The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has dropped all its claims against Ripple’s top executives, retreating from the high-stakes lawsuit involving XRP.
In a recent turn of events, the U.S. Securities Commission voluntarily dismissed all its pending charges against Ripple CEO Bradley Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen with respect to the longstanding XRP lawsuit.
This positive development for Ripple, XRP and the entire crypto industry ensued on Thursday October 19. Pro-XRP lawyer James K. Filan took to X (formerly Twitter) to drop the bombshell, sparking huge excitement in the crypto community.
Per the update, this stipulated voluntary dismissal by the U.S. regulatory commission cancels the scheduled trial on the SEC’s claim that Garlinghouse and Larsen “aided and abetted Ripple’s violations of the Securities Act of 1933 with Ripple’s Institutional Sales of XRP.” It also moots the October 3, 2023, scheduling order in the XRP-related case, the disclosure added.
According to the filing, the SEC and Ripple intend to discuss a potential briefing schedule regarding the proper remedies against Ripple over its institutional sales of XRP.
Ripple’s Chief Attorney Reacts
Responding to the SEC’s move to dismiss its charges against Garlinghouse and Larsen, Alderoty noted that the SEC made a serious mistake going after Ripple Labs’ executives.
“This is not a settlement. This is a surrender by the SEC,” the Ripple Chief Legal Officer said.
Additionally, Alderoty submitted that the dismissal of the charges by the SEC marks three consecutive wins for the Silicon Valley tech company.
Recall that on July 13, Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP is not a security. On October 3, 2023, the court also denied the SEC’s request for an interlocutory appeal.
Ripple-SEC Case Genesis
For the uninitiated, the legal tussle between Ripple and the U.S. SEC began in December 2020. The Securities Commission filed a case against Ripple, Garlinghouse and Larsen, claiming that the parties conducted an unregistered securities offering by selling XRP tokens to investors.
In particular, the SEC alleged that XRP is a security but Ripple battled with the regulatory agency in court to obtain clarity for XRP. After 31 months of legal wrangling, Ripple secured a partial win when the court ruled on XRP as a non-security token, reigniting investor interest in the XRP Ledger (XRPL) native token.
Notably, Judge Torres upheld that Ripple’s XRP token sales to institutional investors constituted securities offering. Following the SEC’s dismissal of all its pending charges against Ripple executives, it’s safe to say that the longstanding XRP lawsuit is close to being wrapped up.
About Author
4 thoughts on “SEC Drops Charges Against Ripple Executives Over XRP: Details”
Comments are closed.