Newly Revealed Documents Could Have Huge Implication For Ripple Lawsuit

The DOJ recently let something slip in a court filing…

MNGO and CRV are commodities, according to a recent filing in the DOJ’s case against Avraham Eisenberg—the alleged Mango Markets hacker.

This admission could potentially have a major impact on the Ripple V SEC lawsuit.

Skeptics point to the fact that government bureaucracies and regulatory agencies simply use this language when it is convenient for their purposes, and that this recent development has no broader implications…

The documents are presented here:

DoJ saying MNGO is a commodity. pic.twitter.com/7eG1aVhRuV

— scott🍈 (@scott_lew_is) December 27, 2022

the government isnt literally announcing a new policy towards tokens with this doc, but the government has no unified policy on tokens. *all* government policy is litigation strategy. including ripple and lbry enforcement actions.

— scott🍈 (@scott_lew_is) December 27, 2022

As Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse points out, previous DOJ reports have listed crypto as different things ranging from commodities to securities:

However, last week’s DOJ report lists 8 separate US reg bodies each with a different view: crypto is property, crypto is a commodity, crypto is a virtual currency, crypto is a security, etc. Regulation shouldn’t be a guessing game. https://t.co/B18ZIVodZC (3/5)

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) October 12, 2020

Previously, the DOJ served up this nightmare in terms of regulatory clarity:

Part II explores the various legal and regulatory tools at the government’s disposal to confront the threats posed by cryptocurrency’s illicit uses, and highlights the strong and growing partnership between the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Commission, and agencies within the Department of the Treasury, among others, to enforce federal law in the cryptocurrency space.

Finally, the Enforcement Framework concludes in Part III with a discussion of the ongoing challenges the government faces in cryptocurrency enforcement—particularly with respect to business models (employed by certain cryptocurrency exchanges, platforms, kiosks, and casinos), and to activity (like “mixing” and “tumbling,” “chain hopping,” and certain instances of jurisdictional arbitrage) that may facilitate criminal activity.

 

SEC, CFTC & DOJ v #FTX sets the path forward for crypto. CFTC claims commodity jurisdiction due to #Bitcoin & $ETH trading. SEC securities through $FTT & utility tokens. DOJ uses wire fraud to criminally convict when investors crypto is used differently to how it was represented. pic.twitter.com/czkPp3Mbm4

— Simon Dixon (@SimonDixonTwitt) December 27, 2022

According to Bitcoinist:

For Ripple, the DoJ may have provided another argument that the legal situation for cryptocurrencies is not as clear as the SEC always claims. Since both CRV and MNGO are designated as commodities, it is at least reasonable to assume that XRP is a commodity and not a security.

Remarkably, these documents were filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in the Southern District of New York, the same court where the case between Ripple and the SEC is taking place.

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