Bitrabo Editorial
A lawyer, Bill Morgan, who advocates for XRP, has strongly criticized the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) enforcement approach towards cryptocurrency regulation. He highlighted recent court decisions where judges rejected the SEC’s view that digital assets like XRP are securities.
Reasons Behind the SEC’s Defeat: Pro-XRP Attorney
Bill Morgan pointed out three federal court rulings that challenge the SEC’s position that cryptocurrencies should be regulated as traditional securities. He shared his analysis through X, stressing the impact of these court opinions on the future cryptocurrency regulatory environment.
In the SEC vs. Ripple case, Judge Analisa Torres distinguished XRP from securities, stating that the digital token itself is not a security. Morgan quoted Judge Torres saying, “XRP, as a digital token, is not an investment contract under Howey requirements.”
Another instance of skepticism occurred in the SEC vs. Payward Inc. (Kraken case), where Judge William Orrick cautioned the SEC against equating crypto tokens with investment contracts, emphasizing that cryptocurrency tokens are not securities like orange groves.
Judge Orrick urged the SEC to differentiate between the crypto asset and its sales, warning against arguing that individual tokens are investment contracts. He emphasized that the SEC must maintain this distinction to support its argument.
Referencing the SEC vs. Binance case, Morgan mentioned Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson dismissing the SEC’s claim that a crypto token embodies an investment contract, clarifying that it may be the subject of an investment contract.
He concluded with a query challenging the SEC’s current regulatory approach: “How many more judicial comments are required for the SEC to abandon the embodiment theory and the notion that crypto assets are securities?”
Despite these legal setbacks for the SEC, the commission recently issued a Wells notice to OpenSea, a popular NFT marketplace, suggesting that the platform’s NFTs could be considered unregistered securities.
Currently, XRP is trading at $0.5605.