After a long legal battle that lasted for over two and a half years, the U.S. SEC and Ripple have finally received a verdict regarding the classification of XRP. The SEC had accused Ripple of selling XRP as an unregistered security. However, the recent ruling brought some good news for Ripple and its community.
The judge found that only a portion of Ripple’s XRP sales were considered illegal securities offerings, while the status of other sales was not affected by the ruling. This outcome has led to celebrations among Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse, co-founder Chris Larsen, and their supporters.
According to Cryptolaw, Judge Torres has decided to send the fair notice defense raised by Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen, who are associated with Ripple, to trial. This defense is related to the SEC’s allegation of “reckless disregard” and the judge has determined that it is still a disputed fact. It further mentions that a reasonable jury could potentially find that Larsen and Garlinghouse were not aware of or recklessly disregarded Ripple’s violations of Section 5.
However, this did not stop Garlinghouse from celebrating. He took to his Twitter handle and wrote, “We said in Dec 2020 that we were on the right side of the law, and will be on the right side of history. Thankful to everyone who helped us get to today’s decision – one that is for all crypto innovation in the US. More to come.”
Attorney Fred Rispoli was in a celebratory mood. However, he also issued a warning.
He wrote, “Sooooooooo much good stuff in here…for $XRP. Soooooooooo much bad stuff for almost every other crypto. It’s looking like a lot of projects will still have to run “The Ripple Gauntlet” to get to the same place.”
According to Rispoli, the SEC suffered a major setback as the court ruled that Ripple’s programmatic sales do not qualify as investment contracts. This outcome is seen as a significant victory for Ripple, according to him.
