On the morning of October 20th, the SEC officially dropped its lawsuit against Ripple’s two leaders, Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen. Previously, the SEC accused these two leaders of aiding Ripple in violating federal securities laws when selling and trading XRP.
This marks Ripple’s third legal victory against the SEC in the ongoing three-year legal battle. However, the lawsuit between the SEC and Ripple as a company continues, and it seems far from being resolved.
Nevertheless, celebrating this victory, Ripple’s CEO, Garlinghouse, shared on the social platform X: “For over three years, Chris and I have been targeted with baseless allegations. Instead of pursuing the real bad actors who steal investors’ assets on foreign exchanges, the SEC went after us – those who are working responsibly.”
In fact, Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer, Stuart Alderoty, stated boldly after this victory that it was not a settlement but rather a surrender by the SEC in their fight against Ripple.
“Today, we have been vindicated in a court of law and liberated from the cryptocurrency battle in the U.S. This was a battle that we were forced to fight in the face of an attack, an attack that had many flaws from the very start.”
Chris Larsen, CEO of Ripple
Following the news of the SEC dropping its lawsuit against Ripple’s leaders, the price of XRP quickly responded by surging 13%, reaching $0.53 before retracing to $0.51 at the time of writing. Compared to July 2023, XRP has grown over 8%. However, when compared to the local peak established in July ($0.94), XRP has also declined by over 43% in value.