Breaking: XRP soars upon announcement that SEC will drop its appeal against Ripple

• Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced that the SEC will drop its appeal against Ripple.
• The victory follows rumors of Ripple's lawyers negotiating more favorable terms than the company got in Judge Torres' ruling last August.
• XRP is up 12% following the announcement.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced on Wednesday that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has dropped its appeal against the company.

This marks the conclusion to over a four-year battle that dates back to December 2020 when the SEC sued Ripple for allegedly selling XRP as an unregistered security and raising $1.3 billion.

"Today, this journey finally concludes. Today is a victory, and a long overdue surrender by the SEC," noted Garlinghouse.

With the SEC's case against Ripple now over, most crypto community members anticipate that the agency could approve XRP ETF filings from prospective issuers including Canary Capital, CoinShares, Franklin Templeton, WisdomTree, 21Shares and Bitwise.

SEC vs Ripple case background

In July 2023, Judge Analisa Torres ruled at the district court that sales of XRP to retailers do not constitute security but penalized the company for XRP sales to institutions.

In August 2024, Judge Torres slapped Ripple with a $125 million fine — far below the SEC's push for $1.9 billion — and imposed an injunction against further securities law violations.

The SEC appealed the ruling in January 2025, arguing that XRP sales to retail investors constituted securities, among other issues.

Ripple filed a request on January 24 to submit a cross-appeal brief against the SEC.

"With the SEC dropping its appeal, Ripple is now in the driver's seat, and we'll evaluate how best to pursue our cross-appeal. Regardless, today is a day to celebrate this victory," stated Stuart Alderoty, Ripple's Chief Legal Officer.

The latest development follows the SEC closing several cases its previous administration pursued against crypto companies, including Coinbase, Uniswap, OpenSea and Robinhood.

According to reports last week, the delay in the new administration reaching a similar conclusion with Ripple stems from the company's lawyers seeking more favorable terms than they got in Judge Torres's ruling last August.

XRP is up 12% in the past 24 hours as market participants have reacted positively to the announcement.

(This is a breaking news and will be updated as the story develops.)