Enough Already! The SEC and Ripple are Getting Impatient over a Lengthy Trial
The SEC and Ripple both filed motions for summary judgment to make a ruling based on the arguments filed in the accompanying documents
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple Labs have both called for a federal judge to make an immediate ruling on whether Ripple’s XRP sales violated U.S. securities laws. In separate motions filed on Saturday by Ripple and the SEC, both have called for a summary judgment in the U.S. District Court Southern District of New York.
Summary judgments are submitted to the courts when a party involved believes there’s enough evidence at hand to make a ruling without the need to proceed to trial. The SEC sued Ripple Labs, CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and Chairman Chris Larsen in December 2020 (a day before former SEC Chair Jay Clayton stepped down from the role) on allegations that it had raised over $1.3 billion by selling XRP in unregistered securities transactions. Ripple maintained that XRP sales and trading did not meet the tenets of the Howey Test, a U.S. Supreme Court case that has acted as a way to determine whether something is a security for the last several decades.
“Ripple publicly touted the various steps it was taking and would take to find a ‘use’ for XRP and to protect the integrity and liquidity of the XRP markets,” the SEC said in its filing.
For its part, one of Ripple’s arguments was that there was no contract between the company and XRP investors and that there was no common enterprise, one of the requirements under Howey.
