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Crypto-friendly US Congressman Tom Emmer (R-MN) recently sat down for an interview with Thinking Crypto where he shared some of his thoughts on the SEC vs. Ripple case.
The Ripple Lawsuit Could Make Or Break The Crypto Industry
The Minnesota Republican noted that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s complaint against the fintech firm may have considerable implications for the whole cryptocurrency industry.
XRP’s regulatory status has been the subject of intense scrutiny in recent years, with the SEC filing a scorching lawsuit against Ripple and its top-two executives in December for allegedly raising more than $1.3 billion through an unregistered securities offering in 2013. The case is continuing — in fact, it’s being watched keenly by crypto enthusiasts as it has the potential to set legal precedents in several key areas.
“The resolution could have some significant ramifications on the marketplace,” Emmer told host Tony Edward while abstaining from speaking about the possible outcome of the high-stake lawsuit because only the federal court can resolve the disagreement between the government and Ripple.
Emmer believes that enforcement actions, like the ones taken by the SEC, are not the best way of clearing the regulatory uncertainty. Instead, elected leaders should be having productive discussions with crypto industry lobbyists.
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Last August, the U.S Congressman argued that XRP was not a security. This was just a few months before the SEC sued Ripple alleging that the token is unregistered security. Emmer was not alone in his stance on XRP, former CFTC chair Chris Giancarlo also stated in June 2020 that XRP doesn’t meet the criteria to be deemed a security.
Besides Emmer, other observers have previously described the SEC vs Ripple brawl as a case that will decide the fate of the XRP token and shape the future of the cryptocurrency sector as a whole by determining whether crypto-assets should be treated as stocks.
Critical Evidence
Notably, Ripple has chosen the path of sparring publicly with the regulatory agency rather than privately settling and ending the ongoing legal scuffle. The SEC recently requested Ripple’s Slack communications that the regulator believes are potentially damning in a new development.
“Ripple’s data error and refusal to produce most documents have already been highly prejudicial to the SEC. Among other things, the SEC has deposed 11 Ripple witnesses using incomplete records of their communications.”
For the SEC, not only are the over one million Slack messages vitally important for it to build an accurate and complete record for summary judgment and trial, but will also refresh the memories of the Ripple employees who didn’t speak during the depositions.
All in all, lawmakers in the United States especially have been slacking on crypto legislation. This implies that the regulatory clarity that the cryptoverse has long clamored for is likely to come in the form of a ruling in SEC v. Ripple.
