The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is planning
to move to court to challenge the ruling that granted Ripple Labs a partial win
against the agency. The SEC has reportedly written to a judge in Manhattan to
allow the federal court of appeal to examine the ruling, which was made in July.
On July 13, US District
Judge Analisa Torres ruled that the sale of Ripple’s cryptocurrency XRP on
public exchange did not amount to a violation of the securities regulations.
The decision was against SEC’s argument that the blockchain payments platform
sold unregistered securities to the public.
In her ruling, Torres explained that Ripple did not violate the
securities law because the purchasers of XRP did not expect to make a
profit based on Ripple ’s efforts. However, the judge said that Ripple could
have violated the law by offering the cryptocurrency to institutional
investors. The judge must decide whether to allow the appeal to continue
and put the case on hold.
According to a report by
Reuters, the SEC said in the letter that the appeal would address what it described as a substantial ground for differences of opinion. The
ruling came as a setback for the SEC, which has for a long time termed
cryptocurrencies as securities, similar to stocks and…
