Earlier today, Stuart Alderoty, Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer, recently spoke about the U.S. SEC’s ongoing lawsuit against Ripple Labs over the sale of XRP tokens (which the SEC considers unregistered securities).
According to Blockworks’s report on their interview with Alderoty, he believes that companies facing regulatory hostility from American regulators should consider launching their projects in a jurisdiction where the rules are clear rather than launching in the US where the rules are unclear.
Alderoty shared his experience building Ripple’s case over the past thirty months and warned companies facing a subpoena, Wells notice, or an enforcement action to operate under the assumption that the SEC’s case is already decided.
“Don’t trust these guys,” Alderoty said. “It’s not a level playing field.” Alderoty’s comments reflected the challenges many companies face in navigating the uncertain regulatory landscape in the US.
Alderoty also criticized SEC Chair Gary Gensler for prejudging the outcome of unresolved issues in a recent interview, stating, “They should not be prejudging the outcome of unresolved issues” and “They certainly should not be doing so in a very, very public way because it corrupts the process. It corrupts the perception of the process.”
Despite the uncertainty of the ongoing lawsuit, Alderoty is confident that Ripple has a good chance of winning in the Supreme Court, citing the Court’s current conservative majority. “I would be supremely confident that this is a winner in the Supreme Court, not so much because of the crypto issues but because of the guarding against building an administrative state,” he said.
Regarding Ripple and XRP’s potential future, Alderoty outlines three possible outcomes: the judge could side with Ripple, the SEC, or decide that there are disputed facts and the case needs to go to trial. A summary judgment is expected any day now, and Alderoty believes that winning in the summary judgment would mean that Ripple has room to expand domestically. “We [would] have this incredible business opportunity in the US — that is evergreen for us,” he said.
During an interview with Bloomberg Television earlier today, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said that “he expects a decision on the case this year.”
