Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse Vows To Fight SEC Appeal Over XRP Court Ruling

Updated: 03 October 2024

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Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse vowed to fight the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in court after the regulator revealed its intention to appeal a district court’s ruling on its XRP token last year.

“If Gensler and the SEC were rational, they would have moved on from this case long ago,” Garlinghouse said in an Oct. 2 X post, referring to SEC chair Gary Gensler. “Somehow, they still haven’t gotten the message: they lost on everything that matters.”

SEC Appeals Ruling

The SEC filed an appeal on Oct. 2 in an effort to overturn a ruling made by Judge Analisa Torres last year. She had ruled that XRP is not a security when sold to the public, giving Ripple and the crypto industry what appeared to be a landmark partial victory against the regulator.

But Torres also ruled that XRP is a security when sold to institutional investors, giving the SEC a partial win. The SEC brought the action against Ripple, arguing that XRP is a security and that the company had issued unregistered securities to investors.

Ripple Lawyer Says SEC Appeal Decision Is “Disappointing”

Ripple chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty responded to the SEC’s decision on X, and called the move “disappointing” because it just “prolongs what’s already a complete embarrassment for the agency.”

(1) The SEC's decision to appeal is disappointing, but not surprising. This just prolongs what's already a complete embarrassment for the agency. The Court already rejected the SEC’s suggestion that Ripple acted recklessly, and there were no allegations of fraud and, of course,… https://t.co/PQozMMtthf

— Stuart Alderoty (@s_alderoty) October 2, 2024

According to Alderoty, the court has already rejected the SEC’s allegation that Ripple acted recklessly. Additionally, there were no accusations of fraud in the case, while there were also no victims or losses in Ripple’s sale of XRP.

He went on to say that the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple “has been irrational and misguided from the start.”

Alderoty also asked if it was a coincidence that the SEC’s Enforcement Director, Gurbir Grewal, resigned just an hour before the appeal was submitted.