SEC v Ripple update: Coinbase officially joins the cause, another step toward victory

Ripple has been in a legal battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for almost two years now. In the latest turn of events, Ripple’s friends are in the process of making statements of support, known as Amici Briefs, which assist a court by providing information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. 

Ripple and its supporters

On November 14, the presiding US District Judge, Analisa Torres, granted motions to Ripple's 12 supporters to file their Amicus Briefs. The list includes various companies and individuals such as Coinbase and the Blockchain Association. They have until November 18 to file their briefs as per the order. Coinbase already confirmed its filing on November 14.

This has now brought the case closer to its end. The timeline suggests the next major development in the case will come with the omnibus motion filing to seal all the documents related to the summary judgment.

The case had a breakthrough last month in favor of Ripple when Judge Torres asked the SEC to hand over the Hinman documents. These documents referred to the internal SEC emails and drafts of his infamous 2018 speech, where he mentioned that Ethereum was not a security. This opened up the discussion of the targeted pursuit of XRP despite the two being similar in nature.

SEC's decision not to pursue Ethereum has been debated for a while now. Ethereum co-founder and Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson justified this by saying,

"They adopted the position because by the time they could intervene, ethereum had a huge ecosystem of dapps, many VCs, tons of billionaires with political capital, and ran proof of work, which bitcoin got a pass on… This wasn't bribery. It's reality. Regulators pick the path of least resistance."

The revelation of the Hinman documents will raise the question of whyXRP did not receive the "Ethereum free pass" since SEC has not proved the former's status as "not a security". Hoskinson also supported the same as he stated,

How well this plays in Ripple's favor is yet to be seen though. The case is expected to reach its conclusion by March 2023, as per Attorney James Filan, who tweeted,

"I am sticking to my prediction that District Judge Torres will decide both the Expert Motions and the Summary Judgment motions at the same time - on or before March 31, 2023."