The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s dismissal of its years-long lawsuit against Ripple Labs, the developer of the XRP Ledger blockchain network, is a “victory for the industry,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said at Blockworks’ 2025 Digital Asset Summit in New York.
Earlier on March 19, Garlinghouse revealed that the SEC would dismiss its legal action against Ripple, ending four years of litigation against the blockchain developer for an alleged $1.3-billion unregistered securities offering in 2020.
“It feels like a victory for the industry and the beginning of a new chapter,” Garlinghouse said on March 19 at the Summit, which was attended by Cointelegraph.
Ripple’s CEO said the SEC is dropping its case against the blockchain developer. Source: Brad Garlinghouse
Related: SEC will drop its appeal against Ripple, CEO Garlinghouse says
Major reversal
The dismissal is the latest — and arguably most significant — reversal by the SEC under US President Donald Trump.
The agency previously dropped charges against other crypto firms, including Coinbase, Kraken and Uniswap, for similar alleged securities law violations.
Under former President Joe Biden, the SEC brought upward of 100 enforcement actions against crypto firms, typically alleging failure to properly register products that former SEC Chair Gary Gensler said fell under the securities regulators’ jurisdiction.
Trump has taken a friendlier stance toward the burgeoning industry, promising to make America the “world’s crypto capital” and appointing industry-friendly leaders to key regulatory posts.
“The new chapter started with the reset at both the Congress and the executive branch […] when Trump came in and nominated Paul Atkins, Scott Bessent, [and] brought on David Sacks,” Garlinghouse said.
Trump nominated Atkins and Bessent to head the SEC and Treasury Department, respectively. Sacks is Trump’s artificial intelligence and “crypto czar,” a newly created White House advisory role.
“I really deeply believed that we were going to be on the right side of the law and on the right side of history,” Garlinghouse said of his company’s protracted legal fight with US regulators, adding that, in his view, the SEC was “just […] trying to bully” the crypto industry.
Now that regulatory headwinds have subsided, Ripple is focusing on expansion, Garlinghouse added.
“Ripple has invested over $2 billion in investments and acquisitions across the crypto landscape, and some of those have nothing to do with XRP because if crypto does well, I fundamentally believe Ripple will do well,” he said.
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