The biggest case in the Crypto industry that will keep the SEC regulating TradFi finally received a ruling today afterJudge Torres ruled that XRP sales to the general public are not securities.
A 3 year battle that has come to an end all starting in 2020 when the SEC sued Ripple for selling XRP without first registering it with the agency.
The price of XRP surged by 70% with a high of $0.90 at writing.
The news gave hope to crypto investors, enthusiasts, and those following the industries well before we had exchanges knowing that other altcoins may not be considered securities after all. The decision and initial surge is just the beginning.
Coinbase, tweeted that it would enable trading of the asset again and as of writing you can indeed purchase XRP on Coinbase. With Gemini saying it’s “exploring the listing of XRP for both spot and derivatives trading,” which is really impressive since the Winklevoss brothers haven’t been a proponent of XRP.
So what does this all mean?
The market is pretty excited with the ruling along with many crypto enthusiasts, but it’s not a flat out victory.
The ruling regarding sales of XRP were split three ways between institutional sales, programmatic sales and “other distributions.”
The court gave the SEC the when it came to “Ripple’s Institutional Sales of XRP to sophisticated individuals and entities,” stating they were securities transactions and constituted an investment. Ripple took home the win when it came to “programmatic” sales, whcih are just sales to the general public and through “trading algorithms.”
“Having considered the economic reality and totality of circumstances, the Court concludes that Ripple’s Programmatic Sales of XRP did not constitute the offer and sale of investment contracts” and “the Other Distributions do not satisfy Howey’s first prong that there be an ‘investment of money’ as part of the transaction or scheme,” the filing said.
This win for XRP, Ripple, and the community should send ripple effects (pun intended) throughout the industry and affect other cases like lawsuits brought by the SEC against Coinbase in June.
Really excited to see where this goes!
