The settlement of the lawsuit between Ripple and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may lead to a sharp decrease in the supply of the XRP token on the market, according to lawyer Jeremy Hogan.
Cryptocurrency lawyer Jeremy Hogan predicts that the market could face an XRP supply shock if the San Francisco-based crypto startup settles a lawsuit with the SEC.
According to the lawyer, the settlement agreement is likely to include the payment of a fine that will be imposed on the company Ripple. At the same time, it will not pay compensation to the owners of the XRP token allegedly affected by its actions.
In addition, the agreement may contain a condition that will restrict the sale of XRP issued from escrow, which will reduce the supply of XRP in the market.
Recall that in 2017, Ripple blocked 55 billion XRP on its escrow accounts to ensure the stability of the token supply. For 4.5 years, the company promised to release 1 billion tokens a month.
Hogan notes that if Ripple reaches a settlement with the SEC, it would make it the first company in the crypto industry to fully align its actions with regulators.
SEC is trying to extend the pretrial investigation phase of the Ripple case by 60 days. The regulator believes that it needs additional time to study the testimony of the remaining 8 witnesses in the XRP case.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen filed a motion in court asking the SEC to investigate the activities of Bitfinex, Huobi Global, OKEx, Bitstamp and some other foreign trading platforms.
According to the defendants, the records obtained from foreign exchanges will prove that they did not violate the fifth section of the Securities Act of 1933, which prohibits the sale of unregistered securities in the United States. Ripple executives noted that the sales of XRP tokens were carried out on foreign exchanges, which means that they did not fall under the jurisdiction of the SEC.