TL;DR

• Ripple’s legal saga with the SEC continues, with a recent filing from Justin W. Keener sparking further intrigue.

• Some predict that a resolution of the latest dispute could trigger a rally for XRP, but this remains quite uncertain. 

Confronting on This Front

The lengthy lawsuit between Ripple and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seemingly reached its official conclusion last month when the agency dropped its appeal against the firm. 

However, sporadic developments on the case continue to pop up. Several days ago, popular journalist Eleanor Terrett informed about “an odd” filing in the Ripple v SEC docket. The court document, coming from a person called Justin W. Keener, represents “an emergency request” to Judge Analisa Torres to “present decisive evidence in favor of the defendants and in favor of liberty for the American people.”

The filing didn’t specify how the evidence helps Ripple, but it hints at a link to physical investment contracts he has been gathering. Meanwhile, the SEC recently sued Keener for acting as an unregistered penny stock dealer, and the court ordered him to pay $10 million in penalties.

Most recently, Terrett revealed that the Commission filed an opposition to that “emergency request.” The agency is against the motion due to three main reasons.

First, it claimed that the District Court lacked jurisdiction over the request as the lawsuit had already moved to the Second Circuit. Second, it argued that Keener did not file a proper motion to intervene. Lastly, it labeled the filing as “unnecessary” because “Ripple is competent enough to decide on its own whether the evidence in question could help its case.”

“For those reasons, the SEC is asking Judge Torres to deny the request entirely,” Terrett’s statement concludes.

XRP’ Big Move‘ on the Way?

The latest on the Ripple v. SEC front garnered the attention of many industry participants, with some predicting that a court denial of the agency’s request could cause a price rally for XRP.

However, the major developments in the legal tussle have already occurred, and the event seems priced in. The Ripple community now awaits the potential approval of a spot XRP ETF in America or a renewed bull run for the cryptocurrency market, which are more likely to trigger an upswing for the underlying token.

As of this writing, the coin’s price hovers at around $1.80 (per CoinGecko’s data), representing a whopping 47% decline compared to the local top of almost $3.40 in mid-January.