The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple Labs have both asked for a federal court to give an immediate ruling on the issue of whether the Ripple’s XRP sales were in violation of U.S. securities laws.
Separate motions submitted the previous day on Saturday by Ripple along with the SEC both requested the SEC and Ripple to seek a summary ruling for the U.S. District Court Southern District of New York.
Summary judgments are presented by the courts when the party is convinced that there’s sufficient evidence to render a decision without having to go to trial.
Related: Ripple, SEC case heads for conclusion following’summary judgment filed
Both parties have asked Judge Analisa Torres , who is the judge in charge, to make an immediate decision on the extent to which Ripple’s XRP sales infringed U.S. securities laws. Ripple has maintained that the SEC has exhausted its evidence to show XRP sales are something referred to as an “investment contract,” while the SEC is steadfast in its belief that it is.
Ripple Chief Executive Officer Brad Garlinghouse, in a tweet posted on Twitter on Saturday stated that the filings make evident that the SEC “isn’t interested in applying the law.”
“They want to remake it all in an impermissible effort to expand their jurisdiction far beyond the authority granted to them by Congress,” he added.
The filings today show that the SEC does not want to apply the law. They’re looking to alter everything in an illegal attempt to expand their power over the powers granted their by Congress. https://t.co/ooPPle3QjI
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) September 17, 2022
In the meantime, Ripple general counsel Stuart Alderoty said the fact that “after two years of litigation,” the SEC has been “unable to identify any contract for investment” and “cannot satisfy a single prong of the Supreme Court Howey test.”
As part of its application for summary judgment Ripple asserted the matter before the SEC “boils down to an impermissibly open-ended assertion of jurisdiction over any transfer of an asset.”
It also claimed that the SEC could not prove that XRP tokenholders couldn’t “reasonably expect profits” based on Ripple’s efforts since there were no contractual obligations to Ripple and XRP token holders.
On the other hand the SEC’s motion for summary judgment claimed that there could be the existence of an “investment contract” without a contract, and without any rights granted to the buyer and with no commitments to the seller.
However, Ripple argued in its motion “that is not and should not be the law, because without these essential features there is nothing to which the Howey test can sensibly be applied.”
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Ripple instead emphasized profits that result out of “market forces of supply and demand,” which is what the SEC “conceded,” according to the Ripple motion.
Its significance concession was made clear by U.S. Attorney Jeremy Hogan in a post on Saturday on Twitter and stating”that “these concessions are perfect for a summary judgment.”
Community reaction of the community
The filing of Ripple as well as SEC motions generated generally positive reactions among the XRP community One Twitter user who believed “the end is near:”
The time to end it is now. ….Better be sure that those baggies are loaded!! #XRPArmy #xrpthestandard #Tothemoon https://t.co/9aUEex67V0
— Paul Macrae (@PaulMac_1975) September 18, 2022
Motion for summary judgement is nearly two years old since the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple, former CEO Christian Larsen and current CEO Brad Garlinghouse in Dec. 2020 for allegedly obtaining $1.3 billion through unregistered security transactions via the XRP.
Related: The new administration thwarts Ripple’s ambition to tokenize Colombian property.
If the court grants the summary judgement, the court’s decision will have a significant influence on determining whether cryptocurrency is a security in the U.S. Securities laws.
The XRP token reached highs that were not seen since July, in the wake of the motion filingat a high of $0.40 however, it has dropped somewhat since then, and is currently trading as $0.34, according to CoinGecko.