Former SEC Official Predicts ‘Big Win’ for SEC in Terra Lawsuit — Expects Continued Rejection of Ripple/XRP Ruling

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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s former head of internet enforcement has predicted a “big win” for the SEC in the lawsuit involving Terraform Labs. The ex-SEC official also expects District Judge Jed Rakoff to keep rejecting the ruling by District Judge Analisa Torres regarding Ripple and XRP.

Stark: ‘Expect a Big Win for the SEC’

Former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official John Reed Stark shared some predictions regarding the regulator’s actions against crypto firms in a lengthy post on social media platform X on Monday. Stark is currently president of cybersecurity firm John Reed Stark Consulting. He founded and served as chief of the SEC Office of Internet Enforcement for 11 years. He was also an SEC enforcement attorney for 15 years.

The former SEC official wrote:

Prediction: Expect a big win for the SEC in the SEC/Terra litigation and a gracious (yet scathing) rebuke of the recent SEC/Ripple decision.

Stark noted that both the SEC and Terraform Labs “have now filed dueling summary judgment motions, each seeking an early victory about whether crypto tokens are securities.”

In the SEC lawsuit against Terraform Labs and its co-founder Do Kwon, Judge Jed Rakoff of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) rejected District Judge Analisa Torres’ ruling regarding Ripple and XRP. “The court rejects the approach recently adopted by another judge of this district in a similar case, SEC v. Ripple Labs Inc.,” Judge Rakoff said in August.

The former SEC internet enforcement chief continued:

My take is that famed securities law expert Judge Jed Rakoff, who is presiding over the SEC/Terra matter, is chomping at the bit to (politely) label the Ripple decision by fellow SDNY Judge Analisa Torres as both aberration and abhorration.

Stark believes that for SEC lawyers, Judge Rakoff is “arguably considered the most respected and experienced securities law jurist not only in the SDNY but perhaps in the entire U.S. federal court system.” The ex-SEC internet enforcement chief concluded:

The stark reality is that Judge Rakoff already repudiated and spurned Judge Torres’s decision and it seems inevitable that he will do so again, not just at the summary judgment phase, but also anytime in the future when addressing the application of securities laws to digital assets.

What do you think about the predictions by former SEC internet enforcement chief John Reed Stark? Let us know in the comments section below.