XRP Was Declared Not To Be A Security By SEC Lawyers In 2018

Yuri Molchan, a journalist and producer for Fox Business, questions what caused the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to alter its opinion after 2018 and declare that XRP is now a security.

Eleanor Terrett, a notable journalist and producer from Fox Business, revealed in a recent tweet that on June 13, 2018, lawyers at the Securities and Exchange Commission conducted a study on XRP and concluded that it was not a financial instrument. XRP and Ripple were the subjects of a well-known speech by William Hinman, former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporate Finance, concerning the cryptocurrency.

recommend bringing any enforcement action against Ripple or its executives. This shows @SECGov lawyers did NOT think it was unequivocal that XRP was a security. So what changed in two years? 🤔Lots to get into here and @CGasparino will discuss at 3:35PM on @FoxBusiness.

— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) January 19, 2022

Hinman, on the other hand, claimed that XRP was a security throughout his lecture.

The source of the latest XRP data

Terrett received this information from John Deaton, the founder of Crypto-Law.US, who sent it to her. The journalist is now considering what might have changed in the intervening two years, and he pledges to provide additional information on the subject during a debate with another famous Fox Business journalist, Charles Gasparino, later today.

SEC chairman Jay Clayton filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs and two of its highest-ranking officials, including founders and former CEO Chris Larsen and current head of Ripple Labs Brad Garlinghouse, in late December 2020.

It was claimed by the SEC that XRP was an unregistered security, and the aforementioned parties were accused of selling it to institutional investors and profiting by more than $1.3 billion (Larsen and Garlinghouse, in particular) from such illicit transactions.

Clayton resigned from his job as director of the regulatory body shortly after, and Gary Gensler was chosen to succeed him.

Following the filing of the lawsuit, XRP trading was temporarily halted on some of the world’s top cryptocurrency exchanges, including Coinbase, Binance US, Bittrex, and Bitstamp. The value of the coin plummeted by an order of magnitude.

Throughout the course of the lawsuit, both parties have achieved modest successes, with one lawyer from each of the SEC’s legal team and Chris Larsen’s legal team having already resigned.

The Ripple-SEC litigation is expected to be resolved by 2022.

Attorney Jeremy Hogan, who is following the case closely and posting his observations on his Twitter page, anticipates that the legal concerns between the SEC and Ripple will be settled by April 2022, according to his predictions. The defendant, Brad Garlinghouse, expressed optimism in one of his recent interviews that the matter would be concluded and closed by the year 2022.

The policy chief of the United States Blockchain Association, Jake Chervinsky, recently tweeted that Ripple is putting up the toughest fight of their lives against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rather than simply agreeing to a peaceful settlement, as other crypto companies sued by the agency, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, have done.

No matter your view on @Ripple, two things seem clear:

– They're giving the SEC more trouble than anyone in crypto, maybe more than anyone period, incl. Elon

– They're the leading dispute on securities law, if only b/c they'll fight to the death unlike those who caved & settled

— Jake Chervinsky (@jchervinsky) January 16, 2022

The Crypto Basic adds:

At the end of December 2020, the SEC, led by Jay Clayton, filed a lawsuit against Ripple and two of its top executives, Chris Larsen and Brad Garlinghouse.

The regulator said that Ripple had sold XRP to institutional investors for seven years as an unregistered security. The SEC also said the firm made more than $1.3 billion from unauthorized initial coin offering of the digital token.

The news of this apparent switch from the SEC has boosted $XRP confidence, with the token rising to $0.7541, or
1.81% after two days of losses.

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