The SEC has officially filed its notice of appeal in the Ripple XRP lawsuit, according to a new filing sent to a New York court Wednesday. In August a judge ordered Ripple to pay just over $125 million in civil penalties, officially ending the SEC’s lawsuit & concluding that XRP is not a security. The decision was a win for Ripple and all of the crypto industry. However, the SEC has finally decided to send out an appeal to the ruling after over a month of speculation, and just days before the deadline to do so.
The SEC is looking to overturn the rulings of the case by Judge Analisa Torres of New York. Judge Torres ultimately ruled that the programmatic sales of XRP and Ripple’s distribution of XRP tokens in exchange for labor and services are not securities offerings or sales. Correspondingly, the US regulator hopes to delay the pretrial proceedings and trial pending the resolution of the appeal.
SEC Files Appeal in Ripple XRP Security Case
Ripple publicly stated they did not plan to appeal the fine they were forced to pay. While the SEC has filed it’s notice of appeal, it has yet to actually file said “appeal” yet, at the time of writing. In a statement, an SEC spokesperson said, “We believe that the district court decision in the Ripple matter conflicts with decades of Supreme Court precedent and securities laws and look forward to making our case to the Second Circuit.”
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Furthermore, the appeal comes just a day after Bitwise became one of the first asset manager to file for a Spot XRP ETF. The move could be one that negatively impacts hopes for an XRP ETF’s approval, and worries investors. Indeed, investors may see a potential appeal as something to hang doubts on regarding Ripple and its native token. The appeal can slow down Ripple’s growth, as it would need to shift its focus towards winning the appeal as well if granted.
Ripple Labs has yet to respond to the SEC’s newest appeal. However, officials from Ripple have said that the appeal will not have much legs under it, and the company has done enough in the initial case to win the appeal.
