- Ripple Labs and its directors recently won another victory in the ongoing legal battle against the US Securities & Exchange Commission.
- Judge Sarah Netburn denied the SEC access to the personal banking information of Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen.
- Mike Novogratz suggests that the recent XRP price rally could indicate an ongoing settlement.
The price of XRP has risen despite the $ 1.3 billion lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Ripple Labs.
Another legal victory for Ripple
The US SEC has claimed that Ripple Labs and its directors, Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen, illegally sold XRP tokens as an unregistered offer of securities.
Fees have left cryptocurrency exchanges to begin eliminating the token, and the price of cross-border digital currency has dropped following the announcement of the lawsuit.
So far, Ripple and his directors have been in the running, as Judge Sarah Netburn has won another trial. The judge granted the defendants’ motion to deny the SEC access to Garlinghouse and Larsen’s personal financial information.
She added that obtaining this information was not relevant to the case and that the SEC did not provide evidence that the two directors had concealed transactions.
Ahead of the latest case, Judge Netburn also issued a bombshell statement in March, saying XRP is a currency and useful. Soon after, Judge Analisa Torres accepted the XRP investors’ request, led by attorney John Deaton, to file a motion to intervene in the case.
Another major victory for the blockchain company was when Judge Netburn ruled in favor of granting Ripple Labs access to the SEC’s internal discussions about Bitcoin and Ethereum. This could allow Ripple to search for documents in which XRP could be referred to by the regulator as a “virtual currency”, similar to the two largest cryptocurrencies.
Matthew Solomon, Garlinghouse’s adviser, said he believes it could be a “final game” for the entire case if the defense finds information that suggests the SEC believes or believes XRP is like Bitcoin or Ether.
The increase in the XRP price could indicate an ongoing settlement
As optimism continues to rise for Ripple, the price of XRP has risen by more than 112% in the last week. Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz claimed that the XRP rally could indicate that a settlement between Ripple and the SEC is underway.
According to the CEO of Galaxy Digital, since the company’s shares are trading between 2 and 3 billion dollars on the secondary market, he considers it “crazy cheap” if a solution comes. However, if Ripple is not close to establishing with the SEC, XRP may be overestimated.
Responding to Novogratz’s statements about an agreement, lawyer Stephen Palley said there was no “public” indication that a resolution would come soon. Palley said:
I don’t know how the price itself can be correlated with the settlement itself, unless someone has inside information about the potential settlement / resolution of the SEC and the ability to change the lists for re-registration for trading.
Although the legal battle between Ripple and the SEC is far from over, NYU lawyer and professor Andrew Hinkes believes Ripple’s legal victories so far have been significant. According to him, the most likely result will be a negotiated solution.
Garglinghouse remains hopeful that both sides could have a meaningful conversation once the US Senate confirms the new SEC administration.
XRP continues its series of victories
The growing sentiment of the XRP market could also be due to a rumor surrounding Coinbase that it is preparing to withdraw XRP. A community member suggested this after a discovery was made in a few lines of code in the Coinbase Pro API.
As of April 9, XRP has consistently traded above $ 1, a level reached for the first time since 2018. The current XRP trading volume has surpassed the bull race from 2017 to 2018, which could push the price of XRP even further. During the 2017 stock exchange rate, when XRP was trading at current levels, it took only less than a week for the price to reach its all-time high of $ 3.32.