The chief executive officer of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse, insists that the current court decision signals a total defeat for the SEC rather than a divided success.
Garlinghouse responded to Fox Business journalist Charles Gasparino’s suggestion that a story about potential fines by Ripple to resolve the portion of the SEC lawsuit it lost was emerging.
As multiple attorneys have pointed out, the SEC lost on all relevant grounds, according to the Ripple CEO, not just Ripple’s. The SEC’s attempts to portray the most recent decision as some sort of split triumph, he said, are pitiful.
The SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs in December 2020, claiming that the sale of XRP was an unregistered securities offering. Consequently, figuring out whether XRP was a security was the key to the argument.
The issue, according to Garlinghouse, was never about collecting fines or penalties; rather, it was about proving that XRP was not a security. In this aspect, he claims Ripple triumphed while the SEC fell short. so emphasising the SEC’s complete defeat.
XRP “is not a security,” a federal court ruled on Thursday. This decision covers sales made by executives or on exchanges as well as additional XRP disbursements to workers, charity organisations, and developers.
Ripple and many others in the cryptocurrency sector viewed this choice as a major victory. The only item that counts as an investment contract, according to the Court, is prior direct XRP sales to institutional clients totalling $729 million.
After several pointed out a split ruling in the Ripple case, Paul Grewal, the chief legal officer of Coinbase, identified a misperception surrounding the judge’s decision: “Don’t let Judge Torres’ decision that XRP is a security sometimes and not other times fool you. The exact opposite of what she decided is true: XRP is never a security in and of itself.
In order to rectify the misconception, Grewal mentions a line from the decision: “XRP, as a digital token, is not in and of itself a contract, transaction, or scheme that embodies the Howey requirements of an investment contract.”
After the latest decision, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said he would be open to sharing the details with Fox Business reporter Charles Gasparino. He stated that whether or not to issue sanctions ultimately rests with the Court and not the SEC.
