XRP lawsuit: SEC seeks extension of rebuttal report, discovery deadline

Ripple vs the United States Securities and Exchange Commission case may just get extended as the latter requested the Court to extend the expert rebuttal report deadline to 12 November. Meanwhile, the regulators have also appealed to push the discovery deadline to 14 January.

According to the filing provided by CryptoLawUS, the plaintiffs noted that extension will grant both the parties sufficient time to prepare rebuttal reports and depose a minimum of 14 expert witnesses. However, Ripple doesn’t fully agree to the SEC’s plea.

As per the filing,

“Ripple consents to an extension of the rebuttal report deadline until November 12, but opposes the January 14 deposition deadline, as set forth below.”

While Ripple agreed with the extension of the rebuttal report deadline, it did not agree to extend the deposition deadline. Following which the SEC proposed another deadline of 22 December, but the firm did not agree to it either. In fact, Ripple was filing an opposition for the same on 18 October.

As per the filing Ripple claimed,

“[…] extending the expert discovery schedule beyond December 10, 2021—a date Ripple claims would provide sufficient time for the parties to complete a minimum of 14 expert depositions in 18 business days, given the Thanksgiving holiday—“would likely impact the briefing schedule for summary judgment motion[s].”

However, the SEC disagrees that 14-days were enough to conduct the deposition of 14 experts while maintaining its stance that the extension will “not affect any other deadlines in this case.” The SEC pointed at the delay from Ripple’s end in the production of responsive documents and has not offered a set date to complete the same.

While Ripple’s opposition could also be due to the ongoing action in the spot market and the ongoing lawsuit potentially thwarting the value of XRP. Nevertheless, the SEC’s concerns lie with the status of XRP and if it convinces the Court to extend both the deadlines, we may see some impact in the XRP market if the rally continued.