Ripple says court should deny SEC request for appeal

Ripple Labs pushed back against the Securities and Exchange Commission's request for appeal in an ongoing dispute in a new filing on Friday.

The SEC is looking to appeal part of a landmark decision from July as to whether some of Ripple's sales of XRP +0.75% violated securities laws.

"The exceptional circumstances required for interlocutory appeal are absent," lawyers representing Ripple said.

"First, the Court's summary judgment order does not present a controlling question of law suitable for interlocutory appeal," they continued. "Second, the supposed substantial ground for disagreement is merely the SEC's dissatisfaction with the Court's application of Howey to most of Defendants' transactions in XRP."

SEC request for appeal

The SEC last month filed a motion with the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York, asking it to certify for interlocutory appeal. SEC lawyers argued that how the court handles the Ripple case could have a "substantial impact" on other pending litigation like those between the regulatory agency and top crypto trading platforms Binance and Coinbase.

The regulatory agency argued at the time that an appeal was warranted "because they involve controlling questions of law as to which there are substantial grounds for difference of opinion, and obtaining an appellate ruling on these issues now may materially advance the ultimate termination of this litigation."

Judge Analisa Torres ruled in July that some of Ripple’s sales, called programmatic, of XRP did not violate securities laws because of a blind bid process in place for them. She also ruled that other direct sales of the token to institutional investors were securities, leaving a partial win for the SEC.

The SEC wants to appeal the part of the decision about the programmatic sales as well as “other distributions” that included offers and sales of XRP in exchange for goods and services.

Ripple said if the SEC is allowed to appeal, they will "seek to cross-appeal" the court’s order involving institutional sales of XRP.

"That cross-appeal, too, will call for a review of the full record, not merely those parts the SEC wishes to emphasize," Ripple's lawyers said. 

(Updated at 4:45 p.m. ET with additional details throughout.)