SEC v. Ripple: Why has XRP lawsuit gone silent?
The SEC v. Ripple lawsuit has gone silent, which has led some within the XRP community to speculate a possible settlement was in the works.
The digital asset ecosystem awaits regulatory clarity from the US Congress, but jurisprudence stemming from the SEC v. Ripple lawsuit will also be welcomed.
While industry leaders offer their thoughts for an ideal framework – including Ripple proposing minimal oversight from the SEC, which as been “hostile” towards crypto – the “cryptocurrency lawsuit of the century” has gone quiet, leaving many to wonder why.
Is a settlement in the works in the XRP lawsuit?
The SEC v. Ripple lawsuit has gone silent, which has led some within the XRP community to speculate a possible settlement was in the works.
This would not be the first time that such suspicions are raised. In late July, attorney Jeremy Hogan identified a number of “strange things” culminating in the silence from Ripple after the scheduled deposition of William Hinman.
His view at the time was that a settlement was likely taking place, but later events proved him wrong. Much has happened since then. The court has ordered both parties to hand over several documents that can be used as evidence to support their cases.
What are the news in SEC v. Ripple?
Judge Sarah Netburn has ordered Ripple to deliver more recordings of its meetings. The SEC will be looking for whether the individual defendants and Ripple executives talk about XRP more like a share of stock rather than a digital token.
The SEC, on the other hand, has been ordered to explain a lot via requests for admission on many fronts, from XRP sales offshore to questions relating to the fair notice defense and whether the XRP ledger was “fully functional” when the sales took place in 2013. The Hogan attorneys offered their analysis on this major win for Ripple.
As to the XRP lawsuit agenda, we’re still waiting for news about Ripple’s slack messages, but most importantly, the SEC documents that the agency claims are previleged and went under the judge’s in camera review, including documents that could prove the SEC lied to the court. Will they be regarded as privileged or be handed over to Ripple?
Also pending are the “big motions”: Garlinghouse and Larsen’s motion to dismiss the complaint against them and the SEC’s motion to strike the fair notice defense.
Jeremy Hogan explains expert discovery
Attorney Jeremy Hogan has produced a video explaining what is going on in court at the moment: expert discovery.
“Both parties are conducting expert depositions. There are two kinds of witnesses in a case: fact witness and expert witness. An expert witness is someone who brings a special knowledge or expertise and is allowed to do something very special in court, and that is “giving an opinion”.
“If I was in the witness box and the SEC asked me if I thought if the XRP ledger was decentralized or not, there would be an objection and the Judge would tell me my opinion is irrelevant and I would not be allowed to answer. Only someone with training in decentralized ledger would be allowed to give an opinion”, he explained.
“I am certain that each side, in this case, have listed numerous experts and they will be explaining all the technical aspects of the case to the judge and we can expect each deposition to last all day and each expert must prepare a report of his or her opinion and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are 10 to 15 experts in total on this case. So when adding it all together that’s a lot of work going on right now in the case behind the scenes”.
