Judge In Ripple Court Fight Grants SEC’s Appeal Bid: Bad Omen For XRP?

In what will undoubtedly be disappointing to XRP fans, a New York district court judge has accepted the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) request to file an interlocutory appeal of the verdict in its suit against Ripple Labs, which ended in a partial victory for Ripple in July.

SEC’s Request Granted

Last month, the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York declared that while Ripple’s XRP token institutional sales violated federal securities laws, sales to investors via exchanges did not constitute investment contracts. The ruling was a catalyst that sparked an upward trend for XRP and other crypto tokens that were alleged to be securities by the SEC.

The legal skirmish between Ripple and the SEC has been ongoing since December 2020 when the U.S. securities regulator took legal action against Ripple and its top figureheads, Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen, over allegations they raised over $1.3 billion through the sale of XRP, an alleged unregistered security.

Now, the SEC’s request to submit a motion for leave to file an interlocutory appeal in the ongoing dispute with Ripple has been granted by Judge Analisa Torres, according to a court document filed on Thursday. The agency can file its motion by August 18, 2023,  Judge Analisa Torres postulated, and Ripple has until September 1, 2023, to file their opposition to the appeal.

For those unfamiliar, an interlocutory appeal happens when a ruling by a trial court is appealed while other elements of the case are still in motion. The federal judge’s determination enables the SEC to build and introduce a case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. 

The decision comes only hours after Ripple made it known that it was opposed to the SEC’s move toward an interlocutory appeal. As ZyCrypto reported earlier, Ripple’s legal team laid out several key arguments in opposition to the regulator’s request.

Implications On XRP

It should be noted that the latest decision by Judge Torres does not mean the SEC can now appeal the XRP ruling.

As aforementioned, the appeal process itself won’t halt the rest of the case. Moreover, the SEC will still need permission from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to file the actual appeal of the ruling. So even if Judge Torres does grant the SEC’s motion, then it will have another precipitous mountain to climb — getting the Second Circuit’s approval.

XRP fans hoping for a parabolic value hike might have to wait a little longer as the project’s future as a whole could be in jeopardy amid SEC’s appeal efforts.