Transcript Ep. 520: Why the SEC vs. Ripple Order Is Now About 2 Things: Coinbase and Congress

Laura Shin:

Hi everyone, welcome to Unchained, your no-hype resource for all things crypto. I'm your host Laura Shin, author of The Cryptopians. I started covering crypto 8 years ago and as the senior editor of Forbes was the first mainstream media reporter to cover cryptocurrency full-time. This is the July 18th, 2023 episode of Unchained.

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Today's topic is the order in the SEC versus Ripple case that has the industry celebrating. Here to discuss are Jake Chervinsky, Chief Policy Officer at the Blockchain Association, and Kayvan Sadeghi, partner at Jenner & Block and co-chair of the Fintech and Crypto Assets Practice. Welcome Jake and Kayvan.

Jake Chervinsky:

Hey Laura.

Kayvan Sadeghi:

Hi, great to be here. Thanks.

Laura Shin:

In December 2020, the SEC sued Ripple Labs and two executives, Chris Larsen and Brad Garlinghouse, with raising over $1.3 billion in an ongoing unregistered securities offering. Last Thursday, Judge Analisa Torres in the Southern District of New York ruled that sales of XRP to institutional investors qualified as unregistered securities offerings, but that what she calls programmatic sales, which were happening on crypto exchanges, did not qualify. What are your top takeaways from the order? And why don't we start with you, Jake.