SEC to Drop Appeal of Ripple Ruling, Ending 4-Year Legal Fight, CEO Says

XRP jumped 10% on Wednesday throughout U.S. morning hours as Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse mentioned the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is about to drop its attraction towards Ripple, the corporate intently adjoining to XRP tokens

“This is it – the moment we’ve been waiting for. The SEC will drop its appeal,” Garlinghouse posted on X. “A resounding victory for Ripple, for crypto, every way you look at it.”

Reports final week claimed that the long-standing authorized battle between Ripple and the company was nearing its finish. The SEC filed a lawsuit towards Ripple in 2020 — throughout President Donald Trump’s first time period — alleging that the corporate raised $1.3 billion by way of unregistered securities gross sales of XRP tokens.

U.S. Judge Analisa Torres in 2023 dominated that whereas Ripple violated federal securities legislation with institutional gross sales, the programmatic gross sales of tokens to retail exchanges didn’t violate the legal guidelines, a ruling that many seen as a partial victory for Ripple. The choose handed a $125 million tremendous towards Ripple final August. The SEC filed a “notice of appeal” following the choice.

The SEC’s lawsuit towards the crypto firm, which Garlinghouse described because the “first major shot fired in the war on crypto” had resulted in $15 billion in losses for holders of XRP. Previous instances by the SEC had ended shortly, making this lawsuit towards Ripple a distinguished motion towards the crypto business.

After the departure of former SEC Chair Gary Gensler, the Commission has dropped a number of instances, together with its investigation into Coinbase. While Trump has nominated Paul Atkins to function the following chair, the Senate has not but scheduled a listening to for his affirmation.

Ripple and its executives donated closely in the course of the 2024 election, together with over $70 million to the Congress-focused Fairshake tremendous PAC and over $5 million to Trump’s inaugural fund.

The finish of this lawsuit additionally will increase possibilities for an XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF) to be accredited by the SEC. Several potential issuers, together with Grayscale, Bitwise and Franklin Templeton, have filed for such a fund in earlier months with ETF specialists at Bloomberg beforehand putting odds for an approval at 65-75% for the top of this 12 months. XRP was among the many property Trump mentioned could be half of a strategic U.S. crypto reserve.

The SEC declined to touch upon Garlinghouse’s assertion, although in different crypto instances, these issues have been agreed to at a workers degree earlier than ultimately being accredited by a vote of the fee.

Jesse Hamilton contributed reporting.

UPDATE (March 19, 2025, 13:42 UTC): Adds background and particulars on the authorized battle between SEC and Ripple.

UPDATE (March 19, 13:48 UTC): Adds particulars on a possible XRP ETF approval.

UPDATE (March 19, 14:20 UTC): Adds element about previous actions and SEC declining to remark.