U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres has firmly rejected the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) attempt in the Ripple crypto company case to obtain an interim appeal, saying the agency has failed to present convincing evidence that an appeal would expedite a final conclusion to the dispute.
Key statement on the Ripple case
“In the absence of convincing arguments, the SEC’s motion to certify the interim appeal is unequivocally denied, and the motion to stay is deemed unnecessary,” – announced Torres in her ruling issued Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
In view of this decision, a continuation of the hearing has been set for April 23, 2024. Judge Torres also expressed the expectation that before the start of the official pre-trial conference, counsel for both sides and the parties themselves will meet in person for at least an hour to consider a possible settlement in this long-running battle.
SEC in unsuccessful counteroffensive
In August, the SEC filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeking certification regarding the interim appeal. At the time, SEC lawyers argued that the court’s handling of the Ripple case could significantly impact other pending litigation, such as that between the regulatory agency and leading cryptocurrency trading platforms Binance and Coinbase.
The SEC sought to overturn parts of the decision regarding programmatic sales of XRP and “other distributions,” which included offers and sales of XRP in exchange for goods and services.
XRP on a long journey to freedom
Judge Torres’ ruling in July of this year determined that Ripple’s portion of the XRP sales did not violate securities laws. Instead, the judge determined that other direct sales of the tokens to institutional investors should be considered securities, which was a partial win for the SEC.
The Securities and Exchange Commission first filed suit against Ripple and its executives in December 2020. The agency accused the company of raising $1.3 billion in 2020 by selling XRP and sued Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Christian Larsen.
Now that Judge Torres’ attempt at an interim appeal has been rejected, the dispute between Ripple and the SEC is still being considered in a longer context, which could have implications not only for both parties, but also for the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. Thus, we will still have to wait for the final outcome of this case.
