After federal court win, Ripple’s legal head still expects the battle for regulatory clarity to drag on

It’s been almost two weeks since a federal court ruling settled a years-long battle between Ripple Labs and the SEC over the nature of Ripple’s XRP token. Southern District of New York judge Analisa Torres ruled that the XRP token is not a security when sold to the general public, but it can be treated as a security for past XRP sales to institutional clients.

The verdict was a “win” for both the company and the crypto community alike, but Stu Alderoty, chief legal officer of Ripple Labs, hinted on TechCrunch’s Chain Reaction podcast that the search for regulatory clarity is far from over.

The SEC said after the ruling that the verdict in favor of Ripple on secondary markets sales was “wrongly decided” and the court “should not follow them.” The statement was mentioned in legal documents for a separate case against Terraform Labs, and the agency said it’s considering other available avenues for further review.

But Ripple won’t shy away from the SEC’s likely appeal, Alderoty said. “We think the judge got that right, and we think that was a faithful application of the law, and I think a court of appeals will not only affirm that but maybe even amplify that to even a greater extent.”