The long-awaited verdict in the Ripple vs SEC lawsuit has come as a relief to XRP holders, Ripple, and potentially Coinbase as well. Judge Analisa Torres has dismissed the key ‘fair notice defense’ claim of the SEC, which was one of Ripple’s primary defenses against the SEC’s allegations.
While Ripple and XRP holders celebrate this victory, XRP attorney John Deaton believes that Coinbase too stands to benefit from this judgment. Deaton, who represented 75,000 XRP holders in the lawsuit, took to Twitter to say that Coinbase is the “only other winner” than Ripple and XRP holders.
Coinbase delisted XRP due to SEC lawsuit
Coinbase delisted XRP in January 2021 after the SEC sued Ripple, alleging that XRP was an unregistered security. Most other major crypto exchanges in the U.S, including Kraken, Binance.US, and eToro, followed suit by delisting or suspending XRP trading.
This led to a huge uproar within the XRP community, calling for the relisting of XRP on these platforms. Many argued that XRP trades on exchanges should not be considered security sales since exchanges merely provide a platform for peer-to-peer transactions.
Judge’s ruling implies XRP sold on exchanges were not securities
Deaton reiterated this view in his tweet, saying “The only other winner than the token XRP and Ripple is Coinbase! XRP sold on exchanges is NOT the sale of securities.”
He suggests that Judge Torres’ judgement – which does not consider XRP as a security – essentially implies that XRP sold on exchanges like Coinbase were also not securities.
This potentially opens the doors for Coinbase and other crypto exchanges to relist XRP, now that there is more regulatory clarity around its status. It remains to be seen if Coinbase will actually relist XRP in the near future. But for now, Deaton believes Coinbase stands to benefit from this outcome of the lawsuit.
