- Ripple Labs and its executives recently took another victory in their ongoing legal battle against the US Securities & Exchange Commission.
- Judge Sarah Netburn denied the SEC access to the personal bank details of Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen.
- Mike Novogratz suggests the recent XRP price hike may indicate an ongoing settlement.
XRP price has risen despite the ongoing $ 1.3 billion lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) against Ripple Labs.
Another legal victory for Ripple
The US SEC alleged that Ripple Labs and its executives, Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen, were illegally selling XRP tokens as an unregistered securities offering.
Charges have left crypto exchanges to scrap the token, and the price of the cross-border digital currency dropped after the lawsuit announcement.
So far, Ripple and his executives have done well as Judge Sarah Netburn took another victory in the lawsuit. The judge granted the defendants’ motion to deny the SEC’s access to Garlinghouse and Larsen’s personal financial information.
She added that obtaining this information was irrelevant to the case and that the SEC has provided no evidence that the two executives have hidden transactions.
Ahead of the latest development in the case, Judge Netburn also dropped a bomb statement in March, saying that XRP is a currency and has a utility. Shortly afterward, Judge Analisa Torres granted XRP investors’ request, led by attorney John Deaton, to file a motion to intervene in the case.
Another significant win for the blockchain firm was when Judge Netburn ruled in favor of Ripple Labs granting access to the SEC’s internal discussions on Bitcoin and Ethereum. This could make it possible for Ripple to search for documents in which XRP could be named by the regulator as a “virtual currency,” similar to the two largest cryptocurrencies.
Matthew Solomon, Garlinghouse’s adviser, said he believes it could be “game over” on the whole case if the defense found information suggesting that the SEC believes or thought XRP looked like Bitcoin or Ether.
XRP price hike may indicate an ongoing settlement
While optimism for Ripple continues to grow, XRP price is up more than 112% in the past week. Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz claimed the XRP rally could indicate that a settlement is underway between Ripple and the SEC.
According to the CEO of Galaxy Digital, since the company’s equity trades at about $ 2 billion to $ 3 billion in the secondary market, he believes it will be “ridiculously cheap” if a settlement comes in. However, if Ripple doesn’t get close to the SEC, XRP could be too expensive.
Responding to Novogratz’s statements of a settlement, attorney Stephen Palley said there is no “public” indication that a settlement will be forthcoming. Palley said:
I don’t know how anyone can correlate price itself to settlement unless someone has inside information about possible SEC settlement / resolution and the ability for exchanges to be re-listed for trading.
While the legal battle of Ripple and the SEC is far from over, Andrew Hinkes, attorney and professor at NYU, believes Ripple’s legal victories so far have been significant. The most likely outcome, he says, is a negotiated settlement.
Garglinghouse continues to hope that both sides can have a meaningful talk once the US Senate confirms the new SEC administration.
XRP to continue its winning streak
XRP’s growing market sentiment may also be due to a rumor that Coinbase is preparing to re-offer XRP. A community member hinted at this after a discovery was made in a few lines of code in the Coinbase Pro API.
Since April 9, XRP has been steadily trading above USD 1, a level hitting for the first time since 2018. Current XRP trading volume has surpassed the 2017 to 2018 bull run, which could drive up XRP price even further. During the bull run in 2017, when XRP was trading at current levels, it took only less than a week for the price to hit its all-time high of $ 3.32.