The United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit against Ripple is an important one for the blockchain and crypto industry. This case has helped the crypto industry and associated businesses to highlight the lack of clear regulations and the need for a framework. However, this mission can only be pushed when the SEC clarifies the difference between crypto and a security.
The latest development comes from Ripple general counsel Stuart Alderoty who accused the SEC of playing a delay card. This was in response to SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s letter “Prepared Remarks At the Securities Enforcement Forum”. Here, Gensler used a Football metaphor to highlight the need for enforcement of rules.
He tweeted about the same,
“Imagine a football game w/o referees. Without fear of penalties, teams start to break rules. The game isn’t fair & maybe after a few min, it isn’t fun to watch. Without examination against & enforcement of our rules, we can’t instill the trust necessary for our markets to thrive.”
In his tweet, Gensler further noted that “Enforcement is one of the fundamental pillars in achieving the @SECgov’s mission.” He added that even though one of the pillars was policy framework, “you’ve also got to examine against those laws & rules, & enforce those rules.”
Ripple’s general counsel was among those criticizing the SEC for using “regulation by enforcement” to achieve clarity. He claimed that this created an uneven playing field making winners and losers.
An exasperated Alderoty asked the SEC to “publicly committing to moving the Ripple case as “swiftly” as possible”.
Meanwhile, the deadline for the expert discovery deadline in the Ripple vs SEC case has been pushed back a month due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. As per Fox Business sources, a letter outlining their new motion will be filed on Thursday stated Elenor Terrett.
The court will decide whether to grant this motion or not, but the delay is certainly causing restlessness among the XRP-Ripple community along with the extended crypto community. Especially now, when the SEC chair was avoiding a direct answer to the one question that keeps coming back, “Is Ether a security?”