The US Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Wednesday that it will appeal a federal judge’s ruling in the case against Ripple.
The federal regulator has filed an “appeal” with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, just less than two months after Judge Analisa Torres issued her final ruling in the regulator’s now four-year-old case against the crypto company.
In July 2023, the judge ruled that while Ripple violated federal securities laws through its institutional sales of XRP, its programmatic sales to retail exchanges did not violate securities rules. The SEC attempted to file a summary judgment motion against the motion for summary judgment, but it was denied by the judge.
Last August, Judge Torres fined Ripple $125 million, well below the nearly $2 billion the SEC had sought in disgorgement, prejudgment interest and civil penalties. The judge stayed the enforcement of this fine until after the SEC’s deadline to file an appeal had passed or the appeal had been resolved by the Circuit Court.
In a statement, an SEC spokesperson said: “We believe the district court’s decision in the Ripple case violates decades of Supreme Court precedent and securities law and look forward to presenting our case to the Second Circuit.”
Following the publication of this article, a Ripple spokesperson referred CoinDesk to tweets from CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty.
“[The SEC] lost in everything that matters,” Garlinghouse tweeted. “Ripple, the crypto industry and the rule of law have already prevailed…XRP’s non-security status is the law of the land today.”
Alderoty called the call “disappointing, but not surprising.”
In an interview in August, Alderoty told CoinDesk that he expected the regulator would have a hard time convincing an appeals court to overturn a district court ruling.
“Even if they appeal, I would tell everyone, take a deep breath,” he said at the time.
Although the SEC has filed the notice of appeal, it has not yet filed the appeal itself (in other legal proceedings, such as the Sam Bankman-Fried criminal case, the actual appeal is filed months after the notice of appeal).
Earlier Wednesday, Bitwise applied to list and trade shares of an exchange-traded fund that would invest in XRP.
UPDATE (October 2, 2024, 9:35 PM UTC): Adds extra details.
UPDATE (October 2, 22:05 UTC): Adds Garlinghouse, Alderoty tweets.
