Coinbase said that it is poised for victory against the Securities and Exchange Commission after a US judge delivered a landmark judgment that said that the Ripple token is not a security.

Buoyed by the judgment delivered on Thursday, July 13, Paul Grewal, chief legal officer at Coinbase, told CNBC that the company’s argument against the SEC has been strengthened. Grewal specifically said that the Coinbase team is confident of victory.

He said that he was confident of victory against the SEC even before the Ripple Labs judgment, adding that the judgment has further strengthened his belief that Coinbase will win the lawsuit filed against the company by the regulator in June.

A blow to an idea

“For exchanges, for tokens that are listed on exchanges, and for regular investors, there’s no question that this ruling strikes a blow to the idea that somehow securities are being traded when people go onto exchanges and trade the assets,” Grewal said.

The SEC sued Ripple in 2020, charging the company with selling unregistered securities. The Thursday ruling said that the only part of Ripple’s business that breached US securities law was Ripple’s dealings with sophisticated investors.

The SEC has always maintained that most cryptocurrencies are securities. The Thursday ruling effectively removed the wind from their sails.