While one might have thought that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would have crushed Ripple and its execs in its ongoing legal battle by now, Ripple appears to be fighting back hard.
The blockchain firm has scored its first major win against the SEC following a decision by Judge Sarah Netburn to grant Ripple’s motion to compel the production of documents confirming that Bitcoin and Ethereum are not securities.
On March 15, Ripple’s lawyers filed a motionasking Federal Judge Analisa Torres to mandate the SEC to produce other documents apart from the ones selected by the financial watchdog. Ripple wants the Commission to produce documents that define Bitcoin and Ethereum as non-securities, asserting that “the economic substance” of XRP transactions is not different from that of the two other legacy digital assets.
Based on information gleaned to date, it is clear that the SEC was told by sophisticated market participants that XRP was not a security and solicited feedback on that position, but not provide a contrary public statement until it filed its allegations in this case in December 2020. Learning all there is to learn about these facts (whether through internal or external communications) is relevant to the defense and will be central to the Court’s understanding several issues critical to the case.Although the SEC claims that the documents are not relevant to the ongoing case, it would now be forced to present them in court.
