Ripple's Chief Legal Officer Reveals Sec's 2020 Offer

According to Stuart Alderoty, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) demanded in 2020 that Ripple acknowledge XRP as a security and provided a short period for compliance.

Ripple's Chief Legal Officer, Stuart Alderoty, revealed that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) presented a settlement offer to Ripple in December 2020 before filing a lawsuit.

On the third anniversary of the lawsuit, Alderoty discussed the terms of the settlement proposed by the SEC. The Commission demanded that Ripple declare XRP as a security and provided a very short time for the markets to become compliant, but Ripple opposed this request.

On December 22, 2020, the SEC accused Ripple's co-founder Christian Larsen and CEO Brad Garlinghouse of a $1.3 billion unregistered securities sale.

According to Alderoty's statement, the SEC asked Ripple in 2020 to publicly declare that XRP is a security and provided a short time for compliance. Ripple argued that XRP is not a security and stated that the regulator fell short in creating a regulatory framework for crypto.

Alderoty expressed that the SEC did not provide clear rules for crypto compliance. Despite criticism from the industry, the SEC has not made progress on compliance even three years after the XRP case and targeted major crypto companies.

Alderoty stated that their aim with the lawsuit is to establish that XRP is not a security. However, crypto companies in the U.S. argue that the existing securities laws are not suitable for crypto assets. Judge Analisa Torres ruled in the summary judgment in July 2023 that XRP's retail transactions do not constitute a securities sale.