- Ripple Labs filed its cross-appeal in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
- The company is attempting to contest an August 7 judgement made by Judge Analisa Torres
- The SEC v Ripple Labs is a case that dates back to 2020
Ripple Labs has filed a cross-appeal in its ongoing litigation battle against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The filing was submitted to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Ripple is attempting to challenge the judgement made against the company on August 7 where it was ordered to pay $125 million for violating securities laws by Judge Analisa Torres.
“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 their being essential rights and obligations found in a contract,” said Stuart Alderoty, chief legal officer at Ripple, in a post on X.
An ongoing case
In 2020, the SEC sued Ripple, Christian Larsen, the company’s co-founder and former CEO, and Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple’s current CEO, after alleging that they raised $1.3 billion through the sale of XRP, an unregistered securities offering, according to the regulator.
However, last year, Judge Torres found that XRP wasn’t a security when it came to the sales to the public, its employees, and developers, marking a huge win against the SEC. Yet, direct sales to institutional investors, Torres found that these sales were securities.
Alderoty continued: “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.”
Speaking on the matter, Garlinghouse said:
“With our cross-appeal today, we’re looking forward to sealing the SEC’s fate and finally putting an end to the SEC’s regulation-by-enforcement agenda. Ripple was the industry leader in the first go-round in court and we look forward to leading the way in this round as well.”