Summary:
• Ripple Labs is calling out the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its seemingly inconsistent enforcement actions, especially in relation to the FTX debacle.
• Ripple says that the SEC’s approach has repeatedly hurt retail investors, citing Ripple’s own lawsuit and BlockFi’s bankruptcy as examples.
• The firm also claims that the SEC’s stance on digital assets has now been debunked by recent court rulings.
Ripple Calls Out SEC For Missing FTX Debacle
Ripple Labs is addressing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and calling out the regulatory agency for what the firm says is inconsistent enforcement actions. In its Q2 2023 XRP Markets Reports, Ripple Labs slams the SEC, saying that its policies never actually protect consumers given the regulator was absent during FTX’s high profile multibillion-dollar meltdown in 2022.
Ripple Says SEC Hurting Retail Investors
Ripple also says that the SEC’s actions show that it’s actively working against retail investors. “The SEC’s regulation-by-enforcement campaign was never the right approach to protect anyone. In fact, the SEC’s approach has only repeatedly hurt the retail consumer,” said Ripple Labs in its report. Examples of this included when “the SEC sued Ripple in 2020, $15 billion in XRP market cap was eviscerated, at the expense of countless XRP holders.”
SEC First Sued Ripple Over Unregistered Security Allegations
The SEC first sued Ripple Labs in 2020 under allegations that it was selling XRP as an unregistered security. In July of this year however a judge made a landmark ruling in favor of XRP, declaring that Ripple’s programmatic sales of asset did not qualify as securities transactions. According to Ripple, this ruling shows that “the SEC’s misguided campaign of regulation by enforcement has been exposed for what it is – a strategy of intimidation and misinformation in furtherance of its own quest for political power.”
Current Status Of XRP
At press time XRP is trading for $0.681 USD – down 1% over 24 hours – according to data from CoinMarketCap .
Conclusion
In summing up their thoughts on how they view current regulatory activity from U.S regulators, particularly with respect to digital assets such as XRP , Ripple noted: “If [the] SEC cared about retail consumer[s], why did it drive BlockFi into bankruptcy leaving retail traders holding bag while [it] collected fines so [it] could grab headlines?”