Ripple's long legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may be wrapped in the company's favor, but newly released documents show how deep the agency is concerned about the future of the XRP.
According to a fresh batch of files obtained through a request to Coinbase's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), SEC officials are actively debating the stability and classification of security of various crypto assets back in 2021. Among them, the XRP is too much on their radar.
As the block reported, in an internal email, SEC officials asked what could happen if Ripple, the company behind the XRP, suddenly “walked” or “disappeared.” The agency appeared to be concerned about what risks that could arise for the XRP blockchain in such a scenario-a rare rear behind the scenes in how regulators view crypto projects under pressure.
At this time, the SEC has kicked a major lawsuit against Ripple, who has accused it of running illegally by selling XRP as an unregistered security. While Ripple has since emerged from that conflict – even the contemplation of some of the penalties he had previously paid for – newly covered emails show how uncertain regulators are about decentralization and stability of the XRP network itself.
The revelations came in the middle of a broader series of disclosure this week from Coinbase, published twelve communications in the SEC related to crypto administration as part of its own constant legal stance with the agency.
This is not the first time that SEC consultations in crypto assets have taken titles. The same Dump document revealed how, in 2023, the New York State's general attorney formally requested that the SEC declare Ethereum's Ether (ETH) a security – a request that was ultimately ignored.
