US crypto trading and investment platform Coinbase to back Ripple Labs in the long-complicated lawsuit against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Ripple was sued by the SEC in 2020 for allegedly violating US securities laws. The US regulator has accused Ripple of selling XRP tokens as… securities, or securities, without having the necessary licenses for this. Ripple denies this accusation and argues that XRP cannot be seen as an effect.
XRP lawsuit
Ripple is now supported by several parties in this lawsuit. Earlier you could read in the Ripple news that, among others, companies such as I-Remit and Tapjets have a so-called ‘Amicus letter’ have submitted. This can be seen as a kind of endorsement from an outside organization or individual not involved in the lawsuit. In September you could already read that the American lobby group Chamber of Digital Commence (CDC) would also help Ripple in the fight against the SEC.
The latest news regarding the lawsuit was that the Blockchain Association had filed an Amicus letter with the court. The Blockchain Association is a trade association that represents companies and other organizations in the crypto industry. The reason behind this endorsement is that they believe that the SEC is stepping out of bounds in their interpretation of securities laws.
Statement of Support Coinbase
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is now also going to support Ripple in the case against the SEC. The judge will then see Coinbase as ‘amicus curae‘, which is Latin for ‘friend of the courtroom’. The Chief Legal Officer Coinbase’s (CLO) Paul Grewal said in a series of tweets that the exchange had asked the presiding judge for permission to submit an amicus letter. He said the case is a “textbook” definition of “how critical fair notice is.”
“One of the fundamental protections guaranteed by our Constitution is that government agencies cannot condemn conduct as a violation of the law without honestly reporting that the conduct is unlawful. By suing sellers of XRP tokens after making public statements indicating that those transactions were lawful, the SEC has lost sight of this basic principle.”
earlier today, @coinbase asked Judge Torres for permission to file an amicus brief in the SEC case about XRP. Our point in pretty simple: this is a textbook case of just how critical fair notice is any reasonable notice of due process under law. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/qhSSGrNgJK
— paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) October 31, 2022