Pro-XRP attorney Fred Rispoli, founder of HODL Law, continues to rate the likelihood of an SEC appeal as higher than the likelihood of the agency letting the case end without further action. Following the final judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on August 7, 2024, the SEC now has less than a week to decide whether to challenge the ruling regarding Ripple’s XRP token sales. The SEC only has until October 7 to appeal the final ruling in the Ripple case.
Will the XRP lawsuit go on overtime?
Rispoli expressed his predictions this weekend on Letting it slide (no appeal) means that “programmatic sales” are a one-time loss that literally only applies to Ripple’s secondary sales and is a clear SDNY loss to the SEC. Appealing and getting Ripple upheld is a huge gift to all litigants in the 2nd Cir who are fighting the SEC (all NY and SEC favorites) to claim that all secondary sales are not investment contracts.
The dialogue between XRP supporters and legal analysts continued on crypto industry.
In response, Rispoli agreed with another prominent XRP supporter, John Deatonsaying: “However, the reality of SEC’s chances of winning on appeal mainly comes down to the three randomly selected judges who would hear it. If SEC drew three SEC-biased judges (rare but possible), it could win.”
Further commentary from another user, Wides (@Wides71), suggested that the decision-making process could reflect deeper biases, to which Rispoli replied: “It’s both. Judicial biases find their way into legal reasoning. It has unfortunately gotten worse (and more blatant) over the last fifteen years IMO. Parts of the US are still quite good, but many other places are catching up quickly.”
The latest from Rispoli research of the likelihood of appeal comes after FOX Business journalist Eleanor Terrett relayed insights from a former SEC lawyer who indicated a likely appeal from the agency. According to the lawyer, there is a strong belief within the SEC that the court’s decision was fundamentally flawed and should be challenged, as Bitcoinist reported.
Jeremy Hogan, another pro-XRP attorney, criticized the SEC’s approach and emphasized that the agency must prioritize investor protection and capital formation. “Of course they think the opinion is wrong – they were on the losing side. What the SEC MUST consider now is whether an appeal furthers its mandate of investor protection and capital formation. Why isn’t that top-of-mind? Yet more evidence that the SEC has lost the plot.”
At the time of writing, XRP was trading at $0.65.
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com