Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced on Wednesday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the Trump administration has dismissed the appeal in the legal dispute with the blockchain payment firm, as covered by The Center Square. This caused a 11% price increase in Ripple’s associated cryptocurrency XRP, which is the third-largest by market cap, right after Bitcoin and Ether.
Garlinghouse shared the update in a video on X, saying, “Four years ago, the SEC filed its lawsuit against Ripple. I’m excited to report that that case is now finished, it’s over.” The SEC’s 2020 lawsuit, filed in San Francisco, alleged that Ripple had violated securities rules when it offered XRP without registering it. Ripple responded that the action was a form of regulatory capture, and that XRP was not a security and therefore outside the remit of the SEC’s jurisdiction.
A 2023 decision by a Southern District of New York judge went in Ripple’s favor and stated that XRP is “not inherently a security” according to CNBC. The Biden administration SEC had appealed that decision, but the Trump administration has since dropped it. “This case was wrong from the beginning,” said Garlinghouse. “It was the first shot in a broader war on crypto. Today is a victory, and a very lazy surrender by the SEC.”
