Ripple's Legal Battle Heats Up: XRP Reacts to the Latest Courtroom Victory
XRP, the native cryptocurrency of Ripple, saw a significant 6% surge in value following the latest courtroom victory in Ripple's ongoing legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). On May 16, Judge Analisa Torres, presiding over the Ripple vs. SEC case, denied a lawsuit filed by SEC.
This price upswing was triggered by the judge's decision to dismiss the SEC's request for sealing documents pertaining to the testimony of former SEC official William Hinman dating back to 2018.
The legal dispute between Ripple and the SEC revolves around the classification of XRP as a security. In 2018 speech, the former Director of the Division of Corporation Finance at the SEC, asserted that Bitcoin and Ethereum should not be classified as securities due to various underlying reasons.
The SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple in December 2020, alleging that the company sold unregistered securities and illegally raised $1.8 billion through the sale of XRP tokens.
The SEC lawsuit requested to seal all documents related to a June 2018 speech delivered by former SEC director William Hinman. The court ruling means that the unredacted emails of Hinman, a former SEC official, will soon be publicly accessible, adding another win for transparency according to Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse.
District Judge Torres determined that the documents pertaining to Hinman's speech should not be sealed in a court order. The SEC had argued for the sealing of internal emails, text messages, and expert reports related to Hinman's speech, claiming that their mission outweighed the public's right to access documents that were deemed irrelevant to the court's summary judgment decision.
In addition to denying the sealing of the documents, Judge Torres dismissed the SEC's argument that sealing them was necessary to maintain "openness and candor" within the SEC, stating that the documents were not protected by the deliberative process privilege as they did not relate to an agency position, decision, or policy.
In 2021, an investigation by Fox Business shed light on the case, uncovering potential affiliations between the individuals responsible for initiating the lawsuit and the Ethereum. An independent organization called Empower Oversight also highlighted concerns over possible conflicts of interest among former high-ranking officials within the SEC.
While this latest ruling represents a major milestone in the Ripple vs. SEC case, the lawsuit is far from over. The SEC has a 14-day period, starting from April 11, to file an objection to the judgment.
