Ripple v. SEC: Bloomberg Expert Expecting Ruling in Coming Months

During an appearance on Laura Shin’s “Unchained” podcast, Elliott Z. Stein, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, recently commented on the ongoing legal battle between Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He stated that he expects a ruling on the summary judgment motions in the first half of this year.

Stein noted that the Ripple case is particularly interesting as it deals with a digital asset that has utility, which weighs in favor of those assets being commodities.

However, the SEC has alleged that Ripple marketed XRP tokens as investments, with purchasers treating them as such, hoping for the price of the asset to rise. This creates a complex legal issue that has been the subject of intense litigation.

“So, it’s a really interesting case for the whole crypto sector, and I think we might get a ruling on the summary judgment motions in 1H this year,” Stein said.

As reported by U.Today, Judge Analisa Torres recently made a new decision in the case, which involved excluding the SEC’s vital expert witness from providing testimony. Patrick Doody, who was hired by the formidable regulatory agency to examine the token purchasers’ expectations, has been barred from giving testimony by Judge Torres in response to Ripple’s motion.

In December of 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) initiated legal proceedings against Ripple as well as its senior executives.The lawsuit alleges that the company and its leaders breached U.S. securities laws by engaging in the unauthorized sale of securities.

Garlinghouse has stated that he expects the lawsuit to be decided in 2023.