Ripple Labs’ legal team responds to the recently amended court complaint filed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (U.S. SEC). The U.S. SEC filed the amended complaint on Tuesday, where the complaint alleges that Ripple Labs illegally sold the cryptocurrency without proper clearance. This lawsuit started when the US SEC classified XRP as a security in late December 2020.
The amended complaint adds more details regarding the role that the commission claims that Ripple executives Chris Larsen and Brad Garlinghouse sold XRP to institutional investors. The SEC reiterated that Larsen and Garlinghouse both played key roles in the negotiation and approval of the company’s institutional sales and offering of XRP to institutional investors. Some of these sales allegedly also happened while Garlinghouse was the COO.
The SEC alleges that Ripple’s co-founder Garlinghouse sold portions of his XRP portfolio while claiming he was “very long” on the token and claimed he and Larsen adjusted the company’s sales target depending on the price of the cryptocurrency.
Regardless of the new amendments on the complaint, Ripple Labs’ general counsel Stuart Alderoty says that the US SEC’s 79-page lawsuit against the company remains centered on a simple question. He says the only legal complaint that remains is whether or not the distribution of XRP constituted an investment contract. He doubled down on this statement and expressed his disappointment with the commission after it waited years to bring up the lawsuit in the first place.
Alderoty also said the SEC’s case describes the company as a viable remittance product. The case acknowledges the use of XRP as a means of cross-border payments and shows that the asset is unique and has utility.
As of writing, the XRP token is trading at $0.5254. Its current price comes in light of the ‘mini-crash’ that happened wherein Ripple XRP dove 12% from $0.5317 to $0.4662 and swiftly recovering after.
