Ripple Seeks Evidence of SEC Employees Trading XRP

The latest chapter of the Ripple vs. SEC saga was written last week when Ripple filed a petition to force the SEC to provide evidence detailing the trading behaviour of its employees as it pertains to BTC, ETH, and XRP. Ripple wants to know if SEC employees were actively holding or trading XRP. The letter additionally acknowledged that the defendant had already sought to obtain the anonymized trading records four times from the SEC and made no progress.

The Significance

As per the defendant&39s legal counsel, Ripple wishes to learn about the SEC&39s trading regulations regarding regulating digital assets, as well as if the agency permitted its personnel to trade XRP. The court approved Ripple&39s request to force the SEC to submit such documents back in June.

Moreover, the regulator accordingly issued a guideline titled "Ethics Guidance Regarding Digital Assets" at the start of 2018. It demonstrated that, up until January 2018, the agency had not prohibited its employees from dealing in cryptocurrencies. This, according to Ripple, is congruent with the SEC&39s stance that digital assets would generally not be viewed as securities, and so the entire lawsuit, integrity and credibility are hence called into question.

Judge Netburn Goes Back and Forth

Judge Sarah Netburn has concurred with XRP&39s legal team and will make a decisive ruling on deliberative process protocols on September 28th.

Netburn&39s judgment came at the end of a recent phone call, which intended to make progress and move past a disagreement over Ripple&39s petition for &39fair use&39 access to confidential SEC information and documentation. Judge Netburn will now take part in an on-camera study of the internal papers without the presence of Ripple&39s legal team in an attempt to determine if the SEC crossed a line in terms of deliberative process procedures.

However, Judge Sarah Netburn has also recently ordered Ripple to turn over a million internal staff Slack-based messages, possibly in an effort to be as impartial and unbiased as possible. The decision came after the SEC filed a request this past August to seek access to the messages, which are also measured in terabytes.

The abovementioned messages involve conversations about Ripple&39s goals of creating speculative trading via XRP, as well as the impact of Ripple announcements, efforts, and various concerns about XRP&39s price. The SEC is also interested in the connection and overall significance of XRP sales regarding Ripple&39s business activities, in addition to XRP&39s regulatory status.