Ripple Won The Ruling To Expose SEC Documents On ETH And BTC

Ripple won the ruling to expose SEC documents on Bitcoin and Ethereum and the price of XRP Surged in a moment by 22% hitting the highest level since 2018 so let’s read more in today’s Ripple news.

Ripple won the ruling or better said a discovery motion so now the SEC has to hand over documents related to the internal thinking on crypto assets. Since December, Ripple Labs was fighting a $1.3 billion case against the US Securities and Exchange Commission which accused the company of offering unregistered security in the form of its XRP token. The company won the discovery motion today which will require the SEC to hand over internal documents about BTC and ETH. As a result, the public could get a peek behind the curtain of the regulator which was pretty secretive about the crypto’s regulatory status.

On March 15, Ripple Labs along with CEO Brad Garlinghouse and executive Chris Larsen filed a motion to compel the SEC and produce documents regarding the SEC’s communication about BTC and ETH or its internal communications about their company or the native token. In a ruling from March 15 by US District Court Judge Sarah Netburn we can read:

On March 15, Ripple Labs along with its co-defendants, CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Executive Chairman Chris Larsen, filed a motion to compel the SEC to produce documents regarding the SEC’s communications about Bitcoin and Ethereum or its internal communications about XRP.

“For almost a decade, the SEC watched as XRP grew and developed, all the while issuing no formal guidance that its sales may be illegal. The SEC did, however, announce that sales of two similar digital assets — bitcoin and ether — were not securities offerings.”

The SEC via public comments from both chairman Jay Clayton and former director of Enforcement William Hinman, made it clear that they don’t consider BTC and ETH to be securities. However, the Commission has not issued formal guidance which explains how they got to this conclusion because security is a type of investment contract that implies the expectations of profits in the future. Ripple is now looking for SEC mentions of XRP as a “virtual currency” like BTC and ETH which will strengthen their case to be treated similarly. It could also get some insight into the criteria of the agency to determine when assets are and aren’t securities which will be useful to make the case that XRP meets these requirements. Judge Netburn said:

 “I’m going to grant, in large part, the defendants’ motion.”