Ripple scored a landmark court victory against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in mid-July, which resulted in an overall revival of XRP’s price.
However, the legal battle seems far from over, with the regulator being unhappy about the magistrates’ decision. It requested permission to appeal the ruling in August and formally filed its position this weekend.
As CryptoPotato reported a few days back, the Commission appealed against the court decision that most of Ripple’s XRP sales did not constitute an offer of unregistered securities. More specifically, the SEC’s disagreement is focused on two sales – “programmatic” and those classified by the court as “other distributions.”
Judge Torres has already ruled that the former (which were offered to public buyers) did not violate securities laws. “Other distributions” include offers and sales of XRP in exchange for goods and services.
The lawsuit between Ripple and the SEC has stretched for around three years, while its final resolution seems to be a turning point for the cryptocurrency sector. A definitive win for the blockchain entity could be of critical importance for the future development of the industry, whereas an SEC victory could delay crypto’s advancement on American soil.
Apart from that potential impact, the lawsuit is closely monitored by thousands of XRP investors who are involved in it. John Deaton – a pro-Ripple attorney representing 75,000 such individuals – recently explained that 53% of them are situated in the USA. The United Kingdom (UK), Australia, and Canada round up the top four destinations.
The native token of Ripple – XRP – has been on a roll recently, prompted by the court win and the consecutive appeal coming from the SEC. The asset’s valuation skyrocketed by over 70% shortly after the announcement in July, surpassing the $0.80 mark.
However, it failed to keep the momentum, and its price started declining in the following months. As of the moment of writing, XRP trades at around $0.47 (a 44% decrease).