Still On SEC vs. Ripple

The SEC vs. Ripple (XRP) case keeps going on, taking turns for both good and bad. For one, the SEC has just officially and legally admitted that it never told anyone XRP was a security prior to when the lawsuit was brought against the company.

This comes after Ripple agreed to the SEC’s request to produce its internal recordings. The scope of the production process will include various categories of the all-hands meetings starting from the fourth quarter of 2014, SBI town halls, fireside chats, among others.

The SEC will also have access to the recordings of the specific town halls, during which Ripple employees discussed the investigation, in Dec. 22, 2020, the company’s outlook in the light of an XRP price dropped in Feb. 26, 2018, and the centralization of cryptocurrencies in March 30, 2020.

Both Ripple and SEC has admitted that Ripple owes no fiduciary duty to XRP holders in the ongoing case. Therefore the XRP army is ready to represent its own interests in the case.

Ripple’s first request for admissions to the SEC was attached to the most recent court filing and in it the SEC admits that it never told anyone that XRP was a security, until the lawsuit was filed. It is now an official admission in the case.

In response, the SEC objected to the request, tagging it as irrelevant to the case as the commission was entitled to proceed with the case even if the requested fact was true. It however admitted that the commission never stated a view on the status of XRP being a security or not and therefore it is significant to Ripple’s fair notice defense as it shows what the company has been arguing about for a long time.

The company stated that it hasn’t sold a security to investors and even if it unwittingly did, it was not given fair notice by the regulator. This filing in a way confirms this to the court.

This led experts to believe that the case is finally coming to an end. Many market observers are considering the tide to be in Ripple’s favor however as the SEC has continuously failed to follow through with the directives of the Judge, Sarah Netburn.

Both parties will meet and converse regarding the scope of production. There is an ongoing dispute concerning relevant recordings regarding whether or not Ripple should search for recordings that feature certain employees as relevant speakers.

Ripple SEC SEC Courtroom