Ripple Receives Permission to File Sur-Reply to Correct ‘Factual Mischaracterization’ by the SEC

Defense attorney and former federal prosecutor James K. Filan has revealed that Judge Sarah Netburn has granted Ripple blockchain’s request for a sur-reply.

Sharing the development on X (formerly Twitter), Filan announced that the motion to file a “sur-reply has been granted.”

Motion to file Sur-reply has been granted.

— James K. Filan 🇺🇸🇮🇪 (@FilanLaw) January 26, 2024

This update follows an earlier attempt by the cross-border payment solution network to submit an additional reply in response to the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) motion to compel.

#XRPCommunity #SECGov v. #Ripple #XRP Ripple has filed a Motion to File a Sur-Reply regarding the SEC's Motion to Compel. The proposed sur-reply is attached.https://t.co/VhHp5lFO1x

— James K. Filan 🇺🇸🇮🇪 (@FilanLaw) January 24, 2024

In a court filing addressed to Judge Netburn, Ripple’s legal representatives highlighted the relevance of the sur-reply, emphasizing its role in rectifying a significant factual mischaracterization made by the US securities agency in its initial reply.

The Ripple team stated that the sur-reply is vital in clarifying these misconceptions, thereby allowing the courts to rule on accurate records.

Furthermore, the defendant’s legal team challenged the SEC’s statement that Ripple “does not … argue that it would be burdened in producing” post-compliant institutional sales contracts.

The defendant deemed this claim false, having earlier expressed that the process would be “overly burdensome” following the agency’s previous request.

Ripple also zoned in on another SEC statement claiming that it had cataloged and presumably produced all of XRP sales contracts from 2020 to June 2023, including identifying the recipients.

According to the defendant, this claim is also false, and its sur-reply is geared towards showing that the blockchain network has not sanctioned any sales of the XRP contracts during the period of the lawsuit.

Additionally, the cross-border decentralized solution pointed out that the SEC had requested records surrounding “ODL” contracts even though no sales contracts were issued after December 22, 2020, soon after the lawsuit began.

These sales contracts are said to cover vendors, consultants, independent contractors, grants, donations, and other distributions the court had previously stated are not sales of investment contracts.

Ripple has implored the courts to disregard the SEC’s “misstatement of facts” even as the lawsuit proceeds.

Three-Year Legal Dance Continues

The Ripple blockchain, launched in 2012, is a new generation of decentralized value transmission systems.

Rather than disrupting the current fiat-backed financial system, Ripple aims to improve it by offering lower costs for value transfer and faster transaction resolution across borders. This mission has since led to the protocol being dubbed the cross-border network.

However, the protocol came into the cross-hairs of the SEC after former boss Jay Clayton began legal lawsuits against both the blockchain and its founder, Chris Larsen, and CEO, Brad Garlinghouse.

According to the SEC, the blockchain network was involved in selling crypto-backed securities through its XRP asset as it passed the ‘Howey Test.’

Meanwhile, the defendants have maintained their innocence and required the SEC’s opinion on what it categorizes Bitcoin and Ethereum projects.

While the case is still ongoing, the popular Coinbase exchange is also in a legal battle with the premier securities agency on the definition surrounding the Howey Test.

In a recent post on X by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, the crypto exchange and the SEC engaged in a five-hour standoff where they argued their positions.

Coinbase vs SEC Court Hearing LIVEhttps://t.co/BkM0TBOkqt

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) January 17, 2024

The SEC had sued Coinbase for offering unregistered securities on its platform and argued that the defendant was out to create their own version of the Howey Test to legalize their actions.