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New XRP docs could strengthen Ripple's case against the SEC

The news sent the price of XRP soaring.

​Ripple General Counsel Stuart Alderoty

Ripple's Stuart Alderoty said currently sealed documents would bolster his company's argument that XRP is not a security.

Photo: Ripple

XRP's price has soared on news that soon-to-be-unsealed documents expose a key flaw in the SEC case against Ripple.

XRP, the cryptocurrency used by Ripple, was up more than 30% over the past week after a federal court judge in New York ordered documents unsealed. Traders anticipated that the currently sealed legal documents would show that the crypto company got legal advice from an outside law firm which concluded that XRP were not securities.

The SEC sued Ripple in 2020, arguing that XRP is not a currency but a security, and therefore subject to strict securities laws. U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres of Manhattan has ordered that the documents must be unsealed on Feb. 17, Reuters reported.

“Once released, these documents will show that in 2012 Ripple received a legal analysis that XRP was not an investment contract,” Ripple General Counsel Stuart Alderoty said in a statement. “The fact that it took the SEC eight years to suggest they disagreed with that analysis — while XRP traded in a massive global market — is baffling.”

The SEC could not immediately be reached for comment. The agency had offered a different interpretation, saying the documents would show Ripple knew that XRP would be considered a security under federal law, according to the report.

Benjamin Pimentel

Benjamin Pimentel ( @benpimentel) covers crypto and fintech from San Francisco. He has reported on many of the biggest tech stories over the past 20 years for the San Francisco Chronicle, Dow Jones MarketWatch and Business Insider, from the dot-com crash, the rise of cloud computing, social networking and AI to the impact of the Great Recession and the COVID crisis on Silicon Valley and beyond. He can be reached at bpimentel@protocol.com or via Google Voice at (925) 307-9342.

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