LumerB
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff disagrees with U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres, who ruled earlier this month that Ripple Labs’s XRP (XRP-USD) cryptocurrency isn’t a security when sold to the general public but is one in terms of institutional sales, Bloomberg reported Monday.
Rakoff, who is overseeing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s case against Terraform Labs and its founder Do Kwon, said there is no distinction between public and institutional sales.
Back to square one? While Rakoff’s decision doesn’t reverse Torres’s ruling, it certainly brings back uncertainty about the nature of digital assets. As such, in late afternoon trading, XRP (XRP-USD) slipped to as low as $0.69 from an intraday high of $0.72, though still up roughly 46% from a month ago.
The issue was raised by Rakoff in a decision that denied Kwon and Terraform’s motion to dismiss the SEC case, Bloomberg reported.
More on crypto and the regulatory clampdown:
SEC sues Richard Heart and his crypto projects alleging fraud
