Ripple Battles SEC: Lawyer Points Out ‘Strange Animus’

• Ripple argues the SEC’s penalty demands show bias, citing the Terraform case.
• Ripple President Monica Long criticizes the SEC’s crypto approach at Money20/20.

As well-known XRP attorney Bill Morgan draws attention to the SEC’s “strange animus” against Ripple, the company’s continuous legal struggle with the agency has reached new heights. Morgan claims there may be bias because the penalties the SEC is pursuing against Ripple are excessively severe in comparison to other cryptocurrency-related cases.

This supplemental authority draws attention to the strange animus that the SEC continues to show towards Ripple.

Ripple alleges in its remedies opposition brief that the range of penalties that the SEC accepted in other crypto related cases was between 0.6% and 1.8% of a… https://t.co/Z9qbc24F7R

— bill morgan (@Belisarius2020) June 14, 2024

To highlight this alleged contradiction, Ripple cited the TerraForm Labs case in its most recent court filing. The SEC had sought penalties of $4.47 billion from TerraForm Labs, of which $3.58 billion was to be disgorged and $420 million was to be paid in civil fines, echoing earlier coverage by CNF.

This total represented about 1.27% of TerraForm’s $33 billion in gross sales. Even with the substantial investor losses and fraudulent actions in the TerraForm case, the SEC agreed to a penalty that was less than what it usually seeks.

Comparison with Ripple’s Case 

By contrast, the SEC is requesting an $876 million fine in the Ripple case. With fines in other crypto-related cases usually ranging from 0.6% to 1.8% of gross sales, this amount is around 20 times higher. The legal team of Ripple contends that this disparity exposes an arbitrary and biassed SEC strategy.

Meanwhile, CoinMarketCap data shows that the price of XRP at the time of writing is about $0.4776, having dropped by 2.14% in the previous 24 hours and exhibiting an 8.82% bearish trend over the previous week. The continuous uncertainty and strains resulting from the legal dispute are reflected in this market performance.

Additionally, as ETHNews previously reported, Monica Long, the president of Ripple, has publicly questioned the SEC’s position on the cryptocurrency industry. Speaking at the Money20/20 conference, Long emphasized the need of more favourable conditions for innovation in the cryptocurrency industry and more lucid rules.