In its battle to preserve XRP, Ripple brings Ether on board

Ripple denies the security status for XRP and believes the token is akin to Ether. To demonstrate this, the firm requires all the elements that established that ETH was not a title.

Eight years after the issuance of the first XRP tokens, Ripple must battle with the US stock market policeman. The SEC accuses him of the illegal sale in 2013 of financial securities. Clearly, XRP would be a security.

For its CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, the SEC move is nothing less than an "attack on the entire crypto industry." And in its defense, Ripple involuntarily involves a large part of this industry.

Is Ether Really So Different from XRP?

The company believes that XRP is akin to Bitcoin and more so to Ether. However, this latest cryptocurrency, which was also the subject of a pre-sale, was not attacked by the SEC.

Why ? On the basis of what legal arguments? This is what Ripple is trying to find out. In a 93-page document, the XRP issuer therefore presents its line of defense. But he's also asking for SEC documents.

Ripple relies on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for this. And this request relates more specifically to Ether, the Ethereum foundation and the main players in its ecosystem. Ripple suspects the SEC of favoritism.

“The SEC has clearly picked two winners and ignored a growing and robust industry that is much bigger than Bitcoin and Ether,” a spokesperson for the firm told Cointelegraph.

SEC must justify its decision on crypto

And as such, Ripple wants more information on how the regulator determined the status of Ether, which is therefore outside of its authority. The journey of ETH was not easy indeed.

The pre-sale of the token could then have been part of the securities offer. However, given its sufficient decentralization, cryptocurrency belongs to the category of commodities. Its regulation places it under the authority of the CFTC, not the SEC.

For Ripple, however, this decision needs to be clarified. In its application, the company therefore requires "all communications with the Ethereum Foundation and / or other companies". But that's not all. The FOIA request also includes all internal SEC documentation.

It is the legitimacy of the ETH ruling that Ripple is attacking to bolster its defense for XRP. And he is not sure that this strategy is winning him any favors in the crypto industry. Especially since the company is also insisting on Chinese miners' alleged control over Bitcoin and Ether.