Ripple CEO Says Court Ruling On SEC’s Lawsuit Could Be Out In Weeks

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse shared that the verdict on the cryptocurrency solutions provider’s ongoing legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could be out in weeks’ time and not in months, indicating that the case could finally get the court’s decision sooner than anticipated.

The CEO’s tweet underlined an expedited timeline, which was reportedly boosted by the court’s recent decision to unseal a speech of William Hinman, former Director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance.

“In terms of where things stand today, I’ll try not to get too much into the legal wigs. You’re right that I feel very confident that we’ll see a decision from the court this year. In fact, I’ll guess in weeks, not months,” Garlinghouse speculated in a fireside chat during the Redefine Tomorrow 2023 summit.

It is worth noting that earlier this month, Garlinghouse had a different prediction on the timeline of the court’s decision.

The CEO previously said that Judge Analisa Torres of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York might make a summary judgment decision before the end of Q3 2023 since the case had been fully briefed and the judge had all the pertinent details to come up with a verdict.

“I expect a resolution in the next two to six months,” Garlinghouse said in an interview during the Dubai Fintech Summit on May 9.

“The case against Ripple By the US SEC started two and half years ago. So it has certainly been frustrating and slow, But the good news is we are at the end of that journey. Others in the crypto might be beginning their journey, but Ripple is now at the end (in its legal battle). I will say in the next two or six months; I expect a resolution. The judge has been fully briefed, and she has a decision on her plate. A federal judge can operate on whatever timeline, in this case, she would like, but I am optimistic we can see a resolution, I believe, before the end of Q3 2023,” the Ripple CEO said.

The CEO’s latest prediction came days after Judge Torres ruled a few days ago that sealing the documents would not be related to preserving the candor and openness within the government agency, “nor would such an interest be substantial enough to outweigh the strong presumption of public access.”

The documents in question contain internal discussion at the SEC on the speech made in 2018 by Hinman where he underlined that Bitcoin and Ethereum are not securities.

Further, popular Ripple Amicus Curiae John Deaton last week revealed a set of SEC internal documents submitted to the court, including footnotes and reply briefs that highlighted that XRP, the native token of Ripple Labs, failed the Howey Test.

For Deaton, this discovery was a major development, considering that one of the documents mentioned that there were reasonable grounds XRP doesn’t satisfy ALL Howey factors.

In Exhibit 230, the document noted that it is “more likely than not” that XRP “will not be considered a security and thus it should not be subject to regulatory oversight by the US SEC.”

XRP saw a 2.48% gain and was trading in the green zone at $0.4614 over the past 24 hours with a 24-hour volume of $838,623,521 as of 3:15 a.m. ET on Friday, according to the latest data from CoinMarketCap.