The SEC says Ripple's $1.8 billion raised during it's ICO was raised illegally - and they want Ripple to give it back.

Ripple asks - why us, why now? As they compare their token with Bitcoin and Ethereum, which have already received the green light when the SEC publicly stated they are not a security.

Here's where it gets confusing...

The SEC argued that Ripple is indeed a security, as it was pre-mined and distributed among its executives before being publicly launched, while bitcoin and Ethereum were not.

Except...Ethereum was. They held an ICO, and sold pre-mined coins to investors during it.

Now, the SEC will be forced to release internal documents giving insight into how they decided to clear Bitcoin and Etherum...

Ripple took the SEC to court in order to find out how they decided in Ethereum's favor - and won.

The SEC has to release internal documents showing their methods of deciding what is and isn't a security, and once those documents are in hand, Ripple's lawyers believe they can use the SEC's prior decisions against them by saying if Ethereum isn't a security, neither are they.

The lawyers of Ripple Labs Inc. argue that for 8 years the SEC has not raised its voice in this regard, so now they must clarify what has led them to sue the executives of this company. Faced with this allegation, the SEC had recently responded that it was not its responsibility to notify in advance regarding potential infractions of the law.

Either way, today is a small win for Ripple that they hope will lead to a huge win around the corner. 

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Author: Mark Pippen
London News Desk / Breaking Crypto News

Ripple maintains a negative trend that has led to a loss of almost half of its price in the last 30 days, a disaster caused by a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit against the company that issues XRP.

There were a couple days with decent gains, but that just seemed to trigger new rounds of selloffs as worried investors who wish they got out earlier saw this as their chance to get out.

But generally speaking, the token has been declining since December when the public learned that the SEC was suing the company and its co-founders for selling XRP, which the government is considering an unregistered security.

Now as of today XRP has lost fourth place to Polkadot (DOT), whose market capitalization has exceeded $ 15 billion.

The day the news broke, the price of XRP was $0.48.

Today at the time of publishing, XRP is selling for $0.27

Their $25 Billion market cap now all the way down to $12 Billion.

But What If...

What if Ripple beats the lawsuit? Or better, it gets dropped as the new administration appoints new heads to the SEC and Justice Department.

Ripple has openly said they're even willing to settle right now.

Let's play devils advocate - imagine if someone were to stock up on XRP when it hits bottom, and then they win their lawsuit - you can bet that coin is going to shoot up like crazy and they're going to be pretty happy with their investment.

Of course, if the SEC takes this all the way and they lose in court, XRP will be worthless as the company would likely be finished. 

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Author: Justin Derbek
New York News Desk