XRP Vs SEC Heats Up, US Securities And Exchange Commission Asks For Extended Time To Fulfill Ripple's Demand

The Ripple vs SEC case is still ongoing. (Digital Ocean Spaces)

JAKARTA – Ripple's feud with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is heating up. Previously, Ripple managed to ask the court to ask the SEC to show a number of important documents before taking Ripple to court. The key documents include emails relating to a speech by a previous SEC official, William Hinman. Later the SEC bought time to fulfill the request.

Reporting from U.Today, Ripple asked the court to reject the SEC's request for an extension of time to file a reconsideration motion related to the recent deliberative process ruling. However, the SEC stated that the requested waivers, if approved, would not affect the existing deadline. The deadline for submitting documents has been pushed back to 18 February.

The defendant, Ripple, claimed that they would be harmed by further delays. Ripple accused the SEC of using a "wait and see" approach to delay requests for documents that could potentially be the source of the lawsuit.

On January 13, Judge Sarah Netburn granted Ripple's motion to compel regulators to provide some documents that the SEC is holding for deliberations privileges, which allows government officials not to make pre-decision records.

Among other documents, the SEC has been ordered to produce an internal email containing a draft of a speech by former director William Hinman who once stated that Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency, is not a security.

Ripple has been hurt by a lack of regulatory clarity since the beginning of its legal feud with the SEC. This prompted Ripple to find out why the SEC accused the company of illegally selling XRP tokens. Ripple began searching for documents related to Bitcoin and Ethereum shortly after being hit by a lawsuit in December 2020, filing a Freedom of Information request last January.

In July, the defendants managed to force Hinman to testify about his speech alleging that Ethereum was not a security. The former SEC official stressed that the speech was merely his personal opinion and did not reflect the agency's views.

However, due to the SEC lawsuit in December 2020, Ripple's intention to go public was hampered. A number of Ripple officials also mentioned that XRP should be in second place after BTC. As of writing the price of XRP is trading at Rp8,552, down 22 percent in the past week. If you look at the all-time high price (ATH) which broke Rp.45,650 on January 7 2018, XRP's price is currently down 81.3 percent from ATH.