I an ongoing legal battle between the crypto payments company, Ripple, and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is taking another important step this week. Both sides are preparing to move forward with their appeal process. This development may have far-reaching effects only for Ripple, however XRP price and the crypto industry as a whole.
The Next Developments and Important Deadlines for Ripple and the SEC
According to Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett, today marks an important day for the upcoming development of the Ripple vs SEC legal battle. Based on the Court’s orders, October 16 is the final deadline US SEC filing Form C. As part of the legal appeals process, Form C is a procedural file that describes the details of what a party intends to convey.
Terrett revealed on X (formerly Twitter) posted that the SEC’s Form C will provide important information about it organized appeal of Judge Analisa Torres’ July 2023 court decision, which found that the planned sale of XRP is not classified as a security.
Similarly, Ripple is set to follow the SEC’s appeal motion in the near future. The company will file its Form C cross appeal within seven days of the administrator’s installation. Meaning, if the SEC files a Form C today, the crypto company will likely file its own sometime next week.
Ripple’s filing is expected to present its arguments, explaining the scope of the cross-appeal. After both Forms C are submitted, Ripple and the SEC will negotiate a notification schedule, after which the regulator will have up to 90 days to file its first legal notice.
Extended Legal Battle May Affect XRP Price
Terrett revealed that updates about the timeline of Ripple’s complaint process with the SEC provided by Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer (CLO), Stuart Alderoty in a long conversation.
Alderoty suggested that SEC it will likely take a full 90 days before it delivers its first legal report. This suggests that the regulator may intend to prolong the appeal process as long as possible. The opening report will be a complete recap of all the legal arguments the SEC intends to make against Ripple and Court decision of July 2023.
Following the SEC’s initial brief, Ripple will have an opportunity to respond and rebut the SEC’s arguments. According to Alderoty, the full notification process between Ripple and the SEC is expected to last until July 2025.
This means that from December 2020, when the regulator first filed its lawsuit against Ripple, the legal battle is now set to stretch for four years, opportunity to reach five years if a decision is not reached. This is a long legal battle it could have serious consequences for the price of XRP, which has already stopped since The SEC filed its lawsuit.
The cryptocurrency has been trading around the $0.5 mark for years, only seeing a slight rise to $0.6 when market conditions improve. However, this price increase is only temporary XRP tends to decline at the $0.5 mark again.
The featured image was created with Dall.E, a chart from Tradingview.com