SEC seeks to seal information exposing expert witness identities in XRP lawsuit

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a motion seeking to seal portions of the filings that contain information identifying the SEC’s expert witnesses in its lawsuit against Ripple Labs.

See related article: SEC, Ripple take XRP lawsuit battle to media as well

Fast facts

• The SEC wrote in the motion on Friday that it is seeking to seal part of the information from Aug. 30 reply briefs in support of the SEC’s and Ripple’s previous motions to exclude SEC expert testimony.
• “The SEC’s proposed redactions are intended to protect the identities of the SEC experts,” the SEC said.
• In December 2020, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple alleging that its sale of XRP — the native coin of the XRP Ledger created by Ripple Labs — was an unregistered securities offering worth over US$1.38 billion. The SEC also named Ripple’s executive chairman Chris Larsen and CEO Brad Garlinghouse as co-defendants for allegedly aiding and abetting Ripple’s violations.
• On Thursday, the SEC and Ripple filed a joint letter to the court to propose specific schedules for redactions concerning sealing issues, a move that’s widely seen as an attempt from both parties to speed up the resolution of the lawsuit.
• XRP traded down 1.4% in the past 24 hours at US$0.3518 at 1:30 p.m. Hong Kong time, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

See related article: SEC files no objection to Ripple request to seal non-party identities in XRP lawsuit