Ripple Responds to SEC Lawsuit Over XRP Sales
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is ignoring that the XRP cryptocurrency has utility, fintech startup Ripple alleged in its response to a securities complaint filed by the regulatory agency.
In a Friday filing, Ripple Labs pushed back against the SEC’s allegations, which claim the San Francisco-based firm violated U.S. securities laws for over seven years by selling $1.3 billion worth of XRP tokens.
“The functionality and liquidity of XRP are wholly incompatible with securities regulation. To require XRP’s registration as a security is to impair its main utility,” the response said.
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In a 93-page filing, Ripple responded to each of the SEC’s paragraphs. In its affirmative defenses, Ripple stated that XRP is not a security or investment contract, and the firm’s sales or distributions of XRP are likewise not investment contracts.
Ripple rebuttal
The SEC sued Ripple in December 2020, alleging the company, CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Chairman Chris Larsen sold over $1 billion in XRP, promoted the token and paid third parties to support the cryptocurrency.
Parts of Ripple’s response seem to focus on what XRP actually does, in the company’s view, saying the SEC complaint ignored that XRP is open source and claiming that its price has correlated with the price of bitcoin and ether.
“The Complaint mischaracterizes advice that Ripple received in 2012, from which a reasonable reader actually would have concluded that Ripple Credits (a past name for XRP) were not a security,” the filing adds a few paragraphs down.
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Ripple is also claiming that the SEC did not provide fair notice that its sales of XRP might be violating the law.
It pointed to its settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network in 2015, which registered XRP as a convertible virtual currency and allowed for sales and secondary market transactions.
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“Upon information and belief, Plaintiff knew of that 2015 settlement and yet, for years after, Plaintiff provided Defendants with no clear notice that, in Plaintiff’s view, Defendants’ prospective XRP sales as permitted by the agreement would nevertheless constitute a violation of another federal law,” the response said.
Commodity clarity
In addition to filing its response, Ripple filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents from the SEC on how it determined that bitcoin and ether, the top two cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, are not securities.
“To date, they have offered no guidance for that determination, hindering responsible players like Ripple from being able to innovate in the U.S. to bring faster, cheaper and more transparent global payments to consumers who need them the most. As we have said for many years, we’re simply asking for the rules to be clearly stated and applied consistently,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
XRP is up nearly 10% over the past 24 hours, joining a broader spike across the crypto market that saw dogecoin jump over 700% on Thursday.
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Ripple Labs responds to SEC complaints
Ripple has filed its response to the SEC’s complaints; Ripple Labs inc filed its response today (January 29th) and also filed a Freedom Of Information Act request.
In Ripple’s response to the complaints, Ripple provides an answer to each of the complaints the SEC had against Ripple Labs inc and its co-founders Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen. The group is primarily arguing that XRP is not a security.
XRP performs a number of functions that are distinct from the functions of “securities” as the law has understood that term for decades. For example, XRP functions as a medium of exchange — a virtual currency used today in international and domestic transactions — moving value between jurisdictions and facilitating transactions. It is not a security and the SEC has no authority to regulate it as one,
said Ripple in its opening statement.
They go on to provide even more reasons–93 pages worth of reasons–why XRP is not a security and why its sale did not constitute an unregistered securities offering.
Throughout the letter, the Ripple Labs team makes several comparisons to BTC and ethereum and asks for clarity regarding why both of those digital currencies, especially ethereum, are not considered securities even though ethereum’s initial offering has several similarities to Ripple’s initial offering.
Freedom of Information Act
That being said, Ripple has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to learn why Ethereum is not considered a security even though the XRP and ETH initial sales had a similar structure. A Freedom of Information Act request allows the party that files the request to access federal documents and information related to an incident. In particular, Ripple Labs is looking to learn more about the communications between the SEC and Ethereum Foundation that led the SEC to decide that ETH was not a security.
It will be interesting to see if Ripple Lab’s continuous mention of ethereum and the Ethereum Foundation will lead to the Ethereum Foundation and the ETH ICO being re-examined by the SEC. Only time will tell.
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Ripple owns a third of SBI’s Money Tap blockchain payments platform
In October, it was revealed that Ripple would invest in Money Tap, the Japanese payments network owned by SBI, SMBC and another 37 mainly regional banks. Today SBI confirmed the investment is complete and that Ripple owns 33%, the largest shareholder after SBI. Two Ripple executives are joining the eight-person board.
The solution offers a mobile app that enables bank to bank transfers 24/7 instead of the usual Japanese banking hours, using RippleNet technology. It also aims to integrate cross border payments and the network is being incorporated into ATMs. Given that many of the banks are regional, the ATM addition will help to reduce their costs and benefit their customers as they move around the country.
SBI previously invested in OpenLegacy to help connect Money Tap to banking infrastructures.
So far, three banks are connected to the Money Tap network, SBI Sumishin Net Bank, Suruga Bank and Ehime Bank, with another three coming online in February. SBI said it expects to have 20 banks live this year. It is also planning to roll out a shared know your customer or eKYC system in the spring.
The very first iteration of Money Tap was launched by SBI Ripple Asia, a joint venture owned 60% by SBI and 40% by Ripple. However, in March 2019, a separate company was incorporated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of SBI. Shortly afterward, the first 13 banks invested.
In 2019 SBI offered its shareholders XRP tokens as a shareholder benefit. Today it announced a similar scheme with investors who hold more than 100 SBI shares at the end of March able to claim XRP to the value of 2,000 Yen ($19). The SEC has sued Ripple, claiming that XRP is a security.
Meanwhile, today SBI also confirmed the joint venture with SMBC to launch the Osaka Digital Exchange (ODX).