Stuart Alderoty, legal chief at Ripple, has dismissed concerns about a likely appeal by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to the historic XRP ruling earlier this month. Alderoty said the company is prepared in the event of an appeal by the SEC. In fact, he believes such a move could see the company further consolidate its win over the watchdog.
Ripple Legal Team Not Backing Down
The SEC recently suggested that it was mulling an appeal of the Ripple ruling, as per a filing in the ongoing legal brawl against Terraform Labs and its founder, Do Kwon.
Speaking on the TechCrunch podcast on Wednesday, Ripple’s chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty maintained that XRP is not an investment contract and that the Ripple legal team would not back down from an appeal initiated in the court by the SEC.
“We think the judge got that right, and we think that was a faithful application of the law, and I think a court of appeals will not only affirm that but maybe even amplify that to even a greater extent.”
Federal district judge Analisa Torres ruled on July 13 that XRP, the token that powers Ripple’s payments network, is “not necessarily a security on its face”, except for instances when it was offered to hedge funds and other institutional buyers. This was largely considered a glorious triumph for Ripple and the crypto industry at large.
Last week, the SEC expressed its displeasure with the verdict and hinted that it would later challenge it. “SEC staff is considering the various avenues that are available for further review and intends to recommend that the SEC seek such review,” the agency’s lawyers noted.
Alderoty further forecasted that the SEC would begin losing ongoing cases where it attempts to contend that crypto assets are securities.
“Our case and the decision rendered by our judge [Torres] will comfort other judges that the SEC is just misguided.”
Although Ripple’s win in court lifted a regulatory cloud that had hung over the project for years, Alderoty noted that the coast is still not clear regarding where crypto stands in the eyes of U.S. law. The CLO also criticized the SEC’s regulation-by-enforcement approach that has effectively stifled crypto in America.
“We still need a rational, comprehensive, and understandable regulatory framework for crypto in the U.S.,” Alderoty posited. “Because of the SEC’s refusal to faithfully apply the law […] the U.S. has been visibly falling behind the rest of the world.”
The price of XRP sits above $0.70 as of this writing, according to data from CoinGecko, marking a 0.4% increase over the last 24 hours.
