Gary Gensler's SEC Appeals 2023 Ruling Against Ripple Labs — XRP Tanks 10%: Just Prolongs 'Complete Embarassment' For Agency Says Company Exec (UPDATED)

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include a comment from a SEC spokesperson.

The SEC has decided to appeal against a 2023 ruling in the hotly contested legal battle against Ripple Labs that dismissed the agency’s broader claims about XRP XRP/USD sales.

What Happened: The SEC lodged a notice of appeal aiming to overturn a prior decision made by Judge Analisa Torres that deemed programmatic sales of XRP to retail clients as legal while ruling that sales to institutional investors violated securities laws.

An SEC spokesperson told Benzinga that the district court decision in the Ripple matter conflicts with decades of Supreme Court precedent and securities laws and they look forward to making their case to the Second Circuit.

(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

Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty called the latest appeal “disappointing” and one that prolongs a “complete embarrassment” for the SEC.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse also blasted the ruling, criticizing the SEC’s refusal to move on from the case despite its role in damaging the agency’s credibility.

If Gensler and the SEC were rational, they would have moved on from this case long ago. It certainly hasn't protected investors and instead has damaged the credibility and reputation of the SEC.

Somehow, they still haven't gotten the message: they lost on everything that… https://t.co/1hW7xVSL9b

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) October 2, 2024

See Also: Edward Snowden Under Fire: Solana Developer Challenges NSA Whistleblower — ‘You Are Full Of Baloney’ If You Can’t Back Up Your Centralization Claims!

SEC’s appeal came on the day cryptocurrency index fund manager Bitwise Asset Management officially filed for the first-ever XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the U.S. with the regulator.

Price Action: At the time of writing, XRP was trading at $0.5379, plunging over 10% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Image via Shutterstock

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