Famous wealth advisor Mickle says Judge Torres’ decision concerning the secondary market trading of XRP does not establish a binding precedent for other courts to follow.

Mickle made the assertion while reacting to a comment from famous crypto YouTuber Wendy O, who acknowledged the importance of XRP’s non-security status in the secondary market. According to Wendy O, this classification is important to the broader crypto and NFT (non-fungible token) industry.

The comment suggests that the classification could impact how other digital assets could be treated.

The Issue

Reacting to the development, Mickle said the only problem with the “ruling” is that it came from a district court. According to him, any ruling issued in a district court cannot set a binding precedent.

He suggested that if the SEC appeals the ruling and loses the case against Ripple in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, it will automatically become binding on other courts.

The expert added that this potential outcome could deter the SEC from appealing the Ripple case, as it could impact the regulator’s future cases against other crypto-related entities.

SEC Cannot Appeal Secondary Market Sales of XRP

Mickle’s speculation on the matter triggered reactions from XRP proponents, including top lawyer Bill Morgan. In a tweet yesterday, the top lawyer emphasized that Judge Torres did not issue a decision regarding the secondary market sales of XRP; hence, the SEC cannot appeal the ruling.

He asserted that the judge only addressed programmatic sales of XRP conducted on digital exchanges by the issuer, Ripple. This indicates that the SEC cannot appeal the overall secondary market sales of XRP since the judge did not issue any decision on the matter.

It bears mentioning that the SEC case revolves around Ripple’s sales of XRP. As a result, the judge limited her decision to the facts of this fact. The judge declared that Ripple’s programmatic sales and other distributions of XRP were not securities transactions. However, she held that Ripple violated the law through its past institutional sales of XRP.

Court Cites Ripple Decision

Although the verdict was issued by a New York District Judge, other district courts have cited the ruling as precedent.

As reported earlier, Judge Amy Jackson, the ruling judge in the SEC v. Binance lawsuit, leveraged Judge Torres’ programmatic sales decision to discard the regulator’s claim about secondary market sales of BNB.