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- After Judge Analisa Torres handed Ripple a partial victory in court, the company’s legal chief, Stuart Alderoty, says that the SEC must not appeal if the US government wants to promote crypto adoption.
- He added that the SEC lost on all the important battles, including on whether XRP is a security in and of itself and believes that Ripple is finally down with the SEC.
Last week, the XRP community had its biggest day yet when Judge Analisa Torres finally delivered her ruling on the four-year legal battle between Ripple and the SEC. As we reported, she found that Ripple should have registered its XRP sales to sophisticated investors as securities, and for this, she demanded the company pay a $125 million fine to the SEC.
However, on the other important battles, such as whether XRP is intrinsically a security, the judge sided with Ripple, sparking a surge in the price of XRP.
In a recent interview with CNBC, Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty dissected the ruling, which he described as a landmark win for the company and the entire sector.
“We’re feeling really good about it,” Alderoty told CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos.
He added that the battle with the SEC was significant for the industry because since Gary Gensler took over, the agency has been openly against crypto. It’s, however, important to note that it was Gensler’s predecessor, Jay Clayton, who filed the case against Ripple and that Gensler had only inherited it.
“I think they lost on everything that was important to them. Trying to establish that a token itself — in this case, XRP — can be considered a security was soundly rejected by the court,” he stated.
In her ruling, Judge Torres observed that an asset, whether gold or a crypto like XRP, can’t be considered a security in and of itself. However, a company can package this asset like a security, in which case it would be liable for security law violations. This is what Ripple was found guilty of, as Alderoty explained:
What the judge did find is that certain historical sales, beginning around 2015, the way that those sales were packaged with sophisticated third parties, should have been registered under the securities laws. And that’s the piece of the decision that we respect.
Judge Torres gave Ripple 30 days to pay the fine, which Alderoty says the company will abide by. After this, he hopes that the SEC can move on from the company and focus on other more pressing issues. Additionally, he hopes that the Biden administration can use the ruling to hit a reset on its aggressive anti-crypto nature and, instead, harness the power of crypto and blockchain to grow the American economy.
On its part, Ripple wants to move on from the courtroom drama and focus on its business. Alderoty stated:
We want to focus on continuing to grow our business both globally and domestically. We like the clarity that this lawsuit has provided to us.
XRP trades at $0.5675, trading sideways in the past day after a sharp surge on the back of the ruling.
