The ongoing legal saga between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and San Francisco's blockchain titan, Ripple, has entered a new phase.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has granted the SEC's request to file a motion for an interlocutory appeal.
This decision, however, does not automatically authorize the appeal but merely allows the SEC to formally request it.
The court has set a series of deadlines for both parties, with the SEC expected to file its motion by Aug. 18, followed by Ripple's opposition papers due by Sept. 1.
This recent twist follows the SEC's detailed letter outlining its reasons for seeking an interlocutory appeal, particularly concerning the "programmatic" offers and sales of XRP on trading platforms and Ripple's "other distributions."
The appeal motion is a direct response to Judge Torres' prior ruling, which determined that certain XRP transactions and distributions do not qualify as securities under the Howey Test—a benchmark for defining investment contracts.
Ripple's top legal counsel, Stuart Alderoty, recently took to Twitter to voice the company's stance, stating their opposition to the SEC's appeal request. He emphasized the absence of any "extraordinary circumstance" that would warrant an appeal before resolving all issues concerning all involved parties.
Vladislav Sopov