The exchange of blows between the SEC and Ripple continues. Now the US FinTech has been able to celebrate another partial success in the legal dispute over its token XRP.
The legal exchange between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Californian FinTech Ripple is arguably the largest legal battle in the still young history of the crypto space. As a reminder: The SEC accuses Ripple of trading an unregistered security with its XRP token and is now demanding a fine of 1.3 billion US dollars. Now the crypto start-up can show another stage win in the fight against the SEC lawsuit.
Previously, the SEC demanded the release of important minutes of the conversation between Ripple and his lawyers at the beginning of May. The young US company always refused to hand over such documents, citing legal confidentiality. Judge Sarah Netburn agreed and prohibited the tax authorities now to request critical communication documents from Ripple. The reason given was:
Legal confidentiality is intended to promote full and open communication between attorneys and their clients, thereby safeguarding the general public interest in compliance with the law and case law.
US judge Sarah Netburn in the letter of motivation
The defense tactics of the US FinTech are basically based on the argument that the SEC did not initially point out to Ripple that Ripple was trading in securities. The tax authorities always rejected these allegations. One is not obliged to issue warnings in advance. The court did not issue an opinion on this issue in its statement of reasons.
Court throws down Ripple’s motion
Although the rapid development may of course appear to be beneficial for Ripple, the Californian FinTech recently suffered a bitter defeat. Because in mid-May, the New York court thwarted an application in which the crypto start-up accused the SEC of having put foreign business partners under pressure as part of its investigations. In addition, Ripple requested the disclosure of the results so far. Judge Netburn rejected the US company’s move. She referred to the “Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding”, an agreement that enables international cooperation between different financial authorities.
XRP course on the rise
The turbulence in the crypto market has not left Ripple without a trace. In the last week of trading, the “Bankencoin” was now only quoted at 0.80 US dollars. After the New York court decided in favor of Ripple, it was like balm for the tarnished course. As a result, XRP struggled just below the $ 1 mark. As of press time, Ripple broke this important resistance and is trading at $ 1.03. All in all, the court helped XRP to a price increase of almost 29 percent.