Many XRP advocates had hoped that with Gary Gensler being officially sworn as the official chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the basis of the lawsuit against Ripple would be revisited and be discussed again.
But it seems that the $1.3 billion lawsuit will continue to run its current course since Gensler had not shown any hints of withdrawing it.
In fact, just last Wednesday, on the first court submission filed by SEC since Gensler took over, the agency demanded that the court block the requests of Ripple to gain access to their internal emails and communications.
It was a sign that the court battle would once again commence.
Ongoing battle on the court
The SEC has taken to court via massive lawsuit the supposed violation of Ripple of securities laws by offering XRP, which the agency deems as a form of security but was not registered as one.
Ripple got what others considered as a win when it was later on deemed that its investors did not violate any securities law. Alongside this, they accused SEC of using improper intimidation tactics when the agency sought to do legal actions to power discovery efforts towards the dealings of the company.
The SEC, meanwhile, has counter-accused Ripple Labs of harassment with respect to discovery, following the company’s request to have access to the internal emails and communications of the agency.
Outcome matters to crypto industry
The much-anticipated outcome of the lawsuit is integral to the crypto industry as it might influence how SEC would regulate digital assets in the future.
Regulators have already stated that Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are not securities, but they have not extended the same appreciation to other tokens. This could mean that dozens of cryptocurrencies might face the same kind of lawsuit in the future.
Since Gensler taught crypto and blockchain courses at MIT, many industry leaders were hopeful that he would be more crypto-friendly.
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