Ripple requests deadline extension, citing voluminous SEC document demands
Ripple and SEC legal saga drags on with new document production twist.
Ripple has requested an extension until Feb. 20 to provide the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with the essential financial documents the court approved.
“Ripple requests this extension because, absent a brief extension of the current deadline, Ripple would have just one week in which to produce responses to discovery requests that seek a large volume of documents and cover the entire post-complaint period,” the firm said.
According to a Feb. 6 court filing shared on the social media platform X by pro-crypto lawyer James Filan, the company revealed its intention to comply with Judge Sarah Netburn’s ruling but requires additional time to gather and provide contracts related to XRP sales to institutional buyers, hedge funds, and ODL customers over a three-year period.
“Ripple intends to produce available financial statements and serve a response to the SEC’s interrogatory about post-complaint proceeds from pre-complaint contracts by the current fact discovery deadline of February 12, 2024,” Ripple lawyers added.
This request comes amidst the ongoing disputes between Ripple and the SEC regarding the relevance of post-complaint discovery documents. Earlier, the SEC sought a court order compelling Ripple to submit financial documents to determine suitable penalties or remedies. Ripple initially rebuffed this request, deeming it irrelevant.
However, following a legal back-and-forth, the court ruled in favor of the SEC on Feb. 5, prompting Ripple’s current endeavor to comply.
Ripple and the SEC have been enmeshed in long-drawn legal battles over the past four years. The crypto company scored a pivotal victory last year when Judge Analisa Torres ruled that the programmatic sales of XRP, including sales on retail exchanges, were not securities offerings. The judge also ruled that institutional XRP sales were unregistered securities offerings.
Meanwhile, this ongoing legal tussle seems to have negatively affected the performance of the XRP token this year. Currently, the digital asset has seen a downward trajectory, with its price down by approximately 20% year-to-date to around $0.50, according to data from CryptoSlate.