At a DC Fintech event on Tuesday, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse indicated that he expects the court to rule on the case in the first half of 2023, stating:
I think we will have an answer in the first half of next year.
Whether it's the first quarter or the second quarter, we'll see.
The SEC and Ripple case:
The SEC filed a formal lawsuit against Ripple in December 2020 over an alleged violation of securities laws.
The regulator told that Ripple and two of its executives raised $1.3 billion by offering unregistered securities to global investors by selling XRP digital tokens between 2013 and 2020.
The SEC lawsuit surprised Ripple and the entire cryptocurrency industry as there was no indication that the SEC was monitoring Ripple.
Ripple argued that it did not violate SEC rules because Ripple XRP is not a guarantee.
After the lawsuit, Garlinghouse claimed that his company had been carefully selected for direct scrutiny.
He further noted that the regulator should not be able to pick the exact form of innovation (especially when its decision is indirectly beneficial to China).
Garlinghouse: Ripple has the upper hand now
Both parties have appeared in court since 2021.
Garlinghouse believes his company has the upper hand in winning the case.
But the CEO said that if the SEC wins the lawsuit, the company will leave the United States.
Ripple has restricted its business in the US, and according to Garlinghouse, XRP has no liquidity in the country.
Last month, Ripple won a proposal to access internal documents, including emails and drafts, related to a 2018 speech given by William Henman, the former CEO of the SEC.
The commission wanted to protect the documents because they contained Hinman's comments on the legal status of Ethereum when the commissioner saw Ethereum as Bitcoin, and that it was not a security.
The CEO of Ripple on Tuesday also emphasized that the SEC's lawsuit is an attack on the crypto sector, and the outcome will determine the future of the industry.
