Several attorneys, including Joseph Hall, who was formerly an official at the SEC, believe that the $1.3 billion lawsuit against Ripple by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will crumble.
Earlier in December of 2020, the SEC pressed charges against the co-owners of Ripple Labs Christian Larsen and Brad Garlinghouse. While Ripple managed to solve its issues with previous partners last month, the SEC will seemingly try to convince the court that Ripple’s native tokens (XRP) were sold as securities without authorization back in 2013.
If such a case goes in favor of the Securities and Exchange Commission, digital asset service providers, especially start-ups might struggle to launch initial coin offerings (ICOs), and would most likely require approval from the government authorities.
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Either way, attorney and ex-SEC official Joseph Hall thinks otherwise. During the Thinking Crypto podcast, Hall was quite confident that the SEC will have to forfeit the case against Ripple simply due to the "merits of the case."
When speaking on the lawsuit, Joseph Hall was perplexed by the actions of the SEC and seemed unsure what the case would prove at the end of the day, regardless of which side won.
Even though the concern for Ripple succumbing in the court of law, the ex-SEC official has high hopes for Ripple’s defense, because the Securities and Exchange Commission is required to issue a fair warning before putting companies under the microscope. However, it failed to do so before filing the lawsuit.
Likewise, owner of the H&H Legal firm and host of the Legal Briefs law-based crypto channel Jeremy Hogan backed Ripple by comparing its case to an earlier one against LBRY tokens.
In both lawsuits, the SEC failed to issue a fair notice before filing the lawsuit, and LBRY came out on top just because of that. Hogan has high hopes that Ripple will receive the same positive outcome.