Expert Says War Over XRP Non-Security Status Is Officially Over

Attorney Bill Morgan notes that the legal tussle over whether XRP is a security has officially come to an end. 

In a tweet yesterday, top Australian lawyer Bill Morgan declared that the war over the non-security status of XRP has officially ended. The pro-XRP lawyer made this known in response to the SEC’s latest motion in the ongoing Ripple case. 

Thanks James. The war for the status of XRP as not itself a security is over. The battle for post complaint ODL sales since December 2020 has just begun. Give that that Ripple objected to every requested interrogatory and all documents the SEC sought it looks like a bitter fight… https://t.co/U4ZHsn8ENO pic.twitter.com/z3is12saGA

— bill morgan (@Belisarius2020) January 11, 2024

SEC’s Latest Motion  

As reported earlier, the SEC filed a fresh motion yesterday to compel Ripple to surrender two vital documents and respond to an interrogatory. 

The documents that the SEC seeks pertain to Ripple’s audited financial statement from 2022 to 2023 and the firm’s post-complaint contract governing its institutional sales of XRP. 

For the interrogatory, the SEC wants the court to compel Ripple to disclose the institutional sales proceeds since the complaint was filed. 

Interestingly, Attorney Morgan called attention to a portion of the SEC’s latest filing, where the commission recounted its effort to file an interlocutory appeal earlier in the lawsuit. In its latest motion, the SEC lawyers emphasized that it sought leave to file an interlocutory appeal to challenge Judge Analisa Torres’ ruling that certain Ripple’s offer and sales of XRP were not securities. 

Specifically, the judge officially ruled that Ripple’s programmatic sales and other distributions of XRP did not violate the law. Furthermore, she found that XRP in itself is not a security, as alleged by the SEC. 

War on XRP Non-Security Status Over?

While many thought the SEC would be dissatisfied with the ruling on the legal status of XRP, the regulator did not include the issue when it moved to file an interlocutory appeal. Instead, it only moved to challenge the summary judgment on Ripple’s programmatic sales of XRP and other distributions. 

The move suggests that if the SEC decides to file an appeal after the remedies phase of the Ripple lawsuit, the commission may stick to its original plan of challenging only the ruling on Ripple’s programmatic sales and other distributions of XRP. 

Meanwhile, Attorney Morgan said now that the war over the non-security status of XRP has ended, the parties have begun the battle for post-complaint ODL-related sales since December 2020. 

He speculated that XRP community members could see a bitter legal tussle in the remedies phase, given that Ripple objected to all of SEC’s requests for documents and interrogatory.