Ripple gets a date with SEC in court

As the Ripple saga continues to unfold, the battered crypto firm has gotten a date in court with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The New York Southern District Court has ordered all the parties involved in the case to appear for a pretrial conference with Judge Analisa Torres on February 22, 2021. The pretrial conference will be held remotely through telephone.

As reported by BTC PEERS, the SEC had earlier accused Ripple of illegally selling unregistered securities from 2013 to date. The U.S. watchdog also named Ripple’s chief executive officer Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen as culprits for selling close to two billion XRP to investors from their personal stash. According to the SEC:

As noted, the Supreme Court made clear in its Howey decision of 1946 that the definition of whether an instrument is an investment contract and therefore a security is a ‘flexible rather than a static principle, one that is capable of adaptation to meet the countless and variable schemes devised by those who seek the use of the money of others on the promise of profits.’

In their defense, Ripple’s execs claim that the SEC is wrong, noting that XRP holders do not receive any dividends or voting rights.

Meanwhile, the fracas has triggered fallout for the digital asset. Its price quickly plummeted from around $0.6 to $0.21 when the news first broke. Days after the lawsuit, several exchanges have also started delisting the digital asset.

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