Ripple Says SEC Drops Long-Running Lawsuit

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is set to drop its lawsuit against Ripple, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said on X, ending a landmark enforcement case by the regulator.

The lawsuit, filed in December 2020 at the tail end of the first Trump administration, was the first major case by the SEC against a crypto company. The agency claimed that Ripple violated law when it raised funding by selling XRP tokens without registering it as a security.

Ripple won a partial victory in 2023 when U.S. Judge Analisa Torres ruled the sales of XRP tokens on retail exchanges didn’t violate the law, though direct sales to institutional investors did. The SEC will no longer appeal the ruling, Garlinghouse said.

XRP token jumped 13% today after the news. The SEC has also dropped its lawsuits against Coinbase, Kraken and other firms. Ripple is a major donor to pro-crypto congressional candidates, and Garlinghouse has met with Trump following the election.