Ripple and SEC Gain Time for Final Settlement of XRP Lawsuit
The legal battle between Ripple and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) remains ongoing. Both parties have agreed to a deadline extension until April 2023, potentially enabling them to seek further negotiations on a settlement.
In the lawsuit, which has been ongoing for two years, Ripple achieved an intermediate victory in mid-July when a US court ruled that trading XRP via exchanges is not to be evaluated as an investment contract. This cornerstone of the SEC’s case thus crumbled.
The SEC subsequently announced it would appeal the decision. The hearing for this appeal was scheduled to take place in November 2023 but has now been postponed to April 2024. Until this point, both parties are urged to reach a settlement in the legal dispute independently of the court.
Analysts in the crypto industry nonetheless remain cautious because Ripple’s win contained pitfalls. The court reserved the right to rule differently regarding direct trading of XRP between institutional investors and Ripple. Whereas the SEC sees this as a victory for itself, for Ripple, another potential legal process is looming. The postponed hearing aims to bring these issues to a close.
Ripple’s CTO, David Schwartz, last spoke publicly about the XRP process at the end of August. His understanding is that SEC realizes it cannot fully succeed in its complaints against Ripple but may want to push for a partial concession, especially regarding institutional XRP transactions. From this perspective, now would be a good time to find an amicable solution with the SEC, concluded Schwartz.
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