- The SEC has pursued Ripple since 2020, alleging unregistered security sales, with legal costs exceeding $150 million.
- The SEC’s push to dismiss claims against Ripple executives may lead to an appeal, further extending the legal battle.
Ripple is prepared to go to the Supreme Court in its legal dispute with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the XRP digital asset.
According to Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, the company has already spent more than $150 million on legal defense.
Since 2020, the SEC and Ripple have been arguing in court on whether the XRP digital coin should be registered as a security.
This news comes just days before Benzinga’s Future of Digital Assets conference on November 14, where the future of cryptocurrencies and their role in the financial market will be a major topic of debate.
“We’d love to see the Vegas odds on how that would go,” Garlinghouse said of the possibility of the Supreme Court intervening. “We are in it until the end,” he added, refusing to rule out the possibility of resolving the matter in the end.
The SEC has asked the judge to dismiss aspects of its case against Ripple co-founder Christian Larsen and Garlinghouse.
However, the SEC may still file a general appeal against the judge’s judgment.
Read Also: British Banking Giant, HSBC, Announces Its Cooperation with Ripple!
Many digital assets, according to crypto supporters, do not fulfill the test laid down in a 1946 Supreme Court case that the SEC uses to assess whether an asset is covered by the securities rules.
They suggest that the SEC or Congress should issue amended rules to account for the asset class’s specific characteristics.
In addition to Ripple, the SEC is involved in high-stakes litigation with other cryptocurrency behemoths, such as Coinbase Global Inc.
Gary Gensler, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, said he was “really proud” of the agency’s crypto enforcement activity, having brought approximately 150 crypto cases.
The founder and CEO of Galaxy Digital, Michael Novogratz, commented on the collapse of FTX and other crypto firms in 2022, saying, “You can’t underestimate the damage. We kind of as an industry blew trust, and so we are working hard to regain that.”
