XRP/Ripple lawsuit is heading to a decisive end either through settlement or summary judgment. But a recent ruling of Ripple’s ally LBRY against the SEC has rekindled hope for the crypto community.
In what is touted to be “crypto’s major win”, the US regulator opted for settlement with the decentralized payment network LBRY after admitting publically that the sale of LBRY Credits [LBC] tokens in the secondary market didn’t constitute security.
Prior to that, on November 7, 2022, during the hearing, the SEC was granted summary judgment in its favor. The verdict, which covered a six-year period, classified each sale of the LBC token as an investment contract without going into specifics about the transactions.
According to multiple reports, the SEC wanted to legitimize the secondary market and bring it under its jurisdiction. The top agency has requested the district court judge in New Hampshire to uphold the broad, vague injunction banning its sale.
XRP defendant and founder of the law firm CryptoLaw, John Deaton filed an amicus brief, seeking clarity for LBC secondary market transactions, as according to him the injunction was “ambiguous and broad”.
For those new, an amicus curia is an individual or organization that is not a party to a legal case but is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case.
XRP Defendant’s Move In The LBRY Case Invited Praise From Community
In a long thread of tweets, Deaton revealed that the judge explicitly stated that his ruling did not apply to secondary sales of LBC.
He [the judge] also said repeatedly that although he denied the Fair Notice defense, the SEC must admit that this case was one of the first non-ICO digital asset cases filed and it was at a time that clarity wasn’t great.
The settlement in the latest LBRY vs SEC case came during an appeal hearing on Jan. 30. As details of the ruling emerged, the native asset of the LBRY blockchain, LBC skyrocketed by a whopping 140%.
On the other hand, the verdict also sparked hope among the XRP community as blockchain firm Ripple is currently embroiled in a securities lawsuit with the SEC over the sale of XRP tokens.
One pro-XRP Twitter account claimed that the ruling also makes XRP a non-security. Others tweeted the this woulld likely force SEC into settling with Ripple as well.