According to the lawyers, the verdict on Ripple is going to have an impact on the lawsuits slammed on Binance and Coinbase.
In an interview with Cointelegraph, the lawyers representing Coinbase and Binance said Ripple’s case set the precedent for theirs. They said the judges presiding over their lawsuit are keeping a close eye on this one too.
All in the same boat
Like the two major exchanges, Ripple has been engaged in a legal battle with SEC. While the allegations are similar in both cases, the XRP litigation is going on since December 2020. All the sued parties have been accused of offering unregistered securities on their platform.
In the case of the other two, the lawsuits before filed on June 5 and 6. There are other crypto experts too who have pointed out the relatability of these separate cases. Popularly known as MetaLawMan on Twitter, Lawyer James Murphy said if Ripple gets the verdicts in its favor, it have the same effect on the lawsuits of Coinbase and Binance too.
On June 9, he explained his theory in a series of tweets while warning there are chances that Ripple’s judgment may not have any impact on exchanges too. Giving details about the antithesis, he said that this kind of impact is seen in decisions of the Court of Appeals and the supreme court only. Even if Judge Torres rules in favor of Ripple, it doesn’t ensure that the same thing would happen with Coinbase and Binance.
Opinion of experts
The pro-XRP lawyer John Deaton believes that SEC purposely filed the new cases ahead of the Ripple case result. According to him, the regulatory used the fresh cases as some sort of offsetting mechanism. They knew that if the judge ruled in favor of Ripple, they’ll still have two other cases to latch onto. He told Cointelegraph that Judge Torres’ verdict on Ripple will have an impact on the working of cryptos in the future.
Murphy believes that Judge Reardon, assigned to the Coinbase case will certainly make up his mind after seeing the judgment passed on XRP. And since the allegations are the same, it also makes sense. He says the first judgment will decide how the other two will be delivered and it would happen in both ways. So if the judgment goes in SEC’s favor in the first case, the remaining two may follow suit.
Another XRP supporter Billy Morgan said the same thing. According to his opinion, the Ripple case verdict will influence that of Binance and Coinbase to a large extent.
He also said it would be a remarkable judgment it could work as an advantage either for the industry or for the SEC based on the outcome.
Deaton even pointed out that when he saw SEC’s stance towards Ripple, he predicted that the regulations will take the same approach towards the two major exchanges too.
However, he also says that SEC will relinquish its hostile behavior toward crypto exchanges once the traditional finance giants start endorsing crypto.
He said that the day firms like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan start taking interest in this sphere, SEC will not be so fastidious about the crypto exchanges’ conduct then.
Conclusion
With the verdicts lined up one after another for the same allegations, speculations are going rife. Along with the involved parties, every crypto enthusiast is keeping their eyes on this judgment. And while the experts are being optimistic, it’s hard to tell on which side the ball is going to fall.
