The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed an appeal against Ripple's previous victory
Date: 2023-08-19 Author: Karina Ziganova Categories: BLOCKCHAIN, BUSINESS
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed an interlocutory appeal against Ripple on August 18 as part of an ongoing case against the firm.
Judge Analisa Torres in the Southern District of New York previously ruled on Ripple's programmatic XRP exchange sale and distribution of XRP as payment for services. These rulings effectively stated that these offerings were not securities.
While the SEC intends to appeal these results, it does not intend to appeal the separate decision in its favor. This decision determined that Ripple's XRP Institutional Selling satisfies the Howey Test, which is used to determine if an offer is an investment contract. The SEC said the court correctly identified this fact in its latest statement.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) previously laid out the grounds for appealing the two results to its disadvantage on Aug. 9. Ripple attempted to prevent the regulator from filing an appeal on August 16, but was unable to do so as the SEC received court permission to file the current petition on August 17.
While the SEC's latest motion only asks the court to confirm the interlocutory appeal and stay other proceedings, the earlier timeline does not indicate that the SEC will immediately file another appeal. Instead, Ripple and other defendants will have until September 1 to file their opposition papers, while the SEC may file a response until September 8.
Appeal focuses on differences in cases
The SEC contends that the two relevant decisions are immediately appealable for several reasons, but the most important is that they involve control issues of law with grounds for material disagreement. The SEC specifically drew attention to the fact that another court in the same district, considering his case against Terraform Labs, came to a different conclusion on similar issues.
The SEC also argued that an immediate appeal would help Ripple's case reach a final conclusion, noting that the court would need to spend time determining remedies for Ripple through disclosure and legal briefing. He also noted that Ripple is considering its appeal, implying that this could further drag out the case.
The regulator also said the appeal should be heard immediately as the court's decision has implications for other ongoing SEC cases.
