The ongoing legal tussle between the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple is touted to have a long-term effect on the future of the crypto industry.
In this line, Jesse Hynes, a Web3 lawyer, has stated that Ripple has a significant advantage over other crypto companies that may face similar legal action from the SEC, noting that the blockchain firm has a ‘three-year head start’, in a tweet on February 15.
He believes Ripple has the potential to set a significant legal precedent for the industry, alluding that the company has developed a skilled legal team. In his view, other companies facing similar lawsuits might be forced to build their legal teams from scratch.
“There are positives and negatives in everything. Take for example this recent SEC assault on crypto. Negative: all of it. Positive: Ripple has a three-year head start on everyone else towards a resolution. Even XRP haters are going to start hoping and praying that Ripple wins. The destiny of many of these actions will lie in the Ripple defense. If there is one company in this space that I would want to have the first shot at making case law, it’s Ripple,” he said.
The SEC’s case against Ripple
It is worth noting that the SEC has sued Ripple for selling unregistered securities in the form of XRP tokens, with both parties awaiting the summary judgement that is speculated to take place in March.
Indeed, legal experts led by XRP holders’ John Deaton have termed the SEC securities label misleading.
“Gary Gensler and the SEC keep focusing on the token itself, calling the vast majority of cryptocurrencies themselves securities. The problem is that smart influential people, other than Gensler, are pushing this false narrative that tokens themselves are securities,” Deaton said.
Hynes’s remarks are noteworthy, as they come at a time when the crypto industry is facing increased scrutiny from regulators worldwide, with SEC among the leading agencies. For instance, the SEC has settled with crypto exchange Kraken over staking. In the deal, Kraken has been forced to halt its staking services in the United States.
On the other hand, the regulator has also sued Paxos, the issuer of the Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin, on the grounds that the product is unregistered security. Overall, the outcome of the SEC and Ripple is highly anticipated to impact the value of most cryptocurrencies, with XRP first in line.
XRP price analysis
By press time, XRP was trading at $0.38, having recorded gains of over 4% in the last 24 hours. However, on the weekly chart, XRP is down 5%.
Currently, the asset controls a market cap of $19.4 billion.
Disclaimer: The content on this site should not be considered investment advice. Investing is speculative. When investing, your capital is at risk.
