The judge denied the SEC’s motion to appeal in the Ripple case.
U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres has denied the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) request to appeal part of her recent high-profile lawsuit against Ripple Labs over its sale of digital tokens XRP.
In July, Judge Torres found that some of Ripple’s XRP institutional sales were unregistered securities offerings in violation of federal law. However, she ruled that other XRP issued by Ripple did not qualify as securities transactions.
The SEC quickly sought to appeal the latter half of Torres’ order, arguing that it set a dangerous precedent for applying securities laws to crypto assets. But today, Torres denied the SEC’s appeal request, arguing that it did not meet the legal standards for a pre-trial appeal.
Judge Torres wrote that “if the buyer then purchases XRP from an exchange with the intention of subsequently selling the XRP for a profit, then she purchases XRP ‘with an expectation of profit,’ but that motivation does not ‘derive from the entrepreneurial or managerial efforts of a business or other person.”
The dismissal of the SEC's appeal motion is seen as a major victory for Ripple, which has been fighting the lawsuit for years. The lawsuit claims that Ripple violated investor protection laws by selling more than $1.3 billion worth of XRP starting in 2013 without registering the offers and sales of XRP.
The SEC has yet to comment on the ruling, and it is unclear whether it will further appeal the decision. However, the denial of the appeal motion means the case will now proceed to trial, which is scheduled for April next year.
According to CoinGecko, XRP is up 3% in the past 24 hours. #Ripple #SEC
