Ripple Rebukes SEC's Appeal Effort in Ongoing Legal Feud

In a recent filing last Friday, Ripple, the cryptocurrency company embroiled in an ongoing legal dispute with the United States (US) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), contended that the SEC has failed to establish a compelling case necessitating the intervention of an appeals court.

This development stems from the SEC's bid to secure federal judge approval for an appeal following her prior ruling, which found that Ripple's programmatic sales of XRP did not contravene securities law. If Judge Analisa Torres, presiding in the Southern District of New York, grants consent for the appeal, it will subsequently necessitate the SEC's task of convincing the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to accept the case.

In the filing, Ripple asserted that there are no pivotal questions of controlling law at stake, and an appeal would not expedite the overall resolution of the case. Ripple maintained that the July ruling did not present a "controlling question of law," a premise similarly absent in the SEC's appeal motion.

Furthermore, Ripple argued that the SEC has yet to demonstrate that dissenting opinions among judges exist with regard to the ruling or that an appeal would expedite the court case's conclusion — both prerequisites for judge approval of an appeal, as stipulated in the filing.

Ripple said, “The SEC has not even attempted to meet the standard for a stay, even after the Individual Defendants identified that omission in their pre-motion letter. The Individual Defendants write separately to oppose the SEC’s request. Ripple joins that opposition.”

Notably, the judge had previously ruled in July that while Ripple had indeed violated federal securities laws in its sales of XRP to institutional investors, such violations did not extend to making XRP available to retail investorsvia cryptocurrency exchanges.

In a parallel case within the same court, Judge Jed Rakoff had disagreed with Judge Analisa' assessment, a point emphasised by the SEC when it initiated its substantive appeal on 18 August. In the recent filing, Ripple underscored that the factual foundations underpinning each case diverged significantly, resulting in disparate rulings.

The filing highlighted, "This Court’s summary-judgment ruling relied on record evidence that Ripple made no 'promises or offers' to purchasers in Programmatic Sales."

The legal battle between the SEC and Ripple remains ongoing, with Judge Analisa suggesting the possibility of a jury trial slated to commence in the second quarter of 2024.

The SEC is expected to respond to this filing by 8 September.