SEC Chair Gary Gensler Expresses ‘Disappointment’ Over Ripple Victory
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman, Gary Gensler, has recently addressed the public following Ripple’s significant legal victory against the regulator last week. Yet, his response indicates that he is dissatisfied with the outcome.
Gary Gensler Spoke on July 17 that he was “disappointed” with the judge’s judgment that Ripple’s XRP token was not a security when sold to ordinary investors on deals.
The judgment was praised as excellent news for the cryptocurrency industry and individual investors, but Gensler disagrees.
Crackdown On Crypto Will Resume
Gensler added that he was satisfied with the choice to acknowledge the “protection of institutional investors” but added:
“While disappointed on what they said about retail investors, we’re still looking at it and assessing that opinion.”
The speech faltered at moments, and Gensler seemed to be at a loss for words. The confusing remarks were made on July 17 during a National Press Club event.
Despite this reverse, he stated that the crypto war will continue.
“We’re going to continue to try to bring firms that may not be in compliance into compliance — without prejudging any one of them — and try to ensure that we protect the investing public,” he said.
The decision that XRP sales to regular traders did not include securities transactions bodes well for other crypto assets that Gensler and his team argued were investment contracts.
According to Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York, The SEC charged Ripple in 2020 with illegally selling unlisted XRP securities to raise $1.3 billion. Yet, XRP was not a security in the secondary market sale.
In contrast to a stock offering, she claimed that Ripple’s algorithmic sales method for XRP on exchanges and trading platforms was not a securities offering. The purchasers “could not have known if their payments of money went to Ripple,” the expert claimed.
XRP Price Forecast
XRP prices soared by more than 80% late last week but have since stabilized in the mid-$0.70 range. However, the token lost 2.5% on the day, falling to $0.738 at the time of writing.
XRP has reached its highest level since March 2022 but is still down 78% from its all-time high of $3.40 in 2018.
The decision lifted the value of considerable other crypto assets, including Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL), Polygon (MATIC), and Stellar Lumens (XLM). The SEC has classified all of these as securities.
