Hey there, guys! I have some thoughts to share about the recent updates concerning the ongoing legal battle of Ripple with the SEC. This case has been a roller coaster and the latest development has caused quite a stir within this crypto community!
Ripple is trying to use a recent court decision that pertains to Binance’s BNB token to argue that the SEC should not be too hard on them for selling XRP. Ripple argues that there hasn’t been enough guidance issued as to whether these sales were illegal. They think that without regulatory clarity they should not face severe penalties.
Isn't it fair?
How can you follow rules that are not clear?
The last seven days saw a judge rule that the secondary market sales of the BNB token by Binance did not constitute transacting in securities. To make their case stronger, Ripple took it as an opportunity. They moved quickly to lodge a Notice of Supplemental Authority, stating that this was consistent with their argument. Considering there was no explicit guidance on BNB, Ripple believes this should hold for XRP too. According to them, this ambiguity calls for mitigation of their penalties.
Nevertheless, the SEC was not having it. On July 3rd, they replied saying the Binance case does not apply at all to Ripple’s position. In focusing on one part of the Binance ruling, SEC pointed out that Ripple was overlooking this fact. They affirm that anything discussed about SEC’s actions in the Binance matter by the court has nothing to do with whether or not Ripple broke laws relating to the sale and purchase of securities.
This affects XRP’s price significantly. Each time news about the case breaks, XRP’s value goes up or down. For instance, last summer when a judge stated that Ripple did not offer investment contracts to secondary trading sites, the XRP price rose by over 70%. However, the latest reports have seen the currency slump to $0.45. It is not only due to this lawsuit that there has been such a price drop; indeed, the entire crypto market has been bearish of late. Bitcoin, for example, went down to $57K and Ethereum fell as low as $3,100.
I believe we should be closely following this case because it may create a precedent on how cryptocurrencies will be regulated going forward. This could imply less strict regulations for other crypto companies if Ripple win, but if the SEC wins then we may see more regulations and possibly hasher penalties for crypto projects.