SEC Chairman stated that the agency will review the decision and continue working with non-compliant firms to foster compliance.
According to Bloomberg’s report on July 17th, Gary Gensler, the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), expressed his dissatisfaction with a court ruling concerning the XRP token.
Gensler stated that he was “disappointed” with Judge Analisa Torres’ decision, which concluded that XRP tokens’ sales on retail exchanges did not constitute a securities offering. The ruling was made on July 13th and found that programmatic sales and free distributions of XRP were not securities.
On the other hand, Gensler expressed his satisfaction with Judge Torres’ decision regarding Ripple’s sales of XRP tokens to institutional investors. Judge Torres ruled that unlike retail sales, Ripple’s institutional sales constituted unregistered securities offerings, as the company directly offered them to these investors through written agreements.
Gensler also mentioned that the agency was reviewing the outcome of the decision, and the SEC was still “evaluating and considering that view.”
Furthermore, he emphasized that the SEC would interact with other firms and stated:
“We arere going to continue to try to bring firms that may not be in compliance into compliance — without prejudging any one of them — and try to ensure that we protect the investing public.”
Gensler made these statements during an event organized by the National Press Club, according to Bloomberg’s latest report.
XRP Benefited from the Outcome of the Lawsuit
The SEC initially filed a lawsuit against Ripple in 2020, alleging that the company conducted XRP sales without registering them as securities. Ripple chose to fight the SEC in court instead of settling.
Following the favorable ruling in favor of Ripple, the XRP token experienced a significant revival. During the week of July 17th, XRP gained more than 50%, solidifying its position as the fourth-largest asset in terms of market capitalization.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse also made positive statements about the outcome, and at least one exchange – Coinbase – decided to relist XRP.
However, Ripple’s legal challenges might not be entirely resolved, and despite the recent setback for the SEC, there are speculations that the agency might take further legal actions. Former SEC member John Reed Stark stated that there is a possibility of the latest decision being reversed.
