The ongoing legal battle between crypto payments company, Ripple ,and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is taking another significant step forward this week. Both parties are preparing to take the next move forward with their appeal process. This development could have far-reaching implications on not just Ripple, but the XRP price and the crypto industry as a whole.
Next Developments And Key Deadlines In The Ripple And SEC Lawsuit
According to Fox Business journalist, Eleanor Terrett, today marks an important date for the upcoming developments in the Ripple versus SEC legal battle. Based on the Court’s instructions, October 16 is the final deadline for the US SEC to file a Form C. As part of the process of legal appeals, a Form C is a procedural filing that outlines the details of what a party intends to appeal.
Terrett revealed in an X (formerly Twitter) post that the SEC’s Form C will provide critical details regarding its planned appeal of Judge Analisa Torres’ July 2023 court ruling, which found that programmatic sales of XRP were not classified as securities.
Likewise, Ripple is set to follow the SEC’s appeal movement shortly. The company will file a Form C of its cross appeal within seven days of the regulator’s filing. That is, if the SEC files a Form C today, the crypto firm is likely to file its own sometime in the coming week.
Ripple’s filing is expected to outline its counterarguments, detailing the scope of the cross-appeal. After the submission of both Form C’s, Ripple and the SEC will then negotiate a briefing schedule, after which the regulator will have up to 90 days to file its first legal brief.
Extended Legal Battle Could Impact XRP Price
Terrett has revealed that the updates regarding the timeline of the Ripple and SEC appeal process were provided by Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer (CLO), Stuart Alderoty in a lengthy conversation.
Alderoty has suggested that the SEC will likely take the full 90 days before it submits its first legal brief. This suggests that the regulator may be aiming to extend the appeal process for as long as possible. The opening brief will be a full recitation of all the legal arguments the SEC intends to make against Ripple and the Court’s favorable ruling in July 2023.
Following the SEC’s first brief, Ripple will have the opportunity to respond and also counteract the SEC’s arguments. According to Alderoty, the full briefing process between Ripple and the SEC is expected to stretch into July 2025.
This means that starting from December 2020, when the regulator first filed its lawsuit against Ripple, the legal battle is now poised to extend over four years, with the possibility of reaching five years if a resolution is not reached. This elongated legal battle could have severe consequences on XRP price, which is already in a state of stagnation ever since the SEC filed its lawsuit.
The cryptocurrency has been trading around the $0.5 mark for years, only seeing slight upticks to $0.6 when market conditions become more favorable. However, this price increase is always short-lived as XRP often declines to the $0.5 mark once again.
Featured image created with Dall.E, chart from Tradingview.com