In the ongoing legal battle, Ripple filed a “cross-appeal” on October 10, 2024, following the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) recent appeal earlier this month. With this cross-appeal, both Ripple’s and SEC’s appeals will now be handled together in one case.
Ripple Challenges Court’s Decision
Ripple’s cross-appeal seeks to overturn the court’s decision that the sale of XRP to investors didn’t violate any securities laws.
Additionally, this is in response to the court order requiring Ripple to pay $125 million for selling XRP to investors. However, this penalty is significantly lower than the SEC’s earlier $2 billion demand, though it remains much higher than Ripple’s $10 million offer.
Can Ripple Win Against the SEC?
Amid these ongoing developments, Ripple’s chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty made a post on X (previously Twitter) that gained massive attention from the crypto community. In a post on X, Alderoty noted that SEC lost on all key points which might be the potential reason behind its recent appeal. Additionally, Ripple’s recent cross-appeal aims to ensure that they have addressed all possible issues in their legal battle with the US SEC.
However, Alderoty believes that the SEC may argue that the sale of XRP on the exchanges and its distributions to employees and developers should be considered as securities.
Based on the previous court judgment, he is confident that Ripple will win the case again and hopes to see the court reject the SEC’s recent attempts, particularly those led by SEC Chair Gary Gensler.
CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s Take
Following all these, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said that the US SEC only trying to cause a problem and confusion instead of forming clear rules for the crypto industry.
As he added, “With our cross-appeal today, we’re looking forward to sealing the SEC’s fate and finally putting an end to the SEC’s regulation-by-enforcement agenda.”
