Towards the end of 2020, United States Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Ripple and its officials. SEC alleged that Ripple’s XRP token is a security and Ripple has traded XRP tokens worth over $1.3 billion.
However, Ripple did not accept the allegations and claimed that the trade was purely legal as XRP does not come under the securities.
Is SEC biased over ETH?
In its defense, Ripple raised an important objection, "Why SEC is considering XRP as a security while leaving BTC and ETH of it?" Ripple chief Brad Garlinghouse even called out SEC in public and claimed that the agency is biased as it helped ETH to surpass XRP.
In December 2017, XRP was the second largest crypto asset by market capitalization. It is presently placed at the 6th spot while Ethereum has held the 2nd spot ever since.
Here are few key events that raise question marks on how SEC is handling this lawsuit.
- In June 2018, William Hinman, former director of SEC, publicly said that the commission would not be treating Ether or Bitcoin as securities. As per reports, Ethereum Foundation bagged funds of over $60 million by selling ETH coins.
- In 2018, Gary Gensler, then a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, argued that Ethereum violated federal law by issuing $18 million in tokens and that too without registering them as securities with SEC.
- In 2022, Gary Gensler, Chief of SEC, seems to forget what he said back in 2018. In a recent interview, he looked hesitant to reply to a question concerning the difference between Ripple and Ethereum using their tokens in public markets.
Case revelations helping Ripple
To date, Ripple vs SEC lawsuit has seen many big revelations, and the XRP defendant believes that there are more to come. Every disclosure related to the case has only benefited Ripple and proved to be a big mistake done by SEC.
Recently, case judge Analisa Torres delivered some orders in the favor of Ripple. After the mystery of the two sealed memos, the Estabrook Notes have increased the problems of the SEC in the case. These notes were taken by then counsel to Commissioner Roisman, Matthew Estabrook. It is being believed these hold the insider conversation between Commissioner Roisman and Bradley Garlinghouse from November 9, 2018.
Following these responses coming out in public XRP community is overjoyed and a positive sentiment can also be seen in the market. Recent development has proved to be good sign for the coin as it XRP price has spiked in last few days.
The lawsuit is still under proceedings and can take more time to conclude. Considering some facts provided and arguments made by both sides it can be seen that SEC has given many contrary statements and is trying to hide some facts.
And If SEC turns out to be wrong in the cases then it can surely create distrust among the people for the government authorities.
