Ripple’s Top Lawyer Calls SEC’s Latest Argument for Appeal in Landmark XRP Ruling a ‘Hypocritical Pivot’

Ripple Labs’ chief legal counsel says that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is being hypocritical by arguing for an appeal in last month’s landmark XRP court ruling.

In a new thread, attorney Stuart Alderoty says that the regulatory agency’s latest filing for an appeal to resolve “knotty legal problems” is hypocritical given that SEC Chair Gary Gensler has always said that the rules are crystal clear.

“Another SEC filing, another hypocritical pivot…

After years of its chairman saying the ‘rules are clear and must be obeyed’ the SEC now cries that an appeal is urgently needed to resolve these ‘knotty legal problems.’”

In July, a judge ruled that the automated, open-market sales of the crypto asset XRP, which is associated with Ripple Labs’ payments platform, do not count as securities transactions.

However, the SEC recently filed a motion to appeal that case, saying there are legal contradictions that need to be cleared up by an appellate court.

“The SEC respectfully requests certification for appellate review now because the issues raised by the Court’s order on summary judgment present precisely the kinds of ‘knotty legal problems’ that led Congress to provide for interlocutory review in Weber v. U.S The rulings on programmatic sales and other distributions are legal questions.

And they present ‘knotty legal problems.’ At least two opinions within this District reach contradictory legal conclusions on these issues and many other courts are considering whether similar offers and sales (either involving blind bid/ask trading platforms or buyers purchasing in exchange for goods and services) satisfy the Howey [test].”

The SEC also claims that the defendants failed to bring up any cases relevant to the Howey test, which derives from a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 1946 and is now used to determine whether an asset counts as a security or not.

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