Ripple Labs has filed its opposition to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s request for Judge Analisa Torres to certify an interlocutory appeal of her ruling regarding XRP. The crypto firm has argued that “the exceptional circumstances required for interlocutory appeal are absent.”
Ripple Says Court Should Deny SEC’s Motion
On Friday, Ripple Labs filed its response to the motion by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to certify an interlocutory appeal. The securities watchdog is seeking to appeal the ruling by District Judge Analisa Torres regarding the “programmatic” offers and sales of XRP over crypto trading platforms and Ripple’s “other distributions.” The regulator also seeks to stay the district court proceedings.
The Ripple legal team wrote:
The court should deny the SEC’s motion for certification. The court should also deny the SEC’s request for a stay pending appeal.
In Friday’s court filing, Ripple argued that “the exceptional circumstances required for interlocutory appeal are absent.” Firstly, the crypto firm’s lawyers claimed, contrary to the SEC’s assertion, that “the court’s summary judgment order does not present a controlling question of law suitable for interlocutory appeal.” Secondly, they argued that the “supposed substantial ground for disagreement is merely the SEC’s dissatisfaction with the court’s application of Howey to most of the defendants’ transactions in XRP.”
In addition, Ripple’s lawyers stated that the SEC “concedes that protracted litigation is necessary regardless of whether its requested interlocutory appeal succeeds.” They stressed that this means “certification has no chance of hastening the end of this litigation.”
This week, the SEC lost another legal battle against a crypto firm. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in favor of Grayscale Investments against the securities regulator on Tuesday regarding the crypto asset manager’s proposed bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) conversion.
Do you think Judge Analisa Torres will certify the SEC’s motion for an interlocutory appeal in the Ripple-XRP case? Let us know in the comments section below.
