On 23 July, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse posted a response to the continuing dispute between Ripple and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Twitter.
The CEO criticised the SEC’s supervision of the cryptocurrency industry, claiming that it had beyond its legal authority and left customers “holding the bag in bankruptcy court.”
This opinion was expressed in response to the SEC’s recent declaration that it will challenge a significant judgement in Ripple’s favour.
The legal conflict between Ripple and the SEC, which has repercussions for the larger crypto business, is what infuriated the CEO.
Recently, the SEC declared its desire to challenge a U.S. District Court decision that favoured Ripple Labs. About half of Ripple’s cryptocurrency XRP sales, according to Judge Analisa Torres, did not transgress investor protection regulations. The decision has given other defendants in related lawsuits against the SEC some optimism, which the regulatory agency now aims to squash.
Garlinghouse, however, advised against using the judiciary as a scapegoat for how it applied the law. He emphasised the need for clear law, not “more regulation by enforcement,” for the crypto business to advance and safeguard ordinary investors.
Garlinghouse applauded congressional representatives like Ritchie Torres and Patrick McHenry for supporting this viewpoint in a following tweet.
The SEC filed an appeal because it disagreed with Judge Torres’ order, claiming that it “adds baseless requirements” to the standard for determining whether an asset qualifies as a security.
They contend that her position is in opposition to the core tenet of federal investor protection law, which mandates that regular investors be given more protection than institutional investors.
Torres’ rationale, according to the SEC, was “impossible to reconcile” with these securities law standards, which allowed for the ongoing legal dispute.
