The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has officially dropped its charges against Ripple executives, namely Brad Garlinghouse (CEO) and Chris Larsen (Executive Chairman) on Thursday. In a document filed with New York District Judge Analisa Torres, Jorge Tenreiro, a member of the SEC's enforcement board, stated that the regulator voluntarily dismissed the case.
In the document, SEC representatives stated that the regulator and representatives from Ripple intend to “convene and confer regarding a possible briefing schedule.” The SEC requested permission until November 9 to submit this meeting date to the court.
Responding to the filing, Ripple's Chief Legal Officer, Stuart Alderoty, revealed that the SEC's action in dropping the lawsuit was not a settlement, but rather a surrender. In a post on
The dismissal of charges against Ripple executives is the third victory for the company in its legal battle with the SEC. The first case involving Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen occurred in late 2020, when they along with Ripple faced accusations of violating securities laws due to their alleged offering and distribution of the cryptocurrency XRP.
In July, a federal judge ruled that the status of XRP tokens “is not yet certain as a security” and stated that Ripple's programmatic sale of XRP on exchanges was not an offering of securities. This decision is an important victory for the crypto company.
Earlier this month, the SEC also failed to convince the same judge that the ruling should be thrown out before a final decision is rendered next spring. Brad Garlinghouse expressed, "We are eagerly awaiting this chapter to be closed forever, now that the SEC has put an end to their senseless drama against Chris and me."
This case is just one aspect in the SEC's broader involvement in the crypto space. The watchdog has a number of similar cases pending involving high-profile figures such as Alex Mashinsky and Sam Bankman-Fried. Additionally, the SEC has also taken legal action against major crypto exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase.
The news of Ripple's victory then received a good response from the market, with the price of XRP increasing by more than 8%. Currently, XRP is trading at around $0.5, while its market capitalization jumped from $25 billion to $28 billion in the last 24 hours.
