Former SEC Insider Says Regulator Has ‘A Lot Riding’ on Case Against Ripple

Former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) executive Joseph Hall says he’s “perplexed” by the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple.

The regulator sued the San Francisco-based payments company in December of 2020 for allegedly issuing XRP as an unregistered security and claims XRP remains an unregistered security to this day.

In a new interview with the Thinking Crypto podcast, Hall says that he’s “sympathetic” to Ripple’s “fair notice defense.”

“I’m very sympathetic to that argument. It’s a basic due process argument. The Ripple network was operating for years before the last-minute filing of a lawsuit against them.”

Hall worked for the SEC from 2003-2005, concluding his time at the Commission as managing executive for policy, he’s now a partner at the law firm Davis Polk.

The lawyer says the SEC has a lot riding on the Ripple case, whose mission is to protect investors.

“Their entire regulatory project could be basically shut down if they lose on the merits here. And I continue to think there’s a pretty good chance that they will lose on the merits.” 

He predicts that there will be appeals on the case “no matter what happens at the district court level.”

“I wouldn’t be banking on a tidy resolution of this case over the course of this year. Settlement is always a possibility. That could happen out of the blue, but from an outsider’s perspective, which is all I have on it, both sides seem to pretty dug into it right now.”

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