According to sources close to the development, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is on the verge of ending its long-running case against Ripple.
On Mar. 12, former FOX Business journalist Eleanor Terrett said the SEC vs. Ripple case was “in the process of wrapping up.” The regulator sued Ripple Labs, the company behind the XRP (XRP) cryptocurrency in 2020.
It’s a landmark case that set into motion what has become one of the longest running legal battles between the agency and a crypto company.
However, the regulator has recently ended multiple investigations and cases, including against Coinbase, Kraken, and Gemini. The speculation has been that it was likely a matter of “when and not if” in the case Ripple.
Notably, legal experts say the SEC’s play could be a fresh slate in cases not related to fraud.
Per Terrett’s sources, the delay in a final agreement between SEC and Ripple is down to the company’s legal team. According to reports, Ripple’s legal team wants the resolution to include “favorable terms” around the $125 million penalty the court imposed on the company in August 2024.
The bottleneck is also around the permanent injunction that prevents Ripple from selling its XRP holdings to institutional investors. Ripple lawyers argue that if SEC’s new leadership, which took over following Gary Gensler’s exit, views the ending of all cases, why then should Ripple be penalized?
“Accepting the Torres ruling as it stands would mean that Ripple is essentially agreeing to admit to wrongdoing,” sources quoted Ripple’s legal team.
Pro-crypto attorney James Murphy, better known as MetaLawMan, shared the theory about what’s causing the delay earlier this month.
Ripple has maintained no wrongdoing and sees the SEC’s case as a nasty attack that only helped drag the company, its token, and the market down. In July 2023, Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP was not a security.
The token’s price exploded at the time but remained constrained amid a SEC appeal.
However, in 2024, with Donald Trump winning the election and Gensler quitting, XRP went parabolic as it led broader market gains.