Caroline Crenshaw, a lone Democratic SEC commissioner, has lambasted the agency's settlement agreement with enterprise blockchain company Ripple in a scathing dissenting statement.
Crenshaw, a crypto critic, claims that the settlement "does a tremendous disservice to the investment public."
The commissioner claims that the agreement undermines the court's order and the SEC's enforcement efforts.
She has accused the agency of erasing investor protection with a "diluting" settlement.
Interestingly, she believes that the new SEC administration is actually afraid of winning the appeal since it would undermine the dismantling of cryptocurrency enforcement.
"Our agency is, I fear, worried that the appellate court would issue a sound ruling that agreed with the legal arguments already laid out by the Commission," she said.
As reported by U.Today, the SEC recently filed a letter requesting an indicative ruling from a New York district court.
As part of the settlement, Ripple's original fine of $125 million, which was imposed by Judge Analisa Torres last year, has been slashed to $50 million.
The injunction imposed against Ripple last year has also been lifted as part of the agreement.
For now, the case remains in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and it needs to be sent back to Judge Torres for the appeal to be finalized. The judge has to signal whether she is willing to accept the reduced penalty and remove the injunction.
The case will be officially wrapped up once both parties drop their appeals.
Notably, the summary judgment ruling will remain in place under the agreement. However, Crenshaw insists that the SEC will do absolutely nothing if Ripple decides to sell unregistered XRP tokens to institutions again.
Vladislav Sopov