Ripple Vs SEC: Good News from Court on Crypto and XRP Secondary Market Sales

Story Highlights

• Second Circuit provided a major breakthrough for the crypto industry and precedent for Ripple case.
• Coinbase CLO Paul Grewal revealed Coinbase gained major clarity in secondary market sales of crypto.
• Buying or selling crypto on Coinbase are not investment contracts or securities.

Ripple Vs SEC:  With its decision in a Coinbase lawsuit that secondary market transactions of cryptocurrency are not securities, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit made significant progress toward regulation for the cryptocurrency business. The federal judge’s decision is a major precedent, preventing the U.S. SEC from appealing on XRP secondary market sales in SEC v. Ripple Labs case.

Ex-SEC official John Reed Stark said Judge Failla completely rejected considering Judge Torres’ reason in the Ripple decision that secondary sales can’t be investment contracts was a major blow to Coinbase and Ripple. However, the new ruling in a Coinbase lawsuit has provided much clarity on secondary market sales.

Secondary Market Sales of Crypto Are Not Securities

Coinbase chief legal officer (CLO) Paul Grewal took to X and revealed that Coinbase has gained major clarity in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan, New York City. Notably, it is the same court building for the Ripple vs SEC case.

Paul Grewal said, “What is clear under the federal securities law: there’s no private liability for the secondary trading of digital assets on exchanges like Coinbase.” He added that the court agreed with Coinbase that there are no investment contracts as alleged by plaintiffs for secondary sales of tokens.

The plaintiffs asserted federal claims under Sections 5, 12(a)(1), and 15 of the Securities Act of 1933, as well as Sections 5, 15(a)(1), 20(a), and 29(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Additionally, they brought forth state law claims under the securities laws of California, Florida, and New Jersey.

The court found that Coinbase did not hold title to the tokens that plaintiffs purchased and was not a statutory seller subject to liability under prong one of Pinter. Coinbase won major arguments against the plaintiffs as when people buy or sell digital currency on Coinbase exchange, they are not buying or selling to Coinbase.

Also Read: Binance, BinanceUS, CZ Resolve All Discovery Disputes With US SEC, Here’s What Next

Major Victory for Ripple and Crypto Industry

Judge Torres ruled that “An Institutional Buyer knowingly purchased XRP directly from Ripple pursuant to a contract, but the economic reality is that a Programmatic Buyer stood in the same shoes as a secondary market purchaser who did not know to whom or what it was paying its money.”

Thus, Judge Torres did not make any conclusive findings regarding the nature of secondary market sales of XRP and stated that this issue wasn’t properly before the court. The judge ruled that programmatic sales of XRP are not securities, as it doesn’t satisfy Howey Test.

After Judge Failla stated that transactions in crypto assets on the secondary market are not categorically excluded from constituting investment contracts, the XRP army were concerned about the SEC could appeal secondary sales after the ruling.

However, the latest decision from the Second Circuit gives strong precedent to counter any such appeal by the U.S. SEC.

XRP Price Today

After the new boon for the Ripple VS SEC case, XRP prices ascended nearly 2.5%. The press time, the price stood at $0.5947, being up 2.2% as compared to the same time last day. However, the 24 hour trading volume toppled 40% to hit $937.7 million. At present XRP’s market cap stands at $32.7 billion.

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