XRP Jumps as Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse Says SEC 'Case Has Ended'

Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in a video shared to his X account Wednesday that the SEC will drop its appeal in the lawsuit it's been pursuing against the firm for the past four years.

"I'm finally able to announce that this case has ended. It's over," Garlinghouse said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Today is a victory and [a] long overdue surrender from the SEC.”

Ripple, which uses XRP Ledger and the XRP cryptocurrency, got a partial ruling in its favor in 2023, but the SEC filed an appeal seeking to have that decision overturned.

A federal New York judge found that Ripple’s "programmatic sales” of XRP on a secondary market did not constitute securities transactions, while those made to institutional investors did.

Judge Rules Ripple Sales of XRP Were Not Securities—Except to Institutions

The federal judge presiding over Ripple Lab's case against the Securities and Exchange Commission has ruled that the XRP token "is not necessarily a security on its face"—except when it was sold to raise funds from institutions. Federal district judge Analisa Torres ruled that programmatic sales to public buyers and distributions of XRP to Ripple Labs employees did not constitute the sale of unregistered securities. The court did not address secondary market sales of XRP on cryptocurrency exchan...

To be clear, the SEC has not yet made an announcement that it will drop its appeal. At the time of writing, the XRP price has climbed as high as 14% to $2.55, according to CoinGecko data.

A Ripple spokesperson confirmed to Decrypt that the SEC’s decision is “subject to Commission vote and approval.” It may take “several weeks” for the case to be officially withdrawn, they said, adding: “That timeline is completely in the SEC's control.”

The SEC declined to comment when asked for details about the Ripple lawsuit by Decrypt.

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A federal New York court ordered Ripple to pay a $125 million fine for XRP sales to institutions in August. The penalty was far below the agency’s $2 billion request, and it’s unclear how the SEC dropping its appeal could impact the decision in the Southern District of New York.

The SEC’s legal about-face was widely expected.

Since SEC Acting Chair Mark Uyeda took over, the regulator has retreated from several enforcement actions, including its cases against the crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken.

If the SEC had been successful in its Ripple case, it could have had wide reaching impact on which cryptocurrencies should be classified as securities versus commodities.

Ripple Labs Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty told Decrypt in October, before President Donald Trump’s reelection, that the SEC’s appeal “will backfire.”

While he believed the Second Circuit Court of Appeals would grant a favorable decision for the firm, he also noted that the SEC “can withdraw their appeal anytime they want.”

Editor's note: This story was updated to include a comment from a Ripple Labs spokesperson.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.