After almost four years of back-and-forth in court, the long fight between Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) might finally be wrapping up. According to Cointelegraph, the SEC is expected to decide today whether it will drop its appeal—just like Ripple asked. If the SEC agrees, this could officially end the long-running XRP case.

The decision follows a partial court ruling in July 2023, which stated that Ripple’s sales of XRP on public exchanges did not violate securities laws. However, the court also ruled that sales made directly to institutional investors did qualify as securities transactions. The SEC had planned to appeal parts of the ruling, but Ripple has now asked the agency to step back.
Why This Case Matters for Crypto
The SEC first took Ripple to court back in December 2020. They said Ripple broke the rules by selling XRP without getting it approved as a security, and claimed the company raised over $1.3 billion doing it. But Ripple didn’t agree. They’ve always said XRP is just a digital token—not a security—so the SEC’s rules shouldn’t apply.
The case quickly became a big deal in the crypto world. It made everyone ask the same question: how should the U.S. really handle and regulate cryptocurrencies like XRP? Many people in the crypto industry saw it as a test of how far the SEC could go in controlling crypto.
When the court sided partly with Ripple last year, it gave other crypto companies hope. If XRP wasn’t a security when sold on exchanges, then maybe other tokens aren’t either.