Ripple responds to the SEC and demands to know why Bitcoin and Ethereum are not securities?
Ripple has filed a formal response to the lawsuit it faces from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Ripple has asked the commission to issue documents explaining why Bitcoin and Ethereum are not considered as securities.
Ripple is asking about Bitcoin and Ethereum:
Ripple provided a 93-page response on Friday, January 29th, in Manhattan, USA.
The company's official response comes after the committee filed a lawsuit against it and against two of its managers, alleging that they sold unlicensed securities through a sale of the encrypted XRP digital currency.
Ripple argues that the Authority has previously failed to substantiate the claim that XRP is a security or investment contract under US federal law.
Ripple maintains that XRP is not a security and denies that its XRP sales of billions of dollars from investment contracts.
In its defense, Ripple also cited a lack of due process and fair notification, stating:
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should have made such allegations in 2015 when Ripple settled with the Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
Ripple reported that the settlement with FinCEN describes XRP as a convertible digital currency.
The letter and response from Ripple also stated that XRP should be considered as a digital currency in the same way that the SEC looks at Bitcoin and Ethereum.
An excerpt from the response includes:
The Securities and Exchange Commission deposit, based on legal theory, is exaggerated.
The possible question is why the SEC has exempted Bitcoin and Ethereum from similar regulation.
Ripple's request from the SEC provides for clarification of the Bitcoin and Ethereum status in an effort to portray the lawsuit as unfair and arbitrary.
Ripple appears to be focusing on the SEC conclusion in 2018 that Ethereum is not a security.
Despite the fact that Ethereum was launched through an Initial Offering (ICO) which gave outside buyers an opportunity to purchase the project early in its official release date to the public.
Today, such an ICO would be considered an illegal offer of securities according to the standards of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC did not provide an immediate response to indicate whether or not to comply with Ripple's request.
The legal conflict between Ripple and the SEC continues:
As Bitcoin continues to dominate the headlines, the ongoing battle between the SEC and Ripple continues to rage.
As a reminder, the Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a lawsuit alleging that Ripple raised more than $ 1.3 billion by offering unregistered securities.
The SEC defines XRP as a security code, meaning that the digital currency will be subject to federal laws governing offerings on the US stock markets.
But Mr. "Brad Garlinghouse" CEO of Ripple, confirms that XRP is not a security token because the cryptocurrency is different from the investment contract.
Garlinghouse hints that the SEC lawsuit came under political influence, knowing that the matter has not been formally settled in court yet.
According to Garlinghouse, the ongoing battle between Ripple and the SEC will have wider impacts on the cryptocurrency markets as it is an attack on cryptocurrencies in general.
What happens to Ripple is likely to affect other cryptocurrencies in the future.