The long running legal battle between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple will enter another year of arguments and conclusion. In the recent court order in the XRP lawsuit, District Judge Analisa Torres set the schedule regarding remedies, discovery, and briefing.
XRP lawsuit to end in 2024?
According to the US District Court Southern District of New York securities, the judge reviewed the parties’ letter submitted on November 9, 2023. The court has decided to lead down a schedule ahead. It is required by both parties to complete remedies related to discovery by February 12, 2024.
It mentioned that by March 13, 2024, the plaintiff (SEC) needs to file its brief in accordance with remedies. However, Defendants (Ripple) will have to file its opposition by April 12, 2024, and the commission will get time till April 29, 2024, to reply to it if needed.
The timeline suggests that there will be no chance of an appeal that would be issued before mid of 2026 by the 2nd Circuit. The ruling given by Judge Torres will remain ironclad for a very long time now.
SEC on the backfoot?
Crypto legal expert, Jeremy Hogan highlighted that submitting final briefs in April means that a final judgment is expected by July 2024. However, it is important to note that the case heading depicts that there is only one defendant left ie Ripple.
As reported earlier, the SEC dropped its allegations of raising capital to finance the company’s business against two Ripple Labs executives Christian Larsen and Bradley Garlinghouse. The commission has accused Ripple of illicitly raising over $1.3 billion in an unregistered securities offering just by selling XRP.
Ripple was granted a partial win in the case back in July 2023 after the court found out that the sales of XRP on public crypto exchanges were not unregistered securities offerings. Meanwhile, Judge Torres has also rejected a request by the SEC to appeal this ruling.