Case of Ripple vs SEC, Jeremy Hogan Believes XRP Will Win

The Ripple vs SEC case is coming to an end. (Photo; Doc. Coinspector)

JAKARTA – Ripple's dispute with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which has been ongoing since late 2020 until now, seems to be coming to an end soon. Ripple's attorney, Jeremy Hogan, said the victory was on Ripple's side.

Hogan sees a win for Ripple as the most likely outcome regarding the Ripple case. The SEC is suing Ripple alleging that the blockchain-based payments company traded XRP crypto assets as unregistered securities.

Hogan believes that XRP is not being sold as a security. Apart from that, Ripple is also supported by various leading companies including Coinbase, I-Remit, and TapJets. He believes Ripple will come out victorious because XRP is not sold as a security.

The crypto law expert said that Ripple has no legal obligation to XRP buyers after the sale takes place. Hogan cites an amicus brief submitted by crypto-focused investment firm Paradigm Operations to support his thesis.

"In his [Paradigm] brief, he cited the work of one of his law firms... They reviewed 266 legal decisions related to securities breaches, and in their brief on page two it stated:

"A comprehensive analysis of federal law and appeals reveals that neither authority supports the SEC's efforts to turn Howey's analysis of investment contract transactions to conclusions about the underlying assets." In each of Howey's applications where investment contracts are found, there is some identifiable legal relationship between the mock issuer and the investor providing the investment capital.’

"The evidence is clear in the Ripple case that there is no ongoing legal relationship between Ripple and XRP buyers. There isn't, and the SEC has failed to address that issue", said Jeremy Hogan, quoted by DailyHodl.

Hogan emphasized that the law requires an "investment contract" and not a "sales contract." Lawyers note that Ripple is selling XRP without any legal promise to do anything further, which is a sale of assets and not a security.

Next, Hogan focuses on the second branch of the Howey test, which states that an investment contract exists if there is a joint venture. According to crypto law experts, the SEC has three main problems in this arena.

“First, how can any buyer reasonably rely on Ripple to increase the price of XRP when Ripple has no post-sale obligations to them? This is like buying Tesla and then suing Elon Musk when the value fails to increase..." Hogan revealed.

“The second issue the SEC has is that Ripple, through attorney John Deaton, has actually submitted hundreds of affidavits from actual XRP holders, many of whom had never even heard of Ripple when they purchased XRP", he added.

Then lastly, “The SEC has left its expert witness on the issue of whether Ripple's efforts had any effect on XRP price, Ripple's expert witness analysis is that mostly and especially since 2018... XRP price moves based on crypto markets, synchronization, and not actually moving with any business moves that Ripple makes", he concluded.