XRP Not A Security, But What Does It Mean For Coinbase, Others?

On July 13, Ripple Labs won part of its legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the Southern District of New York’s federal district court. Concerning programmatic sales on digital asset exchanges, Judge Analisa Torres found in favour of Ripple Labs, granted summary judgment, and found that the XRP is not a security. However, the SEC also had a win since the judge determined that XRP meets the requirements of the Howey Test, making it a security when offered to institutional investors.

Not surprisingly, the price of XRP shot up by over 80% and took other Altcoins like Solana, Cardano, and Polygon with it, which all made impressive gains. With the partial loss of the SEC, especially with regards to crypto sales at exchanges not being classified as a security by Judge Torres, the question is how much will this influence other cases?

The SEC had previously declared that most cryptos other than Bitcoin are likely to be classed as securities; with the clarity that XRP has now received, observers look to cases such as SEC vs Coinbase.

James Murphy, also known as MetaLawMan, a popular crypto lawyer, said: “While Judge Torres’ decision is not “binding precedent” it is extremely well reasoned and will be cited in all motions to dismiss.”

This implies that the decision of Judge Torres may be persuasive and affect upcoming judicial cases involving the classification of XRP or other such coins. This could prove crucial for Coinbase in its defence against the SEC.

The SEC sued Coinbase claiming it served as a broker, an exchange, and a clearinghouse for unregistered securities. The SEC cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s Howey Test, a legal standard developed in the 1940s, supporting its argument that 13 cryptocurrencies listed on Coinbase satisfied its requirements.

The SEC will now have a hard time showing that Coinbase sold securities with Judge Torres confirming that XRP sales on exchanges are not more than mere asset sales where the buyer and seller don’t know each other, also called ‘blind sales’.

What is certainly something that other projects and altcoins have to pay attention to is the ruling in favour of the SEC, where the Judge argued that the initial sales to institutions and investors are securities because most ICOs under this ruling would be seen as selling unregistered securities.

Regarding Coinbase, Kraken, and Gemini’s previous delisting of XRP, these exchanges have all stated that they intend to relist XRP or have already done so. This choice was made following a three-year suspension of token trading due to the ongoing legal battle between Ripple and the SEC.

The re-listing shows that these exchanges have changed their positions, maybe due to recent developments in the lawsuit or their evaluation of the XRP-related regulatory landscape.

As far as the old feud of the XRP Community with Charles Hoskinson is concerned, a tweet by the Cardano founder seemed to be quite reconciliatory. “Well done XRP. One Small step for XRP Nation, one Giant leap for Cryptocurrencies!” he said on Twitter.

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