US Judge grants Ripple access to Binance’s records in the SEC case

US Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn has ruled in favour of FinTech firm Ripple once again in its ongoing securities case against the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). A report unveiled this news earlier today, citing court documents. Reportedly, Judge Netburn granted Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse’s motion to discover international records of leading crypto exchange Binance.

According to the report, Judge Netburn approved this motion on August 3 after rejecting a duplicate motion the previous day. Her ruling read,

Her ruling came after Garlinghouse’s legal team requested the information, saying the executive seeks the foreign discovery of Binance’s records because he believes the exchange holds unique documents and information relevant to the case. The legal team further noted that such information will help shed light on the XRP transactions that Garlinghouse executed on international crypto trading platforms.

A losing battle for the SEC?

With this motion granted, Garlinghouse and his legal team seek to counter the SEC’s allegations that he sold more than 357 million XRP tokens to investors across the globe through various trading platforms.

By saying Garlinghouse sold the tokens worldwide, the SEC is betting on the chances that some of these tokens ended up in the US. By obtaining information contrary to this allegation, Garlinghouse will be a step closer to beating the SEC in its case. This is because Section Five of the Securities Act of 1933 only applies domestically. As such, the SEC’s allegations would be baseless if Binance’s records show US investors did not buy the tokens.

Garlinghouse’s defence team added,

Meanwhile, the number of people following this case is expanding rapidly, with industry experts saying that it could have a lasting impact on the crypto sector. To date, the SEC has only proved that it is trying to rein in the nascent industry with rules formulated during the Great Depression. As such, crypto experts believe that the outcome of this case might finally push watchdogs to create regulations to oversee the crypto space.