Ripple Labs has filed a cross-appeal in its long-running legal dispute against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), seeking to overturn the points of the ruling that favor the regulator. This move marks a key point in the regulatory battle that could set important precedents for the crypto industry.

Ripple Labs has escalated its showdown with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by filing a cross-appeal that seeks to challenge certain aspects of the ruling issued in July 2023. In that decision, the court ruled that while sales of XRP to institutional investors violated securities laws, secondary sales and transactions on exchanges did not. Ripple is seeking to reverse precisely this partial ruling in favor of the SEC.

The filing of this cross-appeal came after the SEC notified its own appeal in September 2023, also seeking to overturn the parts of the ruling that favored Ripple. This legal dispute, which has captured global attention, not only has direct implications for Ripple and its cryptocurrency XRP, but could also influence the regulatory framework for the entire cryptoasset industry in the United States.

The importance of the Ripple-SEC case

The Ripple vs. SEC case is one of the most high-profile and significant clashes in the crypto space. The SEC accused Ripple in December 2020 of selling XRP as an unregistered security, arguing that the transactions made by the company constituted an illegal offering of securities under the Securities Act of 1933. Ripple has maintained from the beginning that XRP is a digital token and not a security, so it is not subject to SEC regulations.

The July 2023 ruling was seen as a partial victory for Ripple, as the court found that sales and distributions of XRP on secondary exchanges did not meet the definition of a “securities offering.” #XRP🚀