TL;DR
- The SEC removed the Ripple lawsuit from its website, sparking speculation, but attorney Jeremy Hogan confirmed the case is still active in appellate court.
- Lawyer John Deaton recently outlined three possible outcomes: continued appeal, a $125M settlement, or the SEC dropping the case and scrapping the multi-million fine.
A Resolution at Last?
Several hours ago, the crypto community got puzzled after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seemingly removed the lawsuit against Ripple from its website. Many members of the XRP Army interpreted this as good news, with some suggesting this may have marked the end of the case.
A thorough look shows that the legal action has indeed been deleted from the regulator’s “Litigation Releases“ section. However, the popular US attorney Jeremy Hogan cleared the air by saying that the Ripple v. SEC battle remains visible on the actual appellate court website.
“It’s still there, and nothing new has been filled,” he added.
The lawsuit dates back to December 2020 when the Commission accused Ripple and some of its executives of raising over $1.3 billion through an unregistered securities offering by selling XRP tokens.
The entities threw multiple punches at each other in the following years, and some believe the company currently has the upper hand. After all, the SEC is no longer led by the former anti-crypto Chairman Gary Gensler. He resigned on January 20 (the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration) and was replaced by Mark Uyeda, who has a much more positive stance toward the digital asset industry.
Additionally, Ripple has secured some vital (yet partial) court wins. For instance, Judge Torres ruled in 2023 that the firm’s XRP sales on crypto exchanges did not constitute securities transactions. The SEC officially appealed that verdict in October 2024, prolonging the case indefinitely.
The Possible Outcome Scenarios
Earlier this month, US attorney John Deaton (who represents thousands of XRP investors in the lawsuit against the SEC) observed the latest developments in the legal tussle and outlined three potential options for a final resolution. The first one involves continuing the regulator’s appeal.
The second is a dismissal of the plea, which would require Ripple to pay a previously ordered penalty of $125 million. Last summer, Judge Torres ruled that the firm must settle the amount due to violating certain rules.
Some of Ripple’s executives were more than pleased to do so, considering that the fine represented a fraction of the $2 billion the SEC initially insisted on.
Deaton’s third scenario (which seems most unlikely) includes the SEC withdrawing its appeal and scrapping the firm’s $125 million fine.
“I don’t see the SEC saying: “No, we’re going to deny a judge’s ruling.“ So that’s why I think the middle one is the option,“ the lawyer concluded.
