Will Ripple win the case and, if not, what will be the future of XRP?
Documents unsealed on February 17 may determine the outcome of the SEC v. Ripple lawsuit.
The question, made by Nathan Smith on an XRP Army live session hosted by Scott Powell and “Crypto Eri”, is what all XRP holders ultimately want to know.
In the meantime, attorney John Deaton was able to bring the voice of over 65,000 XRP holders to the court after being granted Amicus Curiae status, which is a sign that Judge Analisa Torres wants to know the perspective from retail investors, who the SEC officially aims to protect.
More articles covering the XRP Army live session:
SEC v. Ripple: Jeremy Hogan shares “origin story” and defends Ethereum
XRP lawsuit: Attorney Hogan plays SEC counsel against Ripple for 5 minutes
More real hard evidence coming right up
The special guest on that live session was attorney Jeremy Hogan, who offered his view on many topics, including the SEC’s strategy, Ethereum, and his own “origin story” as an XRP influencer.
“There’s no way of knowing. There are 100 points of evidence out there and we’ve only seen 5 or 10. So far, the litigation has gone very well from Ripple’s perspective, but I’ve only seen five pieces of real hard evidence”, he said.
Some documents will be unsealed on February 17, including opinions from Ripple’s legal counsel as to whether XRP was a security. As the notes become available to the public, legal experts out there will be much more able to ascertain the chances of a Ripple win.
If at the time, Ripple executives learned that the risk of XRP being considered a security was close to certainty but still went through their “unregistered securities offering”, that is unlikely to garner much sympathy from the court.
Either way, chances of an official legal win or loss are slim as most cases in the US federal courts settle, including the litigations involving Ripple Labs or the SEC.
“The most probable resolution is a settlement and that hasn’t changed since the beginning”.
What will happen to XRP?
In case of a win, US crypto exchanges are likely to relist XRP and there’s potential for a new dynamic in the market as XRP may become the only crypto asset with regulatory clarity in the jurisdiction. Garlinghouse and Ripple investors have signaled the intention of going public via IPO after the lawsuit.
There’s also a chance that the wider digital asset space will be “saved from the SEC” given the precedent-setting nature of the lawsuit.
Finance Feeds has previously covered a potential Ripple lawsuit, but with a focus on the blockchain company, which could march on without XRP, according to CEO Brad Garlinghouse.
In case of a loss, XRP itself is unlikely to be erased as Ripple has no control over much of the stock and an extremely high percentage of XRP holders are based abroad, where the SEC has no jurisdiction. The digital asset would remain delisted in US exchanges, but probably not in other countries as no other regulators have shown signs of suing Ripple yet. Garlinghouse has previously mentioned the intention of moving its headquarters overseas in case of a loss. Singapore could be it.
But again, settlement is the likely outcome of the SEC v. Ripple.
