Ripple Lawsuit Coming To A Close

A potential landmark case with the SEC could soon be settled.

The two-year odyssey of Ripple (XRP) vs. the SEC is barreling toward its conclusion, as both parties filed a motion on September 13th requesting a summary judgment.

In many ways, the fate of crypto hangs in the balance.

The Lawsuit

The lawsuit began all the way back in December 2020, when the SEC sued Ripple for hosting an illegal securities offering. To the SEC, XRP passes the Howey test and thus is a security. If this is true, the SEC would be wholly justified to regulate Ripple as it sees fit.

Ripple vehemently disagrees. They see this as nothing more than an SEC witch-hunt and have spent more than $100 million on their legal defense to prove it. For Ripple, this is a case not just for them but for all of crypto. A last stand, if you will.

The Consequences

Although we hope the Judge will side with Ripple, we have no idea what will ultimately happen. What we do know, however, is the fallout from the possible outcomes.

Should Ripple win, it would be a big win for crypto. It would weaken the SEC’s argument that crypto tokens are securities and embolden other crypto projects to fight back against SEC lawsuits, as there would be a precedent for them to base their arguments on. Suddenly, SEC regulation becomes a lot less scary.

The opposite is true if the SEC wins. In that case, they would have a precedent with which to sue other crypto projects, and this precedent would make it much more challenging to fight back. All of crypto would instantly be within their reach.

Not what you want to see as a crypto investor.

In any case, we don’t recommend you try trading XRP off legal updates, even as it rockets up on the news of the impending judgment. Crypto is still in a bear market, and nobody knows how the case will turn out. If Ripple loses, you don’t want to get stuck holding a bag of XRP in a poor-liquidity market.

Do yourself a favor and root Ripple on from the sidelines.