U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Inches Closer to Appealing the XRP Decision in Ripple Lawsuit

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is getting closer to filing an appeal on their recent partial defeat in their lawsuit against Ripple.

James K. Filan, a defense lawyer and crypto legal expert, notes that District Judge Analisa Torres has set a briefing schedule for “the SEC’s request to file a motion for leave to file an interlocutory appeal.”

“This does not mean an interlocutory appeal has been authorized. It just means the SEC is allowed to request it.” 

Torres says in her order that the SEC should file their motion by August 18th, Ripple should file its opposition papers by September 1st, and the SEC should file its reply, if it has one, by September 8th.

XRP plummeted after the judge’s order was submitted, dropping from trading around $0.571 to roughly $0.499 at time of writing, a decrease of more than 12%, following the general trend of the wider crypto markets.

The SEC sued Ripple in late 2020, alleging the San Francisco payments company was selling XRP as an unregistered security.

Last month, Torres ruled that Ripple’s automated, open-market sales of XRP, referred to as programmatic sales, did not constitute security offerings, contrary to what the SEC alleged.

The judge did, however, side with the SEC’s claim that Ripple’s sale of XRP directly to institutional buyers constituted a securities offering.

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