Ripple's Stuart Alderoty Unveils $5 Million Art Satire Targeting SEC and Gary Gensler

Stuart Alderoty, Ripple’s chief legal officer, has taken to his X account to share an image of an art object. This triggered a wave of comments from an amused XRP community.

In this tweet, Ripple’s chief lawyer has made reference not only to the Securities and Exchange Commission and its current boss Gary Gensler but also to crypto billionaire Justin Sun.

"Not a Security" art object, trading starts at $5 million

Ripple CLO published an image that looks like a parody of Maurizio Cattelan’s iconic work, "Comedian," which was sold to the Tron founder and crypto billionaire Justin Sun for $6.2 million, according to his tweet published on Nov. 21.

Alderoty’s image is an orange taped to canvas, while the aforementioned "Comedian" is a banana held against the canvas with the help of tape. Ripple’s top executive tweeted: “I call it ‘Not a Security.’ Opening bid: $5 million. Serious inquiries only.”

With the “Not a Security” name, Alderoty referred to the SEC and Gary Gensler, who claim all altcoins, except Ethereum, to be unregistered securities based on the narrative that investors expect profits that depend on the efforts of the teams that issue those cryptocurrencies.

Many XRP fans have repeatedly argued that, within the philosophy behind the SEC’s approach, collectible items should also be considered securities and investment contracts. The SEC has fined several crypto platforms and initiated a long-term legal case against Ripple, claiming that it has been selling XRP as a security.

However, in July 2023, Federal Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP sales on secondary markets did not qualify as security sales, unlike XRP sales made by the company to financial institutions. Ultimately, Ripple paid $125 million in fines instead of $2 billion requested by the SEC.

In September, the regulator filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.

Gary Gensler announces resignation from SEC

On Thursday, an event happened that had been highly anticipated and hoped for by the global XRP community. The current chair of the SEC, Gary Gensler, announced his upcoming resignation, which will come into effect on Jan. 20, 2025.

Ripple CEO Brad Gralinghouse reacted to that news in a Thanksgiving tweet, saying that this year he is thankful for Gensler finally stepping down.