As the cryptocurrency community still awaits the judge’s final word in the protracted legal standoff between blockchain company Ripple and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the regulator has asked for an extension of several deadlines in the case.
Specifically, the SEC has requested a change to the remedies briefing deadlines, including the agency’s opening brief deadline to March 22, 2024, Ripple’s deadline for its opposition brief to April 22, 2024, and the SEC’s deadline to file its reply brief to May 6, 2024.
Should Judge Analisa Torres approve all of the suggested modifications to the pending deadlines, it would imply one-week to ten-day extensions for completing the briefs, as per the court documents shared by James K. Filan, a defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, in an X post on February 27.
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SEC’s reasoning for extension request
Explaining why the Judge should grant this request, the regulatory watchdog’s legal team highlighted it as the ‘good cause’ under the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure, as well as stressed the SEC’s diligence in “completing remedies-related discovery and briefing.”
On top of that, the request mentioned that Ripple, which had earlier received an extension for the initial discovery deadline from Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn, has consented to the SEC’s request, putting it in a favorable position of having nine additional days to file its opening brief.
As a reminder, the crypto industry is waiting for the final decision on the reparations that the blockchain company has to pay over its institutional sales of XRP after Judge Torres ruled in July 2023 that its retail trades did not constitute securities sales, unlike the sales to institutional buyers.
Earlier in February, Judge Netburn approved in full the SEC’s motion to compel Ripple to hand over its financial records, which include its 2022-2023 books, as well as the amount of proceeds and contracts on institutional XRP sales after the SEC’s complaint, as Finbold reported on February 6.
Meanwhile, XRP was at press time changing hands at the price of $0.591, recording an increase of 6.56% on the day, gaining 7.68% across the week, and adding up to the 13.09% advance on its monthly chart, according to the most recent data retrieved on February 28.
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