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Both the U.S. Stocks and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple Labs have asked a federal judge to rule swiftly on whether or not Ripple's XRP sales broke any rules governing U.S. securities.

Both Ripple and the SEC have requested a summary judgment in the U.S. District Court Southern District of New York in separate documents submitted on September 17.
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When a side believes there is sufficient evidence at hand to render a decision without going to trial, they can submit a summary judgment to the court.

Judge Analisa Torres has been urged by all sides to rule swiftly on whether Ripple's XRP sales were unlawful under US securities regulations. The SEC has steadfastly kept to its convictions that XRP sales qualify as a "investment contract," notwithstanding Ripple's claims to the contrary.

The SEC "isn't interested in applying the law," according to the filings, claimed Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse in a statement on Twitter on September 17.

He claimed that they were trying to expand their jurisdiction much beyond what Congress had authorized in an illegal attempt to remake everything.

Stuart Alderoty, general counsel at Ripple, stated that the SEC is "unable to identify any contract for investment" and "cannot satisfy a single prong of the Supreme Court Howey test" "despite two years of litigation," he added.

According to Ripple, the SEC's case "boils down to an impermissibly open-ended assertion of jurisdiction over any transfer of an asset," in its move for summary judgment.

The motion further contended that the SEC could not prove that holders of XRP tokens could not "reasonably expect gains" as a result of Ripple's efforts because no contractual obligations existed between Ripple and holders of XRP tokens.

In contrast, the SEC asserted in its own motion for summary judgment that a "investment contract" may exist without a contract, any rights provided to the buyer, and without any duties to the issuer.

In contrast, Ripple claimed in support of its motion that "that is not and should not be the law, because without these basic elements there is nothing to which the Howey test can reasonably be applied."

Instead, according to the Ripple motion, earnings were attributed to "market forces of supply and demand," something that the SEC "conceded."

U.S. Attorney Jeremy Hogan highlighted the importance of this admission in a post on Twitter on September 17 in which he wrote that "these concessions are great for a summary judgment."

Community reaction

The filing of the Ripple and SEC motions brought about mostly positive sentiment from the XRP community, with one Twitter user believing “the end is near”:

The SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple, former CEO Christian Larsen, and current CEO Brad Garlinghouse in December 2020 for allegedly raising $1.3 billion through unregistered securities sales using XRP. Now, nearly two years later, the companies have filed a petition for summary judgment.

If the court upholds the summary judgment, the decision will significantly affect the determination of whether cryptocurrencies fall under the purview of securities under U.S. securities regulations.

Following the motion filing, the price of the XRP coin increased to levels last seen in July, over $0.40, but has since dropped slightly and is now trading at $0.34, according to CoinGecko.

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