Ripple’s chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty, revealed on social media platform X Thursday that the crypto firm had filed a cross-appeal in its ongoing legal case against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The legal action comes after the securities regulator appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals last week, aiming to overturn portions of District Judge Analisa Torres’ ruling in the Ripple case involving XRP.
“The SEC lost on all key points — that’s why they appealed,” Alderoty said, adding:
Today, Ripple filed a cross-appeal to ensure nothing’s left on the table, including the argument that there can’t be an ‘investment contract’ without there being essential rights and obligations found in a contract.
Judge Torres’ ruling found that Ripple’s programmatic sales of XRP to retail investors did not violate securities laws, although earlier institutional sales were considered unregistered securities transactions. Both the SEC’s appeal and Ripple’s cross-appeal will be reviewed together in the U.S. Court of Appeals.
The Ripple legal chief reiterated:
The SEC has already said they aren’t appealing the ruling that XRP itself isn’t a security. (They even apologized in another case for suggesting a token itself could be a security!) That’s the law, and an appeal on these other issues doesn’t change it.
Reflecting on the SEC’s previous legal attempts, Alderoty detailed: “Last year, the SEC unsuccessfully tried to take an early appeal of the rulings that Ripple’s XRP sales on exchanges and Ripple’s other XRP distributions, like to employees and developers, weren’t securities. They’ll likely go after these again — and they will lose on both again.” He concluded: “We look forward to the federal court of appeals finally putting a stake in the heart of Gensler’s misguided attack on our industry.”
