Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, crypto lawyer Stephen Palley joins an emergency live show to unpack Thursday’s judgment in the Ripple case. Crypto markets are pumping after a judge handed Ripple Labs a partial victory in its fight against the SEC. But is the jubilation warranted? “I can understand why people are happy,” said Palley, a partner at Brown Rudnick LLP. “I’m just a little more cautious on what happens next.”

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights: 

• why Judge Analisa Torres ruled that retail sales of XRP do not violate U.S. securities laws
• how the court denied summary judgment on some issues relating to Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen
• why “Footnote 16” of the ruling was so “surprising,” according to Stephen
• whether the SEC will appeal the case and how that process could unfold
• why Coinbase, Kraken and other exchanges re-listed XRP and whether that’s a safe step
• whether Coinbase will cite the Ripple judgment in its lawsuit against the SEC 
• how this ruling does not represent a binding precedent
• why, even though this is a win for Ripple, it shouldn’t be used for investment strategy
• why Haseeb thinks the SEC should “fire their press department”
• whether the SEC’s case is “stronger than people on Twitter might like to believe”
• how, if proven, the allegations against Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky are “straight-up fraud” 
• why Stephen says that a lot of the enforcement activity focused on DeFi was an “absolute misuse of resources”

Hosts

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly 
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

Guest:

• Stephen Palley, litigation partner at Brown Rudnick

Disclosures

Links

• Previous coverage of Unchained on the Ripple case: 
• New Order in SEC vs. Ripple Over XRP Is a Win for Crypto: What Happens Now?
• The SEC's Lawsuit Against Ripple and 2 Execs: What You Need to Know 
• Ripple's XRP: Why Its Chances of Success Are Low
• Unchained: 
• SEC vs Ripple: Judge Rules XRP Sold on Exchanges Is Not a Security
• Former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky Arrested in New York - Unchained Crypto
• CoinDesk:
• Ripple, Crypto Industry Score Partial Win in SEC Court Fight Over XRP
• Ripple Labs Ruling Throws U.S. Crypto-Token Regulation into Disarray
• The Washington Post: Ripple ruling threatens SEC’s crypto regulation push

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