The Ripple lawsuit has seen fact discovery being extended by 60 days, as ruled by the Judge in response to the SEC’s motion.
This has rearranged the timeline of the lawsuit and new dates have been set, including the deadline to conduct fact discovery which was extended to August 31, 2021. The expert discovery was thus moved to October 15, 2021, as ruled by Judge Sarah Netburn.
The new timeframe has renewed anxiety among many within the crypto space and the XRP community as time is of the essence in a fast-moving industry. A new rival for Ripple has just been launched: Algorand-powered Six Clovers.
As many count the days until the lawsuit is over, attorney Jeremy Hogan has shared his thoughts on when the SEC vs Ripple is most likely to end
This past week, the Judge granted in part and denied in part the list of motions filed by the SEC. The court allowed the SEC to conduct five additional depositions while denying a sixth without prejudice as unripe.
More importantly, the court denied the SEC’s request to search for records of Ripple’s General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel for being privileged communications.
The Judge also denied the production of Ripple’s documents post-dating the complaint and denied the SEC’s request for Ripple’s documents relating to its lobbying efforts.
There are two main issues that could determine the outcome of the lawsuit: Ripple’s fair notice defense and whether XRP is a security or not.
Regarding the Fair Notice Defense, the SEC has recently warned the Court that a Ripple win would nullify the Howie Test – the benchmark that has come under scrutiny with the emergence of the digital asset class. Ripple has partnered with Rutgers Law School to push for reform.
A Ripple win on the Fair Notice could not only have a significant impact on Ripple and XRP but also on the crypto ecosystem as a whole and even partially defund the SEC.
The image below, shared by XRP community member @stedas using the information provided by attorney James K. Filan sums up what is coming next in the SEC vs Ripple lawsuit.
