US Judge Issues Ruling on SEC vs. Ripple Lawsuit

To be specific, Judge Analisa Torres has issued an initial 57-page ruling in which both the blockchain company and the securities regulator were seeking to exclude expert testimony from summary judgment, as shared by U.S. defense attorney James K. Filan on the 7th of March. The court, in explaining the reason behind its decision, referenced the legal standard, which states:

“The admissibility of expert testimony is governed by Federal Rule of Evidence 702.”

This means that the court has pushed aside the expert testimonies if they have not met the following requirements, as appropriately outlined in Federal Rule of Evidence 702. In the end, the court concluded that a few motions submitted by the SEC and Ripple Labs should be utterly dismissed, while other expert testimonies should be slightly excluded.

No Win for SEC or Ripple  

Taking a keen consideration of the outlook of this legal battle, no party is getting everything it requested in this ruling, as the judge granted in part and denied in part both Ripple’s and the SEC’s motions, also referred to as “Daubert” motions, not giving advantage to either the regulator or the XRP community.

Noted this as well as praising the presiding judge’s objectivity in the case, stating that “what leaps out is how sharp, rigorous, and utterly impartial Judge Torres is.”

The community is optimistic about the ongoing legal proceedings, believing that the court is carefully evaluating each motion and session. Furthermore, they believe the court will rule on Roslyn Layton’s motion to release documents related to a speech given by former SEC Director of Corporation Finance William Hinman in 2018.

According to reports, Hinman’s speech declared that ETH, the native token of the Ethereum blockchain, is not a security. Furthermore, Gary Gensler reiterated that Bitcoin is not a security, which is viewed positively by the crypto community.

Ripple Labs’ legal battle with the SEC has been going on since 2020. The SEC’s civil action lawsuit claims Ripple Labs engaged in an illegal offer and sale of XRP, claiming it is unregistered security.

The ongoing case has had a minor impact on XRP, which has remained at the same level for some time. However, Ripple supporters believe that XRP will rise again once the case is resolved. XRP experienced a 1.88% price increase in just 24 hours, with a market cap of $18,826,759,522.