The SEC Legal Services announced its intention to appeal the ruling by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres, who ruled that Ripple did not violate securities laws by offering XRP on cryptocurrency exchanges and similar venues.
During the hearing in SEC v. Terraform Labs Commission lawyers said Torres’ decision in the Ripple case was “insufficiently reasoned,” particularly with regard to the difference between the expectations of institutional and retail investors.
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“Ripple violated SEC rules when it directly sold the token to institutional investors. Moreover, Ripple’s public statements in support of XRP have created a reasonable expectation of profit from the company’s efforts among institutional buyers. The same conclusion should have been applied to retail customers. Instead, the court’s ruling creates an artificial distinction between the expectations of institutional and retail investors. Therefore, the SEC intends to seek reconsideration of the earlier decision,” SEC lawyers said.
Attorneys for Terraform Labs attempted to
to use a decision exonerating Ripple’s secondary market operations to support a motion to dismiss their own securities-trafficking case.