Ripple Fights Back: SEC Crackdown Spurs Crucial Legal Battle

Key Points:

• Judges on Coinbase and Binance lawsuits may watch SEC Ripple case closely.
• Ripple has been in a legal battle with the SEC since Dec 2020 over offering unregistered securities via XRP since 2013.
• Lawyer says SEC filed Coinbase and Binance lawsuits ahead of Ripple outcome to keep legal and political momentum.

The judges overseeing the lawsuits involving Coinbase and Binance will keep a close eye on the result of the SEC Ripple case.

The SEC has accused Ripple of offering unregistered securities via XRP since 2013, and the legal battle began in December 2020. On June 6, the regulator filed a lawsuit against Coinbase for similar allegations, and a day before that, it filed a lawsuit against Binance. If the Ripple case results in a favorable outcome for the company, it could “undermine the entire basis for the SEC’s case” against Coinbase and Binance, according to attorney James Murphy, also known as “MetaLawMan” on Twitter. However, Murphy cautioned that a decision by Judge Torres in the Ripple case would not be binding precedent for these recent filings.

This means that the judges presiding over the Coinbase and Binance lawsuits will not be required to rule the same way, as only decisions of the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court have that level of influence. Attorney John Deaton believes that the SEC purposely filed these new cases ahead of the Ripple case result, in case the regulator faces a negative outcome, and thus loses some political and legal momentum. He stated, “I believe the SEC wanted to get those cases filed before that decision just in case it is a bad result for the SEC, possibly causing it to lose some political and legal momentum.”

Murphy thinks that Judge Reardon, who is assigned to the Coinbase case and serves in the same Lower Manhattan court, will pay close attention to the determination of whether XRP is a security or not, and follow the same reasoning in determining whether the 13 tokens cited in the Coinbase complaint are securities. If the outcome is favorable for the SEC, it could go both ways.

XRP-friendly lawyer Bill Morgan, a consultant at Morgan Mac Lawyers, also believes that the Ripple case outcome could influence the Coinbase and Binance cases. He explained that the result could be used as an “advantage” for either the industry or the SEC, depending on the outcome. “If they lose badly in the Ripple case, they go forwards with Coinbase and Binance with a substantial judgment against them,” he said. “Obviously Coinbase and Binance will use that to their advantage that the sales of XRP is not an investment contract.”

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Annie

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