A Southern District of New York Court delivered a partial victory to Ripple in its long battle against the US securities and exchange commission (SEC). RIpple has been in court since December 2020 as the SEC claimed that XRP was a security.
The lawsuit alleged that Ripple issued an XRP, an unregistered security while its top executives Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen made billions from the sale of the said security in an initial coin offering (ICO).
However in a landmark ruling yesterday 13 July, the presiding judge, Judge Analisa Torres ruled as follows:
“For the foregoing reasons, the SEC’s motion for summary judgment is granted as to the institutional sales, and otherwise denied,” the judge ruled on Thursday. “Defendants’ motion for summary judgment is granted as to the programmatic sales, the other distributions, and Larsen’s and Garlinghouse’s sales, and denied as to the institutional sales.”
In summary, the judge ruled that XRP is not a security when sold to unknown buyers in programmatic sales, but left the conclusion on whether the direct sales to institutional investors makes Garlinhouse and Larsen guilty of violating securities laws to a jury trial on a date to be fixed.
Exchanges Relist XRP
Several top exchanges delisted XRP from their platforms following the lawsuit against the company in 2020. Notable among them were Coinbase and Gemini, and Binance US. However, the story has changed since the court ruling about 24 hours ago.
These top exchanges are announcing they’ll relist XRP as a result of the ruling that XRP is not a security.
“Coinbase will re-enable trading for XRP (XRP) on the XRP network. Do not send this asset over other networks or your funds may be lost. Transfers for this asset remain available on @Coinbase & @CoinbaseExch in the regions where trading is supported,” Coinbase wrote in a tweet..
“Trading is anticipated to begin later today, if liquidity conditions are met. Once sufficient supply of this asset is established trading on our XRP-USD, XRP-USDT and XRP-EUR trading pairs will launch in phases. Support for XRP may be restricted in some supported jurisdictions,” it added.
Similarly, Gemini has announced it will relist the token, directly as a result of the ruling.
“Given today’s ruling that the sale of XRP on exchanges is not a security, @Gemini is exploring the listing of XRP for both spot and derivatives trading.”
Bitstamp took a similar step after delisting the token for US users of the exchange.
“Welcome back $XRP! XRP trading is available in the U.S now for our U.S customers. You can once again buy, sell, or trade XRP on Bitstamp USA,” it wrote.
Victory For Crypto
The crypto community particularly in the US has been in high spirits since the ruling on XRP. Many analysts had said that the outcome of the SEC-Ripple case would be a precedent for many other tokens and could determine the future of crypto.
Thankfully, things turned out in favor of Ripple, which means other tokens that could have come under the SEC’s clampdown have been vindicated. The case is however open to an appeal by both Ripple and the SEC.
The battle is not yet over though, since part of the case will be going to trial, with its outcome still important to the future of the industry.
