- The Blockchain Association joins a growing list of crypto lobbyists supporting Ripple in the case against the SEC
- Crypto Lobbyists take aim at the SEC’s broad interpretation of securities laws which they claim are devastating to the crypto industry.
The Blockchain Association, a Washington-based crypto lobbyist group has filed an “amicus curiae” brief asking the court to allow it to support Ripple and two other defendants in the ongoing lawsuit with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).
According to a motion for leave dated October 28, the group faults the SEC for insisting that Ripple Labs, Bradley Garlinghouse, and Christian Larsen presided over the issuance of XRP as unregistered security since 2013. The group also castigated the regulator for attempting to enforce powers beyond its legal threshold by issuing an “extremely broad” interpretation of securities laws.
“The SEC’s extremely broad interpretation of the securities laws would have devastating effects on the industry (and even outside the industry). Market participants across the industry already struggle to see through the fog as to how securities laws apply to digital assets due to the SEC’s pattern of regulation by enforcement and its history of inconsistent, incomplete, and confusing public statements.” The document said.
The group further claims that the purported application of the Howey Test in defining XRP should not stand since the token is an asset rather than an “Investment contract.” In determining this prong, the group asked the court to look at the specific purpose of a token, noting that the SEC “unlawfully” looked at secondary sales as proof that the company was violating federal securities laws, therefore, failing the Howey Test.
The latest filing comes against the backdrop of numerous motions that have been filed in support of Ripple since the regulator brought the lawsuit at the end of 2020. On Friday, another group, Spend The Bits Inc (STB) and Investor Choice Advocates Network (ICAN) filed their own amicus brief seeking to demonstrate how the SEC failed to prove the Howey test.
1/ I’m proud to announce that @BlockchainAssn has filed an amicus brief in the SEC’s case against @Ripple.
In short: the SEC is wrong on the law, and its pattern of regulation by enforcement is harmful to both US crypto companies and the investors that it's meant to protect. 🧵
— Jake Chervinsky (@jchervinsky) October 28, 2022
Earlier this month, the judge granted I-Remit and TapJet’s request to file amicus curiae briefs in support of Ripple labs with the former arguing that it did not use XRP “to speculate on it” nor does it consider XRP to be an investment. On the other hand, aircraft management company TapJets noted that its use of XRP as a payment method was vital for its services.
Meanwhile, with the outcome of the lawsuit expected to have far-reaching effects on the crypto industry, investors have increasingly shown interest. As for XRP adherents, a win for Ripple could be a boon for its price after a 75 percent drawdown. At press time, XRP was trading at $0.46 after plunging 2.35 percent in the past 24 hours. Technically, XRP faces strong support along the $0.42 line and resistance at $0.55. A break above that resistance could see the price push to $0.90 in the coming week as the token’s fundamentals continue to improve.
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