In the latest update on the XRP lawsuit, Ripple has challenged the SEC’s letter requesting a two-month extension of the expert discovery period at the Court’s order. We previously reported that the SEC has requested the Court to extend the rebuttal report deadline to November 12, 2021 and the expert discovery deadline from November 12, 2021 to January 14, 2022. Now, although Ripple has agreed to extend the deadline for expert appeal reports to November 12, it has stated that expert discovery should not be extended beyond December 10. Ripple claimed that extending the expert discovery until January 2022 would create “extremely bias” against Ripple and continue to “freeze” XRP. Details are here.
XRP is bearish during the ongoing bull run
While other tokens are enjoying the ongoing bull run, XRP continues to decline due to litigation. Ripple suggested that the court should consider whether allowing further changes to the program at this stage of the litigation would harm the company. Ripple argues that with every additional day this lawsuit is pending, it is another day when the XRP markets remain “dull” and therefore “seriously biased” into Ripple’s business:
“The claim that the SEC’s proposed extension “will not harm Defendants in any material way” ignores the obvious. The suspension of this lawsuit has significantly damaged the XRP markets, especially in the United States. Ripple’s cross-border payment product is based on liquid XRP markets. Within days of filing its lawsuit, the SEC knows that nearly 20 exchanges in the United States have delisted XRP or suspended XRP trading, and more have followed suit since then, severely damaging the XRP market.”
SEC’s December 17 settlement revealed
Ripple also highlighted its hypocritical move in approaching the defendants for a settlement, which the SEC eventually accepted but offered a completely different move. The defense noted that the plaintiff’s initial proposal, made just three days before filing this petition, was to extend the expert discovery deadline to December 22. The SEC disagreed and suggested December 17. However, on the same day, the commission applied for the expert discovery to be extended to January 14, 2022, further stating to Ripple that the discovery could be completed by December 17, about a month ago.
Finally, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse also spoke about the SEC’s request for an extension in a recent interview with Fox News:
” […] In fact, they rushed to open the case. President Jay Clayton also left his post after the inauguration. Now they want to extend it. They wanted to extend the expedition to January. In fact, it is not generally seen that the litigant wants such a thing, but here the request came from them. We want judges to decide as quickly as possible. We don’t think we violated the securities law either.”