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Former SEC official Kristina Littman speculates that the SEC might not appeal the Ripple ruling to potentially avoid setting an unfavorable law at the Second Circuit.
The SEC’s legal tussle with Ripple is edging close to a potential resolution as the crypto community awaits the court’s final verdict.
Consequently, many industry experts, including Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, projected that the court could issue the final decision before the end of Summer 2024.
Nonetheless, the major question remains whether the SEC would appeal the initial ruling, which gave Ripple a partial victory in July 2023, after the upcoming final verdict.
SEC Might Not Appeal
Interestingly, Kristina Littman, the former head of the SEC’s Enforcement’s Cyber Unit, recently joined the debate regarding a potential appeal in the Ripple lawsuit.
The former SEC official said there are speculations that the SEC might not appeal the initial ruling in the Ripple case, which characterized the company’s programmatic sales and other distributions of XRP as non-security.
She made this known during a recent conference titled, ‘Digital Assets and Cryptocurrency – Regulation and Enforcement of Exchanges, Crypto Lending, DeFi, NFTs and More.’
Speaking at the event, Littman suggested that the SEC could leave the Ripple ruling as a district court opinion instead of appealing the verdict, as such an appeal would risk the potential establishment of an unfavorable precedent at the Second Circuit in the event of a loss.
“There are some speculations that the SEC might just let the Ripple opinion stay there as a district court opinion and not risk elevating it to a circuit level where they could potentially elicit bad law when they have favorable rulings in the aftermath of their obligations,” Littman remarked.
Furthermore, she recounted how the ruling judge in the SEC v. TerraForm Labs case rejected the Ripple reasoning. Additionally, the former SEC official noted that Coinbase did not address the Ripple verdict but adopted the Terra opinion.
Hence, many do not think the SEC would appeal the Ripple summary judgment decision and potentially risk setting a bad law in the Second Circuit.
Reacting to the development, prominent XRP community member wEeZiE suggested that Littman’s comment was not a speculation but a confirmation that the SEC might not appeal the Ripple case.
Did Kristina Littman of the #SEC just confirm that the #SEC is NOT appealing the #Ripple case? 👀👀👀
We know how these speculations have gone, she knows! pic.twitter.com/ilzqC74Ho3
— wEeZiE {X}💭John Deaton 4 Senate (@NerdNationUnbox) June 19, 2024
SEC Initial Appeal Attempt Fails
Meanwhile, the SEC failed in its attempt to file an immediate appeal challenging the decision on Ripple’s programmatic sales and other distributions of XRP. The court denied this request, asking it to wait until the final judgment.
Notably, top legal experts and Ripple execs think the court’s final verdict could be issued this year, specifically before the end of Summer 2024.
With the court expected to issue the final judgment this year, it remains uncertain whether the SEC would appeal the Ripple initial ruling or accept it without potentially setting an unfavorable precedent at the Second Circuit.