Is The SEC Lawsuit a Blessing in Disguise for Ripple & XRP Investors?

A day after Ripple CEO Brad Garlingouse intimated the crypto community about the upcoming lawsuit against XRP over the sale of unregistered securities, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) did just that.

SEC has charged Ripple and its two executives, co-founder Chris Larsen and CEO Garlinghouse for raising more than $1.3 billion through “an unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering.”

Not just this, Ripple has allegedly distributed billions of XRP in exchange for non-cash consideration. Additionally, both Larsen and Garlinghouse “effected personal unregistered sales of XRP” totaling at $600 million.

The full tally of XRP sold by Ripple Labs to the public and institutions $1.388b

The SEC document claims $600m wound up in the private hands of Larson and Garlinghouse, the two CEOs that ran Ripple Labs through the course of the 8 years. pic.twitter.com/dAqKcyRNPs

— Willy Woo (@woonomic) December 23, 2020

“We allege that Ripple and its executives failed over a period of years to satisfy these core investor protection provisions, and as a result, investors lacked information to which they were entitled,” said Marc P. Berger, Deputy Director of the SEC's Enforcement Division.

The SEC’s complaint is filed in the federal district court in Manhattan and charges the defendants with violating the Securities Act.

Ripple has spent 8 years working tirelessly to build an incredible company transforming global payments. Our mission doesn’t stop! Here’s what I sent to employees yesterday + our lawyers’ reaction to today’s SEC filing. https://t.co/wGHW4hCW2T

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) December 23, 2020

Immediate Effect

The legal case in itself will take years to come to a conclusion but in the immediate future, the price of the digital asset took a beating. This week, XRP has lost 46% of its value, currently trading at $0.354. XRP actually hit a new low against BTC which continues to surge higher and higher.

“Bag holders want to see .304 hold on a weekly close to establish topside HTF support,” said trader Mr. Anderson. Another trader, CryptoYoda noted,

“Tightening stops. worried about potential of XRP imploding if support doesn't hold and the resulting repercussions in the overall markets. might be a non-event, just making sure I don't stand on the beach when the tsunami hits.”

$XRP #XRP #Ripple

Weeks ago, it broke a multi-year downtrend

Lately, extreme fear has set in & corrected the entirety of the previous breakout

Technically though, XRP has pulled back towards its previous breakout structure for a retest attempt

Important trend-defining moment pic.twitter.com/Xsk1fs2y8w

— Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) December 23, 2020

Since the news broke, while the number of large tier addresses is shrinking, small XRP addresses being created haven't skipped a beat in its uptrend, as per crypto data provider Santiment.

And with this, the digital asset dropped one step and Tether retook the place of the third-largest digital asset by market cap.

In the meantime, 133,152,655 XRP (48,850,963 USD) has been transferred from the Ripple founder Jed McCaleb’s Settlement account to his wallet, noted Whale Alert.

Additionally, crypto exchange OSL has suspended all XRP trading services on its platform, effective immediately. The exchange is well known in Asia for its OTC services but isn’t much for retail exchange trading.

Two smaller crypto trading platforms, Beaxy and CrossTower have also halted trading for XRP already.

The geniuses on the Ripple Reddit have decided that (1) this is bullish because Ripple can’t dump anymore, (2) Bitcoin is a security and (3) they’re going to buy Ripple equity instead (very healthy business who’s only revenue stream is probably illegal) pic.twitter.com/OhvmH12LRD

— KING CO฿IE 🌙 (@CryptoCobain) December 22, 2020

Is it Security?

After avoiding this level of intervention for years, SEC Commissioner Jay Clayton seems to be ticking off one last thing from his to-do list before his departure from the office.

“For XRP hodlers, this could be a blessing in disguise,” because the question of whether XRP is a security has been dangling over the early investors, wrote Mati Greenspan in his daily newsletter Quantum Economics.

But that is if it is not deemed security because if it is XRP will be basically “useless,” making it difficult for anyone to use it for settling transactions. Jake Chervinksy, General Counsel at Compound Finance said,

“Alleging violations through present-day is a kill shot. Charging individual executives is remarkable. This is the SEC playing hardball.”

However, Messari founder Ryan Selkis, a known XRP antagonist believes the argument of XRP being security is “silly.” However much “unethically marketed and distributed” XRP was, “that still doesn't mean it's a security,” he wrote.

According to Selkis, USG is going to lose because they are outclassed on legal as Ripple has a lot of money to put into action, and USD should lose because the Howey test is broken, SEC’s restrictions on non-accredited investors is outdated and un-American, and because “it's incumbent upon industry to self-police.”

Not to mention, regulators get to fine and tax Ripple, so no gain in killing a “domestic golden goose,” he said.