Ripple, SEC File to Suspend Appeals Pending ‘Negotiated Resolution’ of Case

Ripple Labs and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have jointly filed a request to suspend their respective appeals as they “pursue a negotiated resolution” of their long-running case.

As detailed in a filing submitted yesterday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the two parties have already reached an agreement-in-principle, with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse revealing last month that the SEC would be dropping its appeal.

Yesterday’s application represents the first official confirmation that the SEC has indeed dropped the appeal it lodged in October, while it also confirms that Ripple seeks to drop its cross-appeal.

Yet the document also makes clear that the agreement-in-principle between the two parties has not gained final approval from the SEC.

“The parties require additional time to obtain Commission approval for this agreement-in-principle, and if approved by the Commission, to seek an indicative ruling from the district court,” reads the filing, which was signed by legal representatives for both sides.

It’s possible that final SEC approval may not come until Trump nominee Paul Atkins assumes his role as chairman, although having gained Senate confirmation on Wednesday, his swearing in could only be a matter of days away.

Ripple vs the SEC

SEC approval of the agreement would mark the final end of a legal dispute which began in December 2020, when the regulator filed a suit alleging that Ripple had raised $1.3 billion via the sale of unregistered securities since 2013.

July 2023 saw Judge Analisa Torres rule largely in Ripple’s favor, determining that third-party sales of XRP on exchanges didn’t constitute the offering of (unregistered) securities.

However, the SEC filed its aforementioned appeal more than a year later, contesting that securities law was violated by Ripple’s direct offering of XRP on exchanges, and by personal sales of XRP by execs Brad Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen.

With this appeal now being dropped, the price of XRP could continue the upwards trend it began following the election of Donald Trump on November 5.

Since that date, XRP has risen by 300%, based largely on the expectation that a more pro-crypto administration would result in the end of the Ripple-SEC case.

Yet given the size of this gain, the end of the case may now already be priced in, with XRP up by only 0.2% in the past 24 hours despite today’s news, per data from CoinGecko.