Coinbase officially enters the fray in XRP lawsuit to support Ripple against SEC

U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has officially submitted its amicus brief to support Ripple Labs Inc. in the lawsuit the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed in 2020 against Ripple.

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Fast facts

• Coinbase, which claimed to be the largest crypto trading platform in the U.S. by trading volume, filed the brief on Monday in support of Ripple’s fair notice defense.

• “In order to ensure the existing due process precedents on which the fair notice defense rests continue to safeguard against improper regulatory enforcement when needed, the Court should deny the SEC’s motion for summary judgment on this issue,” Coinbase wrote in the filing.

• Coinbase said that government agencies cannot condemn conduct as a violation of law without providing fair notice, but “by suing sellers of XRP tokens after making public statements signaling that those transactions were lawful, the SEC has lost sight of this bedrock principle.”

• In December 2020, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple and its executives, alleging the sale of XRP constituted an offering of unregistered securities worth over US$1.38 billion.

• An amicus brief is typically submitted by an individual or organization that is not a party to a case but intended to influence the court’s decision.

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