The legal battle between the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ethereum (ETH) has transformed into an intriguing case within the entire cryptocurrency landscape, with several experts predicting possible outcomes regarding the dispute.
Ripple CEO Warns US SEC’s Inevitable Defeat Against Ethereum
As the battle wages on, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ripple Labs Brad Garlinghouse, has revealed his optimistic insights on the case, while sharing a daring prediction in favor of the Ethereum ecosystem. His positive insights came in light of reports that the SEC is attempting to classify Ethereum “as a security” through its legal dispute with the digital asset.
Brad Garlinghouse has predicted that the US regulatory watchdog is most likely to “lose its war against Ethereum” – the second largest cryptocurrency asset. According to Garlinghouse, the Commission’s several “attempts to include the cryptocurrency industry in legal battles have resulted in severe court losses” over time.
As a result, the agency is now “lagging behind its foreign counterparts” and “competing with other regulators” such as the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
The Ripple CEO then posed a question, “When would the SEC realize that it would not be able to continue fighting to categorize Ethereum as a security, as it did with XRP?”
It is noteworthy that Coinbase submitted self-certifications with the CFTC on March 7, which could pave the way for Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Litecoin (LTC) futures Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), if the CTFC has no complaints against it.
Consequently, the SEC’s prospects of overturning the “Programmatic Sales of XRP” ruling might be impacted by the categorization of these aforementioned tokens as commodities by the CFTC. This could be one of the reasons why the SEC could be fighting the CFTC.
Ripple’s Partial Victories Against The SEC
Ripple first secured a partial win in its lawsuit with the agency when Judge Analisa Torres declared in July last year that programmatic sales of XRP do not meet the requirements of the third prong of the Howey Test. Also, three months later, the SEC’s request for an interlocutory appeal against the programmatic sales order was denied by the US Judge.
Due to the order, the SEC will be unable to file an appeal until the conclusion of the ongoing SEC v. Ripple lawsuit. It is believed that the resolution of this dispute may have a profound impact on the US regulatory landscape and the cryptocurrency landscape as a whole.
The long-running legal dispute between Ripple and the US SEC began in 2020 when the Commission accused Ripple of selling XRP to US investors as an unregistered security. However, the lengthy battle is slowly approaching its climax as the grand trial is scheduled to take place by April 23.