Ripple’s General Counsel Stuart Alderoty Calls the SEC a Bully

Stuart Alderoty, Ripple’s general counsel, stated that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is bullying the crypto markets by filing unproven allegations masquerading as regulation.

Linking his latest opinion piece that explores the SEC’s focus on enforcement rather than regulation, Alderoty accuses the SEC of not providing the clarity companies require through proper rule-making. Instead, the legal expert claims that SEC is more concerned with threatening legal implications for the actions that companies have taken in the absence of proper regulations.

Alderoty also details the events of a House Financial Services Subcommittee oversight hearing held last week. Despite the policy of not discussing ongoing enforcement cases, Subcommittee Chairman Representative Brad Sherman took the liberty to discuss the SEC vs. Ripple case.

Just last week, Fox Business Network brought forth the news that Congressman Sherman believed the SEC would easily win its case against Ripple. The congressman also added that he has been in contact with SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. But when Ripple’s Attorney brought up the legality of disclosing evidence, the Congressman backtracked and blamed Fox for the miscommunication.

An excerpt from Alderoty’s article reads:

This is all precisely why Congress needs to fix this mess and provide a comprehensive legislative framework for crypto. Two bipartisan proposals (the Digital Commodity Exchange Act and the Responsible Financial Innovation Act) that seek to define the line between securities and commodities in the digital asset space are a good start.

A brief recap: in 2020, SEC sued Ripple Labs for issuing and selling unlicensed securities, XRP tokens, to the public. SEC and Ripple have been embroiled in a legal battle ever since, with new twists and turns to the case every few days.