- A U.S. court ruling on the Coinbase insider trading lawsuit could offer insights into the SEC v. Ripple case set to determine the status of XRP.
- Some community members have speculated that a settlement between the parties is unlikely, with the SEC likely to appeal if they lose the case.
The SEC is involved in some notable legal cases with key crypto players. The regulatory agency is involved with crypto exchanges, most notably Binance and Coinbase. It is also involved with token issuers, most notably Ripple Labs, which is accused of issuing unlicensed securities in the form of XRP.
One of the most highlighted cases is the case against a former product manager at Coinbase, his brother Nikhil Wahi, and their friend Sameer Ramani, who stand accused of insider trading. As CNF explained, on March 1, a U.S. court set a legal precedent for considering specific cryptocurrency transactions on the secondary market as securities.
Significantly, in July 2023, Federal District Judge Analisa Torres concluded that although Ripple breached federal securities laws by directly selling XRP to institutional investors, it hadn’t done so by offering XRP to retail customers through programmatic sales to exchanges. However, in December 2023, Judge Jed Rakoff dissented with Judge Torres in the Terraform Labs case. As per the Crypto News Flas report, a top lawyer at SEC has left increasing chances of Ripple and Coinbase’s victory.
Ripple, on the other hand, has incurred great losses during the case and has seen its development and that of its token XRP hindered. While the company is confident of a win, a settlement, at a favorable amount would be acceptable for the company. It has been suggested that the SEC is seeking nearly $200 million in penalties, but Ripple would be looking for something under $20 million.
The legal battle between the SEC and Ripple reaches a key milestone on March 22nd, as the SEC is due to submit its opening brief. This follows the SEC’s earlier request to delay the case timeline.
