The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has decided to appeal the Ripple case.
As reported by U.Today, the agency was widely rumored to challenge the court ruling. However, it kept the community in a state of limbo until almost the very last day. The deadline for the SEC's appeal was set for Oct. 7.
Last year, Analisa Torres, a judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, recognized secondary XRP sales as non-securities. This has been framed as a substantial win for Ripple, but the distinction between programmatic and institutional sales has proven to be quite controversial.
Analysts have spent the last few weeks speculating about whether the agency would eventually make such a move.
Stuart Alderoty, Ripple's top lawyer, previously stated that he would not find the SEC's appeal surprising. However, he is confident that the legal status of the XRP token will not be affected by this action.
The SEC's notice of appeal is, of course, a significant blow to those XRP holders who hoped that the Ripple case would no longer be hanging over them like a sword of Damocles. In August, Judge Torres issued her final judgment in the case.
The price of XRP is down nearly 6%, according to CoinGecko data. This makes it one of the worst-performing cryptocurrencies in the top 100. It is currently changing hands at $0.56.
It should be noted that the existing ruling is highly unlikely to be altered until 2026.
The SEC's appeal coincided with Bitwise, a major crypto asset manager, filing to launch an XRP-based exchange-traded fund.
Arman Shirinyan
Dan Burgin
