XRP Surges as Ripple CEO Garlinghouse Signals End to SEC Dispute

XRP rallied more than 3% on Friday after Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced the company is dropping its cross-appeal against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Key Takeaways:

• XRP surged after Ripple’s CEO announced plans to drop the cross-appeal against the SEC.
• A federal court recently denied Ripple and the SEC’s bid to reduce a $125 million penalty.
• Ripple’s legal team emphasized that XRP’s status as not a security remains unchanged, easing investor concerns.

“Ripple is dropping our cross-appeal, and the SEC is expected to drop their appeal, as they’ve previously said,” Garlinghouse said in a post on X.

He added that Ripple is now focused on “building the internet of Value” as the company moves past the lengthy legal saga. Following his statement, XRP jumped 3.36% to $2.18, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Court Rejects Ripple-SEC Bid to Cut $125M Fine

The development comes just a day after the US district court denied a joint request from Ripple and the SEC seeking an indicative ruling to reduce Ripple’s $125 million civil penalty and reverse the order labeling Ripple’s institutional XRP sales as securities transactions.

Judge Analisa Torres wrote that Ripple’s willingness to “push the boundaries” of the prior summary judgment indicated a likelihood of further violations.

Ripple’s chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty commented on the court’s decision, saying Ripple had two options: to drop its appeal or continue challenging the finding.

He emphasized that regardless of the path chosen, “XRP’s legal status as not a security remains unchanged,” reassuring investors that Ripple’s operations would proceed normally.

The SEC lawsuit, first filed in December 2020, accused Ripple Labs, Garlinghouse, and co-founder Chris Larsen of raising $1.3 billion through unregistered sales of XRP in violation of federal securities laws.

While the court ruled that Ripple’s programmatic sales of XRP did not constitute securities transactions, it held that Ripple’s institutional sales did.

Garlinghouse previously described Judge Torres’ August 2024 ruling imposing a $125 million penalty — significantly lower than the SEC’s initial $2 billion demand — as a “victory” for Ripple.

If the SEC follows through on dropping its appeal, the move would mark the end of a four-year dispute, potentially lifting a major cloud over XRP’s future in the US market.

XRP Ledger Upgrade Adds Institutional Tokens

As reported, RippleX, the development arm of Ripple, has rolled out version 2.5.0 of the XRP Ledger, introducing several protocol upgrades aimed at strengthening network functionality and security.

RippleX engineer Mayukha Vadari has called the upgrade “possibly the best single lineup of amendments” ever released, introducing significant improvements to token management and transaction processing.

The XLS-85 amendment upgrades the escrow system by allowing third-party issued tokens, including stablecoins, and introduces multi-purpose tokens designed for institutional applications.

Another key change, XLS-56, enables wrapper transactions that can combine up to eight steps into a single action, aiming to lower failure rates in complex transaction flows and improve network efficiency for advanced use cases.

The new update comes as the XRP Ledger has recorded a surge in user activity, with the number of daily active addresses climbing from an average of 35,000 to over 295,000.

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