Ripple legal chief Stuart Alderoty predicted that U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler will continue to lie about the legal compliance around XRP under securities laws during the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services hearing on September 27, 2023.
XRP: Securities Market
The SEC Chair is known for imposing US securities laws on crypto assets while the market participants have long argued that the existing rules were not compatible for the new asset class. In the context of the recent Summary Judgment delivered by judge Analisa Torres, Alderoty said cryptocurrencies come under the crypto asset securities market. In July 2023, the judge ruled that the sale of XRP tokens to retail buyers does not qualify as being a securities asset.
“The SEC Chair will go to Congress tomorrow and lie by stating that there is such a thing as a “crypto asset securities market” and tokens themselves are investment contracts.”
Earlier in September 2023, the SEC Chair commented during a Senate committee hearing that the crypto industry is rife with fraud and misconduct. Alderoty quoted a part of the Summary Judgment: “XRP, as a digital token, is not in and of itself a contract, transaction or scheme that embodies the Howey requirements of an investment contract.”
No Crypto Lawsuit Questions?
In the pre-hearing testimony, Gary Gensler noted that he would not be able to comment on any active and existing lawsuits. This essentially rules out comments on XRP lawsuit and the status of spot Bitcoin ETF conversion application in relation to the Grayscale lawsuit.
