Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse announces an end to SEC lawsuit after four years

Brad Garlinghouse, co-founder of Ripple, announced the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has finally withdrawn its lawsuit. After the process dragged on for four years, the case has finally closed, leaving Ripple and XRP free to trade and innovate. 

Brad Garlinghouse, co-founder of Ripple, announced the case of the US Securities and Exchange Commission against XRP will be dismissed. Despite multiple expectations of the lawsuit’s end, the process dragged on without an official resolution. Ripple was the last big lawsuit to await dismissal, while the SEC stopped its proceedings against Coinbase, Kraken, and OpenSea.

“I’m finally able to announce that this case has ended,” said Garlinghouse in a statement to the Ripple community. Garlinghouse commented the lawsuit against Ripple was “the first shot fired in the war against crypto,” though the case was doomed from the start. 

This is it – the moment we’ve been waiting for. The SEC will drop its appeal – a resounding victory for Ripple, for crypto, every way you look at it.

The future is bright. Let's build. pic.twitter.com/7WsD0C92Cm

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) March 19, 2025

The SEC went after Ripple for four years

The US SEC spent years deliberating whether the native XRP asset was an unregistered security. The case also set the pace for similar lawsuits against other token issuers. Dismissing the lawsuit may have implications for other similar cases, which have not yet been dismissed. 

Part of the final delay was considered an attempt to get more favorable conditions for the finalization of the lawsuit. One of the latest demands was for Ripple to pay a fine of $125M, which the company’s team was also contesting. 

“They weren’t out to protect investors, they were out to intimidate and terrorize,” said Garlinghouse in a comment on SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s approach to crypto projects. The lawsuit may have wiped up to $15B of value from token holders, despite lacking a real victim. 

Garlinghouse considers the lawsuit a type of lawfare, extending to debanking and overall crypto repression. Ripple won on every legal point, said Garlinghouse and XRP was not really a security. The war on crypto has ended in defeat for aggressive regulators, and Ripple is closing a chapter in crypto history, said Garlinghouse.

XRP was widely traded and held after a series of airdrops and early grants. Most buyers held since XRP was below a penny, with only a few buyers at peak prices above $3 from the 2017-2018 bull market. Ripple has also mostly kept its treasury allocation, with only partial selling despite bear markets. 

The ongoing lawsuit was the main factor keeping the price of XRP low and bound within a range at around $0.30 to $0.50. XRP was considered a dead network but retained its vocal community. The project’s team also continued to build tokenless decentralized technologies, while still fighting the US SEC. 

XRP breaks out after news of lawsuit resolution

The news of the imminent end of all litigation sent XRP higher as the crypto market staged an overall recovery. Open interest for XRP immediately rose from $1.4B to $1.7B, reflecting the readiness to trade the asset to a new price range. The sudden price move caused $10.54M in daily aggregated liquidations. A total of $9.64M in short liquidations happened on Bybit, as XRP bears were caught without warning. 

XRP rose by 7.5% within minutes, to trade at $2.55, expecting even more upside with the details of the final case resolution. The positive news may lead to a fresh attempt to rise above $3 or a new all-time high. Exchanges or brokerages can no longer blacklist XRP for its uncertain status as an unregistered security. 

XRP starts its next phase with a circulating supply of 58B tokens, with the remainder locked in various treasuries. XRP has burned over 13M tokens from its activity so far. The supply of 100B tokens will decrease with time, as the token is required to make payments for the chain’s usage. The next stage for XRP may include an ETF and use cases in RWA tokenization.

Despite years-long sideways trading, XPR achieved positive earnings for early investors. An investment of $10,000 from 2016 would be worth over $2.7M in current XPR prices, not counting any additional rallies.

Cryptopolitan Academy: Coming Soon - A New Way to Earn Passive Income with DeFi in 2025. Learn More