If Ripple wins against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in its legal battle, a relisting of the XRP token on the largest American crypto exchange Coinbase will be one of the biggest stories within the XRP community. In a new interview, Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer (CLO) at Coinbase has now spoken in detail about the issue and explained what the process of a XRP relisting will look like.
Coinbase had suspended trading of XRP in January 2021, shortly after the SEC filed its case, and has since kept the token suspended despite vocal demands from the XRP community. In yesterday’s interview with Thinking Crypto host Tony Edward, Grewal expressed his optimism for a Ripple win, but also stressed that a relisting does not depend solely on the question of a victory at trial court.
Coinbase CLO Sees Strong Case In Favor Of Ripple
Grewal discussed that the US crypto exchange regularly evaluates assets for listing or delisting or pausing. He can also understand the frustration of the XRP community.
“I know that for many XRP holders it has been frustrating that they have not been able to trade their assets on Coinbase while this SEC case has been pending,” said Grewal, who went on to say that the SEC has not stopped Coinbase from carefully monitoring the status of the litigation.
Like everyone else, Grewal is eagerly awaiting a ruling, praising the work of Ripple’s lawyers in the highest terms: “I certainly paid attention to the fact that the defendants in this case have done a masterful job of pushing the SEC and raising serious questions about the SEC’s entire theory.”
This also prompted Coinbase to file an amicus brief in support of several of Ripple’s defenses. Ripple CLO Stuart Alderoty and the others at the fintech company have done an “incredible job,” according to Grewal, which is why he’s confident the court’s decision will be in Ripple’s favor.
We’ll see that the SEC theories have serious issues. I think the briefing in this case has been excellent and we are all going to find out soon what the trial judges think of the arguments.
However, the Coinbase CLO also stressed that in his opinion the decision of the Southern District Court of New York will only be the first step in a longer process. Grewal believes it is very likely that both sides in the case will appeal, regardless of who wins in court.
When Will XRP Be Relisted?
On a possible timeline of a relisting after the decision by the trial court, Grewal said that it depends on the grounds of the ruling, the judge’s legal reasoning and Coinbase’s assessment of whether or not the appeals court will uphold the decision.
“So a lot is going to depend on the particulars of that court rules. I know that’s not going to be terribly satisfying to some, but we do have a responsibility as a publicly listed company to tread carefully in this area and with respect to any token that’s a subject of federal court litigation,” Grewal said.
In conclusion, the Coinbase CLO assured that the exchange will immediately initiate the review process as soon as the ruling appears.
But I am very eager as anyone else to see how the court rules and what I can say, as soon as we have the ruling, we will put in our process to see if we need to revisit our listing decision.
At press time, the XRP price traded at $0.37, still maintaining its downtrend in the 1-day chart.
Featured image from Forkast News, chart from TradingView.com