District Court Judge Analisa Torres denied the SEC’s motion to file an appeal, claiming that the regulator did not show that there were substantial grounds for difference of opinion.
District Court Judge Analisa Torres has rejected the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s motion to appeal its loss against Ripple Labs, the company responsible for issuing the XRP (XRP) token.
In an Oct. 3 court order, Judge Torres denied the SEC’s motion, claiming that the regulator failed to meet its burden to show that there were controlling questions of law or that there were substantial grounds for differences of opinion on the matter.
The SEC’s request to file an interlocutory appeal is DENIED. I’m not a lawyer but it seems the Court just told the SEC: You asked me to apply the “Howey” test, I did, and like it or not, you lost. https://t.co/0E4MS0iuRY pic.twitter.com/bkhCpum17n
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) October 4, 2023
The SEC first filed its lawsuit against Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen in December 2020, prompting many exchanges to delist the XRP token to avoid potential legal concerns. Following Torres’ ruling in July, many crypto firms said they would relist the token or explore doing so in the future.
The commission has targeted a number of crypto firms in recent months over allegations of securities violations, including major cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Coinbase.
On Aug. 29, asset manager Grayscale notched a court victory against the SEC following an appeal ordering a review of its application for a spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund.
