Blockworks Features Andrew St. Laurent’s Insights on Landmark SEC v. Ripple Ruling
August 10, 2023
Blockworks has published an article by Andrew St. Laurent about the ramifications of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY)’s SEC v. Ripple ruling. This piece follows several Bloomberg and Bloomberg Law articles featuring St. Laurent’s insights on the same decision.
In his piece, “The XRP ruling is no knockout punch against the SEC,” St. Laurent writes that while SDNY Judge Analisa Torres’s decision is a “huge step forward” for the cryptocurrency sector, it’s not the outright victory many in the industry claim it to be.
While Judge Torres found that global payments company Ripple Labs had not sold unregistered securities when selling its native XRP tokens to everyday crypto traders, she did hold that the company violated securities laws in how it marketed and sold XRP tokens to institutional investors. In his article, St. Laurent notes the judge arrived at this conclusion because institutional investors relied on Ripple’s purchase contracts, marketing materials and communications regarding Ripple’s role in creating value in XRP. To the contrary, crypto traders would not have known if they had purchased their tokens from Ripple Labs based on how digital exchanges operate.
St. Laurent writes that based on the decision, cryptocurrency companies should closely analyze how they market their offerings to different audiences — as well as ensure the contracts, purchase agreements, marketing materials and communications they present to sophisticated investors do not violate securities laws.
He notes, “At this stage, the SEC could — and likely will — request the Second Circuit to revisit Judge Torres’ decision. While not delivering everything the crypto industry had hoped for, the decision in Ripple does provide a road map out of the current legal uncertainty bedeviling the crypto industry.”
St. Laurent was part of the legal team defending former Coinbase product manager Ishan Wahi in SEC v. Wahi, which was among the first SEC actions to claim cryptocurrencies as securities. He is a first-chair trial lawyer who has tried more than 20 cases to verdict, from federal jury trials to FINRA, AAA and JAMS arbitrations, as well as numerous New York State court bench and jury trials. He regularly represents individuals and companies in criminal and regulatory matters. St. Laurent has been recognized as a Super Lawyer for ten years, from 2013-2022, and has been featured in numerous publications as a contributor. He is Chambers-ranked, as is Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler LLP, for white-collar criminal defense and government investigations in New York.